Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PeridexisErrant]

Yep, now that this is a skeleton pack it belongs with the utilities, IMO.

[nonobots]

This is a great project, can't wait to use it.

I tried running the 0.5.2 on my MacBook, I get an error on launch:

Code: [Select]

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Error while loading the application settings!
at nl.dricus.df.config.AppConfig.load(AppConfig.java:194)
at nl.dricus.df.config.AppConfig.reload(AppConfig.java:130)
at nl.dricus.df.config.AppConfig.<init>(AppConfig.java:60)
at nl.dricus.df.state.LNP.<init>(LNP.java:59)
at nl.dricus.df.state.LNP.get(LNP.java:91)
at nl.dricus.df.form.main.MainForm.initComponents(MainForm.java:466)
at nl.dricus.df.form.main.MainForm.<init>(MainForm.java:102)
at nl.dricus.df.Application.showMainWindow(Application.java:83)
at nl.dricus.df.Application.run(Application.java:79)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:251)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:733)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$200(EventQueue.java:103)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:694)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:692)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:703)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:146)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:138)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:91)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /Users/jfcote/Downloads/lazy-newbpack-osx-0.5.2/LNP/lnp.properties (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:138)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:97)
at java.io.FileReader.<init>(FileReader.java:58)
at nl.dricus.df.config.AppConfig.load(AppConfig.java:192)
... 22 more

I'm on the latest OS X (10.8.4) with the default Java version:

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_51-b11-457-11M4509)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.51-b01-457, mixed mode)

[Dricus]

This project is just about the launcher application. I'm not creating any packs using this launcher. The latest version of this launcher is now part of fricy's MacNewbie pack. Download that to use my launcher on Mac OS X .

[fricy]

@nonobots: This utility is just a launcher application for editing the game settings and changing the graphics pack, you get the error message because it's not configured. You either need to do the configuration yourself, or get a preconfigured package: link to the macnewbie pack is in my sig below, it's fresh out of the owen.

ninja powa

[nonobots]

Thanks for the replies, this should be clearer in the readme I think.

I'll play with it later.

[PeridexisErrant]

The snapshot I'm on at the moment is awesome, and close enough to version 1.0 that I've started thinking about what sort of other functions would be cool to have.  There's already the idea of a dfhack.init tab which got discussed a while ago which would be cool, but I also found this recently:  Manila Launcher - also written in java, with a focus more on mods and updates than configuration and launching.  Most of it I think is kinda dangerous for newbies - eg, accidentally breaking the setup of everything by getting an incompatible update - but two features stood out as being both neat and safe. 

1. Have a tab which just grabs Toady's RSS feed to show the current state of development.  It's not much, but it was kinda cool to open it up and have the latest new appear. 

2. Automatically check for available updates - on DFFD this can be done by the file version checker (link is for my pack), which is easier to parse and also doesn't add to the page views (and thus automatable).  Contrary to popular belief, DFFD does support direct download links:  eg this to my pack - and while you need to know the filename it will take a wildcard (this does mess up the filename and if wildcarded extension, but if it's getting decompressed anyway...). 

I have, on second thoughts, no idea how this could work well without pack maintainers having to manually change some pack ID every time - actually, maybe check the first time the LNP is opened and assume that's the version?  Only an issue then if they don't open for ages, missing an important update and then there aren't any for ages (uncommon enough to ignore).  This is essentially just adding something of a connection to the online community.  Adding a 'Support Bay12 Games' button would also be pretty cool (now that I think of it, I'll add a 'donate' item to the links tab). 

3. It can't handle graphics packs, only tilesets and colour schemes - but it actually has live previews of each of these.  It looks awesome, and could potentially help newbies choose one that they like instead of giving up; to test I have to open DF, load map, check, quit, install next set, repeat.  It's a pain, and this looks pretty interesting as a way to bypass that. 

Anyway, I just saw that there was another interesting launcher in java and thought I'd share; ignore my ramblings if inconvenient. 

[hermes]

Hey, if you want any of the code for features I'd be happy to share it with you.  It's all completely perfect spaghetti code, so I'd like to refactor it a bit before letting it loose!

The RSS reader is quite self contained and easy to implement I think.

The auto updating feature is built in at low level.  It checks for minor or major upgrades, if it's minor it will backup everything wipe the old install unpack the new one and restore everything from before.  If it's a major upgrade it will leave the old install alone and create an entirely new DF folder.  Hence it was designed to support multiple DF installs at once.

Personally, I think that this way is not so great, and it would be better to just check the version number of the launcher off DFFD and notify the user a new version is available.  But I dunno!

The support button is an awesome idea.

The live previews were a little awkward as they compile images before Swing packed the frames so I couldn't dynamically set the image sizes.  If you're interested, lemme know and I'll give you the code.

[PeridexisErrant]

For anyone interested, here's what I've currently got for links:  (seems to crash if fed more than three separators, maybe it's just at max length?)

