perfect_dark: init at 0-unstable-2025-08-25 by PaulGrandperrin · Pull Request #306767 · NixOS/nixpkgs

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-25T12:28:48Z

Description of changes

A PC port of Perfect Dark based on the decompilation of the Nintendo 64 game

https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark

To play the game, you need to put the corresponding ROM at $XDG_DATA_HOME/perfectdark/data/pd.ntsc-final.z64 and then nix run github:NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/306767/head#pd.

Things done

Add a 👍 reaction to pull requests you find important.

yunfachi · 2024-04-25T13:04:25Z

In 35c30e19cd7a46597f336a08b1d9509a0fb4ba53 you add yourself as a maintainer, but this should be in a separate commit with the message: maintainers: add <handle>.

Also change the pull-request title to pd: init at <version>.

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-25T13:35:06Z

@yunfachi It's done!

Sorry, I missed that the commit needed to be split.. that makes sense actually :)

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-25T17:09:30Z

Upstream just accepted a PR I sent them, so I updated this PR too to remove the patch I had to carry.

pkgs/by-name/pd/pd/package.nix

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-26T10:31:26Z

@qubitnano I'll create a new commit to make more changes.

What do you think about the name pd? That's what upstream uses for the binary, but the repo is named "perfect_dark".

Perfect Dark is trademarked by Microsoft.

pkgs/by-name/pd/pd/package.nix

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-26T12:12:45Z

I now pushed a new squashed commit taking into account all the suggestions.
The version has been updated in the commit message and this PR title.

Everyone is happy with the name pd?

yunfachi · 2024-04-26T12:28:52Z

Everyone is happy with the name pd?

I would prefer perfect-dark, but I won't insist.
You can read https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/README.md#package-naming to make a choice.
In addition, please consider the ripgrep package, which has a single executable rg, but is called ripgrep.

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-26T12:51:19Z

You can read https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/README.md#package-naming to make a choice.

I read that part but it doesn't clear the ambiguity of this situation. And doesn't talk about potential trademark issues.

That kind of projects already make many people anxious with respect to legality.

For instance, the decomp of Ocarina of Time explicitly avoids any references to "Zelda" or "Ocarina of Time".

I really don't like pd (it's slang for fagg*t in french) but I thought maintainers might push back on perfect_dark.

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-26T12:55:43Z

Also, the project says its license is MIT but I'm not even sure it's legal.

It's obviously a derivative work of an unfree piece of software, so I don't really believe it can be MIT.

I think it's important for us because if we mark it as free, its source and binary will be stored and distributed on cache.nixos.org.

This might become a source of pain if Microsoft decides to sue the project in the future, similarly to yuzu.

EDIT: For reference, sm64 and shipwright upstream projects don't have a license (and I think it makes sense) and are therefore considered unfree by NixOS.

pluiedev · 2024-04-26T16:07:30Z

You can read https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/README.md#package-naming to make a choice.

I read that part but it doesn't clear the ambiguity of this situation. And doesn't talk about potential trademark issues.

That kind of projects already make many people anxious with respect to legality.

For instance, the decomp of Ocarina of Time explicitly avoids any references to "Zelda" or "Ocarina of Time".

I really don't like pd (it's slang for fagg*t in french) but I thought maintainers might push back on perfect_dark.

The thing for me is that it kinda overly obscures what it's for, and usually shorter names are reserved for more 'fundamental' tools like ar and cc, and it's kinda silly to me that Perfect Dark gets to have pd purely to disguise it from Nintendo's eyes. Really, if that's the sole purpose, then there needs to be a formal policy drafted regarding the status of Nintendo property, or other pieces of software that could contain Nintendo property, on Nixpkgs.

Thankfully, the worst you can do is to have one or maybe several repos in nix-community that contain these packages, away from Big N's eyes... 👀

pluiedev · 2024-04-26T16:12:00Z

Also, the project says its license is MIT but I'm not even sure it's legal.

It's obviously a derivative work of an unfree piece of software, so I don't really believe it can be MIT.

I think it's important for us because if we mark it as free, its source and binary will be stored and distributed on cache.nixos.org.

This might become a source of pain if Microsoft decides to sue the project in the future, similarly to yuzu.

EDIT: For reference, sm64 and shipwright upstream projects don't have a license (and I think it makes sense) and are therefore considered unfree by NixOS.

I am decidedly NOT a lawyer, but judging by the fact the repo contains reverse-engineered code that still compiles to the original binary, I think it would be easier to make the case that the repo contains the original developer's code and cannot be re-licensed under the MIT license by the reverse engineer. However, this is an upstream issue and for now we should follow what's written on the tin.

