Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

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drfrag
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.6

Post by drfrag »

I've just tested this and it's not very intuitive, i cannot add any source port and i guess that's becouse they need to be in a Doomie subfolder (looked at the ini). But why do i need to copy/move all my sourceports to that subfolder instead of adding them from their original locations?
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.6

Post by NightFright »

AFAIK you can also do it differently, but then you need to edit the config file manually (with absolute file paths).
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buja-buja
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.6

Post by buja-buja »

Hi drfrag, no they don't need to be in a Doomie subfolder; SourcePorts, Iwads and all other files can be anywhere you shouldn't have to edit files.

Usage instructions:
1. Open the app
2. Create a Playlist wherever you want or select one available
* Make sure one Playlist is selected *
3. use the ... buttons to select the SourcePort & IWad
4. (optional) Using Open (1 file) or Import (all *.wad, *.deh, *.pk7,... files from the directory) buttons add any PWads you wish
5. click Play button

* Note * each playlist can be saved anywhere you wish and each can point to a different source port & IWad located anywhere you wish. Playlists, SourcePorts & Wads folders are part of the zip but you don't have to use them, you can delete or ignore them. Once you specify a Sourceport, IWad or PWad the app will remember the last used folder -- this is valid for each Open and Import button.

Let me know if this helps.
Last edited by buja-buja on Mon Sep 03, 2018 7:54 am, edited 3 times in total.
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buja-buja
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.6

Post by buja-buja »

NightFright wrote:Excellent! This is getting better with every release (as it should)!

I really like the idea with playlist icons and thought I could provide some for your convenience. (Note that "REKKR" and "Blade of Agony" are actually PWADs, but I have set them up in my playlist like IWADs, depending on doom.wad or doom2.wad, respectively). Also you would ofc have to rename the icons if your playlists are named differently.

Also, you may consider adding HacX 2.0 r61 to the list of names.map since it's the latest development build of version 2.0 and no update has been made since years, so there may be people who are using this.

Code: Select all

793f07ebadb3d7353ee5b6b6429d9afa=HacX (v2.0 r61)
Other than that, I gotta say I am REALLY happy with this launcher now and will certainly use it as my default from here on out. It's lightweight, focusses on essential functions and allows you to customize the games you want to launch sufficiently (ZDE for example wouldn't allow me to set up separate entries for "REKKR" or "Blade of Agony", you are stuck with predefined entries). Right now I wouldn't come up with more ideas how to improve this any further, but if I come up with any other idea, I'll surely let you know!
Cool, I'll include those on next release.
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buja-buja
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by buja-buja »

New version, grab it while it's hot! Thought there was a bug, but in fact I had uploaded the wrong version :oops:
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by NightFright »

Took a look at the new version. The rearrangement of the buttons makes sense and makes adding pwads easier.
What I am still not sure about is the purpose of the "merge" checkboxes. TBH I never needed those and I am not sure what their purpose is compared to the first checkbox (which is equivalent with launching a pwad with "-file", if I am not mistaken). I also wouldn't necessarily need to see the full file path for iwads and pwads, but the "Status" display is a nice feature to inform you in case file paths changed and you forgot about it.

Question:
What are the two text fields below the "Save Session" (left) and "Clear" (right) buttons? Couldn't figure out what they are supposed to do.

Suggestion(s) for additional "simplification":
1a) Remove "Merge" (pwad)/"Location" (iwad+pwad) fields OR
1b) Make display of "Merge" and "Location" fields optional OR
1c) At least place "Merge" checkboxes next to "Load" so it looks more sorted (and I guess it should be like you can only choose "Load" OR "Merge" for each entry in the pwad list, not both at the same time - this way it works like a switch)
2) Relocate the two "..." (selection) buttons for Source Port and IWad more to the left so it's more obvious what they are supposed to do (I would put them right after the words "Source Port:" and "IWad:")
3) The "Show Args" checkbox could be at the bottom of the pwad load list or underneath "Source Port"/"IWad" selection - right now it looks a bit out of place
4) Show "OK" status in green, otherwise red font color (only in that column, not the whole line)
5) Make "Play" button 2x as high as other buttons and increase its font size (bold letters) to highlight its functionality/importance
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buja-buja
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by buja-buja »

NightFright wrote:Took a look at the new version. The rearrangement of the buttons makes sense and makes adding pwads easier.
What I am still not sure about is the purpose of the "merge" checkboxes. TBH I never needed those and I am not sure what their purpose is compared to the first checkbox (which is equivalent with launching a pwad with "-file", if I am not mistaken). I also wouldn't necessarily need to see the full file path for iwads and pwads, but the "Status" display is a nice feature to inform you in case file paths changed and you forgot about it.

Question:
What are the two text fields below the "Save Session" (left) and "Clear" (right) buttons? Couldn't figure out what they are supposed to do.

