Announcing the Game-A-Tron ...

[Baker]

The Gameatron is mod installer/launcher for Quake and supports all the predominant modern engines. It installs them off the internet from the original archive and keeps inventory of what you have.

Definition files built for 30 mods.

Available within days.

Some of the currently supported mods:

[Canadian*Sniper]

Cool. Not releasing the source code as always Baker?

[Dooomer]

Great news!
I have been waiting for something like this for ages!
Can't wait to try it!

[Dooomer]

The supported mod list, can it be expanded by user?
Some customization flexibility would be much appreciated.

[Baker]

The supported mod list, can it be expanded by user?
Some customization flexibility would be much appreciated.

It is very easy for support for additional mods to be added.

I am trying to decide how I want to approach that aspect. I think it will have explicitly "advertised" support for the 30 mods I feel represent a cross-section of the diversity in Quake, but have the native ability to install/run far more.

There are 100's of mods for Quake, probably the lion's share are not worth playing for most people.

Cool. Not releasing the source code as always Baker?

Eventually, I plan to release the source code in some form after my plans and goals for this project are complete, which is probably not soon as this is a piece of a larger puzzle :d

I will probably release the source code for some of the similar projects I worked on in the past in January or so (+/- time for documentation).

[Dooomer]

The convenience with which a user can modify the description and screenshot of a mod/addon/maps is very important.

I have been wishing to see a launcher that I can simply drag and drop the descriptions and reviews and screenshots from the internet, for example, underworld fan's site.

By the way, can this launcher support multiple sub-folders?

I hope it doesn't mandatorily require that all mod folders be placed under the quake root directory --that is, the directory where id1 resides.

[golden_boy]

I hope it doesn't mandatorily require that all mod folders be placed under the quake root directory --that is, the directory where id1 resides.

why not? With this launcher, you won't have to look at them anymore.

And if you want to look at your mod folders, and mess around with them, you're not the target audience of this thing.

but Baker, aren't most of these MAPs, not really MODs?

A mod is something like Runequake, Rocket Arena, or Frikbot... or even Zerst�rer, which is a full episode with cutscenes etc... I don't think Lunsp1 qualifies as a mod just because it has some modified monsters. A mod changes gameplay mechanics.

Shouldn't things like Lunsp1/Apsp1/mexxX (i.e. maps) rather go in the Undergate?

why is Day of the Lords a mod?!

And... this will support modern, cross-platform operating systems, yeah?

:-D :-D :-D

[Monster]

Baker - looks pretty cool. Just make sure that the installer doesnt delete anything or the uninstaller deletes anything. The frikbotX in there looks nice, maybe have a button to click saying "get all latest waypoints"? from the FRD of course. http://www.inside3d.com/frikbot/cont...file=waypoints

Also maybe for the engine selection, have seperate tabs for graphics levels. Like have Darkplaces under "extreme graphics". Fitzquake, proquake, etc can be under a section called "Faithful" for adhering just to stock quake stuff. that or provide a description of the engine. Darkplaces doesnt necessarily have to be extreme graphics either, it can be configed to look and run just like GLQuake.

scar3crow and I have had problems with some of your EZ installers. the uninstaller deletes a whole bunch of other maps/stuff that it isnt supposed to delete. not sure what EZ installers they were, scar3crow might know more.

[Baker]

Also maybe for the engine selection, have seperate tabs for graphics levels. Like have Darkplaces under "extreme graphics". Fitzquake, proquake, etc can be under a section called "Faithful" for adhering just to stock quake stuff.

In the settings section, the left engine column are faithful engines and the right column are unfaithful engine. Generally, faithful engines have high compatibility and unfaithful engines have lower compatibility with mods.

For instance, JoeQuake hates the Zerstorer end movie.

And I would like to have all your waypoints to include with the Frikbot mod.

Baker - looks pretty cool. Just make sure that the installer doesnt delete anything or the uninstaller deletes anything.

I don't plan on it having uninstall capabilities. At least I don't think I will be adding that functionality ever.

I am wary of any application that deletes files and don't think that the ability to uninstall mods should be part of this.

At least that's my opinion.

[Baker]

And if you want to look at your mod folders, and mess around with them, you're not the target audience of this thing.

There is a great deal of wisdom in that statement.

Someone using something like this won't be using this and manually playing around with their directory structure too.

but Baker, aren't most of these MAPs, not really MODs?

