Launcher Public Beta Thread

[wedtm]

Discussion regarding the public beta for the launcher. Please keep it civil!

 

[therimmer96]

Reposting this here assuming nothing has changed yet

1. its looking in appdata for installations rather than the current ./appdata/. This is going to screw people over thinking they've lost everything.
   
2. Its not reading my existing memory settings. Might wanna have it look at appdata/.starmade/'s settings files at first run so the transition is smoother
3. It doesn't allow mods, even shader ones. The current launcher doesn't check each file when it starts, but the new one does and won't let me launch with a shader mod installed, and the checking each file takes far too long considering the current launcher doesn't do this. Not only is this silly new way of checking for updates restricting mods, but it also means that those with slower internet will have to wait longer to get ingame.

Overall, I personally don't understand the decision to rebuild the launcher from scratch rather than just redo the existing one, which is stable, fast and works perfectly, and what I will probably stick to using unless issue 3 is solved

 

[Super_Dork_42]

How do we get ahold of the new launcger through steam? What steam menu and what option is it under, because I couldn't find it.

 

[AnthonyHJ]

Looks like it's covered under the second heading of this thread -> http://starmadedock.net/threads/starmade-news-november-9th-2015.21811/

Sadly, I can't work it out. The beta option in Steam is asking for a beta access code.

edit:
Found it! In the folder for the game, there's a file called "starmade-launcher.exe" which loads the new launcher.

Right-click StarMade in the games list on Steam.

Click Properties

Choose the Local Files tab and click BROWSE LOCAL FILES

Run the starmade-launcher.exe file.

 

[AnthonyHJ]

Two very minor things I noticed and one pretty important oversight:

1. The "New to StarMade?" link goes to example.com
2. It seems to take much longer than the old version before the Launch button becomes active.
3. Moving the default StarMade install folder means that Steam installs it in "SteamApps\common\StarMade\StarMade" and then (unless you fix the install folder) the new launcher installs a second copy in "%appdata%\StarMade"

 

[DukeofRealms]

The "New to StarMade?" link goes to example.com

Yes, that is on purpose for now Not sure if that content exists yet, I'll take a look.

 

[AssIn9]

I changed the install dir back to my old install, but it didn't update the first time.

the steps i took,

Selected the parent folder, steamapps/StarMade
saved.
It stated it needed to update.
I selected the sub folder. steamapps/StarMade/StarMade
It still stated it needed to update....
so i opened the settings again, backed out of the folder, re selected it and saved.
Then it took its sweet ass slow time checking all the files.
and stated ready to play.

Why cant all the settings be under one sprocket? Is this a minigame? Find the sprocket that contains the shit you want. Wheres waldo and memory all at the same time just to start the game.. frustrating. hard to support. GJ!

 

[Ithirahad]

Yeah, all those gears need to be integrated into one, more visible, options button. Fix that, and fix the checksum thing Rimmer mentioned near the top, and I'll be happy with the launcher.

 

[benjwgarner]

Yeah, all those gears need to be integrated into one, more visible, options button. Fix that, and fix the checksum thing Rimmer mentioned near the top, and I'll be happy with the launcher.

Definitely. Perhaps they could add a setting to enable or disable checksum verification in a single, combined gear menu?

Also, Schine people, I was wondering about the plans for the future as far as the launcher/UI goes. As it is now, we have a launcher/updater that launches another launcher that we use to change settings and start the integrated mini-tools (which are awesome, by the way) that launches the actual game session. Are you planning to combine the second launcher into the game session? It would be nice to eventually be able to start the game and be able to change all of the settings within the session (but not necessarily running the game itself), connect to and disconnect from servers (a favorites list might be nice too), and manage saved games. My guess is that you're probably planning on implementing something like this in the future ("Alpha is Alpha", afterall) but I would like to know what your current thinking is. Any comment on this part of the development direction?

 

[DukeofRealms]

Definitely. Perhaps they could add a setting to enable or disable checksum verification in a single, combined gear menu?

Also, Schine people, I was wondering about the plans for the future as far as the launcher/UI goes. As it is now, we have a launcher/updater that launches another launcher that we use to change settings and start the integrated mini-tools (which are awesome, by the way) that launches the actual game session. Are you planning to combine the second launcher into the game session? It would be nice to eventually be able to start the game and be able to change all of the settings within the session (but not necessarily running the game itself), connect to and disconnect from servers (a favorites list might be nice too), and manage saved games. My guess is that you're probably planning on implementing something like this in the future ("Alpha is Alpha", afterall) but I would like to know what your current thinking is. Any comment on this part of the development direction?

The second launcher (connection setup) will turn into the main menu.

 

[GaeasSon]

On the subject of Steam and Launchers: I got the new launcher working under Steam but it took a bit of doing.
My launcher was at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
My content folder was at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade\StarMade
The launcher was downloaded from http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html?prefix=jobs/Launcher/58/

1. I moved C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade\StarMade to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\StarMade
2. I deleted the remaining contents of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
3. I copied the contents of starmade-launcher-win32-x64 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
4. In C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade I renamed StarMade-Launcher.exe to StarMade-Starter.exe

 

[0ldSkull]

It doesn't allow mods, even shader ones.

This seems to apply even to modifications of BlockConfig.xml.

I also noticed that if there are multiple builds of the installed version available, the selection list contains multiple entries for that version number and assumes that the first (earliest) one matches the installation. (As an example, this was the case with the recent dev version 0.19488.) The specific build numbers are not shown in order to differentiate the selections.

So if there are 3 builds of version N available and you have vN build 3 installed, the launcher incorrectly determines you have version N build 1 and therefore need an "update". Manually selecting the third vN entry from the list corrects this.

 

[Pirate_Ray]

i found out the hard way that the new launcher upon updating from the old updater/luancher does not ask for a backup of the old files and data, it just starts overwriting and deleting.... and since i rely on the auto backlups i lost everything except for an older backup.... lost a lot which im not happy with.

it looks the part though and functions fine, but a backup, or button to start a manual backup would be appreciated very much...

thanks.

ps, the new slabs are awesome, just what i wanted, ty :D

 

[Valiant70]

I don't see a Mac version in the download link. Is it possible to install on mac?

 

[Lycaeum]

I don't see a Mac version in the download link. Is it possible to install on mac?

You cannot install the beta launcher directly from steam on mac but you can download it from here: http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html?prefix=jobs/Launcher/58/

 

[Valiant70]

You cannot install the beta launcher directly from steam on mac but you can download it from here: http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html?prefix=jobs/Launcher/58/

None of the versions are labeled OS X. Would I use the same one as Linux or is darwin-x64 the mac version?

 

[Megacrafter127]

None of the versions are labeled OS X. Would I use the same one as Linux or is darwin-x64 the mac version?

darwin is for OSX.