Feature requests for TDM Installer Windows 2.0

[freyk]

At the moment I'm working on the second "stable" version for the TDM Installer - Windows.
I would like to hear from you the features you want to see in this version and your comments.

You can download always the latest version (TDMinstaller-win-v2-"version") from my google drive.

For now I working on the following features:

• a function to run the TDM Updater "inside" the installer.
• a fullscreen background slideshow for displaying user tips, during the TDM updater.
• an advisable minimum system requirements checker
  (trying to follow Doom 3 bfg and tdm's Known System Configurations)
• startmenu shortcuts for debugging beginners issues. (like shortcuts for a safemode, Reset to default settings and logcreation)
  (using temporary session settings, instead of saved settings.
  for example: instead of running tdm with argument "+seta something 1", i will be using "+something 1")
  

Added screenshots:

First screen, with background

Systemcheck attempt.

Updater "inside" tdminstaller and slideshow.

Edited September 4, 2016 by freyk

[SeriousToni]

The user tips I find quiet a nice feature, as they mostly lack in in game loading screens (and would especially help new players). But be sure to consider that there is also a function like "The installation has finished, do you wanna read another player tip?" like they had in the Thief 2 installation. I really loved it!

 

Thanks for building this installer - I must admit I never had to use it because I am already used to how TDM is installed & updated, but I think especially new players will LOVE this feature. So great work!

[Dragofer]

By the way, in the file strings/all.lang there's a set of 20 flavour texts for use when the mission is loading, translated into many languages. I don't think I've seen them used anywhere else than in Springheel's missions.

 

 

The term 'thief' can cover anyone from the drunken thug who beats a beggar for his alms, to the merchants who smuggle kidnapped children to sell to southern slave dealers, to the sophisticated burglar who slips in and out of a merchant's townhouse.

 

Being part of a thieves' guild provides the same basic benefits as any other guild: insurance, training, and tricks of the trade.

 

If a merchant pays protection money but they are robbed anyway, they are not likely to pay again. This is the main reason why independent thieves are not tolerated within a guild's territory.

 

thieves are brutish thugs who threaten shopkeepers for protection money, or smugglers who move and sell illegal goods. Sophisticated burglars are quite rare.

 

Theft and burglary are considered serious crimes, usually punished by branding and mutilation. Theft of Church property is dealt with even more harshly.

 

Thieves guilds are not usually large. Small guilds have only a handful of members, and even the largest have less than a few dozen. Thieves are generally too shifty and selfish to maintain large organizations.

 

Almost all sea trade is offloaded in the city for transfer to riverboats, which sail up the river Tyne to other ports in the Empire. Bridgeport is the most cosmopolitan city in the Empire...if you can't find it in Bridgeport, it can't be found anywhere.

 

Guild memberships, official appointments, tax exemptions, personal favours for friends and family, blatant extortion and bribery, and bending the rules for personal benefit are all tools that powerful groups can use to manipulate their surroundings.

 

Vast and sprawling, most who live there go their whole lives without seeing just how expansive it is. Having been built and rebuilt over the centuries, much of the city is a confusing maze of narrow streets and alleyways.

 

The wards on the eastern side of the river are connected to the west by two massive bridges: Northbridge and Newbridge. Riverboat traffic ferries travellers from one side to the other as well. Smugglers often use ferrymen to avoid paying hefty bridge tolls.

 

The Builder Church is deeply intertwined with the politics of the Empire, and the bishops of the Church vie for power with the most powerful nobles.

 

The Builders do not rule over cities or secular territory. They have authority in religious matters, but in Bridgeport the Lord Mayor and civil courts handle secular laws.

 

Builders value order, hard work, and devotion. Destruction of property, sloth, and chaos are all great evils.

 

The main prophet of the faith, Amos, was given the 'One True Hammer' by God and used it to lay the foundation of the first church in the Holy City thousands of years ago.

 

The Church divides its territory into dioceses (also called bishoprics) and each of these is ruled by a bishop or archbishop. These powerful figures are the equivalent of a baron or duke.

 

Builder monks occasionally dabble in invention and mathematics, but they are not engineers. If they want complicated machinery built, they must hire the appropriate guild like anyone else.

 

Below the priests are the cathedral guards. They defend Church territory, assist in establishing new monasteries, and sometimes enforce Church law. This position is a popular one with the lesser sons of nobility.

 

The Inquisitors are a separate order of Builders with their own internal structure. They are the keepers of orthodoxy, and handle the interviews and trials of all those charged with heresy.

 

Sometimes Builders will force ordeals on people, especially heretics, for the good of their souls. Other people mistakenly see this as 'torture'.

