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Messages - KingOfAwesomnia

#1
I just wanted to give you guys a quick update, and more specifically I wanted to apologise. My new job is requiring me to learn two new programming languages and work with a bunch of systems I've never worked with. As a result, all of my free time right now is going into studying and learning all this new stuff, so I haven't really had a lot of time to work on RW launcher. I do plan to get back to working on it as soon as the job gets back to normal. This isn't what I had planned at all and I'm not very happy about how things are working out, but I'm afraid that there isn't much I can do to change the situation. I will post here again as soon as I can start working on the launcher app again.

Lastly, I'll answer this question (may be a bit late, but I figured I'd better answer it anyways)
Quote from: mrofa on February 09, 2015, 03:36:05 AM
Go a question do <files> also works with .dll files ?
It should work with any kind of file, I've only tested it with XML files but since the program essentially just changes the name of the file it should work just fine.
#2
Quote from: Hayhorse on January 28, 2015, 09:52:04 PM
Since not everyone has Facebook or Google How about trying to implement both?
Every option I would add just about doubles the work implementing it. I would like to keep it simple for now, so that it doesn't take too long to finish the next version.
#3
Quote from: akiceabear on January 21, 2015, 07:37:11 AMIf there was a good mod browser (e.g. sort by popularity)
That's what I'm going for, but it will probably still be a while before I get to the point where it has a fully featured mod browser like that. The next couple of versions will still be pretty basic, and I will gradually build it up.

Quote from: kutch on January 26, 2015, 08:00:02 PMNot sure how feasible this is, and how far along you are, but there are different ways to authenticate other than you having to store user id's/pswd's on the server.  One such thing would be authentication via google (assuming they have a google account), openID, and/or maybe authentication via ludeon.com, if that's available.
Auth via Ludeon isn't available as far as I know. The others would be an option, and it would actually make development easier (I'm still working on making the upload process easy, haven't gotten to the accounts part yet), but I don't want the fact that people 'have to use their Google or Facebook account' to stand in the way of them using the launcher, as I've noticed that there generally are quite a large number of people who don't like to grant an app like this access to their profiles. This is why I decided to implement a full accounts system.

Unless perhaps (question time!) if everyone here wouldn't mind using their Facebook account to log in? I say Facebook because it is by far the easiest to implement, but of course if everyone wants to use their Google account that would be possible too. I just don't want to go implementing like ten different systems cause that would actually make for more work (and, ya know, programmers are lazy folks), but in any case, if you read this let me know what your thoughts are on the matter. You guys may just make the next version come out a bit faster :D

Quote from: joshwoo69 on January 26, 2015, 08:28:16 PMThis feel like ksp ckan... but better :)
No idea what ckan is, but thanks! Though I have to admit I'm used to my stuff being better than everyone else's, haha :P

Quote from: MarvinKosh on January 26, 2015, 11:10:47 PMIn the mod options, could there a way to choose one file from two or three?
Definitely a good idea, I'll add it to the ideas list and it will probably be added when I revisit the mod settings, which will probably be pretty soon since there have already been a couple of really good suggestions for the settings that make sense and that make me wonder why I didn't think of them for the initial version.

Quote from: Iwillbenicetou on January 27, 2015, 11:02:00 AMSo this works now? Just wondering...
That depends on what you mean by 'works'. If you mean
a) Totally awesome and perfect and does everything you could ever dream of and you wish you could marry it just for its pure awesomeness then no. Not yet, at least.
But, on the other hand, if you mean
b) A first version that still only has limited features but that does what it was supposed to and actually does kind of kick ass at those few things then yes, it definitely 'works' :)
#4
Quote from: mipen on January 17, 2015, 04:35:04 AMCongratulations on the job! :D sounds really fancy :P
It is quite fancy haha, and apparently I'm really good at it. First thing on monday they gave me a small project "to get started those first couple of weeks". So we're two days later now and it's pretty much finished. I showed them what I made already. Everyone was shocked. I was awesome. As usual :P
But, today's my day off, so now instead of going to work and programming all day developing various highly sensitive top secret undisclosed projects (oh who am I kidding, I'm working on a signup page XD), I can now just stay at home and program all day making the next great version of RW Launcher.

Quote from: mipen on January 17, 2015, 04:35:04 AMI'm really excited for the mod uploading / downloading, it will be so great for me because I'm always making little fixes and uploading them and then doing something else heh. That is going to be such an amazing feature!
In the next version the mods won't actually update automatically yet, so the user would still have to download the new files manually. But once the auto-update function is finished this will go a lot easier.

