AceCorp Launcher

[UndeadRyker]

GitLab repo: https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher
Latest version: https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases

Extra themes: https://gitlab.com/accensi/acl-themes

Sample screenshots of extra themes: https://imgur.com/a/5i6kK5T

It's like ZDL but focused on minimalism, functionality, and stability. Everything you need to know about using it is found in the README, or if you downloaded the program, by pressing F1 while it's open.

Main features:

• F1 brings up a help dialogue box that mentions controls and other miscellaneous features.
• .ZDL files can be dragged and dropped into the window to load ZDL load order presets.
• Launcher update notification capability. It'll alert you if there's a new version available which takes you to the download page if you confirm you want to update. On by default. Can be permanently turned off by setting CheckForLauncherUpdates to false in the config or clicking "No" on the update prompt.
• Drag and drop functionality for adding mods. DEL to delete mods. Dragging & dropping is the only way to add mods.
• Using Control+Scroll Wheel on selected mods moves them up or down.
• Double-click on selected mods to enable or disable them.
• .DEH files are automatically loaded if they're in the same directory and share the same name as a wad. They can still be loaded separately too.
• Notifies you if there are missing mods when the launcher initializes, a mod preset gets loaded, refreshed, or when an engine is started.
• Console with commands for more minor/situational features.
• Mod presets and launch presets are saved separately. This is useful for demo-recording and multiplayer sessions.
• Updating mods if they're from a Git repo. Note that this needs Git for Windows to work.
• Hovering over items shows tooltips. For mods, it shows the file path plus explanations for legends such as "[X]", "[???]", and "[UPD]".
• Context menu for mods with options such as opening to location or directly with SLADE, along with Git-specific actions.
• Themes. You can make them yourself or add premade themes to a "Themes" folder in the same directory as the launcher. There's support for sounds such as button clicks, hovers and more!

Requires .NET Desktop Runtime 5.0 (x64): https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/5.0

 

It's worth noting that I didn't make the launcher. I made most of the additional themes and offered testing feedback for Accensus (the developer). Regardless, this is open to feedback! Quality of life requests are always welcome. Remember that this launcher's core value is to be minimalistic, so please don't suggest anything that'll turn it into something like Doom Mod Loader.

Discord for feedback/support: https://discord.gg/DkvtWMpYDN

Edited December 28, 2022 by UndeadRyker : Updated extra theme previews link.

[Endless]

The themes are so pleasing to the eye! Lovely work and the launcher works quite well.

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.2.1 has been released:

• Fixed Git not being marked as found even if actually found.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.2.1

 

AceCorp Launcher v1.2.0:

• Added key combo to load files and folders recursively up to one level. Shift + Drag & Drop with a folder will load everything inside. Shift + Ctrl + DnD loads only the files.
• Note: This version has an issue with Git that's been fixed in v1.2.1 listed above. If you downloaded v1.2.0, please get v1.2.1 instead.

 

A minor update, but some may find this new feature useful. I know I will!

Edited July 10, 2022 by UndeadRyker : v1.2.1

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.2.2 has been released:

• Fixed changes made in the mod list propagating back to the items in the preset the item belongs to by doing a shallow copy.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.2.2

[heliumlamb]

i no longer able to save presets at all in v.1.2.2 - when i try to save a preset, it crashes.
this results in the following from the consolelog.txt
 

[23:33:33] Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

reverting back to 1.2.1 and doing the same does not result in a crash.

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.2.3 has been released:

• Fixed crash when creating a new mod preset.
• Fixed stack trace being completely useless.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.2.3
 

Thanks for the report @heliumlamb!

[heliumlamb]

about a month of use here, i think it is feedback time:
 

Spoiler

sorry in advance: i would rather be posting this in a public, searchable and indexed hyper-text transfer protocol Net-Zone and not a discord soup.

it is safe to say that this has usurped ZDL, which briefly usurped rocket launcher as my frontend of choice, despite being marginally feature light in comparison to each.

i like the very no-nonsense design, and the themes are fun!

"drag and drop only" is mostly a nonissue, and might only really an issue under 2 scenarios: at the very beginning, when there are no defined mod presets with files that can have their location opened externally in explorer by the launcher, and/or there is poor organization of a user's pwad collection (was the case with me before 2016, might be the case for some others, but using a frontend tends to incentivize more sensible wad and engine organization).
i almost miss being able to open up a "load file(s)" window, but if at least one mod preset is saved, and your pwads aren't all over the drive, right clicking on a file in the loader and going to "open file location" accomplishes something very similar.

the only thing i do not like so far is this:

despite appearance, only one of the four Chocolate Doom 3.0.1's listed here is Chocolate Doom 3.0.1.

this leads me to a possible feature request:
user defined engine names?
i would like to be able to know from a glance which one of the above is choco heretic, hexen or strife instead of guessing which one is which, or having to remember the order in which i added them in.

other than that? i have run into no issue so far with how it launches the dooms or other id tech 1 games and engines with any of the set parameters.