Things like Slide, Qmatrix, DMSP, Frikbot are true mods.

I think of the other ones as maps, myself, even though by definition most of them are mods.

Shouldn't things like Lunsp1/Apsp1/mexxX (i.e. maps) rather go in the Undergate?

If it has a progs.dat, it can't go in the Undergate because the Undergate more or less uses the standard QuakeC 1.06 (with ever so slight modification).

I've been working on this project 2 years and really it is ironic that you mentioned the Undergate because really this project is the opposite of the Undergate

[Monster]

Baker - If you feel up to it, perhaps you could add something under Frikbot - showing which mods can be played with it. Theres Painkeep for Frikbot, with all the waypoints in FRD (loads of fun), Best of Void , Jeht, and tons of others. Of course have an option for stock quake (i'd suggest using illithid's custom FBX that has slightly enhanced AI and dmm3 rules)

I wouldnt put Darkplaces as unfaithful. Its an engine designed for modders and ease of using mods. Every mod ive played with Darkplaces works fine. as i said, you can either tweak it to have the most insane graphics, or have it just like normal GLquake. the only thing not user-friendly about it IMO, is the brightness/gamma controls. Those can get a bit confusing with Brightness and Scene brightness being the same thing. people can unintentionally screw up their DP by messing with the brightness too much.

[Baker]

I wouldnt put Darkplaces as unfaithful. Its an engine designed for modders and ease of using mods. Every mod ive played with Darkplaces works fine.

Maybe there is a better word than "unfaithful", admittedly that doesn't sound quite right.

Regardless the left column engines are high compatibility engines.

I can name numerous mods that do not work right with DarkPlaces, JoeQuake, Qrack and the like. This is not criticism of those engines, many players prefer those engines.

Incompatibility examples:

JoeQuake messes up with the Frogbot Clan Arena mod (I know why, it saves cvars it should not save to config). JoeQuake crashes on one of the Nehahra maps. JoeQuake crashes on the final Zerstorer map. I've had JoeQuake mess up on Soul of Evil with QuakeC errors (I think Soul of Evil's QuakeC is at fault).

With DarkPlaces, I know maps where items fall out the map (sm82, for example) and I know of several maps where the engine has items suspended in mid-air (Solarfall). Travail is known to have issues with DarkPlaces.

The first column are simply engines that have the highest compatibility and native GLQuake feel.

[Monster]

ah yeah, that problem. Darkplaces keeps items in their actual location and doesnt drop them down like normal GLQuake does. Frikbot has trouble with Darkplaces too, maybe because of that bounding box issue. Bots will get stuck outside of the level, causing the other bots to shut down, and sometimes theyll fall inside of lifts. I asked LordHavoc about changing that back, and he said it would cause catastrophic problems if he did that.

[golden_boy]

JoeQuake messes up with the Frogbot Clan Arena mod (I know why, it saves cvars it should not save to config). JoeQuake crashes on one of the Nehahra maps. JoeQuake crashes on the final Zerstorer map. I've had JoeQuake mess up on Soul of Evil with QuakeC errors (I think Soul of Evil's QuakeC is at fault).

Just btw, did you report those as bugs to Jozsef? If so, what was the reaction?

With DarkPlaces, I know maps where items fall out the map (sm82, for example) and I know of several maps where the engine has items suspended in mid-air (Solarfall). Travail is known to have issues with DarkPlaces.

Wow, that's quite a list. How much of that is the mappers' fault?

I can understand the thing about the progs.dat. However gmsp3v2 doesn't have a progs IIRC. Just a bsp.

[Baker]

Wow, that's quite a list. How much of that is the mappers' fault?

I don't know. Hard to say.

Many of these maps/mods are 5 to 10 years old. Some of them will be turning 10 years old within the next few months.

Most maps were designed for GLQuake (or WinQuake in some cases!) and many of these maps and mods were designed long before any modded engines existed.

I can understand the thing about the progs.dat. However gmsp3v2 doesn't have a progs IIRC. Just a bsp.

Your right, it doesn't :d Neither do the IKS maps.

Just btw, did you report those as bugs to Jozsef? If so, what was the reaction?

Joszef knew about some of them. I am very meticulous and keep track of these things.

JoeQuake is actually one of the best engines for compatibility, but even so a highly compatible engine like JoeQuake still has issues with some things.

My point is more that of the right hand column, JoeQuake is the MOST compatible engine and even so has issues with some of the above.