[Luis Dias]

You can squeeze the flag sets quite a lot.

[jg18]

Catching up on replies to comments in this thread:

My input: great work so far, way better than the v.0.8.0a, more organized, good clean looks, I haven't played in about a year, I'm starting again and using this latest version from the start; I don't see why is it in alpha stage still, for me looks like a beta at least.

To address the "why alpha?" question, we were originally thinking of keeping wxL as alpha until it had auto self-update and maybe also a portable mode on Windows. At this point, though, I'd say it's likely that the next version will be called a beta, even though it won't have those things.

Suggestion for the lighting presets: maybe you could add a image or a small 3D model to cast the lighting on so we can see how the different presets modify the lighting at gameplay.

Thanks for the idea. We thought about using the screenshots from the wiki, but they're of various sizes and aspect ratios and of different scenes, and we don't have permission to use them with the launcher (GNU GPL v2) besides.

Now, if a FREDder with artistic sensibilities and a decent rig could create a mission with a fixed scene suitable for showing off lighting of all types and then take screenshots using the various lighting settings, we could use that.

Alternatively, the lighting settings may eventually become configurable in-game, in which case this would be less of an issue.

With the new 3.6.16RC1 the launcher does not differentiate between the regular and debug version in the selection screen for the FS exe. or the fred exe.  It shows up correctly in the command line but not in the selection screen.

This should be fixed in future 3.6.16 builds. Thanks for reporting it.

Why is FRED execution disabled by default, anyway?

That's news to me.. but if that is the case it should definitely be changed. What a great way to encourage people not to FRED..

Mostly because it was a ninja feature by me (at the request of a particular FREDer) and it just never was promoted to a proper feature.  However, the current thought process is that in a effort to reduce clutter and confusion in the interface (which we do get complaints about) the FRED launch button along with other future modding tools are hidden by default.  The current method of editing a config file to enable it however will go once I have time to write a proper interface for it.

Pretty much this.

<wxLauncher is/is not too big>

At this point, I can't tell whether the concern is that the launcher is too big or that it has too much information in each tab (usability issue?) or that people are just unhappy with the layout. Whatever the case may be, could whoever feels strongly about it please create a ticket in our bug tracker and please be precise about the problem?

We're also well aware that while the current UI could definitely use some work, there's no one UI that will make everyone happy, so no matter what we do, someone is gonna be at least a little disappointed. That's life. (And no, we will not provide options for different UIs. It's not worth the added code complexity.)

If the launcher can't fit in a netbook-size screen, then yes, that's a problem, but not something that can be fixed anytime soon. UI changes, especially non-trivial ones, are always a dicey proposition code-wise -- remember that "UI" means on all three platforms -- and we're currently working on getting the skin system up and running so we can get the next version out the door (ETA is Soon^TM). Including this issue in our bug tracker ensures that it won't get lost.

[karajorma]

Okay, I reported the size issue.

Newman said he wanted to make some comments about UI design when we were gearing up to release Diaspora. Hopefully he can have a chat with you about that soon.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

At this point, I can't tell whether the concern is that the launcher is too big or that it has too much information in each tab (usability issue?) or that people are just unhappy with the layout.

It's not "or", it's "and" - they're not three issues, but three facets of the same problem The root problem is that the window is too big. It can't be "just shrunk" because the information density is already very high, especially in the "Advanced" tab. So the amount of information per tab may need to be reduced, in order to shrink the window. And this will obviously affect the layout.

Come to think of it, if the lighting screenshots idea goes ahead, "Lighting" would make a logical fifth tab, unloading the advanced settings...

Completely unrelated, thank you guys for the user profiles. I didn't see the need for it at first, but now that Diaspora and BP both came with their own binaries and lighting settings it's a godsend

[Iss Mneur]

At this point, I can't tell whether the concern is that the launcher is too big or that it has too much information in each tab (usability issue?) or that people are just unhappy with the layout.

It's not "or", it's "and" - they're not three issues, but three facets of the same problem The root problem is that the window is too big. It can't be "just shrunk" because the information density is already very high, especially in the "Advanced" tab. So the amount of information per tab may need to be reduced, in order to shrink the window. And this will obviously affect the layout.

Come to think of it, if the lighting screenshots idea goes ahead, "Lighting" would make a logical fifth tab, unloading the advanced settings...

So it seems specifically the the window is too tall, not a simple too big.  How many pixels too tall is it again?

Completely unrelated, thank you guys for the user profiles. I didn't see the need for it at first, but now that Diaspora and BP both came with their own binaries and lighting settings it's a godsend

Thanks. For something that seems so simple, it has proven to be a very hard feature to implement as intended.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

So it seems specifically the the window is too tall, not a simple too big.  How many pixels too tall is it again?

Yes, sorry for not being more specific. Like I said earlier, a panorama-oriented box (using widescreen resolutions more efficiently) might solve the problem - keeping the content per tab the same, but rearranging pretty much the entire UI.

The windows box is 655x715 pixels. I'd guess your netbook screen is a 1024x600 pixels

115, add about 35 for taskbars and stuff, so that's some 150 vertical pixels to be removed.

[jg18]

First, could some Linux wxLauncher users try out the patch on this wxL bug ticket? Once it's committed, it will allow (or at least pave the way for allowing) for building Linux binary packages for wxLauncher (according to niffiwan), so that people won't have to build from source anymore. Thanks!


Catching up yet again on replies, adding to Iss Mneur's...

Okay, I reported the size issue.

Thank you.

Newman said he wanted to make some comments about UI design when we were gearing up to release Diaspora. Hopefully he can have a chat with you about that soon.

