Doom Runner (yet another graphical Doom launcher)

[youda008]

I wanted to contribute something to this community, but learning Doom modding looks like a long haul. However i can do some C++, so i decided to make a new launcher.


Why the hell another launcher?

The motivation was rather personal. I simply didn't like any of the existing ones.

ZDL is fine, but it's too minimalistic for me, it can't do much, and some tasks become very repetitive and annoying. And it's also becomming pretty dated, and looks like from Win98.

Rocket Launcher is nice, and with its support for all the various Doom engines still has a strong place in Doom community. However the UI feels rather weird and confusing,
especially in that area of saving&loading configurations which is important for me.

I also tried ZDoom Executor. The idea about presets is awesome, but the execution is weird too, to this day i still haven't figured out how to use the tabs properly, not very
intuitive. Plus there is only limited number of them and they are named only by fixed numbers.

And finally i wanted to improve my C++ skills and learn some GUI programming, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
First i wanted to keep it only for myself, because everyone else seemed to be satisfied with ZDL, but then i thought: Why not, maybe somebody will find it useful.


Doom Runner

So there goes the Doom Runner - a modern Qt-based preset-oriented launcher, designed around the idea of one-click switching between multi-file modifications (Brutal Doom
with mutators, Project Brutality with UDV, Complex Doom Clusterfuck, ...) to minimize any repetitive work.

• unlimited number of named presets with single-click switching
• lists of IWADs and Map packs automatically synchronized with the content of a selected directory
• drag&drop of files from a directory window to the mod list
• internal drag&drop for reordering the files to load
• direct map launch and multiplayer options
• DM flags and Compatibility flags calculator with tooltips from official ZDoom wiki
• preview of the final launch command with the option to export it to .bat/.sh shell script
• runs on Windows and Linux (only 64bit because it's 2020)
• no stupid .NET or JRE required

Initial setup

1-InitialSetup.png

Main screen - file selection

2-MainScreen.png

Launch options

3-LaunchOptions.png

Status

1.1 is released for Windows and Linux (both 64-bit). It should be stable by now, although there are some known issues. I'm still open to suggestions any day. You can either write it here on forum or create an issue on Github. You can also write me an email to youda008@seznam.cz or contact me on Discord as Youda#0008, but i preffer the Github options, so that your suggestions stay public and can be discussed by other users and also so that every issue has its own thread.

EDIT (16.2.2020):

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-windows 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

EDIT (12.5.2020):

1.3 is released.
Changes:

• For each engine you can now set custom directory of config files (required for using it on Linux).
• You can now select multiple map files via CTRL, but they will always be loaded in alphabetical order. If you need to change the order, you have to either rename them, or add them to the mod list and reorder them there.
• Selected map files are now saved to presets instead of globally.
• Line for additional command line arguments has been split to preset-related and global one.
• You can now select whether "Launch options" in second tab should be saved globally or to presets.
• You can now drag&drop also in Setup dialog to IWAD list and Engine list.
• When using manual IWAD management mode, you can now give each IWAD a custom name by double-clicking on it in Setup dialog.
• IWADs are now distinguished from PWADs by file header instead of filename suffix.
• To select a map, a command +map is now used instead of -warp to allow custom map names.
• Added a basic support for Duke Nukem files (.grp and .rff).
• Double-clicking on a map pack will show content of an equally named txt file (if you double-click on AV.wad and there is AV.txt, it will show on screen).
• Fixed that collapsed directories always expanded again on every update.
• Fixed the "Allow jump/crouch/aim" checkboxes producing incorrect flags.
• Error message during parsing options.json file now contains more detailed information and checkbox to ignore them all.
• Automatic checking if there is a new version available.

Also, a 32-bit version for Windows is now available.

Download

https://github.com/Youda008/DoomRunner/releases

[wildweasel]

I like this concept and look forward to trying out when I get back home.

[Darth_Anyan]

Looks promising. Have you considered making recursive scan of maps and mods folders?

And also, when there are many mods, they are usually placed in sub-folders. I think it would be nice to have a tree list of mods with checkboxes instead of linear one, isn't it?

