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View Full Version : So I wrote a new Launcher client.


kai4785
11-07-2013, 05:30 PM
https://github.com/kai4785/qEQEcl/releases/tag/v0.0.1-alpha

I'm a linux user, which means Wine, which means a few hurdles must be overcome in order to play.

1) The files in the zip archive don't always match the same case as the original files.
2) Configuring both Wine and eqclient.ini takes some config file twiddling.
3) Most of the information for #2 is scattered in the wind.

In order to improve the user experience for both Windows and Linux users, it's nice to have a client launcher utility that helps do things like:

1) Pin eqgame.exe to a single cpu
2) Avoid "hard" things like modifying the shortcut on the desktop to run "eqgame.exe patchme"
3) Download and unzip that pesky zip file for you.
4) Maybe even un-do that unzip operation so you don't have to install EQ twice in order to play on different servers (just uncheck the box!)

Reasons why I think that p99 dumped the old .NET launcher from the moestavern guy:

1) No source code to the launcher.
2) It sucked.
3) It didn't work via Wine (dare I hope? lol, probably not)

Just to warn you all, I am a C programmer. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2fhNVQPb5I , esp @2:21, but I'm working on it!) So when you run it for the first time, keep your expectations *really* low. Like version 0.0.0.0.0.0.1 low.

Good news is, it's hosted on GitHub, and if you don't like it, send me a pull request!

Lyra
11-07-2013, 06:23 PM
So the patch file location changes with every patch. Will this grab the new patch?

kai4785
11-08-2013, 11:25 AM
Well, I've only ever observed the name change the number in the zip file, except once when they changed the name recently when they deprecated support for the EQEmuLauncher.

My plan is to ask the user to provide a url with a place holder for the number, and then try to guess the number.

For instance, right now it would be "http://www.project1999.org/files/P99Files%1.zip", where %1 would be replaced by "30". When 30 fails, it would automatically attempt "31".

Ideally I find my way into the hearts of the P99 devs, and they'd provide us with a "latest.txt" file that would then provide the url to the latest zip archive, and possibly an md5sum to check to make sure our latest download is correct.