FTB Launcher News

[jikuja]

Would the FTB team be angry if someone took what's available behind the scenes for the FTB launcher and adapted it to another? Sans branding, of course.

FTB Launher is open source.

I ask because I'd be...interested in such a thing, if nothing else than as a personal project to kill time and learn things.

I don't recommend unless you are learning how not to code.

At this point, there is nothing that's attracting me to Curse Voice. When the unbranded FTB.jar becomes available I will switch to that instead; And will continue to promote that one, if it allows download/launch/etc without a site login.

I hope you noticed that it will have only old third party packs which have not moved to curse. Source: "We still plan to make a bare bones version of the launcher stripped of all branding and FTB content available for those packs that remain on the client and cannot move for one reason or another."

 

[RavynousHunter]

XD There's still some useful parts to it, I'm sure. Maybe not the spaghetti code, but some functional parts would, no doubt, be at least somewhat useful. Also, didn't know it was open-source. I assume there's a GitHub for it or something, so I'll Google it and see what I find. Thankfully, I know enough to spot bad code without much trouble, even in Java.

 

[Watchful11]

XD There's still some useful parts to it, I'm sure. Maybe not the spaghetti code, but some functional parts would, no doubt, be at least somewhat useful. Also, didn't know it was open-source. I assume there's a GitHub for it or something, so I'll Google it and see what I find. Thankfully, I know enough to spot bad code without much trouble, even in Java.

If you wanna work on a launcher, I would definitely recommend multimc. Our launcher is a mess, the code is a mess, the backend is a mess, the gui is a mess. MultiMC is way better and could really use some expansions.

 

[jikuja]

Maybe not the spaghetti code, but some functional parts would, no doubt, be at least somewhat useful.

Well functional parts are also the spagetti code. Almost everything has dependency to GUI states which makes testing and reusability nonexistent. I have some code which reuses FTB Launcher's code in my github: https://github.com/jikuja/MyLuncher/ Goal was to make CLI launcher for FTB instances. It "works" for me but not recommended to use. (it has hardcoded paths including my username )

tldr: there is nothing which should be reused in any project. Except if your projects' goal is to teach how to make untestable code.

 

[SatanicSanta]

Would the FTB team be angry if someone took what's available behind the scenes for the FTB launcher and adapted it to another? Sans branding, of course. I ask because I'd be...interested in such a thing, if nothing else than as a personal project to kill time and learn things. I'm really not looking forward to having yet another launcher for modpacks when FTB already has one that works relatively well and has good exposure, but whatever. So long as I can disable the "communication platform" nonsense, if I want to communicate with people in-game, I'll use in-game chat, I'll be okay. Maybe have an option to kill Curse once everything is started up, like how FTB does it.

I mean, the launcher is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. All you'd have to do is state the changes you've made and include copyright notices.

https://github.com/Slowpoke101/FTBLaunch

 

[Sungak]

In my experience you have to load any launcher before you can change it's settings.

Also, posting comments on the Curse launcher would probably be better served by making them at Curse, not on FtB.

Valid points, though with all the common branding on this site (including the big button below) I thought I *was* on Curse. I was also under the impression that the various Curse sites used Single Sign-On across all of them, due to the same common branding. If that's not the case, then my apologies, and please direct me to where I should be forwarding these suggestions.

As for launchers, that is correct for Minecraft itself, which I agree on (and was probably not clear about). My concern has always been the lack of a settings menu after startup, but before logging in (even the vanilla MC launcher has this). So when I decided to not create an account (yet), the only way I was able to not have it start with Windows bootup was to uninstall.

I hope you noticed that it will have only old third party packs which have not moved to curse. Source: "We still plan to make a bare bones version of the launcher stripped of all branding and FTB content available for those packs that remain on the client and cannot move for one reason or another."

Yes, I did. Most of my interest has been on old or matured/completed packs anyway (my favorite is still Wanderlust Reloaded). The newer trend I see with most packs (involving extensive manual grind or complications) is not possible for me, unfortunately, due to hand/wrist issues. And I'm not afraid to make my own private packs (or tweak existing ones back into working order) the old fashioned way.

Three years playing Eve Online (as a miner) kinda does that to ya, having the journey be more exciting/stressful than the result sometimes. Just my idea of getting there tends to be different...

 

[RavynousHunter]

I mean, the launcher is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. All you'd have to do is state the changes you've made and include copyright notices.

https://github.com/Slowpoke101/FTBLaunch

Eeh, I wouldn't copy + alter. I don't touch Java if I can avoid it; it and I have an...understanding. I'd likely adapt it into C# + WPF. Makes the UI easier to setup and doing code-behind is perfectly familiar territory. Mostly what I want/need to know is how to interact with minecraft.jar and authentication. Other than that, I can do most of the other stuff on my own.

 

[Techly88]

Eeh, I wouldn't copy + alter. I don't touch Java if I can avoid it; it and I have an...understanding.

I bet their intended purpose to build it on Java is to spare the need for anything else but Java+Minecraft to run the launcher and the game. Why require the user to install more "craps" if you could make it run under the same thing (in this case solely operate everything under Java) right?

 

[RavynousHunter]

I bet their intended purpose to build it on Java is to spare the need for anything else but Java+Minecraft to run the launcher and the game. Why require the user to install more "craps" if you could make it run under the same thing (in this case solely operate everything under Java) right?

Ideally, one's installer should handle that on its own. Besides, at most, the only thing extra one would need is .Net 4.5, which anyone with the latest service pack of Windows 7, or anything after it, can get easily. But, again, it really ought to be packaged with the installer to save user frustration and/or annoyance.