As for the maps - sometimes there are additions for specific map pack (e.g. additional soundtrack for SIGIL or additional levels for Alien Vendetta). If I understand correctly, they must be placed into mods subfolder, but perhaps a tree view could be of use as well?

[Darth_Anyan]

Also a bug - DeHackEd patch must be added with -deh parameter, not -file. The example is Alien Vendetta

[site]

Been using zdl for a long time but decided to try this out. The interface is nice enough to get me to consider porting over, but I have a couple suggestions for missing features that I like about zdl from my brief try

-Save last used mods on exit, have it set to go on reopen
-Ability to save a preset after I already have mods in the list, instead of it clearing out the mod list when I click the plus
-A minor thing, but if I have Use Absolute Paths selected in Basic Setup, it would be nice if that were saved on exit/reopen too

edit: sorry almost forgot one last thing, I have my IWADs just in the main gzdoom directory, and I tried using the "Auto-update IWAD list from directory" feature but it just loaded literally every file into the list. I'm not sure if it's expecting to be reading from a folder of only IWADs, or if it's supposed to be reading from the directory, identifying the IWADs and adding only them. But in case it is the latter and it's a bug, I thought I'd let you know

[saegiru]

This is the first launcher I've found since ZDL that I actually could see replacing it. My biggest wish list for it would be be as follows:

1. Add the support to select and move multiple things at once. ZDL allows you to select multiple items, then move them up or down in the list at the same time. This only lets you move one item at a time, and that is not ideal for me.
2. Allow DM Flags and Compatibilty flags to be set separately instead of requiring using Launch selected map.
3. Option to add 'friendly' names to IWADs, like ZDL allows.
4. Possibly add command line support to load and run a specific preset? I use this function with the .zdl files in ZDL.
5. For map packs and IWAD lists, add support to display items from subfolders. I don't keep all my maps in a single folder, so that is very limited currently.
6. For the "Load Selected Map" option - add a text box so you can type ANY map name. Not all maps are the standard map names.
7. Save entries in the "Additional command line arguments" box. When I close and re-open the program, it clears that box.

That's about it for now. I hope you keep working on this, because it is a great launcher so far!

[Awez]

Perfect, absolutely perfect. I've had the same issues with launchers as the ones you faced and I applaud you for taking it into your own hands and making it. Great work.

[NightFright]

I have tried many launchers, and this may finally be the one that has everything I want and need. You can set up mods for each iwad individually, mods can be toggled, there's a command line option for additional launch parameters and most importantly, settings are saved when exiting the launcher. On top of that, window arrangement is nice and not confusing, overview is maintained at all times.

Please don't stop working on this until it's finished since this is really good!

*EDIT Jun 18*
Something that should be added in a future version is searching all subdirs for wads, mods or maps. I have a folder structure like wads\pwad\doom1, wads\pwad\doom2, wads\pwad\heretic etc to keep the map packs for all different games apart. Currently, I can only select one of these, but not all (by using wads\pwad as root dir). Even better would be to allow game-specific map/mods directories (so that you only see those mods working with a specific game, e.g. only for Doom, Doom II, Heretic, Hexen etc).

[NightFright]

With latest update 0.9, I am no longer able to choose .IWAD, .IPK3 or .PK3 extensions as IWADs. This is however required for The Adventures of the Square (square1.pk3) and the standalone release of REKKR (rekkrsa.iwad). Also manually adding files does not work since the file filter now only allows .wad files. I don't know what was the idea behind it, but sadly, I must consider this a downgrade and hope it's going to be changed again in the next update.

What I like is the new selector for config files, this helps me a lot since I have a separate GZDoom ini file for vanilla settings.

In general, the launcher should support the following formats to be 100% ZDoom compatible:
- For IWADs: .wad, .iwad, .pk3, .ipk3, .pk7, .ipk7
- For mods: .wad, .pk3, .zip, .pk7, .7z

[youda008]

Oh, i haven't bee checking Doom forums for some time and so much is going on here :O
I will have to setup email notifications about replies.


Ok, to answer your points:

* Recursive list of maps/mods
The idea sounds great, but it will be little difficult to implement, will take some time.