Spoiler: current links configuration (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

links:
-  separator: false
   title: Dwarf Fortress Website
   url: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves
-  separator: false
   title: Donate to keep DF going
   url: http://www.bay12games.com/support.html
-  separator: false
   title: Dwarf Fortress Forums
   url: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf
-  separator: false
   title: This pack's forum thread
   url: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076
-  separator: true
   title:
   url:
-  separator: false
   title: Dwarf Fortress on Reddit
   url: http://en.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/
-  separator: false
   title: Dwarf Fortress Wiki
   url: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Quickstart_guide
-  separator: false
   title: DF Map Archive
   url: http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php
-  separator: true
   title:
   url:
-  separator: false
   title: Stories on the wiki
   url: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Special:PrefixIndex&from=&namespace=100
-  separator: false
   title: Stories on dfstories
   url: http://dfstories.com/all-stories/
-  separator: true
   title:
   url:
-  separator: false
   title: Captnduck's Tutorial Videos
   url: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06686270DA5FF439
-  separator: false
   title: Getting Started, paid book
   url: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022565.do
-  separator: false
   title: Free, old basis of book
   url: http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/
-  separator: false
   title: DFHack readme
   url: https://github.com/peterix/dfhack/blob/master/Readme.rst

Result is:
DF homepage, Donate;;
DF forums, pack forum thread;;
/r/dwarffortress, DF wiki (quickstart), DFMA;;
stories (wiki page), dfstories;;
Cptnduck's 2012 tutes, Getting started (paid book), old/free basis of book, dfhack readme

Anyone know of more community sites or good tutorials to link to? 

[fricy]

@PerX: Thanks for the links for the tutorials!

@Dricus mainly:
my 2c:

RSS reader: Would be a nice addition, but I'd give it low priority.
version checker: maybe, but auto-update is IMHO not necessary, especially as I decided to go with .dmg format intead of .zip (I'm using symbolic links in the pack, and I'm not sure how a compression software would handle those. And how java would handle .dmg-s)
live previews: very much, let us show pregenned .png/jpg images as a tooltips on the graphics packs. Also tooltips would be handy on other parts of the gui too.

extra feature requests:
1: Opening local .html/word/pdf/text files from the links menu, so we can bundle manuals in the packs. Maybe a separate "manuals" menu item for them. (I tested with local links pointing to /LNP/about but only got an error.)

2: drop-down box for loading individual color schemes

3: this one is big, to make the LNP gui into a generic mod loader, at first for Masterwork mod, Meph said Deon' Genesis also works like this, and maybe other mods too.
I don't know if you are familiar with how Masterwork launcher works, it's based on the LNP source, and afaik resuses the aquifer button to do a string replace on the base raws before loading the game. So I was thinking, if it would be possible to generate tabs and buttons from the yaml config that could implement these functions.

Spoiler: example config (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

CustomTab: Masterwork Metalworks   -----> text of the tab
  CustomButtonColumn:  -----> button column begins here
    - name: Crucible     -----> text of first button
      ButtonOn: YESCRUCIBLE     ----->on string in raws
      ButtonOff: !NOCRUCIBLE     ----->off string in raws
      DefaultState: on      ----->default state of the button, may not be necessary if we read the state from the raws
      ToolTip: The crucible is...      ----->handy tooltip
    - name: Great Magma Forge
      ButtonOn: YESGREATFORGE
      ButtonOff: !NOGREATFORGE
      DefaultState: off
      ToolTip: The great magma forge is...
  CustomButtonColumn:
    -name:Otherbuilding, etc
     ButtonOn:
     ButtonOff:
     DefaultState:
     ToolTip:

The width/height of these buttons/tabs could be hardcoded, so let's say we agree on generic design, like default 3 columns/tabs with buttons that are 20 chars long default, (so we can keep it simple) and if the gui finds these settings in the config it parses the raws and updates them before starting the game.
What do you think Dricus? Possible to do? More importantly: simple enough to do?

[Meph]

Posting to watch.

[Dricus]

Heyo, thanks for the suggestions for new features. I'd especially like to integrate some of the features Manila Launcher has like you guys suggested. Also making the launcher a mod loader seems to me like a really interesting idea. I will however need to study the way some mods work to be able to do that, cause I'm really not familiar with that kind of stuff.

At the moment, I'm working on making the launcher 1.0 worthy by implementing the user friendly error messages. Because I'm generally not a big fan of error messages, I'm making it so it will check the configuration at startup (like making sure directories/files of utilities, graphics packs etc exist). If problems are detected, it will give you a list of warnings and disable the stuff that won't work. The goal is that everything that's enabled in the GUI is more or less guaranteed to work as long as you don't mess with files/directories while the launcher is running, without reloading the configuration afterwards.

Finally, I'd like to mention that in the upcoming few weeks I expect to have a little less time to work on this because I'm doing a Coursera course on algorithms (developing software is not only my hobby, but also my job and I'm continuously trying to get better at it ).

[Meph]

Good luck with your courses. If you need any help/info about that mod-loader thing, let me know.

[Taverius]

The only thing I'm missing right now is the ini editor. And I could do without it if I could set embark size from the launcher ...

[Dricus]

You can use the launcher to open the init folder, and then use your favorite text editor to edit the init files.

Adding embark size to the launcher seems to me like a good idea however, so that may be added in a future version.

[Couchmonster]

Is there a need for a guide on "HowTo DF with Linux"
I spent some time to get that thing running with Gentoo