[LogicalMadness]

Hello all Freespacers out there! 
I first want to start by saying that I have been playing Freespace 2 for so many years, and it has been so great to see the evolution of one of the best damn space sims ever developed. THANK YOU to the coders, MODers, and others keeping this game and alive!

Throughout all these years, the one major hurdle I have always wrestled with has been getting this game to install and configure correctly. While I have been able to manage, I continue to watch countless people struggle constantly only to get turned off and give up. Well, after finally seeing a post about this recently, it took it upon myself to weave some majic and spent a few evenings this week to build a high quality Windows universal installer for FS2 Open that takes care of all the pesky configuration details that are required to get this game to run in a hassle-free and expected manner that the game is worthy of.

What this work has resulted in is an installer package that:

1. Installs the Freespace 2 3.7.0 Open executables
2. Installs the minimum MediaVPs_3612 required to run FS2 Open
3. Installs OpenAL
4. Moves the required movie files, deletes unnecessary folders/shortcuts, and opens up permissions on the install directory
5. pre-configures the launcher with the parameters to just click "Run" and start playing!
6. Supports all versions of Windows x86/x64

All this in a package built with Installshield Professional to high-quality industry standards. JUST INSTALL, RUN, AND START PLAYING!

 Please keep in mind - while I know the frustration of everyone doing their own thing, and with all respect to the other ladies and gentlemen whom work so hard on their launchers (you guys are all way better coders than me!) I feel this is a necessary measure to bring some sanity and simplicity to the installation process for this game. Whether you guys all accept it or not, I will continue to build these packages and distribute them on a quarterly basis for my own sanity alone, and hopefully, for many others.

In this first release:

Packaged on FS2 Open build 3.7.0 build 9755, this release supports a minimal install set at this time only, as my first goal was to eliminate 98% of the tedious steps necessary to get the game directory configured and ready to play. Once I have received feedback  on this build, I will develop and sequence the downloader page to the installation routine for the Custom and Full install types for all the rest of the game content as well.

My goal is to have a full-fledged working and professional installer for the game by NEXT release cycle! With Installshield, all the packaging objectives for this game are easy to accomplish with minimal effort, and only a few evenings of work can see it nice and polished. The next release will be based on the MediaVPs_2014 and the latest Windows Standard FS2 nightly build. Hold on to your shorts!

So without further ado, please download, try it, and let me know what you think of this first release:

70th Blue Lion Squadron Windows Installer 3.7.0.9755:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/8izwvt8vphgec87/FS2scp_3.7.0_9755.exe

[Luis Dias]

2014 is definitely the year of the installers. Great work, but Goober's installer is already on alpha / beta stage....!

Welcome to HLPBB!!

[Kopachris]

I'm impressed.  It's not quite as complete as Goober's, as far as number of mods go, but it is a hell of a lot better-looking than that Java-based monstrosity.  When the topic came up of a better installer, this is pretty much what I had in mind.  I'm running the retail installer now for a clean install, then I'll run this one and see how it goes.

[Kopachris]

BIG EDIT: Ignore pretty much everything I say.  I just reread the OP, where you mention you haven't set it up to download anything yet.  My bad.

Only tested MediaVPs since my internet connection is rather slow.  Right away, small issue:

How can these features (all except MV_Root) be 0KB?  When I ran the installer, they were in fact not installed.  When I re-ran the installation and elected to install everything, nothing was downloaded or installed other than MV_Root and the 3.7.0 SCP build.

A couple other issues: The installer did not install wxLauncher (which is very important for anything other than retail FS2).  Perhaps it was because I already had wxLauncher installed, but I doubt that because it should have shown up in the "custom install" list anyway, or made some sort of mention of it.  The installer also didn't install FRED2_open, and left a lot of GOG files that could have been cleaned up after copying them to the correct places.

[The E]

As neat as this is, we (as in, the SCP) are not really interested in single-platform solutions.

We're not going to stop people from developing their own installers, the data java installer relies on to find mod packages is open after all, but we can't really support them unless they're working on all the platforms we support.

[LogicalMadness]

Thanks for the feedback fellas.

First off, as I had mentioned in my original post, only a Minimal install set is working for the installer at this time (hence the 26mb install size). In the next release, the Typical and Full options will guide you to a download page to download (For the Typical install - the full MediaVPs) and for (Full - all components including MODS)

For now, this is something you can give noobs who just want to play the game. Install and run. I am aware of the minor issues with this ALPHA build and all will be easily addressed in the next release.

To the SCP group; I don't mean to sound arrogant, but while I know it sounds romantic to desire an installer that works across all platforms and OS's, realistically, for a project of this type, I don't see how you guys are going to be able to accomplish this. With the amount of interaction and customization that is required against the many host OS'es to alter this game into a launch-able state, its no wonder one has not been fully implemented yet. In every single case where I have seen the debate rise to build multi-platform installers, every single time the decision goes against it - and this is in environments where there is serious $$$ to make it happen.

Just sayin' 

[General Battuta]

But we had a functional multi-platform installer for years, and there's another one in beta right now. 

[The E]

Indeed. Installing FSO is, when you get right down to it, a trivial task of copying the right files to the right place. This does not require much in terms of platform-specific hacks (And the amount of those that are needed will go down to zero in the very near future, when we finish transitioning to SDL and a unified way of storing our information; no more registry!), and so we're pretty damn certain that cross-platform compatibility is possible.

[General Battuta]

But I do agree that we absolutely 100% need a clean, effective, friendly install solution. The install process is a nightmare.

[Fury]

LogicalMadness, perhaps you should take a look at http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86614.0

but it is a hell of a lot better-looking than that Java-based monstrosity

While Goober's installer is very simple in its aesthetics, I wouldn't go as far as to call it a monstrosity. It can always be improved.

[Kopachris]

Java is always a monstrosity.  Unless it's Android.  Then it's Ferrari-gorgeous.

[Luis Dias]

Java is always a monstrosity.  Unless it's Android.  Then it's Ferrari-gorgeous.

omg my sides.

[karajorma]

Indeed. Installing FSO is, when you get right down to it, a trivial task of copying the right files to the right place. This does not require much in terms of platform-specific hacks (And the amount of those that are needed will go down to zero in the very near future, when we finish transitioning to SDL and a unified way of storing our information; no more registry!), and so we're pretty damn certain that cross-platform compatibility is possible.

As pointed out elsewhere we do still need to get the installer to install wxLauncher and OpenAL.