Tool Others Game Manager 2.17.12.7

[tid]

Thanks for the feedback!

The download button is a place holder, I don't know what it will be doing later.

I've made some UI changes :



The first screen allow to display more games in a single page. Soon I will get windev 24 and I will be able to make the right panel toggle-able.
On the second I removed the background image.

I like the idea of being able to mark a game as finished (for the current version). Your others ideas are good too, but I think I'll first release the new ui and put all this to my new server before starting anything new.

 

[CuddleBear]

Sounds good!
Yeah take it one step at a time and work on it, a wishlist is always long no matter what. (Hydrus is stuck with 1400+ ATM)
Such a program is always going to need a bit of work for every new idea and workflow people might have.
I think the 3 biggest things you can do short term is the mark as played/finished for the current version.
Easier importing of updates with client moving and renaming folders after rules set.
And a new sorting order to value new updates, not import time or last played. So sort by update date (which could be pulled from the site.)

My biggest issue is the importing workflow atm. It doesn't take long no. But when you hold off updating the client and have 80+ games you need to update like that.... then you really don't want to work with such a slow system.

 

[CuddleBear]

some bugs with auto-updating the content from your site too. for example some titles are wrong or has been changed. like, `The Intoxicating Flavor` is instead `The Intoxicating`which is incorrect obviously.
But if i have the client auto-update to obviously get the version number it will overwrite the title with the incorrect title.
Not all too many titles that has this issue, less than 20 i believe.



EDIT: limiting opening "games" to just extensions, html or exe files is a bit limited. Some releases is a pack after all and would make more sense to open the folder as is.

Not too familiar with with the game files but i would also think the exe would change between each release too right? if so then the hash value of that file would change with each update aswell. Testing is needed to confirm this across multiple types of games.
If each version is different then you could easily host the hash value on your website and setup the client to just calculate it locally and look up which exe it is.
Meaning you will get flawless matching of both the game and the version.

SWF flash files is a given to be unique. Unity exe files is also unique by the looks of it.
Renpy im not 100% across all titles, but that also can use the python files itself which is ALWAYS different.
Could have an overwrite to always check the python file itself instead of the exe for RenPy to be sure.
Such a system would require someone to actually get each release and map the hash to the game and version.
Might have to be user uploaded at that point and that should be in the client for convenience.

 

[tid]

I've made an option that tries to guess game name and version for ren'py games, but it's a bit long.

I could generate a hash for each game to identify them, but it means that I have to download each game it will take too much time and resources.

I'll check the bug you're talking about if you find other games tell me their names so that I could make some tests.

 

[CuddleBear]

Did try the folder import tool but that doesnt remove the folders already tied to a game.
Meaning all the folders and exe files i have already linked to a game is still there in the list. it gets really messy and un-usable frankly even when i click hide owned.



Working on that system a bit more to be more direct could be a thing.
Esp when the user is naming the folders just as the thread tread with title [version][creator] which should be easy to mark.
Im guessing this is using some sort of regex to match the title.
Many ways to do it.

I think the wanted usecase would be to drop the new folder into the "games" folder and allowing the client to either watch it at all times, and asking if you want to import it with a confirmation of the title and version.

If the same title is already there then it could also ask if it wants to delete the old one.

This could be done with a watcher to have it semi-automatically. Or have it manually with the manually started search as it is now (just less messy).

Would remove much of the usage gripes i have with the client so far, which is mostly down to updating and sorting the content i want (newly updated titles i might have played in the past.)


Hash values and such could be done by the guys that upload though, site wide rules for such a thing as identifiers.
But at that point GameList could be turned into some sort of an official F95 client... using the F95 servers more. But im just thinking openly here.

 

[tid]

The new site is online, nothing new for now I just transfered it :

You must be registered to see the links

I'm finishing the client new UI and when it's done I'll start making improvment to both the site and the client.

