AngelLoader v1.11.0 - now works better on Wine! (updated 2025/07/24) - by FenPhoenix
FenPhoenix on 31/10/2023 at 12:10
(
https://github.com/FenPhoenix/AngelLoader/releases/download/v1.7.6/AngelLoader_v1.7.6.zip)
AngelLoader v1.7.6 is out.
Features and improvements:* Added support for The Dark Mod. As part of this:
* Backup path is now only required if you've specified at least one game that uses it. The Dark Mod doesn't use it; all other games do.
* For Dark Mod FMs, the "installed" icon means that the FM is TDM's "selected" one (the one that loads up when you start the game), and only one Dark Mod FM at a time can be so marked. Thus, for Dark Mod FMs, "Install FM" / "Uninstall FM" becomes "Select FM" / "Deselect FM". The "selected" FM is also kept in sync with the game, if you happen to select a different one there.
* The FMs list is automatically refreshed whenever you download a new FM in-game.
* For The Dark Mod only, the finished-on difficulty will be automatically updated when you finish an FM; there is no need to set it manually.
* Dark Mod FM scans use a mix of local data and data pulled from The Dark Mod's server. This allows for more accuracy than would be possible with a local-only scan. If it can't connect to the TDM server, it falls back to a local-only scan.
* If the backup path is not specified or doesn't exist, the DarkLoader Import window will now disable the Import Saves checkbox and provide an option to set the backup path.
* Improved the scanner's non-acronym title selector even more.
* Improved the scanner's cleanup of titles/authors a bit.
* In Settings -> Appearance -> Show or hide interface elements, the "Hide" checkboxes are now "Show" checkboxes. This removes a double negative type thing and makes it more straightforward.
* Each game now has its own customizable web search URL, with sensible defaults.
* Web Search option is now disabled for unknown/unsupported FMs. The option didn't do anything for these FMs anyway, so this just makes that clear.
Performance:* Greatly improved rtf parser performance.
Fixes:* If there were new FMs to be scanned on startup, the list would be sorted BEFORE the scan, meaning if the scanner gave the FMs titles that didn't sort the same as their placeholder archive name based titles, the list would not be correctly sorted until the user chose to sort it again. This bug had been in there literally forever. :(
* Fixed encoding detection for "Nightwalk" and "Troubling Transitions" readmes.
* In the Settings window, if a setting was changed that required a view refresh (game paths etc.), the filters would lose their state after the refresh.
* If an FM with an unknown or unsupported game type is selected, the messages in the tab area now no longer refer to Thief 3 ("Mod management is not supported for Thief: Deadly Shadows").
baeuchlein on 31/10/2023 at 12:48
Quote Posted by FenPhoenix
If there were new FMs to be scanned on startup, the list would be sorted BEFORE the scan, meaning if the scanner gave the FMs titles that didn't sort the same as their placeholder archive name based titles, the list would not be correctly sorted until the user chose to sort it again. This bug had been in there literally forever. :(
Ancient DarkLoader had a somewhat similar problem, so I guess it wasn't a bug in AngelLoader, but rather a compatibility feature.:cheeky:
Thanks for continued support! This really improves how valuable a piece of software is.:thumb:
gamophyte on 31/10/2023 at 17:07
Amazing!! Thanks Fen!
Stingm on 1/11/2023 at 02:14
Thanks again Fen for all the work.
Aekoric on 1/11/2023 at 11:20
Thank you very much for this new release!
Twist on 1/11/2023 at 23:26
Wow, that's awesome!
I once thought about asking for Dark Mod support, but I felt too shy to ask, like I would've been greedily asking for too much.
Now you can do things like search & sort by author, and have all of -- for example -- Melan's missions show up, no matter the game. (For those who don't know, I used Melan as an example because he's made missions for TG, TMA, and several for TDM.)
I know it's unlikely to make a difference, but it's possible this could also provide some extra bit of visibility to TDM in this community.
Now we can view, sort and play all missions from the Thief community in a single awesome place. Thank you!
FenPhoenix on 2/11/2023 at 00:27
For a long time I wasn't very keen on adding TDM support. It was the in-game mission manager that mainly put me off. I figured people are going to go in-game to download an FM, and then are they really going to come back out to AngelLoader? It seemed awkward, unless I could provide an in-app downloader. I actually started working on one, but decided to forgo it for now. I may come back to it in the future.
The other thing is TDM is completely different to the other games in just about every way you can think of. It doesn't have "archived FMs" and "installed FMs", they're always installed. It has the concept of a "selected FM", and it persists between game runs. It has no concept of uninstall/backup/restore. It doesn't need to scan for game type. It has a server with FM metadata that can assist or supplant the local scan. The game keeps its own database of basic per-FM data. It has an in-game downloader. It sets and stores the finished state when you finish an FM. There can be newer versions of FMs on the server than what you have locally. FMs have a set-in-stone installed folder name, which therefore cannot be used as a unique identifier and cannot be number-appended in case of collisions with other FMs' installed names, so it needs the concept of "installed name (unique id)" and "installed name (real actual folder name on disk)". And on and on. I thought for sure I'd never be able to shoehorn it in, but in the end it works alright. From a user's perspective I bet it looks like it slotted right in easy as pie. :laff:
Komag on 2/11/2023 at 11:48
A coder's work is impossible to fully appreciate. I remember a Tom Scott video about time zones or fonts or something, and all the 50 other considerations you never thought of.
Stefan_Key on 2/11/2023 at 13:12
AWESOME!!! :thumb::thumb:
