Author Topic: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.10.1 beta [Updated 2015/09/26]  (Read 671015 times)

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Offline headdie

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
The first thing you should worry about is how to name the button to launch fred, and it sure as hell should not be called "launch fred", it should be called something along the lines of "Launch mission editor".
It lets the first time user know that its not the button to start the game and it explains exactly what it does. Anyone that can install freespace open can understand those 2 words.

And besides... if the new user decides the (hopefully not) big red button looks pretty... oh noes! he has opened fred...

could use is full name ie FReespace EDitor
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Offline MatthTheGeek

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Anyone that can install freespace open can understand those 2 words.
You'd be surprised of the cluelessness of some people who manage to "install" FSO...

Besides, the skill bar to install FSO will be further lowered when we get a new installer.
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

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Offline jg18

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Thanks for your replies, everyone.

We understand that FREDding is the backbone of everything that happens at HLP and that for wxL to serve HLP’s needs, FRED needs to be easily discoverable. wxL will focus on the modding community's needs after development moves towards wxL 2.0, but right now, we're trying to finish wxL 1.0, the end user release of a basic game launcher.

The target users of wxLauncher 1.0 are the thousands of people who play FS2 and the mods and the tens of thousands who play the TCs, and here we have clear evidence that the launcher is meeting their needs: only a handful of Diaspora players reported problems using the wxLauncher version bundled with Diaspora, mostly caused by a few bugs that were fixed quickly. Thus whatever shortcomings the UI may have, it's working well overall, doing its job and then getting out of the way.

Regardless of design decisions made by launcher devs for other games, FRED launching is not an end user feature and does not belong in the 1.0 interface. The only reason that it's in the launcher at all now as opposed to after 1.0 is that a modder requested it 3 years ago as a replacement for the batch scripts and manual shortcuts that used to be the mainstay of FSO modding. Since FRED launching was added long before its intended time, it had to be left as a hidden hack until it could be integrated into a post-1.0 design that provided interfaces for players and modders.

In the interest of making FRED launching more accessible in the short run, we can provide an advanced options panel to enable it, as we mentioned before. Because UI changes like these take time, it will not be ready in time for the next release, which features generic versions of the customizations found in the Diaspora launcher.

 

Offline Yarn

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Well, at the very least, it needs to be obvious to users that wxLauncher can indeed launch FRED. Keeping that fact hidden from everyone except those who read a certain page in the manual is simply the wrong thing to do.

I did find a minor bug: wxLauncher doesn't consider 0 to be valid in version numbers. If a 3.7 build is found, this message appears in the status bar:
Quote
Revision version number out of range (0) in executable fs2_open_3_7_0_RC1.exe

Also, could the mod images be scaled using a better method than nearest neighbor, such as bilinear?
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Offline Dragon

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
I recently tried using wxLauncher with normal FSO, and noticed three issues.
First, loading time. I disabled retrieving highlights, yet it still takes about a minute to load. Not good.
Second, loading graphic. Is there a particular reason why the blasted thing has to stay on top of everything? I'd rather see it gone, or at least made optional.
Third, lack of FRED interaction. If I use the regular launcher, FRED reads the setting from launcher6.ini, meaning I can use it without even opening the launcher. Since wxLauncher doesn't use launcher6.ini, FRED doesn't get the mod settings.
Also, the mod selection feature, while noob-friendly, is problematic for somebody who wants a bit finer control. I'd prefer at least having an option of manually selecting the mod folder.
Considering all that, I'm afraid that wxLauncher in it's current state is vastly inferior to the standard one.

 

Offline niffiwan

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
First, loading time. I disabled retrieving highlights, yet it still takes about a minute to load. Not good.

Odd, don't think I've ever seen that occur before.  Reliably loads for me (without highlights) in < 1-2 secs.

Second, loading graphic. Is there a particular reason why the blasted thing has to stay on top of everything? I'd rather see it gone, or at least made optional.

Is the splash screen Windows only?  I've never seen it on Linux :)

Third, lack of FRED interaction. If I use the regular launcher, FRED reads the setting from launcher6.ini, meaning I can use it without even opening the launcher. Since wxLauncher doesn't use launcher6.ini, FRED doesn't get the mod settings.

Doesn't FRED read the values from cmdline_fso.cfg?  Or am I missing something?

Also, the mod selection feature, while noob-friendly, is problematic for somebody who wants a bit finer control. I'd prefer at least having an option of manually selecting the mod folder.

I'm not sure what's the advantage of manually specifying a mod folder?  wxL shows all the available mod folders that include a valid mod.ini anyway (including feedback on mod dependencies)
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Offline Macfie

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
I'm using the launcher on Windows and there is no loading graphics associated with the launcher.  After an initial setup, setting the mod in the launcher sets it for FRED also.  I've never seen a delay in loading even with the launcher retrieving highlights.   
Normal people believe that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
The difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers is:
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.  Civil Engineers build targets
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Offline jg18

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Well, at the very least, it needs to be obvious to users that wxLauncher can indeed launch FRED. Keeping that fact hidden from everyone except those who read a certain page in the manual is simply the wrong thing to do.
Yeah, we know that the current situation sucks. We'll work on making FRED launching more accessible for the release after the upcoming one. It shouldn't be long.