Of course, this might just end up being a personal thing that never sees the public. I mean, I could put it up on Sourceforge, but it barely has anything in it, currently, so it wouldn't really be worth setting up a repository for it, just yet. 'Sides, I just...don't like Java. Its a personal thing.

 

[vSp1d3r]

This is a real bummer for me as I utterly hate the curse launcher, the only redeeming quality it had was an uninstall feature. I guess once the FTB launcher goes away I will be switching over to AT-launcher, sorry FTB.

Yeah i agree, the curse launcher is horrible, i can't even launch modpacks at all without it crashing.

 

[Hambeau]

Ideally, one's installer should handle that on its own. Besides, at most, the only thing extra one would need is .Net 4.5, which anyone with the latest service pack of Windows 7, or anything after it, can get easily. But, again, it really ought to be packaged with the installer to save user frustration and/or annoyance.

Of course, this might just end up being a personal thing that never sees the public. I mean, I could put it up on Sourceforge, but it barely has anything in it, currently, so it wouldn't really be worth setting up a repository for it, just yet. 'Sides, I just...don't like Java. Its a personal thing.

Anyone who plays anything else in addition to Minecraft most likely has .Net 4.5 already, as almost all of the AAA games that run on Windows are written in C++.

 

[RavynousHunter]

Anyone who plays anything else in addition to Minecraft most likely has .Net 4.5 already, as almost all of the AAA games that run on Windows are written in C++.

That's not necessarily true; that'd only be completely true if they were written using C++/CLI, since that compiles into .Net's CLI bytecode, which you need the framework to run properly. If compiled natively, the most they'd need is the Visual C++ runtime, which a lot of them do require. Now, if they were almost all written in C# (or VB.Net or F#), you'd be right on the money.

 

[John.E]

Yeah i agree, the curse launcher is horrible, i can't even launch modpacks at all without it crashing.

I guess everyone's experience varies. I haven't had a single crash with the Curse Launcher and have been using it for at least 6 months.

 

[Hambeau]

I guess everyone's experience varies. I haven't had a single crash with the Curse Launcher and have been using it for at least 6 months.

I've been using it since the beta was made public. After a month I removed FtB completely and never looked back, since all the "official" packs were available via Curse, I didn't have to figure out what director(y/ies) a mod I wanted to add to a pack needed to be installed in, Mods are sorted by compatibility with the Minecraft and Forge versions selected when I decide to add more content, and if I decide I don't want to use a mod all I have to do is change a tick-mark in the mod list to disable it until I remove it completely (for testing).

I've also started building my own packs to play more in depth with custom configuration using a minimal number of other mods.

All in all, for me it's a better customization experience.

 

[SadieRocks]

I have to create an account with curse? WHAT THE HELL!!!??? I didn't have to do that with FTBLauncher. This is stupid!

 

[Mindfeak926]

I've been using it since the beta was made public. After a month I removed FtB completely and never looked back, since all the "official" packs were available via Curse, I didn't have to figure out what director(y/ies) a mod I wanted to add to a pack needed to be installed in, Mods are sorted by compatibility with the Minecraft and Forge versions selected when I decide to add more content, and if I decide I don't want to use a mod all I have to do is change a tick-mark in the mod list to disable it until I remove it completely (for testing).

I've also started building my own packs to play more in depth with custom configuration using a minimal number of other mods.

All in all, for me it's a better customization experience.

This ........I LOVE the Curse launcher, have been using it for a few months now, it is much easier to edit mod packs... i have also created my own personal pack with it which i could never do with the FTB launcher. Never had a problem with it crashing, So what if you need to create an account.... it's free and takes like 1 minute to do. I don't undersatnd what all the whining, moaning and complaining is about if you don't like it , shut up and play another game. Done.

 

[RavynousHunter]

My problem with having to log in is that, from what I'm reading, you can't access basic functionality, like changing settings, without doing so. Sure, getting an account takes no time at all, but that's not the point. The point is that the whole thing reeks of bad design. The only time you want to do that is if you're storing settings server-side, which you should only do if your game is primarily online, which a third-party Minecraft launcher is not.

Moderator edited

 

[RavynousHunter]

Moderator edited
Again, personal thing. I am, in all likelihood, not going to release this publicly. Even then, I don't develop cross-platform unless I absolutely have to, and if I wanted to, I could probably port the lot of this to Mono with little to no effort. There's also the fact that I have no non-Windows machinery that aren't smartphones or tablets (which are Android), so I couldn't test cross-platform compatibility, even if I wanted to.

Once more, all this would be, at the absolute most, is a proof-of-concept that I can tinker with to get a better understanding of general launcher design. If I decide to release the source, you can adapt it however you want. Port it to Mono, rewrite it in x86 assembly, I don't care. My project is not aiming to compete with FTB, Curse, ATLauncher, Technic, or whatever third-party Minecraft launchers are out there, it is purely a personal project I am using to better understand the fundamentals of launcher design.

 

[jikuja]

Why should he? Why the hell would he want his personal project to run on a system he doesn't need it for?

I left some hardcoded usernames in my personal launcher experimentation => it works only with people running windows with sama username. I must be even more worse than RavynousHunter

 

[Pyure]

I left some hardcoded usernames in my personal launcher experimentation => it works only with people running windows with sama username. I must be even more worse than RavynousHunter

My version* only runs at specific times of the day and only if you're a resident of Canada.

*hypothetical