 

Metal is a symbol of man's dominion over the elements, and metal is heavily used in Builder clothing and architecture.

 

 

Edit: also 13 gameplay tips:

 

Tip: Hit the Use key after frobbing a body to shoulder it.

Tip: Tap the Use key quickly to drop a flashbomb at your feet where it won't blind you.

Tip: Shoot water arrows slightly above flames to douse them more easily.

Tip: Vines, pipes and chains can often be climbed.

Tip: Guards with helmets become immune to knockouts when they have their weapons out.

Tip: You can quietly slide down ladders by holding the Crouch key.

Tip: You can open doors a crack by frobbing them quickly when they start to open.

Tip: Mines can be triggered by hitting them with an arrow.

Tip: Leaning up against a door allows you to eavesdrop on the next room.

Tip: You can mantle while crouched to get into low areas.

Tip: Guards will sometimes relight candles or torches that have gone out.

Tip: Guards may get suspicious if important loot is missing.

Tip: Guards with their weapons out are more alert and pay more attention to their surroundings.

 

 

Thanks for developing this installer, it's a great idea.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Dragofer

[Destined]

By the way, in the file strings/all.lang there's a set of 20 flavour texts for use when the mission is loading, translated into many languages. I don't think I've seen them used anywhere else than in Springheel's missions.

 

Is it possible to show a random text/tip from this collection or is it always the same text on the loading screen?

[Dragofer]

 

Is it possible to show a random text/tip from this collection or is it always the same text on the loading screen?

 

That shouldn't be a problem, these gui files are like a cross between definitions and scripts. You could maybe assign a number to each text and roll a random number, though no doubt one of the coders has a more elegant solution.

[freyk]

I have some days ago i updated a new version of the tdminstaller v2 (v20160925).

It would be nice if someone has the time to test this version.

I would like that people test fullscreen backgrounds, the hardware detection, the start of the updater and the installer-background switches.

 

To do this do the following things.

• Download TDMinstaller-win-v2-bin-(versionnumber).zip from my google drive.
• unpack it and start it.

  check if the installer starts and if you see the tdm background.

• from the startscreen hit the buttons next and i agree.
• Then the "minimum hardware detection" screen appears.

  hit next-button and the hardware detection will start immediately.

  The info screen should appear in some miniseconds.

  (if it takes longer and/or the installer chrashes, please post your system specs).

• Check and compare your systemspecs with the detected one. Copy the text inside the detection info cell and post this in this topic (hint: use alt-tab).
• hit the next-button > next.
• you may change the install location, if you like. if you agree with the location, hit the install-button.
• Then the installer creates the folder, unpack the updater to it and starts it up.

  Check if the updater start and that the backgroundimage and -text switches.

• in the updater, hit the cancel button, are you sure > yes. The updater closes.

  Check if the installer appears again.

• then wait a few seconds until the installer progessbar is full, hit the next-button.
• hit the finisch button, remove the installed folder (selected at step 7 and created at step 8)
• TDMinstaller-win-v2-bin-20160925 places temporary installation files in de root of the c-disk.

  Some .bmp's and ico's. Remove these files

• please post your findings.

Edited October 2, 2016 by freyk

[Bikerdude]

We really need new users to test this.

[New Horizon]

I'm not seeing the file name in your drive that you mention above.

[freyk]

Its in the folder. Its easier to see, when you change the filedisplay.
I checked the permissions, but here is an "almost" direct link.

We really need new users to test this.

Thats not nessescary.
You can do it yourself, because this testversion doesnt touch the original tdm folder and files.
But getting new users are always fine.

Edited September 29, 2016 by freyk

[freyk]

Should i change the size of the backgrounds?

(personnaly, i dont like full screen installers)

 

Tested the installer with my system at work.

Some notes for myself:

• Remove white border on the right in the tdm background - old watch.
• The hardware dection needs work:
  Change label "diskspace" to "free disk space"
  Videoram info cel is alway red (also when it is ok)
  sytem ram info not correct.
  add required videoram to detection info.

Edited September 29, 2016 by freyk

[Destined]

I will test it this evening, when I find some time.

[New Horizon]

I don't mind the image size myself. Sorry I didn't get images to you. I'll try to do that soon. I had some PC issues but I've got a new system up and running now. I'll write up some tips for the slide show and send some relevant images.

[Destined]

I just tried to run the installer.

 

 

• Download TDMinstaller-win-v2-bin-20160925.zip from my google drive.
• unpack it and start it.
  check if the installer starts and if you see the tdm background.
• from the startscreen hit the buttons next and i agree.

