JFSW Launcher

[ProAsm]

For those that are interested here is my JFSW Launcher which I made.
The Multiplayer sections has not been tested but should be ok.
The rest I use extensively and will always be updated as need be.
I will add it to my website asap, just just check there.
http://proasm.totalconversions.com/

Download PlayWang:
http://www.unreal.co.za/files/other/pwl.zip

Taken from the text file:

PlayWang - A launcher for JFSW - (c) ProAsm 2005

Installation
------------

Unzip the files into your SW folder and double click on PlayWang.exe
Once running you can click on the little yellow "lamp" icon to create a Desktop Icon.

Files are:
PlayWang.exe - PlayWang.ini - PlayWang.cfg

Maps
----

Create a folder called Maps off your SW folder and put all your maps in this folder.
If there are any maps that have extra Art, Sound or anything, then the extra's should be
either in a GRP or ZIP file, but the map must be present.
In these cases the GRP or ZIP file must have the same name as the MAP file.
For instance Amazon.map and Amazon.zip
Playwang will uatomatically pickup and display the maps in the Maps folder and when a
map is selected, PlayWang will go and have a look if it has a corresponding GRP or ZIP.

Addons and TC's
---------------
Create a folder off your SW folder and call it Games.
In this folder put all the GRP / ZIP files that contain the various TC's and Addons.
In the main SW folder the is a file called PlayWang.cfg
This file shows what is in the Games folder as follows:

[PlayWang.Games]
TC_01_GameNAME=Taiwang
TC_01_Game_GRP=Taiwang.grp
TC_01_Game_MAP=
TC_02_GameNAME=Lo Nukem
TC_02_Game_GRP=Lonukem.grp
TC_02_Game_MAP=

To add more just copy and past and increment the TC_nn
The GameNAME= is a friendly name that you give the TC
The Game_GRP= is the name of either the GRP or ZIP file
The Game_MAP= is sometimes used when a TC only has one map and you can start from the map.

GameTypes
---------

1. SinglePlay
This is when you play the computer monsters etc.

2. Host
Here you can start a Multiplayer game and be the Host of the game.

3. Join
With this option you can join a current Multiplayer game.

NB. When either the Host or the Join is selected, a Config button is visible to add
various information like: Nickname, Port Number, Number of Players and Server address.
The necessary files WangHost.ini and/or WangJoin.ini will be created in your SW folder.
You can either edit these files or use the Config menu.

PlayWang.ini file
-----------------
[PlayWang]
SwFilename=Sw.exe

In some cases other SW ports or modified SW can be set here for PlayWang to use.

LastPlayedTC=0
When you start up Playwang and if you keep your TC's in the same order the cursor
will land on the last played TC.

LastPlayedMap=0
Same as above but for the maps.

SkillLevel=3
This just stores whatever Skill you selected.

Initialized=True
Just that this is not the first time PlayWang has started.

[PlayWang.History]
This will store the last 16 maps played.
These maps are visible if you click on the far right top icon.

Map and TC Coloring
-------------------

By rightclicking on any selected map or TC, you can select an option
on how you judged the map to be.
Yellow - Excellent
Green - Good
Blue - Fair
Red - Bad
Voilet - Stuck or confusing
Teal - Multiplayer only
White - Restore to None.

[hitman71]

excellent, downloaded and gonna set this up now.

[hitman71]

Hmmm. User maps work fine. I really like the colouring scheme for marking favourites or wangbang only and rating them. Very nicely laid out frontend too...

But TC's just don't load. i placed the jonoF versions of 11 TC's in the Games folder (inside the SW folder) and edited the playwang.cfg file to show the last couple i added.

Do i need the batchfiles in with the grp files ? Does it matter that the txt files are in there as well ? I tried all 11 TC's, none seemed to load and all i got was the standard levels. Any ideas ? Does the sw.grp file need moving to the Games folder ?

[GOK]

Proasm?? Ben?? From SWgrp fame?? Hope so, because we need to talk about getting Wang Bang Heaven Maps/art form swgrp's grp file for repackaging into something usable in JF's port.

Geoff - aka GOK from 3D Ozz

[ProAsm]

Hi Geoff, check ya PM

But TC's just don't load. i placed the jonoF versions of 11 TC's in the Games folder (inside the SW folder) and edited the playwang.cfg file to show the last couple i added.