Maybe add a generic unfree license in the mix of licenses so that it's marked as unfree software with (possibly) FOSS parts?

PaulGrandperrin · 2024-04-26T16:16:05Z

The thing for me is that it kinda overly obscures what it's for, and usually shorter names are reserved for more 'fundamental' tools like ar and cc, and it's kinda silly to me that Perfect Dark gets to have pd purely to disguise it from Nintendo's eyes. Really, if that's the sole purpose, then there needs to be a formal policy drafted regarding the status of Nintendo property, or other pieces of software that could contain Nintendo property, on Nixpkgs.

Thankfully, the worst you can do is to have one or maybe several repos in nix-community that contain these packages, away from Big N's eyes... 👀

Oh, it's really not about hiding it, or that there exists mentions of it in the project. We can mention trademark and registered name as much as we want. But naming a piece of software with a registered name, that's exactly what registering a name is supposed to protect from.

For instance, the shipwright project is careful about not naming their project with a trademarked name but "Zelda" and "Ocarina of Time" are present hundreds of times in the source code and assets. Also, everyone knows what they are about, including Nintendo, so they're not hiding from anything.

The issue I see here, is officially presenting this piece of software with a trademarked name that we don't own or have a license for.

I think the shipwright project have the exact same understanding of the situation as me on this. They and I can be wrong as IANAL.

This review is now outdated, as it has become clear that the potential legal issues with upstream will not affect us, as derivations are generally not considered to be derivative works of a project.

j0lol

LGTM!

ghost · 2025-08-26T19:36:16Z

More changes

Elaborate on the comment above the patch for the desktop file.
Make installPhase more consistently written. Also put the PNG icon in 256x256 and not in scalable.
Fix error in meta.longDescription that referred to the previous pd attribute.
Rewrite meta.longDescription to be more concise.
Since unfree was commented out, remove the comment from meta.license

@SigmaSquadron

diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
index 0c5fc63652de..875980016495 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
         --replace-fail "git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD" \
                        "echo port"
     ''
-    # Point toward the compiled binary and not the shell wrapper.
+    # Point toward the compiled binary and not the shell wrapper since
+    # the rom auto-detection logic is not needed in this build.
     + ''
       substituteInPlace dist/linux/io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.desktop \
         --replace-fail "Exec=io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.sh" \
@@ -77,17 +78,17 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {

   installPhase = ''
     runHook preInstall
-    pushd ..

+    pushd ..
     install -Dm755 build/pd.* $out/bin/io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark
     install -Dm644 dist/linux/io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.desktop \
-            -t $out/share/applications/
+            -t $out/share/applications
     install -Dm644 dist/linux/io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.png \
-            -t $out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/
+            -t $out/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps
     install -Dm644 dist/linux/io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.metainfo.xml \
-            -t $out/share/metainfo/
-
+            -t $out/share/metainfo
     popd
+
     runHook postInstall
   '';

@@ -98,18 +99,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
       shooter Perfect Dark to modern systems.

       You'll need to provide a copy of the ROM at
-      `$HOME/.local/share/perfectdark/data/pd.${romID}.z64`
-      to launch the game.
-
-      You can also change the ROM variant of this game with an
-      expression like this:
+      `$HOME/.local/share/perfectdark/data/pd.${romID}.z64` to launch
+      the game.

-      `pd.override { romID = "jpn-final" }`
+      Though `ntsc-final` is the recommended default, you can change
+      the ROM variant of this game via an override like so:

-      Supported romIDs are `${lib.generators.toPretty { } roms}`.
+      `perfect_dark.override { romID = "jpn-final"; }`

-      `ntsc-final` the default as it is the only recommended one by
-      upstream.
+      Supported `romID` values are are `${lib.generators.toPretty { }
+      roms}`.
     '';
     homepage = "https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark/";
     license = with lib.licenses; [
@@ -117,10 +116,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
       mit
       # tools/mkrom/gzip
       gpl3Plus
-      # The project's original work is licensed under MIT, but a lot of
-      # it can be seen as a derivative work of an unfree piece of
-      # software. We account for that here.
-      # unfree
     ];
     maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [
       PaulGrandperrin

emilazy · 2025-08-26T19:45:47Z

I don’t want to wade into the discussion about whether this constitutes warez we shouldn’t be trying to package at all, but there is seriously no way we can merge a derivative work of a byte‐for‐byte decompilation as lib.licenses.free and built on Hydra. It must be lib.licenses.unfree.

Pandapip1 · 2025-08-26T19:51:51Z

Or meta.hydraPlatforms = [ ];, which might be more appropriate here.

emilazy · 2025-08-26T19:54:13Z

meta.hydraPlatforms is not reliable enough – any other job can still pull it in and get it built and cached.

