New Launcher? Updates ?

[NooBxGockeL]

Hello people!
Im in love with what the FTB-Team has brought to us. All those awesome packs and especially the opportunity for small, independent modpack creators to reach a broad audience.

But let me come to the only issue i have with ftb. The Launcher.
The appearance is definitely not up to date with the website and look rather coded in a rush. Which it was if you read the post from slowpoke. (1)
But the post also states that there "should" be active development currently going on ?
Am i just too stupid to find updates or are there none ? (The post was 2013, we now have 2015 ?)

Im just always let down by the current or old launcher and dreaming of something like this:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/new-launcher-design-we-need-you.13318/page-16#post-215881

And my last question,
how do you exactly get into FTB ? I have enjoyed it so much and want to give back to the community. As i am an enterprise java developer i could code, but for example wouldnt try and create my own launcher if the FTB-Team doesnt approve.

~Markus
(Sorry for my bad english :/)

(1) http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/why-no-new-launcher.35040/

 

[Nerixel]

And my last question,
how do you exactly get into FTB ? I have enjoyed it so much and want to give back to the community. As i am an enterprise java developer i could code, but for example wouldnt try and create my own launcher if the FTB-Team doesnt approve.

The launcher's on Github, you could create pull requests on there. Whether they'd merge them or not is another question, but you could try. https://github.com/Slowpoke101/FTBLaunch

I'm fairly sure that the new launcher is being made by Curse, not FTB. Haven't seen any updates from Curse about their development either though, so there's not much that can be said on that end.
I seem to recall a thing a while ago where someone was threatening to create their own launcher cause they were running into a bug with FTB's one, and someone from FTB was like, "Eh, doesn't bother us. Don't break Mojang's rules and you're fine." I can't find a link to it though, so perhaps I just thought that up

 

[jikuja]

But let me come to the only issue i have with ftb. The Launcher.

Is there other issues than appearance. IMHO biggest issues are lack of instance support, slow startup and problems with various antivirus software.

The appearance is definitely not up to date with the website and look rather coded in a rush.

I have been contributing launcher commits ~year now and I can confirm that codebase is awful and probably quickly coded. E.g.: Everything has incorrect dependancies to GUI part => testing is really hard. Location of buttons, labels and textfields are hardcoded with absolute location. There has been commits which should make GUI rewrite easier but development has been slow. There was total rewrite of the launcher "FTB Launcher v2" but that project was abandonded.

how do you exactly get into FTB ? I have enjoyed it so much and want to give back to the community. As i am an enterprise java developer i could code, but for example wouldnt try and create my own launcher if the FTB-Team doesnt approve.

Code is in github but I would not recommend starting contributing anymore. New curse client is being developed by curse and some people have already got alpha access to than. Anyway 1.4.5 beta version can be found on launcher release channel or http://new.creeperrepo.net/FTB2/maven/net/ftb/FTB_Launcher/

Edit:
Anyway I want to say thank you to original devs and earlier contributor. Without their work there would not be launcher at all.

 

[jikuja]

I seem to recall a thing a while ago where someone was threatening to create their own launcher cause they were running into a bug with FTB's one, and someone from FTB was like, "Eh, doesn't bother us. Don't break Mojang's rules and you're fine." I can't find a link to it though, so perhaps I just thought that up

Be careful, be really careful. See e.g. discussions . There might be problems with mods which have redistribution rights for packs in FTB Launcher. And there might be pack developers who do not want their pack to be distributed via 3rd party launchers.

Edit: Also forgot to say. Current repo backend (probably) will be closed at some point after curse client is released.

 

[Nerixel]

Be careful, be really careful. See e.g. discussions . There might be problems with mods which have redistribution rights for packs in FTB Launcher. And there might be pack developers who do not want their pack to be distributed via 3rd party launchers.

Edit: Also forgot to say. Current repo backend (probably) will be closed at some point after curse client is released.

I figured if you know enough to build your own launcher, you probably know about mod permissions, even if you don't care about them.

 

[CoolSquid]

FTB has partnered with Curse, and will use the new Curse client when it has been released. The Curse client is currently in closed alpha, and is only available to a few modders/streamers (such as me ).

 

[NooBxGockeL]

Hm thansk for the info, i wasnt even aware of the curse situation thats going on...
Sad, but well, i might still create an independent launcher that can poll from all the popular sites.
Lets see how much time i have in the near future.

Thanks for all the answers!

~Markus

 

[Nerixel]

FTB has partnered with Curse, and will use the new Curse client when it has been released. The Curse client is currently in closed alpha, and is only available to a few modders/streamers (such as me ).

This is the first news I've heard that the Curse client is more than a planned model, nice to hear this