[UndeadRyker]

20 hours ago, heliumlamb said:

about a month of use here, i think it is feedback time [...]

[...] this leads me to a possible feature request:
user defined engine names?

Thanks a ton for your feedback! It means a lot to us! You'll be happy to know that there's a button to rename engines added now. In the dropdown menu, you select the engine you want to rename, and then you type into the naming field, and then you click [~] and voila, your selected engine will be renamed. We actually had it suggested before, and thought about it, but we've never really made a specific use case scenario for having multiple engines until you pointed out the whole assembly name thing not being changed for the Chocolate source ports. With that being said...

 

AceCorp Launcher v1.3.0 has been released:

• Added button to rename engines.
• Selecting an engine or any preset using the drop-down menu automatically focuses the launch button so you can immediately press enter to launch the game.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.3.0

Edited August 17, 2022 by UndeadRyker : Grammar.

[heliumlamb]

1 minute ago, UndeadRyker said:

Thanks a ton for your feedback! It means a lot to us!

thank y'all for this wonderful, lightweight doom utility!

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.3.1 has been released:
QoL:

• Automatically select IWAD and engine if they are the only one in the list.
• Clicking in empty space in the mod list moves focus to it.
• Always focus on the launch button unless explicitly desired otherwise.
• Check for missing mods on game launch.

Miscellaneous:

• Added message when switching IWADs.
• Added better error reporting on failure to load config file.
• More specific Slade error message.
• Minor clarification in help text.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.3.1

[PsyDOOMer]

Thank god, finally a launcher that doesn't feel like it's stuck in the mid-00s! While I know there are many current and still updating (I think) options right now, Acecorp feels like such a step up from ZDL and other launchers, it's not even funny. This will definitely become my de facto launcher for just about anything.

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.3.2 has been released:
Fixes:

• Fixed bug where removing an engine would try to set a new IWAD.

Miscellaneous:

• Slightly more detailed "open git repo" error message.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.3.2

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.4.0 has been released:
Highlights:

• Launcher now checks for updates on startup. Can be turned off. (But why?)
• Added SkipPullDialog to config. If set to True, "Check for Git updates" will always pull. Off by default.

Fixes:

• Fixed obscure crash when the engine has been moved but after it's selected.
• Fixed crash if copying an empty load order.

UI:

• Changed "launches GZDoom" to "launches selected engine" in F1 dialog.
• Changed "open file location" to "open location" in context menu.

Miscellaneous:

• Use Revision numbers for FileVersion now.
• Log which engine is being launched.
• Display full path upon failure to load configuration. (In some super rare cases, the config will fail to be found if the app runs as soon as Windows boots up. This would help Accensus debug it.)

Codebase:

• Refactored option creation to make it less boilerplaty.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.4.0

Edit: If you've downloaded v1.4.0, if you start the launcher without any internet, ACL will crash unless you turn off the check for updates feature in Config.xml. There will be a new version pretty soon that fixes this and other bugs, among some new features so please hang tight until then.

Edited December 12, 2022 by UndeadRyker

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v.1.5.0 has been released:

Features:

• Added InvertGameLaunchBehavior. Holding Ctrl will instead NOT close the launcher.
• Added AutoselectNewEngines and AutoselectNewIwads. Both are on by default.

Fixes:

• Fixed IWAD selections not being logged properly.
• Fixed having all mods disabled still passing -file to the args. Fixes failure to launch with Woof.
• Fixed crash when checking for update while offline. Also moved checking to a separate thread.
• Fixed defaults not being set properly for fresh configs.
• Fixed pressing Cancel in the "check for git updates" dialog pulling stuff anyway.
• Fixed console not scrolling to end if something is logged and the focus is on the console.

UI:

• Don't reverse selection order when range-disabling from top to bottom. Because it can't easily be fixed to respect direction after the list updates, just force top to bottom since it's more intuitive.
• Renamed Launch Preset to Command Line Preset
• Added logging for launcher updates.

Miscellaneous:

• Adding a range of IWADs will select the first one, not the last.
• When trying to open another instance of ACL, unminimize and focus the existing one.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.5.0

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.5.1 has been released:
Fixes:

• Fixed a critical bug where deleting a mod preset would replace the presets with the mod list.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.5.1

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v.1.6.1 has been released:
Fixes:

• Fixed IWAD renaming not sticking.
• Fixed underscores in names being replaced with whitespace due to parsing.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.6.1

AceCorp Launcher v.1.6.0 has been released:

Highlights:

• Added a command field for the launcher. Type 'help' in the field below the console for a list of available commands.
• Added play time tracking for engines, IWADs, and mods. Only active if the launcher is running. Use help playtime for more info. You can also right click mods to show their play time directly.
• Fully exposed all elements to the theme system.
• Added UI sound support for themes (and an option to turn them off). Not all of the official themes have them, but GoldSrc, Literature!, Jolly Peppermint, O Holy Night, Unreal Tournament, and Kentucky do! Not all themes may have sounds for all actions.

