AngelLoader v1.11.0 - now works better on Wine! (updated 2025/07/24)

FenPhoenix on 29/12/2023 at 03:23

Quote Posted by Midgard

I don't know if it's a bug (or at least certainly not a big deal) but when I browse the FM list (I now have 350 of 'em! Help!) then select Full Screen for the bottom info/readme panel, then go back to normal view, the browser jumps to the top of the list and I lose where I had a certain FM highlighted.

Huh, so it does. Weird. I'll check into it, but in the meantime you can middle-click on the list to center the selected FM back on screen.

Quote Posted by Midgard

I'm looking forward to when the GUI supports high contrast dark mode themes with perhaps different colored fonts for different states, say, red or green for when an FM is finished . I'm a real nut for high contrast colorful frontends and dark themes in which the colors really pop. An example is my hardware monitoring program where I went wild with the customization.

After trying to actually do this, it turns out it's actually not simple at all like I thought it was, and adds tons of complexity and bug-proneness. I'm going to have to say no to this feature, it's just not worth adding such a burden to the code for the 2 people who would use it.

Midgard on 29/12/2023 at 06:32

Quote Posted by FenPhoenix

Huh, so it does. Weird. I'll check into it, but in the meantime you can middle-click on the list to center the selected FM back on screen.

Oh, the middle click workaround pretty much solves this minor annoyance for me so thanks for the tip.

Quote:

Oh, well. If it can't be done without risk of instability it can't be done then. The light grey on dark grey is certainly better than black on white (I have an OLED display that gets pretty bright with a white background). I just prefer a high contrast font/background scheme.

FenPhoenix on 9/1/2024 at 19:15

For Twist and Midgard who were asking about shortcut files, I have some questions/notes:

I have prototype functionality working where you can pass a command line to tell it to select and play the specified FM.
This removes all filters, un-hides game tab if it's hidden etc. so as to guarantee the FM can actually be selected. This could be intrusive, but if you understand the shortcut is going to do this then maybe not.

Quote Posted by "Twist"

Exactly! I still want to use AngelLoader to manage my mod config and last played time, etc. I also like being able to alt-tab over to write and save notes/reviews in the FM's comment tab, so I want AngelLoader open and available. But I want a single shortcut that loads AngelLoader, then loads the specific FM without having to search/scroll, select and click the FM within AngelLoader. Yeah, I'm that lazy. :thumb:

So since AL saves your last selection, I'm imagining you want to be able to play other FMs in between? However, if starting the shortcut auto-selects the shortcut FM, then you would still have to search for the other FM(s) you want to play in between, so it sort of just moves the effort from one place to another, doesn't it? Also, you can pin FMs to the top of the list, so it should be very quick to select the ones you want to play if you're working through a few.

Are you thinking more that you'd make shortcuts for all the FMs you want play? You'd want AL to be more like a sort of assistant/notepad?

But then if you start making shortcuts for FMs, would you delete them after you're done playing? It seems like at a certain point you'd just be duplicating AL's functionality but clunkier.

I can finish the feature, even though I'm not convinced of how much time it would save. Just putting my thoughts down.

Twist on 9/1/2024 at 19:58

Hmm... in simple terms, I'd like to have just a few shortcuts. Maybe a few for favorite missions, but mostly for campaigns. Some of these I already think of them as full games rather than fan missions.

So it'd just be nice to have shortcuts to, for example, The Black Parade, Death's Cold Embrace, Godbreaker, and T2X, alongside my TDP, TG, TMA, TDM and TDS shortcuts. But I'd like to have AngelLoader there when I do play them, so the the right unique combination of mods is loaded and I can alt-tab out to make notes in the comment field.

It may be a personal quirk of mine, but sometimes I just like being able to hit a shortcut and immediately launch into the content without an in-between.

About removing filters and unhiding game tabs: that wouldn't bother me, but you could make the ability to create shortcuts a toggle in Settings, with a note about what it does and what it requires so that people are warned.

