Doom Runner (yet another graphical Doom launcher)

[NightFright]

It's really good. This could be the last launcher I might ever use.

[site]

e: I just realized the way it's designed it cant do things like edit load order to place mods before mappacks to allow for overwrites and unless you explicitly make a preset it doesn't save any mods loaded on exit, so I'm thinking this just isn't something made for my needs and I'll bow out

[NightFright]

Well, for "map packs" I only use the official DLCs, e.g. nerve.wad, sigil.wad, sve.wad, while "mods" is for anything else. Like that it's very possible to determine load order.

[site]

I guess, but at that point having a separate Maps list just for official pwads feels like a waste of ui space when you could just put those in the mod list as well

[youda008]

I have never encountered a case, where a mod would have to be loaded before a map, so yea it isn't designed for that, sorry. But you can always just forget the middle window with maps and just use the one on the right for everything (like you would do in ZDL), there you have absolute freedom for ordering. The path of mods isn't really anything more than just a default location for the "Choose a file" dialog, it doesn't limit you what you can put in.

The point of the separate Map pack list is that it's auto-loaded from directory so it makes it faster to switch between maps (compared to having to select a file, then remove it, and then add another via file dialog).
In general the launcher is designed to "optimize" the most common tasks, even for the cost that less common tasks become more difficult. But you can always fallback to ZDL style, where you manage everything by yourself in the right window.

[NightFright]

Like I said, I use the maps window for official stuff like sve.wad or sigil.wad. Other than that, I guess I wouldn't need it for anything, either.

[youda008]

1.1 out

changelog here https://github.com/Youda008/DoomRunner/blob/master/changelog.txt

[NightFright]

I am not quite sure how the "Current" preset entry works, but I guess what you set up here is always selected first when you start the launcher. Since this apparently has to be done manually, I suggest a function that allows you to copy over any other preset to "Current" or erase it on demand.

Example:
- "Current" empty
- Switch to "Doom II" preset
- Copy any settings from "Doom II" preset (engine, iwad, map pack, config, mods) to "Current"
- Once done: Erase all entries in "Current" (via button/hotkey/whatever) - or leave it until another preset is copied over

[youda008]

The "Current" preset exists for only one purpose and that is when people add some things to the other widgets without having any preset explicitely selected, their work is not lost. You can rename it to make it a regular preset, it will be re-generated next time again.

I understand what you want, but i don't understand the motivation. Why would you want to move things into the "Current" preset? Does it bother you that you have to make 1 click to restore the content you want? I will rather make it, so that the preset selection saves on quit and restores on next start. But this seems so unneccessary.

[NightFright]

I think I misunderstood the purpose of the "Current" preset, then. Somehow I assumed it is there to let you quickly select the last game setup you played without having to select the last preset you used. Tbh that also seemed redundant to me since it's just one click to select the right preset.

What you wrote about the "Current" preset makes sense and I guess it's a much better reason to have it than the one I thought of. In that case, my feature request is kinda needless, of course.

[youda008]

Hi guys again. 1.2 is released.

Highlights:

• reworked map-packs widget from list view to tree view to show a directory hierarchy
• removed "Current preset" mechanic and replaced it by disabling sub-widgets to prevent user making changes that are not saved anywhere
• selected map file is now saved on quit and restored on next start
• added an "About" dialog with information about the application

However i have one question to you loayal users: I struggle to decide whether the selected map file should be saved to the preset or not. Currently the map file selection is global, independent from presets, and it is saved on quit and restored on next launch. Some people however have suggested it to be a part of a preset and restored everytime you select one. For me personally, i use presets for mods and then select maps independently. I always open the launcher, 1. select a preset (mod), 2. select a map pack, 3. launch. But what about you, how do you use it? Do you want the map pack selection to be part of preset or independent of it?
And same question applies to additional command line arguments.
Please let me know.

[NightFright]

I use the map packs list for more or less official addons like Master Levels, Sigil or Deathkings. That means for my purposes it would make sense to save map settings for each preset.

[EddCase]

I've been using Doom Runner for a while and really like it, Thank you.

I came across Raze https://github.com/coelckers/Raze/releases earlier today and your launcher in the most part does a wonderful job of organizing games for that too. I know this is out of the original scope of doom runner but there are a couple of feature requests that would make its use perfect for raze too.

Support for grp and rff file extensions, it works by selecting all files but would be neater
could the additional arguments be added to a profile only? for instance to load Blood: Crypt of Destiny -ini cryptic.ini has to be added but I don't want that for anything else

Thank you once again

Edd

[NightFright]

I placed this idea already on Github as feature request a week ago.

[youda008]

Hm, a fork of Eduke32? I started experimenting with Eduke32 only short ago, so it's too early to say, but this sounds like an overkill. This launcher was meant for ZDoom, it doesn't even support non-ZDoom Doom engines like Doomsday yet. And i doubt that EDuke's command line interface is any simmilar to ZDoom ones.
Honestly, making any cross-game launcher is a big challange, because those games and their system of loading maps and mods can wildly differ. It would be difficult to even design the graphical user interface to be universal for multiple games and yet still powerfull in what it can do and how easy it is to use it.
For example the second tab of DoomRunner is totaly ZDoom specific, it does not make much sense for DukeNukem to set "fast monsters" and "compatibility options", there aren't such things.