Quote from: mipen on January 17, 2015, 04:35:04 AMHave I said before that I really like to look and feel of the ui? Probably, but there it is again :P
Well what can I say, I'm an interface designer and a perfectionist. So I have a very good reason to make awesome interfaces since I would pretty much hate myself if the ui I made wasn't good :P

Quote from: mipen on January 17, 2015, 04:35:04 AMJust a question about the mod options thingy, would it be possible to be able to add an option to define a folder path to be disabled?
I hadn't thought of this, but it's definitely a good idea. I've added it to the ideas list.

Also,
Quote from: mipen on January 17, 2015, 04:35:04 AMwe could put each part of the mod into sunflowers
Autocorrect or you just reeeally like sunflowers? xd
#5
Quote from: Evul on January 14, 2015, 09:36:30 AM
Project Armory will be 100% compatible with the Launcher :)
Quote from: mipen on January 14, 2015, 06:22:10 PM
I've just updated my mod and included full compatibility with this launcher :) it works like a charm, so so good. The modular option thing is so useful and well done,  you should be very pleased with yourself! :D

Awesome to hear that you guys already like it so much :D The mod options thingy was more of an afterthought, it wasn't in the original plans, but it seems to be a very welcome feature so I'll be sure to prioritise my future plans for the options window accordingly.


Quote from: Hayhorse on January 14, 2015, 05:19:39 PM
If people want to be on the mod launcher then we might be able to get a few people working on modifying the mods that either (due to popular demand) are changed to work with the launcher or if someone asks to have it worked on if they are too busy to update it. (Sorry if its confusing, listening to a confusing video that is confusing me as I type!)

The process of adding launcher support to a mod is rather simple, although it may take some time if you have a large mod. If a mod maker doesn't want to do it himself, he can of course ask for it on the forum or something, and there may be someone else willing to do it for him. But, I don't want people adding launcher support to a mod that isn't theirs when they're not asked to by the creator. The main reason for this is simply that I don't want to pressure mod makers into adding launcher support if they don't want to, and by having a version that does have launcher support, this may be the case. But, if a mod maker asks someone else to add launcher support, that is of course completely up to them :)


Quote from: Igabod on January 14, 2015, 06:32:56 PM
I'm wondering, will this have a download counter for each mod so mod makers can see how many people are using their mod? I'd like a download count total for all versions as well as a download count for each individual version if possible. It might be interesting to see a statistic for how many people roll back to a previous version of the mod too.

And an unrelated suggestion, maybe add a feature in so that users can rate a mod with a simple 1 to 5 stars system. This would also be nice to have for each individual version as well as an average rating for all versions.

I'm still working on the download system, but yes when this is done it will have a download counter. More stats like number of views in the mod gallery, and a rating system (still undecided whether to use 5 stars or thumbs up/down) are also planned for a later release, together with the full mod gallery.


Quote from: denu on January 15, 2015, 05:02:33 AM
Wow your modistaller is just awsom but give it a Chance that you add somthing like a Crashwarnig or collisionwarnig maby seperatet in parts like Texturcolision, id colission and AI collision??.
Quote from: Hayhorse on January 15, 2015, 08:23:03 PM
With ID collision the launcher would just have to change a few ID's to fix it, when a trader has to have a certain ID weapon from a mod that got changed, modify the id of the item it has requested to ask for the right one.

Incompatibility warning with other mods are in the roadmap yes, also planned for release along with the full gallery. However, this will work with a 'flag incompatibility' button where users have to flag two mods as incompatible, and the warning will then appear when the mod creator confirms it. The launcher will not automatically check for incompatibilty, since this would mean it'd have to check all files of all mods continuously, and this would make for a very resource-heavy program. And it will definitely not change any mod files, not even to fix conflicts. Fixing it will be up to the creator.

Now I don't know much about making mods in itself, so I don't know what kind of incompatibilities there could be, but I imagine (as mentioned) that conflicting IDs are the main problem, so I am thinking now I may have the launcher analyse a mod before uploading it, and then storing a list of all the used object IDs in a database on the server, so mod makers can easily check their mods against the other uploaded ones, to see if there are any conflicts. But, for now this is just a thought and not an actual plan, I've added it to the ideas list but I'll revisit it once I'm ready with the main program.



So, now all that's out of the way.. Let's move on to some progress updates! I have a bit of good news, and also some bad. But then there's a good bit again. And I end it all with a question so be sure to keep reading :)

I'll start with where I am right now.

