Reply With QuoteCongrats on the release, Mr. Soul!
IMHO, it works better than Darkloader or FMSel so give it a try, Taffers!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to release NewDarkLoader, a program that combines the familiar look of Darkloader with the features of the built-in tool FMSel.
Full screen interface (on my 1600x1200 monitor)
Compact interface (with and without tags on view)
Features:
- A user interface that is familiar to Darkloader users, making it easy to make the switch.
- New feature: FM history/MRU list integrated with the name filter so you can easily revisit recent FMs (limit of 10, can be increased)
- Also updated the readme file to better explain what this is, and to add a missing but very important credit
- A readme explaining the simple installation process, and how to use each feature.
- Works with Thief 1 & 2, System Shock 2 and Thief 3.
- Support for FM readmes in HTML format (images also supported).
- Choice given when FM has multiple possible readmes.
- No chance of accidentally installing one FM over another (each FM is put in its own folder).
- Darkloader FM data, and savegames, can be imported so you can continue an FM right were you left it.
- Savegames and screenshots are backed up if you uninstall an FM.
- FM data from FMSel can also be transferred by copying and renaming FMSel.ini.
- NewDarkLoader uses the same savegame/screenshot backup system as FMSel, so those users don't have to do anything.
- A sorting and filtering system so you can quickly find any fan mission.
- Filters, window size and column widths are saved when closing, and restored when reloading.
- Tags, so you can define things that aren't specified in the default columns. FMs can be filtered by tags.
- Multiple FMs can be installed at once - this takes advantage of a NewDark feature.
- If a mod is causing a problem with an FM, it can be disabled for that FM only (another NewDark feature).
- FM details can be edited in NewDarkLoader, so you don't have to go into the .ini file.
- The 'last played' date can be read from your most recent savegame.
- More reliable with campaign names (doesn't get wrong names).
- In addition to .zip files, it also supports .7z and .rar.
- Some FMs don't work properly under NewDark, or they have other bugs. NewDarkLoader can extract the contents of a 'fix' file each time the FM is installed. Info on fix files. This keeps the original FM intact (usually a condition specified by the author) while still allowing it to be played as intended.
- Support for a multi-language interface. All text items (button text, labels...) are defined in an optional .ini file named after your selected language.
Click here to download NewDarkLoader 1.7.0.
Previous version, 1.6.1
Last edited by R Soul; 25th Jan 2021 at 19:04.
Congrats on the release, Mr. Soul!
IMHO, it works better than Darkloader or FMSel so give it a try, Taffers!
It's looking good.
I have one problem. Running 1980 x 1080 with text etc at 150% my full screen looks like this:
I can get rid of the grey rectangle to the right of Installed by shrinking the window or by increasing the width of the Installed column, but the rh border of Tags remains truncated as do long lines of text in the Readme.
Last edited by ffox; 7th Aug 2016 at 11:10.
Lovely jubbly! This looks great, thanks R Soul!
@Freddy...
I normally run @1920x1080 at 125%, but just put it at 150% and am able to see all of the Tags pane after adjusting things a bit, so I'm not sure why it's not working for you. The initial non-fullscreen window is wider than 1920 so you first need to adjust the width down to fit, then if you go fullscreen it should all be visible, so maybe try that.
No luck with that. Do any of your Readmes not wordrap correctly? (EG Finals at the Academy, Orthodox Wedding, The Black Frog)
Mine is fine at 100% but then I can't read it!
I can sort problems with other apps by setting "Disable display scaling at high dpi settings" in compatibility, but don't know how to do that with a .dll.
Everything else is working fine. It's a pity my eyesight is failing.
Last edited by ffox; 7th Aug 2016 at 11:37.
Those three readmes wrap correctly at 150% for me whether fullscreen or windowed, so you shouldn't have to go to 100%. Not sure what else to suggest, except to verify that it works at 150% on my system, so maybe someone else will chime in.
As one example, I made a compact windowed setup (~1275x870) with the Tags panel not extended, then just extend it when needed. All columns are visible (no horizontal scrolling needed except when viewing Tags) and anything that may be truncated in a column cell can be fully viewed by moving the mouse pointer over that cell, even long comments. Some columns initially are too narrow to show the little up/down sort arrows (as in my Last Played column) so just manually widen them a bit.
OK, I've fixed it. I had "Disable display scaling at high dpi settings" set on the Thief2.exe properties. Removing it sorts the problem out. Sorry to have been a pain, Robin.
Well at least it's sorted. Hopefully now the thread can get back to a more positive vibe.
congrats on release
Very Nice Work! Totally worth the extra capital letters I used there!
Thank you for all your hard work R Soul. This will be very much appreciated
Downloading.
Good stuff.
It has the advantage over FMSel of actually working for me, and I'll definitely use it over DarkLoader too. The only problem I've had is getting a .NET unhandled exception for The Karrassinian Threat by Paul Buckley.
Code:Access to the path 'C:\Users\Neb\App Data\Local\Temp\TITLES.STR' is denied
That's a strange one. It works fine for me, and that file is needed for reading only, so access shouldn't be a problem. Does this happen each time or just the first time you select it?
During testing, I had come across the same exception thrown with that very FM once. I made a note of it but I was never able to reproduce it so I never reported it. Closing/reopening the application and then re-scanning that particular FM may help if you haven't already tried that.
Restarting and scanning again doesn't throw the error anymore (while the first time I ran the application I could replicate the error over and over again), and the mission runs just fine. It's a bit of an edge case because I have 732 Thief 2 FMs on the list.
Congrats on releasing this, R Soul! And thank you for all your hard work making this a reality. It's greatly appreciated.
Congratulations on the release, R Soul. I do try not to be set in my ways so I'll definitely give it a go. Thank you!
Congrats & thanks for all the work that went into this! I am downloading now.
FMSel doesn't play well with me though it had some nice features. It often throws my saved games into the abyss. Darkloader worked more often that not, but I'd gone back to using GarrettLoader with minimal difficulties.
I have to say you did an excellent job with this program. I will never use FMSel again. Thanks for the work!
And the community shines a little brighter, thanks to R Soul...
Sweet, thanks for doing this.
Is it possible to add a column to show file size?
I like to arrange mine in this order.
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