AngelLoader v1.10.0 (updated 2025/01/13)

[Svperstar]

Just updated to the newest version when installing the Deadly Shadows Merged City mod test. I enabled the highest I/O, I'm on a PCI Gen 4.0 SSD and my motherboard supports 4.0. 14th Gen CPU. It installed the mod in less then a second. Impressive.

[FenPhoenix]

Heh, I'd like to claim credit but that mod is 7z so it's not subject to the threaded speedups, it's just small in size and so happened to install fast. On the subject of 7z files, though, I have something in the works that will speed up scanning of 7z FMs (not just for AngelLoader, but for FMSel and any other loader too) by a very large amount. Like huge. Really all I'm stuck on is the name. But expect a new tool - and a new version of AngelLoader that's optimized to take advantage of it - in the near future.

[caqo]

hi Fen,

I updated AngelLoader Spanish translation to version 1.9.9.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1stZ...ew?usp=sharing

Cheers.

[FenPhoenix]

Thanks caqo


AngelLoader v1.10.0 is out.

• Disabled mods and languages are now passed to DromEd/ShockEd
• AngelLoader can now take full advantage of speed-optimized 7z files, scanning them up to 11x faster (standard 7z files see little to no improvement)

A tool to create speed-optimized 7z files will be releasing shortly along with benchmarks to show just how blazing fast these files are.

[Stingm]

Thanks again for the work Fen!

[Aekoric]

I must have done something wrong:

See the end of this message for details on invoking 
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe, Version=6.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)
File name: 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe, Version=6.0.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'
   at System.SpanHelpers.PerTypeValues`1.MeasureArrayAdjustment()
   at System.SpanHelpers.PerTypeValues`1..cctor()

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].



************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9290.0 built by: NET481REL1LAST_C
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
AngelLoader
    Assembly Version: 1.10.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.10.0
    CodeBase: file:///E:/AngelLoader/AngelLoader.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9251.0 built by: NET481REL1LAST_C
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9282.0 built by: NET481REL1LAST_C
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9037.0 built by: NET481REL1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly Version: 10.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 14.8.9037.0 built by: NET481REL1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Core
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9277.0 built by: NET481REL1LAST_B
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9037.0 built by: NET481REL1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9037.0 built by: NET481REL1
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.8.9214.0 built by: NET481REL1LAST_B
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
AL_Common
    Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///E:/AngelLoader/AL_Common.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Memory
    Assembly Version: 4.0.2.0
    Win32 Version: 4.600.24.56208
    CodeBase: file:///E:/AngelLoader/System.Memory.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Buffers
    Assembly Version: 4.0.4.0
    Win32 Version: 4.600.24.56208
    CodeBase: file:///E:/AngelLoader/System.Buffers.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:


    


When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

I tried to update to the current version but now I'm getting this error message.
I'm not sure which the last version was which I was running, can I see that somewhere? It was a bit older as far as I can remember.

I'm on Win 10 and Angelloader sits in a folder in E:\Angelloader if that's important in any way.

Can I make a clean install somehow without losing my ratings etc. or is there another way to fix this? Thank you, Fen!

[FenPhoenix]

All your data is in the Data\ folder, so you can make a clean install in a new folder, and then copy Data\ from your old install into the new one.

That error message says it couldn't load one of the dll files the app comes with, which makes me think not all files got updated when you extracted the new version, but in any case, try a clean install and tell me if that works.

[Aekoric]

Thanks Fen, I don't know why but copying everything again did the trick and it's working again. I don't know how I could have messed that up the first time but somehow I did. Thanks for your help!

[FenPhoenix]

Good to hear!

[FenPhoenix]

7-Zip Speed Optimizer has been released. Authors can now pack their 7z FMs in a way that allows loaders to handle them >10x faster while retaining small file size.

[bob_doe_nz]

Thank you for your continuing work into making AngelLoader. And for putting in SS2 support and tabbed game sections when I asked years ago

[FenPhoenix]

You're quite welcome

[PABastien]

Hey I have kind of a dumb question, because I don't know if it's feasible. Is it possible to add the ability to say, right click and "create a desktop shortcut" that maintains your parameters (like deactivated mods) That you can launch directly?

[FenPhoenix]

Hey I have kind of a dumb question, because I don't know if it's feasible. Is it possible to add the ability to say, right click and "create a desktop shortcut" that maintains your parameters (like deactivated mods) That you can launch directly?

There was discussion on this starting here and continuing through here and here.

As you can see, there were some question marks and I ended up kind of ambivalent. The request was for the shortcut to open AngelLoader normally and then start the FM automatically (the requesters wanted AL to remain open as it normally would). My response was basically:

• That would change AL's global state (it would forcibly select the FM the shortcut is asking for). That means that shortcuts steal your current FM rather than just being nicely self-contained and not changing anything.
• Making the selection temporary would solve that (assuming you didn't go and change it again yourself before closing it), but then how do I know you don't want the new selection to stay? Either way you end up with your global FM selection changed in a way you may or may not want.
• If you have a shortcut for, say, The Black Parade, but then you also want to play another FM in between TBP sessions, then you still have to open AL yourself and navigate to the other FM every time you want to play it, because the TBP shortcut will steal your selection. Unless you make a shortcut for the other FM, but then that's basically the same as just pinning the two FMs in AL and switching between them there.
• If the shortcut were to simply tell AL to open, start the FM and then quit, then that would dodge all of these problems, but then you wouldn't have AL open during your play (so you can't take notes or look at the readme or what-have-you).

So there's difficulties.

[PABastien]

Fair enough. Thanks for letting me know.

