Port of the SWGChoice Launcher to a generic format
This work will include the following:
- Split the text update routines into a seperate module file and make reusable.
- Split the xml and configuration routines into a seperate module file and make reusable.
- Split the MD5 routines into a seperate module file and make reusable.
- Create manifest routines in a seperate module and add human readable translations.
- Split the file download routines into a seperate module file and make reusable.
By creating these modules code that is common between the manifest tool and the launcher can be readily shared which will improve maintainability and speed tool creation.
The original thought was to make the code as portable as possible. This concept has been abandoned but reusability is still a priority.
So instead of storing some configuration information in an XML config file the program will store the information in the Microsoft Windows Registry. But since the information will be put and gathered using functions the functions can be modified to use the original XML configuration file scheme simply by changing just the function code.
With this change the relationship between the launcher and the game code will be removed. In the SWGChoice version of the launcher the instal and execute code of the launcher required that the game code be installed in the same subdirectory that had the launcher. The requested location to install the game will now be requested and stored in the registry for future use.
Based on research the SOE installer stores the path to the game in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\StarWarsGalaxies\Path" and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\SWG_Client\Path". This was observerd with a clean install of Windows 10 and then installing from the original 3 CD set.
The installer will set up the following Registry entries: (The value of should be changed for each SWGEmu game provider.)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\Version The version of the Launcher HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\URL The URL to use to get Launcher files HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasTest Yes/No answer to if the server has a seperate Test Server HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Game\Version The current version of the Game client files HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Game\URL The URL to use to get Game files HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Game\Patchnotes The URL to use to get Game Patchnotes HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Game\Status The current Game status information URL HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Game\Path The current location of the Game executables HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Test\Version The current version of the Test client files HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Test\URL The URL to use to get Test files HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Test\Patchnotes The URL to use to get Test Patchnotes HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Test\Status The current Test status information URL HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Test\Path The current location of the Test executables
Interesting Update:
After wasting an entire day trying to cause the Patchnotes and server status windows to toggle between the live and test servers I discovered a problem with the Visual Studio WebBrowser widget. It uses the actual browser configuration for several things. If the browser is set like mine you can not update the URL easily. So I converted the status and Parch notes windows to use the RichTextBox widget.
I decided to go with rtf for several reasons.
- It could be readily edited using winpad so no need to purchase an editor.
- It would be trivial to change the sample get status code to generate rtf instead of html.
- I was using Microsoft Word to edit the Patch Notes and saving it as html so it would be trivial to save it as rtf instead.
- Just like html the rtf format supported setting font, font size, text color and decent formatting so nothing would be lost.
Launcher Buttons
The Choice Launcher had buttons for Launching a browser to show the EULA, Launching the Profession Calculator, Launching a browser to the forums, Launching the game configuration and Installing or repairing the install.
I have decided to add registry entries to determine if these buttons should be displayed and what they do. The game configuration and Install/repair buttons will always be there so only the other three will be configurable.
The new registry entries are:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasForum Is there a forums HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\Forum The URL to the forum HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasCalc Is there a Profession Calculator HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\Calc The assumption is that it will be Kodan's calculator and installed locally This is the path to the executable Eventually I can check to see if it starts with http: and if it does then launch the default browser to the URL HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasEULA Is there a EULA for this server HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\EULA The URL to the EULA. The user should have a copy to view even if the server is off line so this will be stored in the Launcher Directory. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\readEULA Flags if the user has read the EULA. This is presented after each update to the EULA and when the game is installed. Set to Yes for accepted and No if declined.
Update
Removed the registry entry for the local copy of the manifest file since if it is used it will be copied into memory. Now it is copied directly into memory and not cached locally. Since this code, unlike the Choice server code, checks the version instead of blindly rechecking the checksum there is no performance to be gained by keeping a local copy.
The manifest is a CSV file with four fields.
Field 1 = Relative path to file or directory Registry entry Field 2 = Action Flag Field 3 = Action 0 - 1, 6 - Comment Action 2 - 4 - MD5 Checksum Action 5 - String Value for registry entry
Flag - Action
0 = Delete file or directory if it exists This flag is allocated to allow for cleaning up a directory. For example it was decided to merge two .tre files and this was used to remove the now unneeded file.
1 = Directories to create These are directories to create to speed up the initial launch of the game.
2 = Verify Legal Copy All files with this flag must exist in the SOE install directory and match the provided checksum for the launcher to consider a legal copy to have been installed.
At install time the files are copied from the SOE directory to getGamePath().
At verify time if the file in getGamePath() does not match the checksum the
file is copied from the SOE directory if the SOE install directory has not
been removed. An additional test will be done at verify time with files
copied from the install directory. They will be tested to see if they are
undamaged and match the checksum. If the SOE install directory has been
removed to save disk space or does not match the checksum it is then
downloaded from the game server.
