Alternative PA Launcher

Since there is no UberLauncher for Linux, I made this (which works for Windows and Mac OS X too):

It does what the official UberLauncher does, except for new account creation. It also has a simple mod enabling/disabling interface. For new mods and updating you use PAMM though. It also remember your login ticket, so you don't need to log in every time. Though that ticket does seem to expire every now and then.

I've tried to make it as fast as possible, with multithreading and extracting while downloading and downloading while verifying. In short, it does try to do everything at the same time. It doesn't use cache files either, since everything is processed while its being downloaded anyway. I don't know if it's actually any faster than the official UberLauncher, since I can't test it.

It's available for download on GitHub (and also the source code of course):
https://github.com/DeathByDenim/PAAlternativeLauncher/releases

And since it's written in a platform-independent way, there are binaries for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. I don't generally use Windows, but I managed with the VM images available at microsoft.com, but not very well tested of course.

If you find bugs, let me know.

Version 1.0.2: Fixed crash as well as some improvements.
Version 1.0.1: Fixed crash on macOS and Windows when using Advanced button
Version 1.0.0: Taskbar progress on Linux and Windows, Better settings storage, Fix not creating empty files, Added debug function for finding duplicates, Disable mods since we have in-game mod manager, Save username after successful login, Allow for not using steam-runtime on Linux, Default to Launch button after login, Fixed compiler warnings
Version 0.6.1: Support for PA: Titans, fixed minor memory leak, --nomods correctly shows/hides mods now.
Version 0.6.0: Mod bugfix and improved offline support.
Version 0.5.2: Fixed missing files for Windows and added some more sanity checks.
Version 0.5.1: Fixed mod paths for Windows (and Mac if that was broken).
Version 0.5.0: First stable multiplatform release.

(By the way, earlier thread from the Linux-only days: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pa-alternative-launcher-v0-4.64944 )

Have all the likes Makes installing PA on Linux *much* easier when your not using Steam too.

Just a quick question, I've just tried this out on Windows 8.1 and it didn't list any of the mods I've got from PAMM, when I ticked 1 of the cheats it created a new directory where I guess the program is expecting the mods to be, so I'm guessing that this is a bug?

So, @DeathByDenim , I was JUST THINKING (this is crazy) about making a thread about the lack of a patcher and disfuncitional game icon for linux (again). https://forums.uberent.com/threads/ooo-icon.65845/

@jables when can we expect both of these?

this game is past 1.0 and claims to support linux on steam and a number of other websites. How is this acceptable?

It's intolerable to work under the assumption that a linux user (or linux users working together) will come up with a way to utilize the tarball provided on the website.

It's UBER's job duty for having claimed linux is supported.

as death pointed out he doesn't have windows, so he didn't even get to test it, it's great to know it runs at all!

this, however is helpfull information and may ultimately lead to a fix. did you find any other issues?

Oh, could be. Like I said, no Windows to test it on.
But yeah, that's a bug. What's the new directory it created and what should it have been?

Well, to be fair, it does have an icon and an installer for Linux on Steam.

"I was JUST THINKING (this is crazy)", ha, that's rather ambiguous.

Just run a virtual machine ya silly wizard. =)

Ha, I don't want to buy a Windows licence just for this. If Windows users want this, they'll just have to help me. Wine only goes so far.

fair enough , for reference I extracted the program to my desktop and here's the file structure it then created: C:\Users\Phill\Desktop\PAAlternativeLauncher\Application Data\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\server_mods.

I've just been looking this up for you should you find it of interest as it may help: http://www.askvg.com/list-of-environment-variables-in-windows-xp-vista-and-7/

the %LOCALAPPDATA% also works on windows 8.1 too

Windows 10 works fine and Its free. ;P

Or you could pirate windows 7.. But I digress. X3

that NEVER happens to me!

when I do my head starts to hurts and I don't like that!

or OR, he could just ask me for a key (of which I get an unlimited amount as an informatics student in france) (shame I'm a linux fan I guess......recently I found myself trying to frantically dig up my win8 key that I purchased legit (15$, though) so that I could set up my emulation, when I remembered ... i don't give a crap I've got tons waiting for me right there on dreamspark, so that's what I did)

Well I did test it for him on Windows 7 and solved a stupid network issue by reporting back! I think the mod support is new though.

Edit: where does PAMM install mods to? Just pointing the launcher to that folder should fix the problem, no?

Yeah, exactly. I just made a typo in the Windows path probably. Though I think I also misused a Qt5 function that's supposed to do all of the localappdata path finding stuff for me, which is probably why the path that s03g reported is so wrong. (Thanks, @s03g !)
I'm not sure if %LOCALAPPDATA% is expanded correctly when using the Qt5 functions though. It doesn't like "~" under Linux either for example. I'll try to fix it later today, though I need to get my hands on my spouse's Mac again to up the version number in the Mac binary. (which may also have this bug on non-English installs)

No problem, glad to of helped

If they operated under the assumption that linux users will produce their own patcher, they operated under the correct assumption, as this thread demonstrates.

My graphical launcher stems in part from UberWilliam's Linux launcher, which is command-line based:
https://bitbucket.org/papatcher/pap...45155b238fd42ee34fcc8/papatcher.go?at=default
So, they do in fact have a launcher for Linux (for just under a year now). Open source too. It's just well hidden for some reason. Dunno why. I made this one because I am just a sucker for GUIs.

Yeah I don't see the issue. I only used linux for PA servers and I in fact could select between MULTIPLE command line patchers even month ago.
Yes only command line, but if you use linux and you don't want command lines then you are on the wrong OS anyway. Well or you are good enough to make your own fancy UI, as DeathByDenim demonstrates.

The launcher looks great anyway. I wonder if it is less buggy than the uber one on windows, as that one:

- uses 100% CPU and GPU for some reason
- really _loves_ to fail on first tries, I tend to smash the validate button a lot by now.

It definitely doesn't do 100% CPU and certainly no GPU at all. It only uses all of you CPU cores to do the verifying (if you hard drive is fast enough). It also downloads while it's still verifying the other files. I don't know if the UberLauncher does that. Anyway, built for speed.

And I've never had a fail on first try either. and I use it all the time.