This far, I had no problems.

 

 

Then the "minimum hardware detection" screen appears.
hit next-button and the hardware detection will start immediately.
The info screen should appear in some miniseconds.
(if it takes longer and/or the installer chrashes, please post your system specs).

 

Here I get two errors and the message at the top is cut off (see Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/out3aqnk9xj1qkn/Installer.png?dl=0).And btw: It's either "TDM isn't going to work" or "TDM doesn't work". You mixed these two up.

For the specs I get two Errors: one for Disk Size (161300389888 mb < 2.7gb) and one for Video Card Memory. The installer finds the stated amount of disk space (which could acutally be the 150 GB, but does not deem it enough, maybe there is an error converting mb to gb?). The system memory is detected as 2048 MB, while I have 16 GB and the video card memory is stated as 4 MB, which should be higher, although I cannot remember the exact value right now...

My Specs are

Windows 10 Pro

Intel i5-6600 CPU @3.30GHz

16 GB RAM

GPU: GeForce GTX 960

Available Disk Space: C: 150 GB, E: 19.2 GB

 

The install appears to work. However, the pictures change quite quickly (2-3 s), which makes it hard to find and read the tips. So far, there were only two pictures and tips, I am not sure, how many you inteded. The folder was created correctly.

[demagogue]

One issue I've seen for a while is that the animations (reverse IK maybe) for guards climbing stairs have them lifting their legs to dramatic heights for 8-unit high stairs, I think climbing them 2 stairs at a time. If it's possible to tweak this system without too much trouble, I'd say it should be tweaked so that walking/reverse-IK for AI looks most natural for stairs at 8-units high & 16 wide (climbing 1 step at a time at a normal knee angle), since I think that's the most common construction for DR grid reasons.

 

I have an idea that might not actually be an easy thing to do the way guard walking is animated, and may cause more trouble than it fixes, but I'm just reporting the issue I've seen. (It's probably been reported before too, since it's easy to see.)

[Destined]

This is interesting, I had the same phenomenon, when I made a ladder climbing animation. The steps of the TDM ladders are 20 units apart, but the feet were moved to shoulder height. It also resulted in the AI taking two steps at a time. For a mantling animation (height 44 units), I had the same problem. Turning off IK solved the problem, so this was definitely the culprit. However, I have no idea how the IK can be modified, as I have no idea hwo it actually works...

[freyk]

@All

For the people who didnt noticed already,

TDMinstaller-win-v2-bin-20160925 places temporary installation files in de root of the c-disk.

Some .bmp's and ico's. All these files are safe to remove.

(if you cant remove them, remove them as an administrator)

Execuse me, I will repear this in the next version.

 

@Destined,

Thank you for the testresults. I wil repair this.

 

 

@demagogue and Destined: please create a topic for that.

Edited September 30, 2016 by freyk

[Destined]

@demagogue and Destined: please create a topic for that.

 

Done

[Bikerdude]

Currently testing/installing this on my VmWare fusion Win10 virtual machine at work, because why not. I get to test the installer and see if the 3D perf of the latest VmWare fusion is any good.

 

I have the following feeback -

• Like Freyk, I dont like the full screen installer either. A single self contrained windows would be better IMHO.
• The first installer window, needs cleaning up. The 6 outline boxes should be remove just having the txt, and instead of OK/Bad reponses have green ticks & red croses instead.
• The message text in english had a few grammatical errors, @Freyk - If you like you can PM me a complete list of all the strings so I can have a look at these for you.
• One the tdm_update is running, the background imagine are changing far too quickly, atm its one every few seconds - once every minute is more than enough.
• Once I closed the tdm_updater, I never got taken back to the installer screen - another reason to have a smaller window etc.

[freyk]

Thanks for the replies.

I will take this in a new version.

 

But for now, I uploaded an update (v20161002) with some small fixes.

• fixed the "temorary files leak"
• changed at some installer-pages the size of the background images.
• the background switches at the updater stays full-screen, for now.
  Because when showing small background images, it shows a empty-background delay.

Get it from my google drive,
where i changed the content some bit, for a better overview.

Edited October 2, 2016 by freyk

[freyk]

I updated tdminstaller v2 (20161023) with some minor changes.

Changes/bugfixes:

• Added textlines variables in the sourcecode, so its easer to change and correct text.
• Removed white lines in oldwatch-background

I publisched the code and binary on my google drive.

And post the updated code on my github soon.

I pm'ed the lines to Bikedude for a grammarcorrection. If someone would like to help too, please pm me.

[Ankai]

Grammar check: "run well" or "run properly" instead of "run good".