The Project Reality Launcher

[[R-DEV]AncientMan]

Yeah, it is just a quick go to show you what I'm thinking. A lot of stuff would have to be worked on before I'd be happy with it . Options pages would be merged into one, with various tabs for the PR parameters/mumble details/widescreen fixer stuff perhaps.

Some other ideas would be greying out buttons if it wasn't installed, like PR Singleplayer, etc.

Settings being saved, since it would be a separate .exe, settings could really be saved however you wish .

With the mumble button, if you put in your username and password (which is optional, only for registered users), and follow the link i put down the bottom, it will autologin with those details to the PR mumble server.

[Robbi]

Nice suggestion addaco and nice demo Ancient...

Would there be any need for Widescreen fixer with custom resolutions?...

[addaco]

custom resolutions forces widescreen, but FOV is distorted.

Widescreen fixer corrects that, and actually lets you have a bigger FOV.

So you can play BF2 with a correct aspect ratio.


EDIT: I have permission, and Devs working on this PM me, or add me to your xfire list

[addaco]

Ancient Man, can you send me the latest version of the flash dummy?
Cheers
Addaco

[Jonny]

Thanks for the PM. Got a first version working in the last 10 mins.

No GUI, but it does work.

EDIT:
From the PM I sent addaco:

Originally Posted by Jonny

Make a new folder in your PR directory, name it 'launcher'.
Dump a load of shortcuts in there that you want to launch at that time.
Make a batch file in the same folder, call in 'launcher.bat'.
Open it in a text editor.

For this example I will use a shortcut to notepad++, called NP++, and a link to windows media player, called W MP. Note the use of a space, this will become very important later.

In the batch file, you need the following lines:

start NP++
start "temp window" /B "W MP"

This will run both shortcuts correctly, and at the same time, ie without waiting fo rthe first to be closed before the second starts.
Now you simply make a shortcut to the batch file from the desktop.

The extra code in the second line is due to the space in the shortcut name.

Thats all there is to this method. Not hard to add new programs to launch, or to launch programs with specifc arguments.

So, you have a link on your desktop to a batch (.bat) file in your PR/launcher folder.
In that folder you have the batch file (obviously), and the shortcuts it will run.

Enjoy!

[addaco]

Thanks for your imput!

So if we made a GUI around this, it may work?

[Jonny]

IMO, a GUI here would not be suitable.

If you want it to automatically start a number of known programs/shortcuts then a GUI will get irritating when you have to go and click something in it AFTER clicking the shortcut.

It could be made to ask for an option as to what set of programs to run, in a cmd window, with relative ease. But considering that its going to be either PRMP, PRSP, or a single VoIP program it seems excessively complex to have to use that, let alone a GUI, when you can easily create a second launcher & shortcut and never have to bother pressing extra buttons in any of them. Simply use a different shortcut.

In short:
Your aim is to get a predetermined set of programs started as quickly/simply as possible.
There is no easier way for the end user than the one this provides.

[addaco]

We also want a gui where settings can be changed easily, and not too intimidating for the user.

If you add me to xfire I can tell you what settigns we want the user to be able to change

[Jonny]

You can throw a GUI around that part, as I said in the PM, and it could perhaps then be launched from inside PR somehow. You dont want a GUI around the actual launcher though. People will just switch to a GU free version, like in my above post.

We will need a parser for the batch file for that. Could be an intersting challenge, I've never written a parser before.

But it WILL require you to know what to do with shortcut options if you want people editing those. There is no way around that if you want people to edit the launch mechanism on their own in any non-trivial way.

As I said in the PM, PM/email me about it. I probably wont have time to do much untill after exams, but I can think about it.

[ben748]

I could possible make it using automenu i think it is, let me try it out later, busy today.