  • I've created a new section of the launcher app, called "Modding Tools" where I will put all tools and features for a mod creator to use. This is mainly so they don't clutter the screen of other players. But look at it this way: you guys get your very own window! Isn't that something ;)
  • I've developed a way to efficiently upload files to a web server. Unfortunately I only have access to a basic PHP web server so the uploading process will be limited and not very responsive (i.e. no uploading progress bar or fancy percentage, just a wait screen while it's busy uploading), but at least it will work. Or so I hope.
  • I'm busy developing the rest of the server system, this is quite a bit of work because I also have to develop a complete user and log-in system so that people can have accounts to manage their mods. Yes I know, yet another account you need, I'm very sorry but this is the best way to do things. I also could tie them to the launcher, but then if you change devices or your pc crashes or something, your mods would be... *pause for dramatic effect* lost forever!

So the good news is, the mod uploading and downloading is almost done. The bad news, however, is that Steam decided to do a Civilization: Beyond Earth free weekend. And I'm a big Civ fan, but I haven't bought BE yet. So I'll be taking some time away from my code editor this weekend, in order to conquer the entire known (and unknown) universe. Or at least attempt to. *screams and runs away from siege worm*

But here's the other good bit: our all time favourite awesome person here on the forums, Evul, sent me a message telling me he has a server running that I could use to store the mods. This means that there will be enough disk space to store a big amount of mods and data, and that it won't cost me a fortune to pay for hosting it all in an actual commercial data center.

So, to recap: I have made a lot of progress but I'm a bit limited by the fact that I can only make a PHP server (because while PHP is my main area of expertise, it doesn't work too well together with desktop tools). I could have made more progress, but I've had to go out for some interviews and stuff over the last couple of days, because I just got a job (signed the contract yesterday)! I'm now no longer "that unemployed dude living with his parents", you're now talking to the new "Software engineer Sharepoint" at KBC, one of Belgium's largest banks. Oh and don't worry, I'm only working 3 days a week so I'll still have time to work on other projects like this one :)

That's all the news for now, but I promised you a question earlier, and here it is. If you have added launcher support to your mod, I would like it if you make a screenshot or two of your mod in the launcher, and link to the screenshot here so I can see how it looks inside the launcher. I'll also add the supporting mods on the site when I get around to updating it (probably right before the next release), and I'll use some of the screenshots I'll hopefully get to replace the two I have up there now (which are just the mod I used for testing).
Hint: If you don't know how to make screenshots (or you find it too much work), try this. I use it all the time and it's super easy.

So.. I think that was it. Well it should be, the post sure has gotten long enough :P
#6
Quote from: Jaxxa on January 11, 2015, 06:15:00 PMJust noticed this and haven't yet had time to read the entire thread yet, but I have to echo mipen's statements that this look really helpful and promising. I will definitely be looking at adding support for my Enhanced Defense mod and plugging it on my mod thread.

Quote from: ItchyFlea on January 11, 2015, 08:07:13 PMSince I now have access to a Win 8 machine, I was able to make my modpack use the launcher so players could enable/disable any mods in the pack they don't want to use.

I'm definitely looking forward to future updates to this tool.

Quote from: mipen on January 13, 2015, 05:30:11 AMAfter finally returning home, I got to open your launcher, and boy is it beautiful! :D I feels so nice and I love how the ui looks.

I'm so glad you all like it :D
#7
Quote from: Haplo on January 11, 2015, 02:33:55 PM
I'm also not familiar with JS, but maybe this helps?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8683895/variable-to-detect-operating-system-in-node-scripts
I've already read that discussion, and a bunch of others, but it appears Node doesn't give a good way to correctly determine the operating system by default. I'll have to either design my own detection function, or look for a platform detection module on npm.
#8
Quote from: Neurotoxin on January 11, 2015, 01:18:32 PM
I completely glazed over this and defaulted to c# sorry about that. I'm not familiar with JS so I can't really help there :/
No problem, the idea was good. Perhaps I can find a npm module for proper platform detection when I get around to it.
#9
Quote from: Neurotoxin on January 11, 2015, 12:43:24 PM
I assume you've already figured out what you intend to do but an idea for you
Unfortunately in NodeJS/Node-Webkit there's no env.OSVersion property. I do have an env.OS property, but it shows "Windows_NT" for me (Win 7) and since Win2K and up are all based on Windows NT I don't know if this would be any different on XP. When the core development is done I'll set up a couple of virtual machines (for Windows XP, Vista and 8 - I don't think anyone out there is still using 2K?) so that I can figure out the platform differences and how to fix them.
#10
Quote from: Idlemind79 on January 11, 2015, 07:02:42 AM
If people started putting all the mods on nexus in earnest, wouldn't the sites mod manager be enough?
That would be true, but fact is that few modders actually put their mod on there. Besides, I aim to add specific functionality that is tied in with the mods and the game itself, something that a general mod manager like the Nexus one doesn't offer. And I don't know what the process is to upload mods to Nexus, but I doubt it will be as simple and efficient as what I'm making.
#11
Quote from: mipen on January 08, 2015, 02:48:05 AM
This looks absolutely amazing! I will definitely be adding compatibility with this launcher when I get around to updating it. I'll also be touting it's awesome-ness on my mod page to try get everyone using it. The mod options part will be a godsend for modular mods, for the user and modder alike. All in all, an absolutely amazing programme! :D that's a lot for this!
It's comments like this that motivate me to continue working on it all day. Well, that and the fact that installing and managing mods in RimWorld as it is currently can be a bit of a pain. But, mostly the awesome comments thing :D