The Playwang.cfg file was already correctly edited for some of the TC's and should work just fine.
Makes sure you not just putting the zip file which has the grp and bat files inside.
For instance the files needed in the games folder are:

C:\JFSW\Games\Amazon.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\Amazon.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Amazon.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\InTime_Readme.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\InTime.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\InTime.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Lastwar.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\LastWar.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\LastWar_Readme.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\Lonukem.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\Lonukem.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Lonukem_Readme.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\Rampage.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\Rampage.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Rampage_Readme.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\Taiwang.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\Taiwang.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Taiwang_Readme.txt
C:\JFSW\Games\Tne.bat
C:\JFSW\Games\Tne.grp
C:\JFSW\Games\Tne_Readme.txt

And for the above the PlayWang.cfg file should look like this:

[PlayWang.Games]
TC_01_GameNAME=Amazon
TC_01_Game_GRP=Amazon.grp
TC_01_Game_MAP=
TC_02_GameNAME=Lo Wang in Time
TC_02_Game_GRP=InTime.grp
TC_02_Game_MAP=
TC_03_GameNAME=The Last Warrior
TC_03_Game_GRP=LastWar.grp
TC_03_Game_MAP=
TC_04_GameNAME=Lo Nukem
TC_04_Game_GRP=Lonukem.grp
TC_04_Game_MAP=
TC_05_GameNAME=Rampage Warrior
TC_05_Game_GRP=Rampage.grp
TC_05_Game_MAP=
TC_06_GameNAME=Taiwang
TC_06_Game_GRP=Taiwang.grp
TC_06_Game_MAP=
TC_07_GameNAME=Tonight Never Ends
TC_07_Game_GRP=Tne.grp
TC_07_Game_MAP=

The launcher does not need the bat file.

[hitman71]

D:\Shadow Warrior\Games

could the problem be a space in my shadow warrior folder name ? Or the fact its over 8 characters ? Or maybe that its on D: instead of C: ?

Like i said, i followed the instructions correctly. I made a folder as above. I added all the grp and txt files. (didn't add the bats, and i unpacked them from the zips). I have 11 TC's so i edited the playwang.cfg to add the last 1. Wangtrek at no.11.

I'm guessing its the space in the path.

edit// YEP. DO NOT have a space in the path or TC's won't load. You might want to add that to the readme. My path is now

D:\SWarrior\Games

for the grp files, and they are loading fine now.

[ProAsm]

mmm that is interesting about the space.
It must be a C++ problem as Windows accepts spaces.
Maybe its a SW problem as it does stem from DOS.
I'll look into it - thanks for the input.

[djimd]

Could this be fixed by simply putting "" somewhere in the cfg?

[hitman71]

Hmmm, i think the path is hardcoded into the launcher. It uses "the folder its in/games" as its path to the grp files. No path stored in cfg or ini.

[ProAsm]

I used to have a path stored in the cfg but removed it to simplify things.
Its now hard coded to "Currentfolder + Games" like so:

GamesPath = ExtractFilePath(Application->ExeName) + "Games\\";

[hitman71]

ProASM, could you retest the TNE TC in your launcher please. I tried to play it tonight and it fails to load. If it works ok for you would you be able to temporarily reupload it so i can grab it again. Thanks.

[ProAsm]

Yeah I started on it - will finish it tonight as there are several textures which are now in the wrong places.

[hitman71]

"testures in wrong places". Would this cause the previous uploaded version to not work ???

All others that you've done have been fine (so far), this is the first to fail. I'm using your launcher and JonoF's port.

[ProAsm]

Try this - it works great here.

http://www.unreal.co.za/files/temp/Tne.zip

NB: This file is only valid for 24 hours after this post.

[hitman71]

i love the intro part of this... working great now. I'm gonna test all the rest now

test done...

Twin Dragon is another failed loader.
Wangtrek fails too (was this one of mine ?) and i'm sure it was fine without the launcher.

[SamSwashbuckler]

The only thing I tried was WangBang, which I couldn't get working. The ol' problem where it launches the game in a command prompt, it throws an error, then the prompt closes in an instant so you can't read it.

[ProAsm]

Yeah wangbang is the least of my worries atm, I'll have a look at that when I get time

[SamSwashbuckler]

If it even works in JFSW. I asked Jono and it's got the same code in place as the old dukematch, so it MIGHT work, but I couldn't get it going.