If this was packaging the original decompilation and not a modified fork, then the output produced by building it would be bit‐for‐bit identical to the copyrighted executable code in the original game. I really don’t think there’s any argument for the outputs of this derivation not being encumbered by proprietary copyright.

SigmaSquadron · 2025-08-26T23:20:00Z

Oh, sorry, that was my bad. This is supposed to be unfree, and I forgot to remove the comment.

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix

ghost · 2025-08-27T15:39:26Z

suggestion (non-blocking): Rewrite unfree comment to be concise

diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
index dcffb421d8eb..3c3b598551c1 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix
@@ -116,9 +116,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
       mit
       # tools/mkrom/gzip
       gpl3Plus
-      # The project's original work is licensed under MIT, but a lot of
-      # it can be seen as a derivative work of an unfree piece of
-      # software. We account for that here.
+      # Derivative work of "Perfect Dark" (C) 2000 RARE Ltd.
       unfree
     ];
     maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [

I think having this licensing comment would be more concise and informative as it references the copyright holder by name instead of being vague ("it can be seen", "we account for 'that'")

qubitnano

`nixpkgs-review` result

Generated using nixpkgs-review.

Command: nixpkgs-review pr 306767
Commit: e8808468d434f582bea786c21a06e43c0352b6d1

`x86_64-linux`

✅ 1 package built:

perfect_dark

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix

A PC port of Perfect Dark based on the decompilation of the Nintendo 64 game Co-authored-by: Jasi <normalc@posteo.net> Co-authored-by: Fernando Rodrigues <alpha@sigmasquadron.net> Signed-off-by: Fernando Rodrigues <alpha@sigmasquadron.net>

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix

PaulGrandperrin · 2025-09-01T16:05:59Z

I went through all the comments and changes and this is great!

There's only one thing that annoys me, the "qualified application domain name" io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.

@normalcea wouldn't perfect_dark be fine with you? It would be a lot more intuitive when launching the game from the cmdline.

PaulGrandperrin · 2025-09-01T16:13:17Z

About the conversation about the "unfree" license, I just want to add that we had a similar conversation at the beginning of the PR and that we came to the same conclusion: hydra should never build this package and that an "unfree" license both achieved this goal and made sense in and of itself.

ghost · 2025-09-01T17:23:36Z

I went through all the comments and changes and this is great!

There's only one thing that annoys me, the "qualified application domain name" io.github.fgsfdsfgs.perfect_dark.

@normalcea wouldn't perfect_dark be fine with you? It would be a lot more intuitive when launching the game from the cmdline.

This ultimately isn't that much of an issue because meta.mainProgram is set to this executable so it will be discovered by command line users. Users themselves can just alias this name to whatever name they want in their shell.

Also this would involve also having to patch the desktop file as well and not just the executable which just adds more noise to the derivation to solve an issue that isn't ours to solve.

ghost · 2025-09-01T17:28:17Z

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix

+    '';
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    patchShebangs --build .


Suggested change

patchShebangs --build .

patchShebangs --build tools/assetmgr

(non-blocking): Don't recursively patch all files in source, but only the files we need for building.

These types of changes can be done in a follow-up PR, but it doesn't hurt to document them here for reference.

keenanweaver

Game playing as expected on x86_64-linux. Compiled and played with all three supported ROM regions.

Did not test aarch64.

`nixpkgs-review` result for #306767

Generated using nixpkgs-review-gha

Command: nixpkgs-review pr 306767
Commit: cad17194fe73ab224313a157856c08a36bcbf15e (subsequent changes)
Merge: 967262ac17224e11c5604a847c7d9b9d7c7db1c5

Logs: https://github.com/keenanweaver/nixpkgs-review-gha/actions/runs/17384040207

`x86_64-linux`

✅ 1 package built:

perfect_dark

`aarch64-linux`

✅ 1 package built:

perfect_dark

SigmaSquadron · 2025-09-02T04:29:05Z

Thank you everyone for sticking around through such a turbulent PR. It should now be easier to collaboratively make changes to this package.