Looking forward to it.

At this point, I can't tell whether the concern is that the launcher is too big or that it has too much information in each tab (usability issue?) or that people are just unhappy with the layout.

It's not "or", it's "and" - they're not three issues, but three facets of the same problem The root problem is that the window is too big. It can't be "just shrunk" because the information density is already very high, especially in the "Advanced" tab. So the amount of information per tab may need to be reduced, in order to shrink the window. And this will obviously affect the layout.

Come to think of it, if the lighting screenshots idea goes ahead, "Lighting" would make a logical fifth tab, unloading the advanced settings...

Thanks for the thoughts, but it looks like part of my quote is missing.

At this point, I can't tell whether the concern is that the launcher is too big or that it has too much information in each tab (usability issue?) or that people are just unhappy with the layout. Whatever the case may be, could whoever feels strongly about it please create a ticket in our bug tracker and please be precise about the problem?

Iss Mneur may feel differently, but I figure that since there's nothing we can do about this issue in the short term (UI changes are messy), much better to discuss it on the bug tracker, where it can be saved and organized with the other listed issues, than here, where it'll likely get forgotten or mixed in with whatever other things may come up.

Completely unrelated, thank you guys for the user profiles. I didn't see the need for it at first, but now that Diaspora and BP both came with their own binaries and lighting settings it's a godsend

Thanks. One of kkmic's brilliant ideas IIRC, along with the mod list and undoubtedly many other wxL features, to give credit where it's due. And as Iss Mneur said, it proved to be quite hard to get right.

[iVoid]

Speech isn't working for me when I use this launcher. Launcher 5.5g worked fine.

When I press "Play" to test the string there is no speech but if I re-select Microsoft Anna (I'm running windows 7) the string works, although in-game there is still no speech.

[Yarn]

A few requests:

• Ability to refresh the mods tab without restarting wxLauncher.
• The "All features on" flag set; this is defined in the EXE and should not be hidden.

[Macfie]

When I press "Play" to test the string there is no speech but if I re-select Microsoft Anna (I'm running windows 7) the string works, although in-game there is still no speech.

Not all the FSOpen builds have speech enabled.  Usually only the regular releases, like 3.6.14 or 3.6.16.  Typically the nightly builds do not have the ability to use speech.

[iVoid]

I'm using 3.6.16, and speech does work when I use 5.5g.

[Luis Dias]

• Ability to refresh the mods tab without restarting wxLauncher.

Yes please

[Fury]

In regards to this: http://code.google.com/p/wxlauncher/issues/detail?id=44&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Priority%20Milestone%20OpSys%20Owner%20Summary

Portable mode is where I expect I can open an archive (not an installer), drop the necessary files to either right under FS2 dir or in their own folder under FS2 dir. And then be able to move or copy the entire FS2 dir to portable drive, or network and have it work on another computer right away with launcher settings as they were before copy or move.

The old launcher has the definite advantage that is it only a single executable that works entirely from FS2 dir as-is, and only writes to two (IIRC) files under FS2 dir.

Of course, when used in portable mode, it is not possible to have per-user profile settings as any writable files will have to reside under FS2 dir.

[chief1983]

I think asking that the settings themselves still have to be in that folder is a bit much.  What about just having a way to specify where the USERDATA folder is, and that could just be a separate folder on the portable device that could still live outside of the FS2 directory, or I suppose it could be right inside of it.  But having it outside of it could allow other portable apps to still use a common USERDATA folder on one device, something I believe is fairly common, but I could be wrong.

[jg18]

A few requests:

• The "All features on" flag set; this is defined in the EXE and should not be hidden.

Fine, I can add it back. I think the flag sets are generally not as useful as they look (except for maybe "all off"), "all features on" doesn't strike me as well-defined (does that include 3D radar? preloading sound? info next to target? etc etc) and SCP doesn't maintain the flag sets besides (or at least hasn't in my time here). I've made Mantis 2790 as a reminder about it, but it'll be the FSO Team's job after that to ensure they're in sync.

I'm using 3.6.16, and speech does work when I use 5.5g.

To start, make sure the speech checkboxes in Basic Settings are checked. They are checked by default in 5.5g but unchecked by default in wxL based on this poll.

• Ability to refresh the mods tab without restarting wxLauncher.

Yes please

In the plans, ETA unknown.


As for portable mode, I don't have anything definitive to say offhand, so either Iss can post something or we'll talk about it first. I for one would really like discussion of complicated topics like this one to stay in the bug tracker and not get fragmented between here and there, especially since the release thread is an interwoven mix of whatever comes up.

[Iss Mneur]

As for portable mode, I don't have anything definitive to say offhand, so either Iss can post something or we'll talk about it first. I for one would really like discussion of complicated topics like this one to stay in the bug tracker and not get fragmented between here and there, especially since the release thread is an interwoven mix of whatever comes up.

I don't have anything to add other than a reminder that the wxLauncher is considered an FS2 Open Tool and is a valid topic to discuss on the tools board.

[jg18]

Yeah, if we had our own board (as was proposed a while back) then it'd be a lot easier to discuss complicated topics; they could just each have their own thread.

EDIT: Zacam proposed that idea almost exactly one year ago.

[mjn.mixael]

Given how essential the launcher is to FS and that wxL is pretty much becoming the standard... makes sense to me. At least as a sub-board of the tools board or something.

[karajorma]

I've got no issue with giving the launcher a board.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

The "All features on" flag set; this is defined in the EXE and should not be hidden.

Wut... people actually use those flag sets?