TTDPatchAutoInstaller

[eis_os]

And more:

[Menno]

very nice!

I'm really looking forward to this

[Yoeri]

maybe this will help my to get TTDpatch working afterall....

[krtaylor]

Great!

I can think of some additional helpful things, like a brief text description of what the GRF files each are, or preset groupings for them (ie standard stuff everyone needs, optional stuff, etc.) But it's a wonderful progress!

[eis_os]

As you may see, I already have some problems with the default grfs,
if the grf is found in dir newgrf but not in the config I already add a additional text. The pages you see are created on the fly, so it's not that easy to support more than the basic set. On the other hand it's A LOT easier to support different versions with it, with different grfs.

I have currently some other important stuff not finished, Config Presets for TTDPatch.

Currently I have no idea what would be the best settings, I have mind:

Basic set
- nothing changes really at the gameplay

TTDPatch Basic
- adds only small changes how TTD changes in gameplay: with Presignals, bus stations, higherbridges, canals...

TTDPath Advance
- feederservice, PBS

Realistic Settings
- needs to balanced well so even Users that don't play much can use it.

[Hyronymus]

Something else that could be done by publishers of GRF sets it to change the settings to meet the GRF requirements (startyear, maglev/monorail). With each update of TTDPatch these settings might be overriden though if the person installing TTDPatch chooses to override the current configuration to benefit from the new (not GRF-related!!!) patch option. That could become quite annoying in some situations.

[DaleStan]

Create folder: D:\Game\TTWin95\newgrfw
Create folder: D:\Game\TTWin95\newgrfw
Create folder: D:\Game\TTWin95\newgrfw

Besides the fact that that's not the canon name for the newgrf folder, is it really necessary to create the folder at least three times?

Does it check for dxmci.dll too?

[eis_os]

Hyronymus:

Sorry, can you repeat, what do you mean?

It's not possible to make everyone happy, I don't think I am able to actually support more then the basic stuff. I am willing to spend more time to have a better experience when someone would create the cfg files...

DaleStan:
Everytime it needs to install a grf it creates the dir where the grf will be installed. The installer looks in an existing newgrfw.cfg. Say there is an entry with grfs201/nsignals.grf then the installer tries to create the dir grfs201 and extract the zip file into this dir and not in the standard newgrf folder

The dir newgrfw is a bug in the code, that is already fixed.

Currently there is no dxmci.dll check... and I haven't planed to add one.


I try to make the installer as easy as possible and seamless with an already installed TTDPatch. I have spent a lot time in it, (I would have some newroutes testcode already if I wouldn't work on the installer)

[orudge]

Looking good so far.

[Oracle]

That looks very promising!
I think it would be helpful to do something like Hyronymus was saying, though - for example not giving people startyear 1930 or 1920 if they haven't installed an appropriate graphics set first: that's often a cause of newbie questions. However, I think that making this installer change all the relevant config settings for any given graphics set is too complicated for what it's supposed to do.

[spaceman-spiff]

I will use it

[Hyronymus]

Hyronymus:Sorry, can you repeat, what do you mean?

Yes I can.

If you install TTDPatch with the installer feature 'overwrite existing config' it might accidentily change settings you need to use certain GRF sets. You're right about not being able to please everyone but I thought it won't harm mentioning though.

[eis_os]

Thats why it's called new configuration. The default behaviour is to keep the old configuration if ttdpatch.cfg is found.

-edit-
Ohh and the multiply creation of already existent dirs is fixed aswell.

[eis_os]

TTDPatch Config needed:

If you think you can contribute some config for the categories mentioned here let me know, maybe attach it even:

Basic set
- nothing changes really at the gameplay

TTDPatch Basic
- adds only small changes how TTD changes in gameplay: with Presignals, bus stations, higherbridges, canals...

TTDPath Advance
- feederservice, PBS

Realistic Settings
- needs to balanced well so even Users that don't play much can use it.

[DaleStan]

These three (especially basic.cfg) reflect my personal preferences, but I've tried to stay within bounds. They are not intended to be particularly readable, rather they are intended to be as small as possible; transmitting four of TTDPatch's ~30 KB canon config files seems a bit excessive.

Realism is not particularly my thing, so I'll leave that config file to someone like Raichase.

[eis_os]

Thanks for shareing

Actually the config files are in a zip file, so white spaces don't do much harm

[Aegir]

In that case, nice commented configs would be a good thing, right? Since afterall, the user will have to learn how to alter the configs eventually, and having no comments will be a severe disadvantage.

[eis_os]

The config files will be merged via TTDPatch and written by it, so the comments should be even translated to the right language

[eis_os]

Status report:

Most stuff is finished. Currently there are no real balanced config files,
neither was the config creation system ever tested, the versions checking if the installer is outdated isn't yet finished.

md5sum checks seem to work ok...

[DaleStan]

The config files will be merged via TTDPatch and written by it

I suspect this is an unnecessary suggestion, but I'd recommend -!o+ing when canonizing those configs, so the switches are all in alphabetical order, and hopefully easy to find.