Visual Novel Wiki

Appearance

Textractor ​

Textractor extracts text from Visual Novels and outputs it to another program. The output is usually sent to a browser, so you can use it with Yomitan for language learning.

Pair with Anki

Since the browser will display the Visual Novel text, you can use the AnkiConnect feature with Yomitan to make flashcards with Anki.

Installation ​

Download and Setup ​

  1. Download the zip version from the GitHub releases page
  2. Extract the archive to your preferred location
  3. Optional but recommended: Update the DLL from the alpha version for better compatibility:

Alternative: Chenx221 Fork ​

Instead of manually updating DLLs, you can use the Chenx221 fork which includes most or all alpha build improvements already merged.

Linux Usage ​

Text hooking in Linux through Wine is possible by running Textractor in the same Wine prefix as your game.

Setup Overview

This involves two main steps:

  1. Getting Textractor to hook onto your Visual Novel (extracting the text)
  2. Setting up text output to send extracted text to your browser for use with Yomitan

Step 1: Setup Textractor with Lutris ​

NOTE

For simplicity and general cross-distro usage, we're using Flatpak Lutris.

  1. Create a duplicate entry:

    • Right-click your working game entry in Lutris
    • Select Duplicate
    • Rename it to something like "Game Name - Textractor"

  2. Configure the Textractor entry:

    • Open the duplicated entry
    • Go to Game Options
    • Change the Executable path to point to Textractor
    • Example: /home/user/Downloads/Textractor/x86/Textractor.exe

  3. Test the text hooking:

    • Launch your game and get to a point where text is displayed
    • Launch the Textractor entry
    • Click "Attach to game" in Textractor
    • Select your Visual Novel from the process list
    • Textractor should begin extracting text automatically

Troubleshooting Text Extraction

If Textractor isn't capturing text properly:

  • Try different text threads in the Textractor interface
  • Some games require manual Hook codes (H-codes) - see our Hook Codes page
  • Make sure you're using the correct architecture (x86 vs x64)

Step 2: Configure Text Output ​

  1. Install the WebSocket extension:

  2. Configure Textractor:

    • Open Textractor's extension menu
    • Drag the WebSocket DLL file to add it
    • Remove the "Copy to Clipboard" extension if present

  3. Access extracted text:

    • Text will be available at ws://localhost:6677
    • Use this web client to view the text

Clipboard Method (Limited Browser Support) ​

Browser Compatibility

Manifest V2 extensions no longer work in Chrome and Edge. Firefox still supports them, but WebSocket is the recommended method.

For Firefox users:

Important Considerations ​

Architecture Compatibility

The architecture (x86 or x64) must match what the game is running on:

  • Using the wrong architecture will cause error messages or crashes when trying to attach
  • This has no relation to your Wine prefix architecture
  • You can hook 32-bit games in a 64-bit prefix

Proton Limitations

Text hooking requires Wine runners and cannot use Proton with umu-launcher due to extra containerization that blocks Textractor from seeing other applications.

Workaround: Use protonhax (though this is extremely hacky and requires creating a new Lutris entry with a Linux runner).

Gamescope Compatibility

If running your game with Gamescope:

  • Textractor must also run with Gamescope
  • Enable Gamescope in the Textractor Lutris entry
  • Run both applications in fullscreen mode
  • Use Wayland backend (should be default)
  • Currently requires WebSocket for text transfer due to clipboard limitations

Additional Resources ​

For more detailed information about using visual novels for Japanese learning, check out TheMoeWay's comprehensive guide. While it focuses on Windows, the core concepts apply to Linux setups as well.

Contributors

The avatar of contributor named as moogul moogul

Changelog