[fgsfds]

BuildLauncher is a frontend for Build Engine games inspired by nstlaurent's DoomLauncher

It can download all major ports for Build Engine games, as well as mods, custom campaigns, and maps and launch them with the port of your choice.

https://github.com/f...s/BuildLauncher

[dwtietz]

Will this have support for Ion Fury?

If so, the mod that SPYmaps and I are working on is packaged in a self-contained grp file; would this launcher be able to load that since it doesn't have any loose files that interfere with the operation of the base game?

[fgsfds]

Yeah, probably

[NightFright]

Concept is good. First two issues:

1) Loading/startup takes ages
2) Crashes when selecting ports folders

[fgsfds]

Strange. I don't have these issues. What OS are you using?

[NightFright]

I'm on Win10 22H2 x64. Maybe it's the process to determine port versions which causes the massive delay. Need to check if it keeps happening.

[fgsfds]

#2 should hopefully be fixed.
As of #1, first startup will be slow. That's just how self-contained .Net apps work.

[fgsfds]

I'm wrong about #1. Found a way to increase startup time, next version should start much faster.

[dwtietz]

Is there a "read me" or "how to" guide posted anywhere to cover the topic of how to configure the manifest.json file for an add-on that you're trying to manually setup?

I currently have our Ion Jungle project in a grp file named SPYmaps_IJ.grp

I can load this via a batch file with the following parameters:

-gamegroup fury.grp - g SPYmaps_IJ.grp

or I can have it appear in the eduke32 launcher
window with the following contents in a grpinfo file (subject to change):

grpinfo
{
name "Ion Jungle"
scriptname "scripts/main.con"
defname "ashock.def"
size 236255947
crc 0xE6576F11
dependency 0xE175FB41
flags 400
}

With my first attempt at just wingin' it without really knowing what's what yet, I have managed to get the Ion Jungle campaign to appear in the BuildLauncher application window, but when I try to load it it just loads Ion Fury: Aftershock and ignores our campaign grp file. I know that I don't have the json file configured properly, but I'm not certain atm how I would need to configure it.

This is what I have in the json file right now, and please bear in mind that I know this isn't correct and doesn't entirely work:

{
"Guid": "2518ff8f-61dc-4422-b5c4-cf8b50b443a9", <- This ID actually came from a different map that I downloaded and then removed, but what should I put here, or is it optional?
"ModType": "Campaign",
"Game": "Fury",
"Name": "Ion Jungle",
"Author": "SPYmaps, dwtietz",
"Version": 0.1,
"GRP": "SPYmaps_IJ.grp",
"Url": "",
"Description": ""
}

[fgsfds]

Try this

{  
"Guid": "CREATE_NEW_GUI",
"ModType": "Campaign",
"Game": "Fury",
"Name": "Ion Jungle",
"Author": "SPYmaps, dwtietz",
"Version": 0.1,
"Url": "",
"StartupFile": "scripts\main.con",
 "Description": ""
}

[dwtietz]

No luck yet. It didn't seem to like this line as it didn't appear in the BuildLauncher window at all:

"Guid": "CREATE_NEW_GUI",

Also, "StartupFile": "scripts\main.con", didn't appear to change anything as it still appeared to completely ignore SPYmaps_IJ.grp which needs to be loaded after fury.grp.

Anyway, I'll take this message over to the discord when I get around to trying this some more.

[fgsfds]

I just released v0.17.0 with pretty much every feature I wanted to implement and every major bug fixed / worked around.

Launcher can now run addons that come with the new .json manifest, has support for the legacy addons.grpinfo, and can launch Blood TCs that replace original RFF files.
A bunch of TCs, maps and mods, including NightFright's EDuke32 Addon Compilation, can be downloaded from the Launcher.

https://github.com/f...s/BuildLauncher

[Fabiolinks]

This is amazing

[NightFright]

I'm trying this again and it seems to have improved quite a bit. Especially useful is the feature to automatically install and update ports.
If I had autoload folders before (e.g. for Rednukem), how do I get these working? Do I have to put them in the folder where I have the port or where I keep the game data files? I've actually tried both, without success.

[fgsfds]

Ports' own autoload folders are not supported and I make sure that these mods aren't loaded at all to prevent conflicts. You either have to download launcher-compatible version of the mod or make your own if it doesn't exist already.

[t800]

This version works nicely, even that glitch with dysfunctional normal maps for World Tour edition in Eduke32 got fixed. Nice work! You are now missing just last Build game that has any source port support (only BuildGDX) - Legend of Seven Paladins.

[Nacho]

Question: Does anyone know how to edit the ports settings? For example, BuildGDX doesn't open in Full-Screen, only windowed mode, and for whatever reason (old eduke versions do this for me as well) going from windowed to Full-Screen crashes the game. Maybe because it isn't run in Admin mode? Either way, I'm trying to solve this issue...