* About the multi-file map packs
I've already encountered this problem but the frequence of map packs that required more than 1 file to load was always low for me, like 1 of 20, so i didn't pay much attention to it. However, i'm not sure what would be the best way to solve it. If i enable multi-line selection in the map list or add checkboxes in front of each, it will not be possible to select order of those files, because the order is determined by the directory (usually alphabetically). You would have to order your map files by renaming the files, is this acceptable? Because otherwise i don't see any clean way to allow multi-file selection, file ordering, and automatic directory scanning at the same time.

* About the DeHackEd patches
How does a DeHackEd patch differ from other files? Can it be recognized by file extension, so that everything with .wad/.pk3/... can be added by -file and everything with for example .deh can be added by -deh ?

* Save last used mods on exit
Can be done. This should be easy.

* Ability to save a preset after there are already mods in the list.
I already thought about it, but i would have to add yet another button and there isn't space for that, the buttons are already tightly placed. Also, the workflow may become slightly confusing for someone with both options available, like "do i first create preset and then add files to it, or do i first add files and then save them into preset??", current way it is clearly defined. But i fully understand that a beginner might not know that as it's not explicitely stated anywhere, and then become angry/confused when all his mod files are deleted. I attempted to make it intuitive by organizing it from left to right, but it doesn't always work as i see. Any ideas?

* Allow DM Flags and Compatibilty flags to be set separately instead of requiring using Launch selected map.
I'm not sure if that will even work. If i remember correctly, ZDoom resets the flags everytime you start a new game, so setting flags on command line without starting a map directly and then starting it from game menu would be pretty pointless as that command line options would simply be ignored.

* Option to add 'friendly' names to IWADs, like ZDL allows
Can be done for sure, but why? I kinda don't see a reason. And it will add one more dialog and few more clicks to add every IWAD. Also it will not work with automatic loading from directory.

* Possibly add command line support to load and run a specific preset?
You mean command line support to the launcher itself? Can be done, but that sounds little weird. The launcher is supposed to remove the need of opening a command line or creating .bat files. So you will enter a command that will start the launcher that will generate a command that will start a ZDoom?

* For map packs and IWAD lists, add support to display items from subfolders. I don't keep all my maps in a single folder, so that is very limited currently.
As answered above. The only solution is to transform the file view from simple list to tree list. I will do it, but i cannot say how long that will take.

* For the "Load Selected Map" option - add a text box so you can type ANY map name. Not all maps are the standard map names.
I can change the type of the combo box to be the same as the one for save files, so that you can enter your own names. But it will still autofill the list with E1M1/MAP01 items. Correct filling would require to read and parse the IWAD file and extract the correct map names. Again, it will be done some day, but i cannot say when.

* A minor thing, but if I have Use Absolute Paths selected in Basic Setup, it would be nice if that were saved on exit/reopen too
* "Auto-update IWAD list from directory" feature but it just loaded literally every file into the list.
* Save entries in the "Additional command line arguments" box.
Already done, it was a bug that was fixed.


For further requests, can you please rather create issues on github (https://github.com/Youda008/DoomRunner) so it's more organized and i so that i don't have to answer to many different points at once?

Anyway, thank you very much for trying it out and reporting back. I will do my best to make it working for everyone's use-case. See you in hell

[youda008]

Also, 1.0 is out

[NightFright]

Excellent news! Will give it a try today. Hopefully it's not like when going from v0.5 to v0.9 when my config file wasn't working any more. Having to set up everything from scratch again is a bit bothersome. However I understand that some entries change fundamentally with bigger adjustments.

[youda008]

I changed the system of config loading so that when it encouters an error it skips that element and continues. This will allow old configs to be re-used in new versions and hopefully prevent losing the whole config because of an error.

[NightFright]

Grand. For now, I played it safe and created an all-new config file one last time to make sure full functionality is guaranteed. I see you already applied a post-release fix to restore the last game selection used before closing the launcher. That would have been my first new suggestion if you hadn't done it already by now.

[site]

Wow, I had written this off as a hit and run months ago. Guess I'll give this another shot