Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

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Jroc
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:32 pm

Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

Post by Jroc »

Rocket Launcher: A GUI for launching Doom wads I've been working on for windows:

Image

For those who have not used a Doom Frontend such as ZDL before, this is an interface allowing you to quickly set up a doom game using any combination of source port, IWAD, patch wads and additional arguments of your choosing. Furthermore, you can associate and launch doom files with this program, and it is also compatible with doom builder to test your maps with.

Q: Why use this instead of ZDL?
A: No particular reason, this is a personal project I am working on that I have decided to share. This may not be quite as feature rich as ZDL, but it does have a few advantages, such as:

-DOSBox support:

Want to play vanilla doom but tired of typing commands and mounting directories in dosbox? Then use Rocket Launcher, it will automatically run the doom executable in dosbox with the correct aspect ratio, will understand skill and command line parameters, and attempt to load any additional files you specify (must be doom compatible wads).

Yes, simply add dosbox.exe as an engine, then select it and you will be prompted to locate your original doom/doom2 executable file. In order for this to work, you must make sure the files used (including any pwads) and folders containing them (including parent folders) used are no longer than 8 characters long, or it probably will not work properly!

Here is me testing the vanilla compatibility of obsidian deathmatch for instance from Rocket Launcher:

Image
(note, this picture was taken before certain features such as saving and loading config files was added)

-More ergonomic design, including a box listing all of your patch wads allowing you to quickly add them to load in the engine of your choosing.
-An "Include Skulltag Data Files" checkbox, saving you time by not having to load the data files individually.
-Displays the associated logo for each engine.
Jroc wrote:I finally decided to work on this again after all this time. My first update brings some much requested features:

First of all the pwad loading system has changed, you now have a button to add each pwad from the pwad folder listbox into the main 'Files to load' listbox, and you are able to manipulate the order or remove individual wads from this box; no longer must you have to clear the box and load files again if you want to change their load order or remove individual files not in the default pwad folder!

Support has been added for the popular new 'Doom Retro' source port.

Rocket Launcher now remembers the last IWAD and Engine you selected on application start, allowing you to quickly launch wads without having to select the engine and iwad each time.

A checkbox to hide or show the command line arguments has been added.

edit: also I'd like to mention, because people seem to be unaware about this: Rocket Launcher supports wad/pk3 file association, so if you associate your doom wads with Rocket Launcher in windows and double click them, it should run Rocket Launcher with the pwad loaded and ready to go.

Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/460 ... cherb7.zip

(Note, for the time being due to the strange way the doomsday engine works, it is not properly supported by this application at this time.)

As usual, please contact me if there are any bugs!

Engine support list as of version b7:
Spoiler:
Additional thanks to:
Propaganda - for testing and suggestions
TerminusEst13 - for testing and coming up with the name
capodecima - testing
Last edited by Jroc on Thu Sep 18, 2014 9:51 am, edited 3 times in total.
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oysterstew
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 3:16 am
Location: around

Re: Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows

Post by oysterstew »

Great frontend there - I can actually see using this instead of ZDL. The only thing missing is being able to rearrange the loading order in the file window directly (as in drag and drop or up-down buttons)
Jroc
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:32 pm

Re: Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UP

Post by Jroc »

I finally decided to work on this again after all this time. My first update brings some much requested features:

First of all the pwad loading system has changed, you now have a button to add each pwad from the pwad folder listbox into the main 'Files to load' listbox, and you are able to manipulate the order or remove individual wads from this box; no longer must you have to clear the box and load files again if you want to change their load order or remove individual files not in the default pwad folder!

Support has been added for the popular new 'Doom Retro' source port.

Rocket Launcher now remembers the last IWAD and Engine you selected on application start, allowing you to quickly launch wads without having to select the engine and iwad each time.

A checkbox to hide or show the command line arguments has been added.

(Note, for the time being due to the strange way the doomsday engine works, it is not properly supported by this application at this time.)

As usual, please contact me if there are any bugs!

Download here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/460 ... cherb7.zip

edit: also I'd like to mention, because people seem to be unaware about this: Rocket Launcher supports wad/pk3 file association, so if you associate your doom wads with Rocket Launcher in windows and double click them, it should run Rocket Launcher with the pwad loaded and ready to go.
Last edited by Jroc on Thu Sep 18, 2014 9:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Zaratul
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:19 am

Re: Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UP

Post by Zaratul »

Great frontend,i like it! One sugestion:pwad selection window should be bigger\resizeable.
Aethun
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2016 7:27 pm

Re: Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UP

Post by Aethun »

Hi,
Greetings to the creator of the best fontend for idTech1;)
Undoubtedly I found the program more comfortable to handle everything I have, but still, I want to add some suggestions:
- First, I'm with the partner who has written above, that the fontend can adapt to the size you want, can resize the boxes of texts.
- I have about 8GB in mods, placed in folders to know at all times what it is that I will load. I have a few mods, which are rather mutators to run with any of the games, but they are few, the rest I have to select them one by one with the button to add files. From here I can think of several things.
1- Here complete the reason of being able to resize the windows. When adding mods and maps with very long routes, it is very cumbersome to have to check the order by moving the scroll of the drawer again and again. That the fontend can be adapted to full screen would be a great success.
2- Make the system of selection of PWADs more complex, adding subfolders, or make a selection per game for the mods that you can select from each one.
3- Finally, to be able to select several motors with the same name, I explain: when selecting GZDoom as engine to play Doom, to be able to select between the different versions that we have to load one or another mod.

All this could make handling many GBs of mods very light and fast.
Even so, I find the most direct and intuitive of the fontends I have tried.

Thank you for your work.
A cordial greeting.

PS: Sorry for the lack of expression, I'm using a translator.
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NightFright
Spotlight Team
Posts: 1343
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 12:29 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Rocket Launcher - frontend for windows - LONG OVERDUE UP

Post by NightFright »

The only request I have to improve this:
- Improved settings saving for "IWAD (file order rearrangements)
- Improved settings saving for "Common Resources" (file order rearrangements, ticked checkboxes)
- Save settings for "Files to load" (files, file order rearrangements, ticked checkboxes)
- Rename "Play Doom!" button to "Launch game" (since you can run more games than just Doom with this)
- Personally, I would prefer the launch button to be at the bottom of the "Launch Wad" tab so it's a bit easier to find

As far as I am concerned, the rest can stay as it is. ^^

Also, since there doesn't seem to be a link to the latest version, here it is:
Rocket Launcher 2 (v0102) [ZIP, 7.6 MB]
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