I did find a minor bug: wxLauncher doesn't consider 0 to be valid in version numbers. If a 3.7 build is found, this message appears in the status bar:
Quote
Revision version number out of range (0) in executable fs2_open_3_7_0_RC1.exe
This was fixed in trunk a few weeks ago and will be included in the next release. Thanks for reporting it, though.

Also, could the mod images be scaled using a better method than nearest neighbor, such as bilinear?
It looks like we're stuck with the box sampling method that is used with wxIMAGE_QUALITY_HIGH downsampling; however, starting with the next wxL release, mods can specify in their mod.ini a separate 182x80-sized image to use in the mod list.

First, loading time. I disabled retrieving highlights, yet it still takes about a minute to load. Not good.
Try starting wxL again. It should be faster this time. The reason it's slow is that it's scanning your FS2 folder looking for mods, which it considers to be folders containing a mod.ini file. It should start faster this time because the OS caches the scan.

That said, we're aware of this issue and would like to work on a more permanent fix, but it would take a ton of work and as such is not high priority, particularly since wxL starts up much faster after the first run.

Second, loading graphic. Is there a particular reason why the blasted thing has to stay on top of everything? I'd rather see it gone, or at least made optional.
I don't understand what you mean. Screenshot, please?

Second, loading graphic. Is there a particular reason why the blasted thing has to stay on top of everything? I'd rather see it gone, or at least made optional.

Is the splash screen Windows only?  I've never seen it on Linux :)
It's only in release builds. Are you building a debug build?

Third, lack of FRED interaction. If I use the regular launcher, FRED reads the setting from launcher6.ini, meaning I can use it without even opening the launcher. Since wxLauncher doesn't use launcher6.ini, FRED doesn't get the mod settings.

Doesn't FRED read the values from cmdline_fso.cfg?  Or am I missing something?
Yeah, it does. The reason it works from 5.5g is that pressing OK or Apply in 5.5g saves the configuration to cmdline_fso.cfg, but wxL doesn't save the config until you press Play or press FRED if you're using FRED launching (aka the subject of the last two pages).

Dragon, to configure wxL for launching FRED, click on the Help button in wxL and look at the section "FRED2 Open executable selection" in Reference >> Basic Settings page >> FS2 or TC root folder and executable.

Also, the mod selection feature, while noob-friendly, is problematic for somebody who wants a bit finer control. I'd prefer at least having an option of manually selecting the mod folder.

I'm not sure what's the advantage of manually specifying a mod folder?  wxL shows all the available mod folders that include a valid mod.ini anyway (including feedback on mod dependencies)
Yeah, I don't understand why you need this feature. wxL considers any folder containing a file named "mod.ini" to be a mod folder. The file can be blank; it just has to exist, since it tells wxL that the folder contains a mod.

I'm using the launcher on Windows and there is no loading graphics associated with the launcher.  After an initial setup, setting the mod in the launcher sets it for FRED also.  I've never seen a delay in loading even with the launcher retrieving highlights.   
No loading graphics as in no splash screen? You're using a release build of the launcher?

 

Offline The E

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Regarding loading times: wxLauncher on windows reads stuff from .svn directories. If you have a few of those, loading times will increase by a lot.
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Offline jg18

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Regarding loading times: wxLauncher on windows reads stuff from .svn directories. If you have a few of those, loading times will increase by a lot.
Hey, good point, we'd forgotten about that. We can write a custom file system traversal to skip over the .svn folders when searching for mod.ini files. It's unfortunately too late to do it for the upcoming release, but we can add it to the release after that.

 

Offline niffiwan

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Second, loading graphic. Is there a particular reason why the blasted thing has to stay on top of everything? I'd rather see it gone, or at least made optional.

Is the splash screen Windows only?  I've never seen it on Linux :)
It's only in release builds. Are you building a debug build?

I must be, how do I tell?  A quick look around the interface doesn't give me any clues :)

And while we're talking about .svn dirs, would it make sense to ignore any dir starting with "."?
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
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----
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Offline jg18

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
Is the splash screen Windows only?  I've never seen it on Linux :)
It's only in release builds. Are you building a debug build?

I must be, how do I tell?  A quick look around the interface doesn't give me any clues :)
Oh, right, there's no indicator in the interface as to the build config, other than the presence/absence of the splash screen. We should probably do something about that. :doubt:

You can check if the launcher log (~/.wxlauncher/wxLauncher.log) has debug lines in it or if the name of the build folder where the wxL binary is found is called Release or Debug or RelWithDebInfo (which I think is considered Release).