I realize it was an idea for an idiosyncratic convenience, so if it's a headache or it could potentially cause problems in other areas, it's really no biggie. I appreciate you even considering to implement it.

R Soul on 9/1/2024 at 23:24

The right click menu for each FM gives you the option to pin it to the top (and unpin it), which seems like a good thing to use for now. Perhaps AngelLoader could have an additional button on the Filter bar at the top to only show pinned missions.

Twist on 9/1/2024 at 23:40

Oh, I use the ability to right-click and pin all the time. :thumb:

This is more about having a shortcut that goes directly into the game while maintaining access to AngelLoader's functions (mod management, comment field, last play tracking). I admit, it's pretty specific, and maybe too idiosyncratic a request. :sweat:

Midgard on 10/1/2024 at 06:55

Yeah, I thought I'd like a shortcut maker but I just pin the ones I'm currently playing to the top. Works fine for now. AngelLoader doesn't take up many resources so letting it still run while the FM plays is no biggie. Since it's able to show as Green when you pin it to the top, is it possible to make an FM display other colors (of a pre-programmed color since I know a user selected color option makes it i potentially unstable) for other states, like say Blue for Completed or Red for Started but never finished or does it make it unstable too?

FenPhoenix on 10/1/2024 at 07:43

It's not instability the colors cause, it's just that there's a high chance of visual bugs (not functional ones) because the standard dark mode colors are copied and cached everywhere and it's very easy to miss places where that is the case, or to say "ThemedBackColor = SomeColor" (a copy) vs. "ThemedBackColor => SomeColor" (a dynamic retrieval), causing a chance of bugs returning in the future even if I were to squash them now. There's also the matter of the icons - many (but not all) have separate versions for light mode vs. dark, and can't be custom colored because they're premade rasters. One of them even has 3 different versions - light mode, dark mode on dark background, and dark mode on medium background. Etc. etc. etc. I'm coming to understand nowadays that I should be a little cautious what I add, because features and options have a cost, in complexity and in the combinatorial explosion of states the app can be in that are impossible to test all combinations of. I can't count the number of bugs I had with the game tabs vs. game filters thing, and the switching between the two, and the subtle differences in behavior between them. I mean I'm glad I added the feature, but I would have thought much harder about it back then if I'd known what I know now. Anyway, I digress.

It's frustrating to be lacking a feature you want, I know, but it's a balance between how many people are asking for something, how much complexity/combinatorics does it add, is it extremely useful or only a small convenience etc. I don't want to be too conservative and never make improvements, but I don't want to just add and add and add until the app collapses under its own weight either.

Anyway, maybe I'll leave out this shortcut business for now and go ahead with the next release soon. I can always revisit, as that code is not that complicated and doesn't really intrude on anything.

Midgard on 10/1/2024 at 14:24

Yeah, I'm not a fan of too much feature creep either in a program I otherwise find useful that can turn it into bloatware . I think one reason I tend to be so persistent in wanting these features is because I compare AngelLoader to another great mod organizer I use called DoomLauncher for doom wads which has the colored fonts feature plus the ability to have screenshots for each entry. Of course that frontend has been in development for about 6 or 7 years (I helped betatest the initial builds) so it's got a bit of a head start. I really do find AL invaluable though and an excellent successor to newdarkloader..

FenPhoenix on 10/1/2024 at 16:59

Hmm, I see, DoomLauncher does look nice. In some respects AngelLoader is a bit "old school". Its UI is basically that of DarkLoader which is from like 2001 or whatever. It doesn't even have mission download functionality. I asked but people didn't seem to want it. I also sometimes wonder if a different UI arrangement might have been better on modern widescreen monitors and all. One person a while ago asked for the ability to move the readme off to the side and put the top-right tabs at the bottom, and they had a point. For a while I've had this idea in the back of my mind to do an "AngelLoader Experimental" that uses the current AL core but I can go crazy testing out new UIs and other exotic features without worrying about public release. Maybe one day.