Since this has nothing to do with FTB, I thought I'd bring this up in the general chat forum.
Basically, it's a launcher that has been out a while, but almost no one has heard of it. They took some ideas from various sources, and came up with what I think is a pretty darn good product. Most of the changes are on the 'back end', but some of these impact users as well.
It's got a really interesting way of setting up instances, particularly with regard to mods which do not give permission to include in mod packs. The problem here is that in most cases, the mod author either a) wants people to hit their web page where their donate button is, b) want to go through their adf.ly page so they can maintain their website, or c) Want to keep an accurate accounting of how many downloads for their mod.
ATLauncher respects all of these things. What it does is actually quite cute: Instead of the launcher downloading mods from the mod pack itself, it reads which mods are being included in the mod pack (which also gives you the ability to provide 'optional' mods which some users might enjoy and some might not), then it downloads them. In cases where it can automatically download the mod, it does. In cases where it requires user interface (ad.fly pages, a request by the mod author to hit their main page before their download page, etc...) then it automatically pops open the relevant page in your browser and asks you to download it manually. Then you click on the button, indicating that you've done so. At this point, it checks to be sure you downloaded it to the right place. If you have, then it goes on to the next mod. If not, it asks you to download the mod again. This can make it appear to be an infinite loop at first, because it is asking you to download the same mod over and over again.
This solves everyone's problems. Mod packs can include mods which traditionally restrict or prohibit inclusion into mod packs because it is the end user downloading the mod themselves for their private use, which is kind of the whole reason for mods to exist. Users can play in such a mod pack together on a serer with these mods and not worry about problems installing and configuring.
In essence, it is something like MMC's Config Pack importation process, only it also automatically points you to the website to download the relevant mod when you don't already have it in the correct folder. Mind you, it doesn't automatically download it if there's something like ad.fly or other process which requires user interface, only if it is open source and available on something like GitHub.
This also dovetails nicely with one of the other great features... delta updating.
Okay, quick terminology definition: Delta represents the change in state in the referred datum, and is represented by the greek symbol Delta which looks like a triangle. You'll see it quite a bit in physics, with phrases like 'Delta Vee' or 'the change in velocity' , to represent acceleration or deceleration.
Basically, the launcher looks at the mod pack's file, and checks it against all of the files it currently has. If there are any differences, it will initiate the download method, either requested manual or automatic as the situation requires. This means that updating a mod pack doesn't (necessarily) mean downloading the whole mod pack, just the parts that changed. So in a mod pack with 80+ mods, and three of them updated, it only grabs those three mods and continues right on its merry way. I'm sure you can see why this makes updates much faster.
Because the mod pack files don't contain any mods, but merely information concerning version numbers and configs, and it stores all of the downloaded (either manually or automatically) all of the mods in the same folder, creating a new instance with a different mod pack which has many of the same mods is much faster as well, because it sees that it already has those mods downloaded, so it doesn't need to download them again. This not only saves space on your hard drive by not needing a dozen copies of the same file, but it saves time and hassle as well.
It's an interesting launcher with a lot of features. I'll definitely be using it, if for no other reason than for ResonantRise. And I'll probably start development on ShneekeyCraft and ask the team if I can include ShneekeyCraft on ATLauncher as well.
Basically, it's a launcher that has been out a while, but almost no one has heard of it. They took some ideas from various sources, and came up with what I think is a pretty darn good product. Most of the changes are on the 'back end', but some of these impact users as well.
It's got a really interesting way of setting up instances, particularly with regard to mods which do not give permission to include in mod packs. The problem here is that in most cases, the mod author either a) wants people to hit their web page where their donate button is, b) want to go through their adf.ly page so they can maintain their website, or c) Want to keep an accurate accounting of how many downloads for their mod.
ATLauncher respects all of these things. What it does is actually quite cute: Instead of the launcher downloading mods from the mod pack itself, it reads which mods are being included in the mod pack (which also gives you the ability to provide 'optional' mods which some users might enjoy and some might not), then it downloads them. In cases where it can automatically download the mod, it does. In cases where it requires user interface (ad.fly pages, a request by the mod author to hit their main page before their download page, etc...) then it automatically pops open the relevant page in your browser and asks you to download it manually. Then you click on the button, indicating that you've done so. At this point, it checks to be sure you downloaded it to the right place. If you have, then it goes on to the next mod. If not, it asks you to download the mod again. This can make it appear to be an infinite loop at first, because it is asking you to download the same mod over and over again.
This solves everyone's problems. Mod packs can include mods which traditionally restrict or prohibit inclusion into mod packs because it is the end user downloading the mod themselves for their private use, which is kind of the whole reason for mods to exist. Users can play in such a mod pack together on a serer with these mods and not worry about problems installing and configuring.
In essence, it is something like MMC's Config Pack importation process, only it also automatically points you to the website to download the relevant mod when you don't already have it in the correct folder. Mind you, it doesn't automatically download it if there's something like ad.fly or other process which requires user interface, only if it is open source and available on something like GitHub.
This also dovetails nicely with one of the other great features... delta updating.
Okay, quick terminology definition: Delta represents the change in state in the referred datum, and is represented by the greek symbol Delta which looks like a triangle. You'll see it quite a bit in physics, with phrases like 'Delta Vee' or 'the change in velocity' , to represent acceleration or deceleration.
Basically, the launcher looks at the mod pack's file, and checks it against all of the files it currently has. If there are any differences, it will initiate the download method, either requested manual or automatic as the situation requires. This means that updating a mod pack doesn't (necessarily) mean downloading the whole mod pack, just the parts that changed. So in a mod pack with 80+ mods, and three of them updated, it only grabs those three mods and continues right on its merry way. I'm sure you can see why this makes updates much faster.
Because the mod pack files don't contain any mods, but merely information concerning version numbers and configs, and it stores all of the downloaded (either manually or automatically) all of the mods in the same folder, creating a new instance with a different mod pack which has many of the same mods is much faster as well, because it sees that it already has those mods downloaded, so it doesn't need to download them again. This not only saves space on your hard drive by not needing a dozen copies of the same file, but it saves time and hassle as well.
It's an interesting launcher with a lot of features. I'll definitely be using it, if for no other reason than for ResonantRise. And I'll probably start development on ShneekeyCraft and ask the team if I can include ShneekeyCraft on ATLauncher as well.
