FenPhoenix on 17/7/2022 at 12:56

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I don't think AL could track play time if the game is played through Steam because then it doesn't know when the game itself starts and stops, only when Steam starts and stops. Tracking play time without Steam is possible but introduces significant complications (what if AL exits before the game does? what if the game exits and the playtime update code runs while AL is doing something else and we get into a messed up state?).

And if we can't also track play time when running through Steam, then AL and Steam's play time will both be wrong (they'll each be lacking the play time of the other).

As for a quicker Steam toggle, I could add something like that, but is there a reason you would want to switch constantly? When you say play "offline", you mean play while having no internet access so Steam doesn't work or?

FenPhoenix on 20/7/2022 at 17:13

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(https://github.com/FenPhoenix/AngelLoader/releases/download/v1.6.6/AngelLoader_v1.6.6.zip) AngelLoader v1.6.6 is out.

The main feature is the addition of new_mantle and palette fix functionality (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151798) as discussed in this thread.

Full list of changes:

Features and improvements:

* Added some options to control new mantling:

* On the Patch & Customize tab, there is now a checkbox where you can force new mantling on, off, or default (leave it alone) per-FM.
* Added a setting "Use old mantling for OldDark FMs" (Settings -> Other), which does what it says. It can be overridden per-FM with the above-mentioned checkbox.
* New mantling can also be overridden when playing without an FM, by opening the game settings (formerly game mods) dialog through the "Play without FM" area.


* A small handful of OldDark FMs use custom palettes to achieve certain effects such as monochrome or sepia tone visuals. By default, NewDark does not apply these FMs' custom palettes correctly, causing for example some objects to be full color in an FM where everything is supposed to be monochrome. AngelLoader will now fix this issue automatically for FMs that need it.
* Note that neither the mantle mode nor the palette fix are written into fm.cfg or stored permanently, they are simply passed as options to the game upon running. Adding these options manually to the FM's fm.cfg file is fine and will not break anything.
* 7-Zip scans (which can take a substantial amount of time) now respond much quicker to a cancel request. Previously, cancellation could only occur between FMs in the scan, but now it can occur in the middle of a single FM's scan as well.
* Date and rating filter windows now autosize horizontally to fit their title bar text and/or OK/Cancel button text (one less thing to worry about now for translators).


Fixes:

* Fixed: in a multi-monitor scenario, when AngelLoader was not on the primary monitor, ComboBox dropdowns would be displayed completely detached from their parent control and on the primary screen somewhere.
* Fixed regression: FMs list duplicate-culling code was not fully ignoring duplicate FMs, they might still end up being scanned (if they weren't before) and have their tags added to the global tags list. This scenario is unlikely and causes no serious problems, but there we go.
* Fixed if the Settings window came up on startup and dark mode was enabled, the Language group box was drawn incorrectly.
* The "Disable all" mods button now shows its tooltip on the original game settings windows as well.
* When uninstalling FMs, there was a brief period where the UI would still be interactable when it shouldn't have been.
* Scan All FMs window now says "Scan selected FMs" when only scanning selected, rather than "Scan all FMs".

Stefan_Key on 21/7/2022 at 09:09

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It's one small step for thief, one giant leap for thiefkind! :cheeky:

FenPhoenix on 22/7/2022 at 04:32

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Thanks, but... I don't see a link ;)

FenPhoenix on 24/7/2022 at 22:01

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Could you be more specific when you say it "crashes during install"? "Installing" AngelLoader is really just unzipping files into a folder, not really an "install" process per se.

The "AngelLoader is set as the loader for this game" message appears when:
-AngelLoader_Stub.dll is set as the "fm selector" is cam_mod.ini (like this: "fm_selector C:\AngelLoader\AngelLoader_Stub.dll")
AND
-AngelLoader_Stub.dll can't find, can't read, or can't get the data it was expecting from a temp file that the main app is supposed to create before running the stub

If you're starting DromEd from within AngelLoader (ie. by clicking "Open in DromEd" from the right-click menu) then you're never supposed to see that message because it should be calling DromEd in a way that bypasses the whole cam_mod.ini thing. If you're starting DromEd from outside of AngelLoader but while it is running, then you most probably will see that message.

If you see it when running DromEd from within AngelLoader then it's a bug.

Basically, in order to interface with NewDark in the way the game expects, AngelLoader has to set itself as the "fm selector" in cam_mod.ini, but then when it closes, it resets the file back to how it was before so that FMSel (or whatever else you had before) will work again. However, if you try to start the Thief game or DromEd outside of AngelLoader when AngelLoader has set itself as the selector and has not yet exited so as to reset the file, you'll see that message as a sort of "last resort" that at least attempts to tell you what's wrong (I should probably improve the message to more explicitly say what I'm saying here). Otherwise, if it didn't pop up any dialog, then the game would just appear to not start at all - or to start without FMSel even when it was supposed to start with it - which would be more confusing (and that's what it used to do before I implemented the dialog message).