While I'm at it, here's a small update on the progress made for v0.2 (you can also check out the Trello board for the latest dev status):

  • I restructured the codebase so that I can more easily modify and extend it. Before it was just one big file with lots of back-and-forth function calls, now it's all modular and structured. This took a while but it will allow me to add new features more quickly.
  • I added an app updater. Currently the launcher will check if there's an update and then redirect you to my site, but as of v0.2 it will just pull the latest version of the launcher from my server and automatically download and install it if it finds that a newer version is available. This took a while to get right, since I had to compile a number of times and find out the best way to package the updates so that you wouldn't have to download the full 60MB app with every update.
  • Next up: mod uploading and downloading (see below), and settings breaks (as talked about earlier in this topic)
Main new feature for v0.2: mod uploading and downloading. And here's how it will (or should) work:
The launcher will package your mod and upload it to the RW Launcher server. You will get an identifier of some sort (probably a URL but I'm still looking over the options), which you can share with anyone. When someone wants to install your mod, they copy the identifier into the launcher. Then the launcher will download and install this mod. It will not yet auto-update, and there's no mod gallery of any kind yet, but this way you guys can already start distributing your mods via the launcher. And for me this will be a test to see how much resources the actual hosting of these mods will take (I'm specifically worried about the bandwidth limits on my server, since I also host a bunch of other websites on it).
#12
Quote from: StorymasterQ on January 05, 2015, 12:30:52 AM
Can't you just use the environment variable %APPDATA%? I bet that's the cause for these folder structure problems.
Quote from: ItchyFlea on January 05, 2015, 04:50:37 AM
Google tells me that you'd want to use this to get there in WinXP: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data
The problem is that I cannot simply use %USERPROFILE% or %APPDATA% since I work in Node.JS. I have to see which process.env property responds to the correct directory (or closest to it), and once I figure that out it will be very simple to implement, but to find that out and to be able to test the full program on XP I need to set up a virtual machine. I don't just want to "keep guessing until I get it right" :)
#13
Quote from: ItchyFlea on January 03, 2015, 06:10:31 PM
It's looking in the wrong spot for the ModsConfig.xml file.
It seems win XP has a completely different file structure than vista and later. I will have to get a virtualbox running with xp to be able to test this well, so unfortunately for right now XP can't be supported. I hope to add XP support soon, but I can't make any promise as to when. XP will definitely be supported by the time version 1.0 is done though (the full one with the mod gallery and all).
#14
Quote from: ItchyFlea on January 01, 2015, 03:28:19 PM
Yes, I am on Win XP.
I made some changes that I think will fix the problem. I don't have XP myself so I can't actually test it but I uploaded a test build at http://rwlauncher.woubuc.be/rwlauncher32_test.zip so could you try it out and let me know if it works now or if you still get the error?
#15
Quote from: ItchyFlea on December 31, 2014, 03:47:29 PM
Bug Report:
When running the 32bit version, I get this:

Uncaught node.js Error.
TypeError: Cannot read property 'substr' of undefined

EDIT: Looking at your screenshot again, I see that you're on Windows XP, correct? XP has a different appData folder structure than later version of the operating system so this is probably what causes the error. I can fix this but it will take some figuring out since I don't immediately have access to a Windows XP system to test on.

Quote from: Evul on December 31, 2014, 07:15:44 PM
I've been experimenting with the part selection thingy.
I've tested added the files to the switcher and it looks great! :)
I also tested doing categorization (that look grate as long as its a small window like in the screen) and that's a feature i would like to have, not a priority but defensively a usable thingy for people that have allot of features :)

This is something I've thought about as well. I'll probably add simple breaks into the next version to make the next switch start on a new line (pretty simple to implement) but I'm also thinking about something like "master switches" that control a bunch of these settings at once so you can make actual categories and name them and let people enable/disable entire categories at once. This'll be a bit further down the road though, but I'll definitely add it to the ideas list.