FenPhoenix on 4/12/2020 at 10:25
Not possible with the way it's designed. AngelLoader is a standalone app that you run by itself and then you can play your FMs from there (this is how DarkLoader worked). FMSel is sort of the other way round, you start your game and then the game starts FMSel automatically, with the consequence that each game needs its own copy of FMSel with its own settings file, plus the assumption that you'll only ever be working with FMs for that particular game with that particular copy of FMSel.
AngelLoader is intended to be used as a centralized app where you can play any FM for any game from the same single copy of the app. To make AngelLoader work the same way as FMSel would be to re-architect most of it - it wouldn't make sense to have game tabs or game filters, all multi-game support options both user-facing and internal would have to be disabled, and it would quite possibly have to be split into two separate versions, standalone and FMSel-like.
Note that AngelLoader does support Steam in its own way, however. If you open the Settings window, go to the Paths tab, and give it a Steam.exe location and check "If Steam exists, use it to launch these games:" and then check all the games you want to use, those games (and FMs for them) will be launched through Steam whenever you play them from AngelLoader. This should give you access to Steam features like total time played etc.
So really, AL is meant to be thought of in sort of the opposite way as FMSel. It would probably be possible to hack in a "start AngelLoader when the game starts" feature by bundling an optional second .dll that could be set to be started by the game and which would in turn start AngelLoader.exe, but that would be kind of weird given AL is not linked to any one particular game, and it would really just give you the same result as if you had started AngelLoader.exe by itself.
Aekoric on 4/12/2020 at 11:41
Quote Posted by FenPhoenix
Note that AngelLoader does support Steam in its own way, however. If you open the Settings window, go to the Paths tab, and give it a Steam.exe location and check "If Steam exists, use it to launch these games:" and then check all the games you want to use, those games (and FMs for them) will be launched through Steam whenever you play them from AngelLoader. This should give you access to Steam features like total time played etc.
This seems to be right what I was looking for. Thank you very much!
Time played and screenshots would still work when using it the way you described and this is all I want :)
Thanks again and keep up the good work. By the way: It's great that you sometimes upload videos about new AngelLoader versions onto your channel, this kept reminding me I wanted to try it out
FenPhoenix on 4/12/2020 at 12:00
My pleasure, and enjoy! :thumb:
baeuchlein on 4/12/2020 at 14:44
A while ago I noticed that AngelLoader has the ability to play missions in other languages than the one(s) defined in DARKINST.CFG (Thief 2)/INSTALL.CFG (Thief 1). It even offers more languages than ancient Darkloader did, e.g., Russian and Polish (when the translated files are placed in language-specific folders with these names in the FM archive). It also auto-detects these languages (by their folder names), and offers a drop-down list somewhere. That is more than FMSel, NewDarkloader and Darkloader can offer.
I did not find a list of languages which AngelLoader "autodetects". Is there such a list somewhere, and does it include the names of the folders one has to use when creating a multi-language FM archive?
FenPhoenix on 4/12/2020 at 22:03
The list of language names it recognizes (case-insensitively) is:
English
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
which is the same as FMSel's internal supported-language list.
Any of these will show up in the "Play FM in this language:" dropdown if AngelLoader finds one or more folders named after one of these languages inside one of the subfolders in the base directory of the FM archive file (if there is one) or the installed FM folder (if there isn't an archive). This part matches FMSel's behavior.
Note that all it does is check folder names; it doesn't try to validate whether there's anything "of substance" in the language folders, so a language might be a full translation or it might just be a books\french folder with a one-line placard text "la salle de bain" in it, AL just assumes the author knows what they're doing.
Hope this helps. :)
baeuchlein on 9/12/2020 at 17:12
Yes, the list covers what I wanted to know. The other statements mainly confirm what I already guessed about AngelLoader. But while we're at it - how does AngelLoader override the contents of DARKINST.CFG (for Thief 2) concerning language? Is there a parameter it sends to the thief2.exe requesting another language? (Yes, I can be pretty curious.:cool:)
FenPhoenix on 9/12/2020 at 20:15
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
Yes, the list covers what I wanted to know. The other statements mainly confirm what I already guessed about AngelLoader. But while we're at it - how does AngelLoader override the contents of DARKINST.CFG (for Thief 2) concerning language?
Is there a parameter it sends to the thief2.exe requesting another language? (Yes, I can be pretty curious.:cool:)
Basically yes, it sends a parameter to the game telling it what language to use, as a sort of override. It's actually a bit more complicated and quirky than that (for instance, due to (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149856&page=4&p=2459215&viewfull=1#post2459215) this NewDark quirk/bug, it has to clear cam.cfg of language cruft whenever it runs and so on), but that's the idea.
Note that you can use the "fm_language" and "fm_language_forced" config variables in cam_mod.ini to force your own language manually, for example:
fm_language french
fm_language_forced 1
But then of course the above issue applies and these values will get copied to cam.cfg so they'll be in effect even if you remove them from cam_mod.ini, so you have to remember to remove them from cam.cfg also. AngelLoader handles this for you automatically.
FenPhoenix on 10/12/2020 at 06:02
(
https://fenphoenix.com/apps/AngelLoader/AngelLoader_v1.4.6.zip)
AngelLoader 1.4.6 is out.
Fixed one obscure longstanding bug:FMs for Thief: Deadly Shadows whose archive names were over 30 characters long would fail to play. FMs for other games were unaffected.
If you couldn't play
On the Trail of a Fence for example, then you'll be able to now.
baeuchlein on 10/12/2020 at 14:28
Language selection can be so funny...:tsktsk:
Quote:
Note that you can use the "fm_language" and "fm_language_forced" config variables in cam_mod.ini to force your own language manually
These were exactly the parameters I read about in some of the NewDark docs, so I suspected this already.
Well, so far AngelLoader is the most user-friendly FM loader for people who, for whatever reason, change the language frequently. For FMSel and NewDarkLoader, one has to change DARKINST.CFG (T2) or INSTALL.CFG (T1) manually every time. I prefer the AngelLoader technique.:cheeky:
Stingm on 12/12/2020 at 23:20
Well I have an issue with 1.46. Some of my missions for thief gold and thief 2 now are listed twice. Examples include The tower by christine, A smugglers request, the sercret way and hush hush sweet harlott. Just started right after the update. Any ideas how to fix?
Edit: The only thing different in the listing of the missions twice is the release date is different for each. How is angel loader getting 2 different release dates for one mission zip. It this list the mission twice as 2 seperate missions by release date. Can you fix this?