[Taffingtaffer]

Hi Fen, I've just finished converting my backlog of FMs with your new tool and I was looking into using tags. Could you make it possible to disable/delete AngeLoader premade tags in a future update?
For example, some campaigns get a "campaign: long" tag attached along with "misc: campaign". I like the idea of indicating a FM is a campaign and its length at the same time, so that "misc" tag feels redundant.

[FenPhoenix]

You can delete tags manually (although it's clunky I admit, I should improve that).

Tags usually come from an FM's fm.ini file, so whatever is in there is whatever is in there. AngelLoader does add the "misc: campaign" tag during scans if an FM has multiple missions, but that's because tags like "campaign: long" (which are, and must be, added by the author - "length" is subjective and not auto-detectable) may not exist, and AL is trying to be helpful by at least marking campaigns as such. That way if a user wants to filter campaigns and they haven't gone and manually added "campaign: whatever" to every FM, they can at least still find them.

Now I could make it so AL only adds the "misc: campaign" tag if there's not already a "campaign: whatever" tag. Two things though:

• It's possible that "campaign: whatever" and "misc: campaign" may both exist in fm.ini in the first place (nothing's preventing that). So even if AL didn't add "misc: campaign" it might still end up in there sometimes. Now it could auto-remove it in that case, but now we start getting into territory I don't want to go. Imperfect or not, the author put the tags there, and I don't want to presume to judge them "wrong" and "correct" them.
• When an FM is scanned, currently tags are only added and old ones are never removed. This is to prevent overwriting a user's added tags when the FM is scanned. That's another point against removing anything in the scan - maybe the user wanted the separate "misc: campaign" tag and then we'd be removing it.

When you say "disable or delete premade tags" I'm not sure exactly what you mean here - doing this would be disabling the vast majority of tags that might ever be encountered. It would disable author, contest, genre (action, crime, horror, mystery, puzzle), language (English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish), series, and misc (campaign, demo, long, short, other protagonist, unknown author).

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding.

[Taffingtaffer]

When you say "disable or delete premade tags" I'm not sure exactly what you mean here - doing this would be disabling the vast majority of tags that might ever be encountered. It would disable author, contest, genre (action, crime, horror, mystery, puzzle), language (English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish), series, and misc (campaign, demo, long, short, other protagonist, unknown author).

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. ^^"

When I started customizing the tags with my own categories, I went straight to FMData.ini and batch-replaced the misc category for something more descriptive ("vibes", to specify is a FM has rain, snow, water, the time of the day...), and removed the misc tags you listed from any FM; some would be moved to another category, others completely deleted.
Then I realized the misc category and the tags campaign, demo, long, short, other protagonist, unknown author persisted, despite having no FM with those tags attached. The same goes for the tags of the genre category (action, crime, horror, mystery, puzzle).
That's why I presumed those were "premade tags" internal to AL code. I understand respecting authors tagging when scanning, I just wanted to tweak things to my liking.

If no such baked-in tags exist, it might be on me for editing FMData.ini tags like a brute. It still fascinates me, though; those tags must come from somewhere else if FMs have already been scanned and FMData.ini doesn't hold the information.

[FenPhoenix]

Oh, you mean the tags exist in the menu and the tags suggestion box. Yeah, there is a set of premade tags that are always there (they're hardcoded in the source code): that's taken from FMSel which has the same set. If you just mean you want to hide those from the menu and suggestion box, then sure I can add that option, no problem.

[Muleke]

Hey there, Fen!

I am a Brazilian professional game translator and have been using AngelLoader since last year. I would like to know if, after I translate AL into Brazilian Portuguese, you could add the translated .ini file to it through an update, so that the language can be selected in the Settings menu.

Cheers, and thanks for all your hard work! This tool is beyond amazing!

[FenPhoenix]

Thanks for the offer
I can add the language to the main post; languages can't be downloaded through app updates currently - maybe I should add that?

But you may want to hold off for just a bit, as I've got some new text in the next version.

[Muleke]

Thanks for the offer
I can add the language to the main post; languages can't be downloaded through app updates currently - maybe I should add that?

Yeah, I think you should add that! Just for ease of use. I've translated other pieces of software where the languages are included with them, so people wouldn't have to download and apply them manually.
I understand that you have to adapt AL's update system to support that, so no pressure! It's your call.

But you may want to hold off for just a bit, as I've got some new text in the next version.

It's cool. I am using a CAT Tool (computer-assisted translation tool - it's NOT machine-translation!) to organize my project. Even if you add new strings to the next version while I'm working on the current version, I'll be able to continue from where I left off after I reimport the newest file into my CAT Tool.

Here's a screenshot:

[Muleke]

By the way, will this error message have its own localization strings in the next update?

[FenPhoenix]

That one is shown by AngelLoader_stub.dll, which is written in C++ out of necessity. I wanted to have that text be localizable when I wrote it, but I didn't feel confident in writing the C++ code that would be necessary to do it. I struggled with BOMs and file encoding and even path encoding. Even now I'm still not sure about it (I know C# but very little C++). I just crossed my fingers and hoped that message would rarely be displayed.

Edit: Actually, come to think of it, I believe the real problem is that AngelLoader_stub.dll doesn't know where AngelLoader is installed, and therefore doesn't know where the language ini file is. And I don't think it could just query its own process either, because its process will be the game executable, which will have loaded AngelLoader_stub.dll from the AL folder but I don't think the dll can know that. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure. So I'm not sure how to handle that honestly. AngelLoader would have to leave a breadcrumb in a known location telling where it's installed I guess?

From the start, I suppose I should have made AL installable and just put its data in %AppData% rather than have it be portable with its data in its own dir. Hindsight...

[Twist]

I much prefer a portable version, so if you move on to an installable version, I hope you keep a portable build going as well.