Alternative PA Launcher

Does pa use less ram on linux, or is it that linux uses less ram? Also what linux distro / windows version are you using

Linux uses less ram (generally) than Windows, depending on version. PA uses the same, so in theory you probably have a bit more free ram to play with under Linux (not enough to make a massive difference though). To put it in perspective, sitting on the desktop (admittedly with Firefox, drop box and a few other system tray apps running) my machine is using 1.5 gb or my 8 gb of ram under Windows. In Linux on the desktop I'd have to check but I think it only uses a few hundred mb.

I'm on Windows 7 64 bit, I think if anything they made 8.1 a bit lighter as it has to scale down to tablets and netbooks.

Linux version I'm using Ubuntu 14.10 64 bit (latest version), although I must admit I'd normally go for xUbuntu as I prefer the lighter interface.

Edit: link to xubuntu if you felt like giving it a go http://xubuntu.org/

Either burn it to a disk or install it onto a memory stick and you can try it out without installing or changing anything (a good idea to prove everything works with your hardware).

I have dual booted ubuntu before, but linux distros generally look.... bad, at least for me.

Yeah they're community developed mainly by programmers... I guess they need more artists to volunteer.

The prettiest distro is probably linux mint, though I like xubuntu as its very minimalist. Normal ubuntu is a bit odd since they switched to unity and that very dark purple colour scheme.

I looked at linux mint, but how does each edition differ? It doesn't really say

Elementary OS also looks good

Pretty much by their intended purpose and the preferences of the developers.

I've never used mint since it's not really what I needed from linux; I used lubuntu on a P4 Riva TNT2 64 because XP was too slow It's based off of Xubuntu and is specifically extremely light weight. Other versions specialize in compatibility, like FUSE (I think that's the name?) and others are just too be user friendly.

Edit: FuSE, based off of Fuduntu.

Ubuntu based systems are probably your best bet. Ubuntu looks bad to you because it was (probably) built with tablets in mind. I'd suggest Zorin OS, it's the one I''m using atm- It basically has the look of Windows with the functionality of Ubuntu/Unity.

I think I will try the elementary beta, it appears to be the best looking distro to me. Evolve os also, looks nice, I think I will install it when there is a stable version.

Darn you Linux geeks! This launcher is for other OSes as well!
(Btw, KDE4=pretty!)

Has anyone else managed to install this properly on Arch/Manjaro? I tried using deb2targz to create a binary I could run, and it launches but it crashes during the 'verifying files' phase of the game download. And the source code does not have a PKGBUILD for Arch/Manjaro and I don't know enough about that to create one myself.

I don't know enough about Arch. You could try downloading the source from GitHub, and the commands to compile it yourself are:

Code:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

That will generate an executable you can run, which shouldn't crash. Actually, it's kind of odd it crashed for you in the first place... Maybe it will work better with compiling. If it doesn't, I'll try Manjaro in a virtual machine and see what's up.

When I run cmake on the source directory it starts off fine then gives the following errors at the end:

Code:

CMake Error: File /home/[username]/Games/PAAlternativeLauncher-0.6.0/fixup_deb.sh.in does not exist.
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:55 (configure_file):

Oh, oops. I guess I forgot to include that script. Well, you don't need it anyway. Just delete this line from CMakeLists.txt:

Code:

  configure_file("${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/fixup_deb.sh.in" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/fixup_deb.sh" @ONLY IMMEDIATE)

Thanks, now it compiles. It crashed the first time I tried to download but that seems to have been caused by me pointing it towards my existing PA directory. I created a new blank folder for it and it's downloading now.

One minor gripe though, all the text in the release notes is jumbled on top of itself. But that seems to be it so far, thanks.

That's interesting. It shouldn't crash whatever you do... I'll see if I can repro it somehow. How did you originally get PA? From the huge .tar.bz2 from Uber directly?

And yeah, the jumbled up text has something to do with the Qt5 html interpretation. Often it works, but sometimes Uber posts release notes in some funky html that does that. In any case, I have that too. It's "normal".

Yes, the full download from Uber.

When I try to log in, the launcher just closes. What's the PA install directory? The one with the launcher in it? I have a directory with the launcher in it that also contains a folder called Planetary Annihilation which has a folder called stable. I've tried using all 3.

Which OS are you using?

And the PA install directory is just the directory where you would like to install PA. It can be anything you want, provided you have write permission of course.

Win 7 x64.