And while we're talking about .svn dirs, would it make sense to ignore any dir starting with "."?
Possibly. The good thing is that once the custom traversal is written, changing which folders it skips over should be fairly easy.

 

Offline Macfie

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.1 public alpha [Updated 2012/07/13]
When I checked again, I realized I was getting the splash screen.  It's only up for less than a second so I didn't really notice it.
Normal people believe that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
The difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers is:
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.  Civil Engineers build targets
An optimist sees the glass half full; the pessimist sees it half empty. An engineer sees that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

  

Offline Iss Mneur

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
:bump:

wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta has been released.  You can download it from the release post.

(0.9.2 and 0.9.3 were Limited Collector's Editions Diaspora R1 launcher versions.) If you have Diaspora (R1 Patch 4 and below), download the .zip of updated launcher resources from the Downloads section in the release post.

One important change is that FRED launching can now be toggled by pressing F3. Why F3? Because it's already accepted as a hidden "cheat code" for modders, thanks to the F3 Lab in FSO. Now F3 will access modding features in both FSO and wxL.

Summary of changes since 0.9.1:

Partial support for extended mod.ini format! (details here)
- Mod-customizable features: (both TCs and mods)
    * Images for both the mod list and the mod info dialog
    * Minimum resolution
    * Recommended lighting (overriding the "Baseline recommended" preset)
- Skin system: (TCs only)
    * Window title and icon
    * Welcome page's banner and text below banner
    * Default mod list/mod info dialog images for mods that don't include images
    * Status bar icons and similar big icons (warning, info, etc.)
    * News source (currently HLP or Diaspora)

Mods page:
- Mod list is now sorted alphabetically
- Default image provided for mods that don't include an image of their own

Basic Settings page:
- "Enable EFX" checkbox now appears when the selected playback device supports EFX :nervous:
- Speech voices are now listed in the correct order
- Connection settings read from profile are now displayed correctly

Advanced Settings page:
- "All features on" flag set has been restored

Other changes:
- New splash image (special thanks to mjn.mixael for making this)
- FRED launching can now be toggled with F3
- Faster startup thanks to more efficient mod.ini search
- Assorted bug fixes and text revisions

Linux only:
- RESOURCES_PATH can now be user-specified (special thanks to Firartix for identifying and fixing this)
- cmdline_fso.cfg is now written to ~/.fs2_open/data/ instead of FS2/TC folder


The wxLauncher Team would like to thank Axem, mjn.mixael, niffiwan, swashmebuckle, and Yarn for helping test 0.9.4.

I personally would also like to thank jg18 for his hard work on getting this release out.  I know it would not have happened without him.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -Douglas Adams
wxLauncher 0.9.4 public beta (now with no config file editing for FRED) | wxLauncher 2.0 Request for Comments

 
Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
Congratulations guys! F3 FRED launching seems a reasonable compromise after that entire discussion, and faster startup is always appreciated :yes:

 

Offline Macfie

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
What exactly is the F3 key supposed to do?  I downloaded and installed the new version of the launcher and I hit F3 and nothing happens.  I usually launch FRED from the launcher and already have it enabled in the earlier version of the launcher.  Does the F3 key just enable FRED or tie it to the mod selected in the Launcher?
Normal people believe that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
The difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers is:
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.  Civil Engineers build targets
An optimist sees the glass half full; the pessimist sees it half empty. An engineer sees that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
The F3 toggles the 'FRED2 Open Exexutable:' selector and the 'FRED' launch button. I just did it on my wxL and worked fine.
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Offline Macfie

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
The F3 toggles the 'FRED2 Open Exexutable:' selector and the 'FRED' launch button. I just did it on my wxL and worked fine.

Let me see if I understand this.  The F3 does what had to be manually done with the previous launcher to enable FRED and is a one time action, or is it supposed to toggle the selector and launch button every time I hit F3.  I had it set up on the previous version so it just came up on the updated launcher.

Never mind, I figured it out.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 04:13:42 pm by Macfie »
Normal people believe that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
The difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers is:
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.  Civil Engineers build targets
An optimist sees the glass half full; the pessimist sees it half empty. An engineer sees that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 
Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
Hi, just thought I'd bring to your attention. The windows .exe download is being flagged as a trojan by several anti-virus programs. Checked the others and the same isn't happening there. Other than that, terrific work! Keep it up!
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Offline Iss Mneur

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Re: RELEASE: wxLauncher 0.9.4 beta [Updated 2013/06/09]
Hi, just thought I'd bring to your attention. The windows .exe download is being flagged as a trojan by several anti-virus programs. Checked the others and the same isn't happening there. Other than that, terrific work! Keep it up!
Which AVs?  And you are downloading it directly from googlecode?
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -Douglas Adams
wxLauncher 0.9.4 public beta (now with no config file editing for FRED) | wxLauncher 2.0 Request for Comments