Suggestion(s) for additional "simplification":
1a) Remove "Merge" (pwad)/"Location" (iwad+pwad) fields OR
1b) Make display of "Merge" and "Location" fields optional OR
1c) At least place "Merge" checkboxes next to "Load" so it looks more sorted (and I guess it should be like you can only choose "Load" OR "Merge" for each entry in the pwad list, not both at the same time - this way it works like a switch)
2) Relocate the two "..." (selection) buttons for Source Port and IWad more to the left so it's more obvious what they are supposed to do (I would put them right after the words "Source Port:" and "IWad:")
3) The "Show Args" checkbox could be at the bottom of the pwad load list or underneath "Source Port"/"IWad" selection - right now it looks a bit out of place
4) [OPTIONAL] Show "OK" status in green, otherwise red font color (only in that column, not the whole line)
5) [OPTIONAL] Make "Play" button 2x as high as other buttons and increase its font size (bold letters) to highlight its functionality/importance
Hi NightFright, Merge is to load WADS with "-merge" instead of "-file". This is so it can fully support Chocolate Doom (to play Aliens TC for instance), full path is to know where the files are as myself I keep them scattered in multiple folders on my HD. The text fields are "search" boxes that allow you to filter the Playlists & Pwads contents, if you want to show only PK3 files it's a nice way of checking if there are any on the playlist (this functionality needs to be better implemented due to the lack of Focus being set on Playlists and Wads it's not perfect yet -- I'm planning on dealing with the Focus issue after I implement all planned functionality I'd like to have, only missing thing I'd like to have is ability to associate a Playlist and double-click to open it instead of having to open the app first and load/import it)
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by NightFright »

I see. Then maybe think about moving that "Merge" checkbox next to the "Load" one and make it an "Either/or" option for each entry, as I suggested above. ^^
ghysler
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by ghysler »

Neat little frontend! Cute name also :)

One feature request: could you add .zip and .7z support for PWAD loading? I have all my PWADs stored in .7z format for archival purposes. It would be really nice to be able to add them directly with Doomie. GZDoom port supports these formats. I don't know about other ports though, but I guess it's up to the user to determine that before adding them.
Frozsoul
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by Frozsoul »

Just wanted to say that I am really liking this launcher, thank you for sharing! It has a very clean, minimalist interface, and I especially like the ability to toggle which pwads are used when playing.

I do have a few suggestions to offer:
  • When you load Doomie, recommend it defaults to the last Playlist that was open when you last closed it (right now you have to manually select a playlist each time it opens)
  • If the status of a file is "Not found", recommend it displays in red font (just to make it stand out a little more)
  • Ability to copy and paste selected files from one playlist to another playlist
  • Ability to add horizontal line separators in a playlist, to more easily group specific types of pwads (e.g. maps vs. musics)
  • Ability to Play selected playlists at the same time. This could allow specific types of pwads (maps, musics, etc.) to be maintained in their own playlists, and then they could be selectively run with any mod playlist selected (instead of having to repeat musics and maps throughout different mod playlists).
Looking forward to future updates!
nmonte
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by nmonte »

That's the frontend I dreamed of! Honestly, tried all of them and still sticking with command line.
I'd like to suggest the possibility to drag'n'drop wads/pk3s from the file explorer right to the list of PWads though.
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by NightFright »

In latest GZDoom 4.0.0, when I am adding command line parameters like "-norun", GZDoom would crash to desktop during startup when trying to launch the game. Only without any additional parameters it would work. Any idea if this is a problem with the launcher or GZD itself?

*EDIT*
Solved, it's because of a problem with GZDoom. Should be working again after the next update.
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by NightFright »

In the meantime, a few creative suggestions for a future version (if the author ever returns to resume working on this):
- Remember last playlist opened (as suggested before)
- Remove load checkboxes in favor of a double-click system (double-click on file activates/deactivates loading it; can change color, i.e. black=active/loaded, light grey=inactive/not loaded)
- Option to hide columns (e.g. "Merge"/"Location")
- Replace written text on buttons ("New...", "Open...", "Import..." etc) with symbols for a more compact design and possibly place them underneath the lists to save space on both sides

The general idea is to make the launcher look slim/more compact than it does now. The buttons on both sides are kinda confusing and take away lots of space.
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buja-buja
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by buja-buja »

Hi everyone,

I've been away from Doom world for a couple of months now (1 year?!), unfortunately my computer video card burned, was forced to move to Mac land and now back on to Linux, no longer using Windoes :) Anyways, as my previous machine died on me and as I'm not planning on working on Doomie anymore, I might as well release it on to the community in case someone wants to further expand and develop Doomie... please bear in mind the code *cough* might be considered *cough* "spaghetti" code... but hey it worked *cough* compiled *cough* (MVC code I'm looking at you)... anyways long story short: I'm not planning on further developing Doomie past version 1.7 so I'm releasing here the sources for anyone who want to mess with it... IMPORTANT: It is required for you to abide to a few things before you decide to move the buttons on the UI from the left side of the screen to the right side and claim you've developed a brand new launcher, these are: 1. THOU SHALL NOT USE THE NAME DOOMIE OR SIMILAR (EXAMPLE: DOOMIE-NG) TO NAME YOUR PROJECT, 2. THOU SHALL GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE AND INCLUDE A REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINAL DOOMIE NAME, ORIGINAL DOOMIE URL FOR DOWNLOAD (http://www.mediafire.com/file/7n4faa1l5 ... se_1.6.zip), ANY DOOMIE DLL FILES USED FOR SUPPORT, ANY DOOMIE CONTRIBUTORS & DOOMIE DEVELOPER AUTHOR ON YOUR DERIVATIVE VERSION, 3. THOU SHALL RELEASE YOU VERSION UNDER A FREEWARE OR GPL LICENSE... That is all folks! Sheppard out! Sources available here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/o8ssed5gv ... rce_1.6.7z
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NightFright
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Re: Doomie id Tech 1 frontend launcher Release 1.7

Post by NightFright »

Well, it's something! Thanks a lot! Now hopefully someone sees the potential of refining this since it's really neat to be able to create separate pwad load lists for each iwad.
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