One additional note. The various retail distributions included more and more
of the .tre files to speed up the install by downloading fewer files from
the server. The original distribution disks included the following .tre files
which are checked to verify a legal distribution:
bottom.tre
data_animation_00.tre
data_music_00.tre
data_other_00.tre
data_sample_00.tre
data_sample_01.tre
data_sample_02.tre
data_sample_03.tre
data_sample_04.tre
data_skeletal_mesh_00.tre
data_skeletal_mesh_01.tre
data_static_mesh_00.tre
data_static_mesh_01.tre
data_texture_00.tre
data_texture_01.tre
data_texture_02.tre
data_texture_03.tre
data_texture_04.tre
data_texture_05.tre
data_texture_06.tre
data_texture_07.tre
default_patch.tre
patch_00.tre
patch_01.tre
If you want you can also add the following client executables to
this catagory, but most were updated for versions of the client
that were shipped between the initial disk and Publish 14.1. If
you add them to this catagory they probably need to be in
catagory 2 also so that you make sure that the correct version for
the client is downloaded with the client.
The Launcher manifest has no need to use this action.
3 = SOE static files This catagory is all of the client executables, dlls, config files and executables associated with Publish 14.1.\
SOE layered .tre files so that each new publish that had additional
items in the .tre files added new .tre files. It is recommended that
SWGEmu custom servers continue to use this philosophy.
Files in this catagory will be checked to see if they exist in the
SOE install directory. If they do and match the checksum they will
be copied instead of downloaded to speed things up for people with
later versions of the install disks or still have their fully installed
directory from when they played the live game.
The Launcher manifest has no need to use this action.
4 = Server extension files For servers that are adding items to their server this is the catagory for lumping the additional .tre files.
It would also be used for the server specific swgemu.cfg, swgemu_live.cfg,
swgemu_login.cfg, swgemu_preload.cfg and user.cfg files. These will
exist in a legacy SOE install directory from when the game was still running
but will also not neccisarily match your SWGEmu server. They may even be
different between the play and test versions of the server. All of these
are reasons to place them into this catagory.
The Launcher manifest would use this for supplemental files, like a
profession calculator stored in the launcher directory.
5 = Add new/Update existing registry entry
Only used by the Launcher manifest
6 = Delete registry entry
Only used by the Launcher manifest
7 = EULA. If the EULA has changed the readEULA flag in the registry is set to False and it is presented after the processing is complete. Otherwise it is treated as flag 4. It is always downloaded to the Launcher Directory.
8+ = Set aside for future use
To save disk space it is best to set up the swgemu_live.cfg in the Test Server path to point to the Game client directory for the publish 14.1 and other .tre files that you are not changing. If you make the Test Server directory a sub directory of the game client directory, as SOE did, the unchanging .tre files can be referenced by prepending "../" to each entry in the file.
If you decide to operate multiple test clients that are working on different things and needing different versions of files, you can have multiple sub directories in the game server directory.
When talking about install and verifying the game files I will expect that this is how the directories are structured. This system also means that for every file listed in the swgemu_live.cfg file as being taken from the game client directory it can be ommited from the test client manifest. This will make the install and verify for the test client go faster in addition to saving disk space.
At start the version of the launcher will be checked to see if it needs updating. If the launcher needs updating it will download and update the launcher.
If the game client has not been installed there will be no check of the local version against the server version. The install verify button will be labeled Install.
If the game client has been installed the local and server versions will be compared and if the server version is newer than the local copy the manifest will be downloaded and the client updated.
Since not everyone will want the test server client installing is a three step process.
First the play client must be installed. Second the launcher must be set to test server using the tool bar button. Third the Install of the test client will need to be done.
The robust test for a legal copy of SWG is done as part of the play client install so it is reasonable to use a successful install of the play client as a quick test for a legal copy when installing the test client.
Since the static .tre files up through Publish 14.1 only need one copy, the test Server will save space by pointing to those .tre files in the play directory. So the test client directory will be smaller as will an efficient manifest.
Since the owner of the SWGChoice server was a lawyer he wanted a clear End User License Agreement (EULA) for users of the server. Currently the SWGEmu servers Nova and Basilisk do not have a EULA that they present through the launcher. As a compromise having a EULA for the server is configurable.
When the Launcher is installed the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasEULA registry entry states if the server uses a EULA. If this is set an option to present the EULA is made visible and a EULA.rtf file is expectec to be in the same directory as the launcher executable.
If a server is using a EULA and wants to change it the process is simple. Change it on the server, update the manifest checksum for the file and change the launcher version number. This will cause the mannifest to be downloaded and only the EULA.rtf will not match the checksum so it will be downloaded. If a new EULA has been downloaded the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\readEULA registry entry will be set to No and the EULA will be presented to be read and accepted again before the launcher will launch the game.
If a server is using a EULA and wants to stop using it the process is similar. Change the Launcher version file so that the manifest is downloaded. Change the entry for the EULA.rtf file flag from 7 to 0 to have it delete the EULA.rtf file. Then create an action 5 registry flag for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasEULA to "No". The option to read the EULA will be removed and the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\readEULA will not be checked.
If a server is not using a EULA and wants to start using one the process is easy. Change the Launcher version file so that the manifest is downloaded. Create an action flag 7 for the EULA.rtf so that it is copied down and use an action 5 registry flag for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE<SWG Emu>\Launcher\HasEULA to "Yes". The user will be asked to accept or decline the EULA.
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