 

[contramundi]

Hey,

first i would like to say that i love the program, especially since it saves a lot of hassle in keeping tabs on the games i've downloaded of the the last few years.

i received the last update just now and the ui is a bit nicer, unfortunately you pushed the update out way too soon and a bit of testing before the push would've been nice

- browse f95zone works as intended

- owned works the same as f95zone (i reckon this should filter the games you own like the "owned" checkbox does?), the page works as soon as i use the checkbox but i guess that's not what the menu entry is for

- yours also does exactly the same as the 2 above. (guess this is the part where you should see the games you have and have a newer version? If so, you might want to rename it to Updates or something, yours and owned basically come down to the same thing.) same with the checkbox, kind of makes the menu entry obsolete.

- the tag window is not good, the background is making the text unreadable

- the "about" option throws an error




In the current state i can't seem to figure out how to easily see what games have been updated, and having only 4 games per page, with a couple of hundred games on my hd, it makes the program kind of useless at the moment.

Which brings me to a few feature requests

1) is it possible to add some sort of toggle to mark a game completed for the currently available release of the game?
2) is it possible to change the layout for the other menu's (owned/favorite/yours/etc) to match the one that's being used for the "browse f95zone" part? Instead of the 1 game per row / 4 rows layout being used now?
3) you mentioned the download button being a placeholder, maybe make that one replace the link to the f95 game thread.

anyways, keep up the amazing work, your program was a complete life changer for me ^^

also (and completely unrelated), i've noticed that some of the games i had where a higher version number than mentioned in the database, did a quick look and most of them where actually from f95zone, and the higher version number was mentioned in the thread but not in the game list, is there anywhere i can change these, or request a change for these in the database?

 

[tid]

1) It's a good idea, I'll do it soon
2) The layout of owned & co was a test I'll change it to the one used for F95Games
3) I'll think about it.

For wrong version number I'll try to make an option du report it.
The tag system is buggy, I'll correct this soon.

 

[3xpurt]

The colour scheme is looking good; dark-themed apps are great, but the glass theme makes reading horrible. Glass was way over-used in the Windows Vista era, which was over 10 years ago, and that was mostly on borders and those typical blue glass buttons; using it as a background is horrible on the eyes. I think you're better of using a single colour on all backgrounds and buttons, like most modern apps do, without all the shading and gradients (similar to F95 and popular modern apps like discord, and spotify), which won't age your app prematurely like glass and gradient themes will and it will be easier to add other themes, as you may want to consider having a standard white theme, like the previous app, and making a simple dark theme as an option.

 

[kansasdude]

when browsing by tag, is it possible to change font color to something easier to see?

 

[tid]

The colour scheme is looking good; dark-themed apps are great, but the glass theme makes reading horrible. Glass was way over-used in the Windows Vista era, which was over 10 years ago, and that was mostly on borders and those typical blue glass buttons; using it as a background is horrible on the eyes. I think you're better of using a single colour on all backgrounds and buttons, like most modern apps do, without all the shading and gradients (similar to F95 and popular modern apps like discord, and spotify), which won't age your app prematurely like glass and gradient themes will and it will be easier to add other themes, as you may want to consider having a standard white theme, like the previous app, and making a simple dark theme as an option.

Glass background should be removed (I have forgoten the tags window ), I'll add the ability to switch theme to my todo list.

when browsing by tag, is it possible to change font color to something easier to see?

It will be on this day update.

 

[tid]

I've found what to do with the download button: I'll rename it to install. It will let you chose an archive file and then extract it.

Options will be :
- One directory per version (eg: game_v1 and game_v2) if you don't choose this game will always be extracted to the same directory.
- Delete archive after extraction.

Of course, you will be able to choose the base directory in which all games will be extracted.

Edit : version 2.2 is online.

 

[CuddleBear]

install option sounds good for sure. im guessing it will either be select the exe and copy the base path and all its contents to the new location.