PaulGrandperrin force-pushed the pd branch from bf817eb to 5344c26 Compare April 25, 2024 12:30

PaulGrandperrin changed the title ~~pd: init at b4f7f467c~~ New package: pd (PC port of Perfect Dark) Apr 25, 2024

PaulGrandperrin force-pushed the pd branch from 5344c26 to 35c30e1 Compare April 25, 2024 12:40

PaulGrandperrin marked this pull request as ready for review April 25, 2024 12:43

PaulGrandperrin changed the title ~~New package: pd (PC port of Perfect Dark)~~ pd: init at b4f7f467c Apr 25, 2024

PaulGrandperrin force-pushed the pd branch from 35c30e1 to 5a6eb78 Compare April 25, 2024 13:32

PaulGrandperrin force-pushed the pd branch from 5a6eb78 to 7d818fe Compare April 25, 2024 17:07

PaulGrandperrin changed the title ~~pd: init at b4f7f467c~~ pd: init at a0f855003 Apr 25, 2024

qubitnano reviewed Apr 26, 2024

View reviewed changes

PaulGrandperrin changed the title ~~pd: init at a0f855003~~ pd: init at 0-unstable-2024-04-25 Apr 26, 2024

pluiedev suggested changes Apr 26, 2024

View reviewed changes

pkgs/by-name/pd/pd/package.nix Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

yunfachi reviewed Apr 26, 2024

View reviewed changes

pkgs/by-name/pd/pd/package.nix Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

PaulGrandperrin force-pushed the pd branch 2 times, most recently from bdef7c2 to 4b6bed3 Compare April 26, 2024 12:09

nixpkgs-ci bot removed the 11.by: package-maintainer This PR was created by a maintainer of all the package it changes. label Aug 26, 2025

nix-owners bot requested a review from philiptaron August 26, 2025 02:58

j0lol approved these changes Aug 26, 2025

View reviewed changes

SigmaSquadron force-pushed the pd branch from 1d34d79 to eab91d6 Compare August 26, 2025 23:39

nixpkgs-ci bot added 10.rebuild-linux: 0 This PR does not cause any packages to rebuild on Linux. and removed 10.rebuild-linux: 1-10 This PR causes between 1 and 10 packages to rebuild on Linux. 10.rebuild-linux: 1 This PR causes 1 package to rebuild on Linux. labels Aug 26, 2025

ghost reviewed Aug 27, 2025

View reviewed changes

SigmaSquadron force-pushed the pd branch 2 times, most recently from 9ba2736 to 7901c55 Compare August 27, 2025 08:39

qubitnano approved these changes Aug 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

ghost reviewed Aug 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

perfect_dark: init at 0-unstable-2025-08-25

cad1719

A PC port of Perfect Dark based on the decompilation of the Nintendo 64 game Co-authored-by: Jasi <normalc@posteo.net> Co-authored-by: Fernando Rodrigues <alpha@sigmasquadron.net> Signed-off-by: Fernando Rodrigues <alpha@sigmasquadron.net>

ghost approved these changes Aug 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

philiptaron reviewed Sep 1, 2025

View reviewed changes

pkgs/by-name/pe/perfect_dark/package.nix Show resolved Hide resolved

philiptaron approved these changes Sep 1, 2025

View reviewed changes

ghost reviewed Sep 1, 2025

View reviewed changes

keenanweaver approved these changes Sep 1, 2025

View reviewed changes

ghost mentioned this pull request Sep 6, 2025

perfect_dark: un-vendor gzip; refactor derivation builder; add updateScript #440718

Merged

13 tasks

Uh oh!

Conversation

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 25, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Description of changes

Things done

Uh oh!

yunfachi commented Apr 25, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 25, 2024

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 25, 2024

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024

Uh oh!

yunfachi commented Apr 26, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

pluiedev commented Apr 26, 2024

Uh oh!

pluiedev commented Apr 26, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

j0lol left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

ghost commented Aug 26, 2025 • edited by ghost Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

emilazy commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

Pandapip1 commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

emilazy commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

SigmaSquadron commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

ghost commented Aug 27, 2025 • edited by ghost Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

qubitnano left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

nixpkgs-review result

x86_64-linux

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Sep 1, 2025

Uh oh!

PaulGrandperrin commented Sep 1, 2025

Uh oh!

ghost commented Sep 1, 2025 • edited by ghost Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

ghost Sep 1, 2025 • edited by ghost Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 25, 2024 •

edited

Loading

yunfachi commented Apr 25, 2024 •

edited

Loading

yunfachi commented Apr 26, 2024 •

edited

Loading

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024 •

edited

Loading

pluiedev commented Apr 26, 2024 •

edited

Loading

PaulGrandperrin commented Apr 26, 2024 •

edited

Loading

ghost commented Aug 26, 2025 •

edited by ghost

Loading

ghost commented Aug 27, 2025 •

edited by ghost

Loading

`nixpkgs-review` result

`x86_64-linux`

ghost commented Sep 1, 2025 •

edited by ghost

Loading

ghost Sep 1, 2025 •

edited by ghost

Loading

ghost Sep 1, 2025 •

edited by ghost

Loading

`nixpkgs-review` result for #306767

`x86_64-linux`

`aarch64-linux`