Looking up the folder name of the exe itself or the zip name.
extractions and such shouldnt be a huge focus as i would think most competent users would auto-extract on the download itself with the correct folder name.

i guess it could look up a few common methods with the filenames up against F95 and ask if its correct. manual queries if that fails.

I dont think individual game folders is the right way. i think gametitle/version/ would make the main games folder less messy in the end.
It should be customizable to cover all bases with certain tags.
Allowing for the user to write the path in their own ways as everyone got their own ways.
Allowing for say {Creator}/{Title}/{Version}/ having the keys be pulled by the metadata of the game.
At that point you might also want to use tags too as a key.

And while actually downloading the file might be a hassle to add to such a client and overkill.
Pulling the download links and allowing it to quickly be copied to the clipboard could be an option.
Esp with so many downloaders like JDownloader watch the clipboard.

An option to open the path of the game is also needed imo.
Another great addition might be mark as wanted for those that use the full database. allowing for browsing in the client and marking as wanted so you keep order over the games to download.

Notes: extracting the zips NEEDS to handle faulty folder paths inside the zip.
Far too many have multiple folders inside the zip instead of hosting the exe at the base of the zip.
An extractor should be able to handle this.
Also unsure how to correctly handle walkthoughs and other extra files.
if you did the title/version folder setup then all extra files like walkthoughs and patches could be in the title folder as it might cover more than one version of the game.

 

[contramundi]

got the latest update, tag list and the new changed layout on the other menu entries make the app so much more appealing ty

just curious, in the newer game manager how can i see (apart from looking through all the games info seperately) if a game in my list has an updated version on f95zone?

The best feature about the previous version for me was the way you could filter out the games in your list with an update available by simply toggling "owned" and pressing the "latest version" button.

 

[tid]

got the latest update, tag list and the new changed layout on the other menu entries make the app so much more appealing ty

just curious, in the newer game manager how can i see (apart from looking through all the games info seperately) if a game in my list has an updated version on f95zone?

The best feature about the previous version for me was the way you could filter out the games in your list with an update available by simply toggling "owned" and pressing the "latest version" button.

My bad, I forgot the "check updates" option, it fixed in the new version (2.3.1.2)

 

[contramundi]

My bad, I forgot the "check updates" option, it fixed in the new version (2.3.1.2)

wow, that's some fast work you deliver

i honestly thought the "yours" option on the left was going to fullfil that function, so now it makes me wonder what the difference is between the "yours" and "owned" options in the left menu?

 

[tid]

in yours you will find games that you added to your local database (they don't have to be listed here).

 

[CuddleBear]

Really liking the lastest updates. The UI is MUCH faster and responsive which is good!
Some design choices is a bit weird though, like all actions being in the lower left at all times with a messy layout.

Technically you wouldnt need those if there was a context menu (right click menu) or atleast an option for it.
Something to think about IMO.

Also seems like the delete button is gone, no way to delete installed or empty games in the database. (dont recall if the client asked you if you wanted to delete the actual game install folder when doing so too, asking is a good option for that)

As for the right click menu, to be able to Launch, Edit, Delete, Open Game folder in Explorer and open the F95 thread would make sense for there.
Also double clicking the image itself to launch is a must i think, caught myself many times already doing that.


As for changes in the UI, the page navigation and sorting order should be grouped on top with the searching itself to clean it all up. Either on the same line as the other search options or all the way on top in the same thumbnail panel as it is now.
And i do think right sidebar is still wasting too much space. My thoughts on having more tooltips to cover that info is still standing.

 

[contramundi]

I've got a small issue, one of my games has sort of been removed by the game manager, it was in the list before i restarted my computer and afterwards i got the following


Weird thing is, ACADEMY34 isn't showing up in the f95zone list either.

Now for my question, in the older client i could remove a game from the database, then it got newly added after a refresh, is this somehow possible in the new client?

 

[tid]

I've made an update to this game, if you refresh it should be added/updated on your list.

There is a bug with the "&" in "Young & Naughty" I'll work on it today, I'll also add a delete button somewhere.