Features:

• Added IWAD renaming.
• Added PlayTimeTrackingThreshold to control when gameplay starts getting logged. The timer still runs, however, so once the threshold is reached, those five minutes (assuming default values) will get added in full.

Fixes:

• Fixed Autoload* options not being set to default properly.
• Fixed "open location" not working.
• Fixed crash when WindowResolution is set to bogus values.
• Fixed updating mods through the context menu being greyed out for repositories if the mod is disabled, along with other similar issues caused by the same thing.

UI:

• Removed the engine rename button and moved renaming to a command in order to unclutter the UI.
• Instead of just saying that a new version is available, display which version that is.

Miscellaneous:

• F5 now checks for newly added themes.
• Updated and reworded some of the stuff in the help text.
• Removed the "Path" suffix from *Path XML elements. Will NOT break configs.
• Replaced hardcoded newline characters with Environment.NewLine.

 

Extra AceCorp Launcher Themes was also updated:

• Updated themes to 1.6.0. Some themes have been removed.

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acl-themes

 

Updated Extra Theme Previews: https://imgur.com/a/5i6kK5T

Edited December 29, 2022 by UndeadRyker : Added v1.6.1 hotfix

[Doomber420]

how do i apply custom themes?

 

[No-Man Baugh]

On 1/16/2023 at 2:59 PM, Doomber420 said:

how do i apply custom themes?

 

There might be a better way, but what I do is move the themes from the extra themes pack (sounds and all) into the /themes folder that's created when you first open acecorp, then there should be a button below the pwad window that should look like a # and that's where you select your themes

[No-Man Baugh]

I've been liking this launcher alot! unlike most I don't have to burn out my retinas using it, and being able to create your own command line presets is more than welcome as it more than makes up for a lack of a dropdown to choose complevels as you can just make your own effectively

 

However I really don't like how the controlling the interface works, as it feels unintuitive and clunky. while this may be subjective; holding down ctrl while using the scroll wheel to adjust text size feels natural enough, but using it to push mods up and down the load order is whacky! it feels more natural to use the arrow keys for me or even dragging the mods with the mouse, but I do feel that there's an overreliance on function key combos to do basic funtionalities thuout this launcher so far.

 

But so far, that's really my only grievance with this. Accensus is doing some good work and despite what I said about interfacing: this has been my workhorse launcher for quickly loading up maps

[UndeadRyker]

AceCorp Launcher v1.6.2 has been released:
Fixes:

• Fixed selecting stuff in combo boxes also playing ClickMod sounds.

QoL:

• Allow arrow keys for moving mods up/down, but still require Control. [This is because normal scroll/arrows have default Windows behaviour and it'd be even more unintuitive to override that.]

https://gitlab.com/accensi/acecorp-launcher/-/releases/v1.6.2

 

On 1/16/2023 at 3:59 PM, Doomber420 said:

how do i apply custom themes?

What @No-Man Baugh said is valid, but personally, I use Git for Windows and clone the themes repo into the same folder as ACL. Then I rename it to "Themes" so ACL properly reads the repo with zero problems. That allows me to easily update all the themes. That saves the trouble of having to download the entire .zip and replace all files every time there is an update to the themes. Granted, that won't work as efficiently if you prefer to only keep the themes of your choosing from the repo.

 

3 hours ago, No-Man Baugh said:

However I really don't like how the controlling the interface works, as it feels unintuitive and clunky. while this may be subjective; holding down ctrl while using the scroll wheel to adjust text size feels natural enough, but using it to push mods up and down the load order is whacky! it feels more natural to use the arrow keys for me or even dragging the mods with the mouse, but I do feel that there's an overreliance on function key combos to do basic funtionalities thuout this launcher so far.

The combo keys, and in general the heavy reliance on the keyboard are there in order to prevent UI clutter, plus it would be counter-intuitive to override default Windows behavior. As a matter of fact, simply pressing the arrow keys can change your selection, which then the Ctrl+Arrow keys will complement the new feature nicely. We appreciate the feedback!

Edited January 29, 2023 by UndeadRyker

[Ersim]

How do I link a github doom mod to use AceCorp to update the mod file?

[Xerenogan]

Looks neat.

I take it that the reliance on .net means there isn't going to be a Linux version?
Just thought I'd ask.

[UndeadRyker]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:05 PM, Xerenogan said:

Looks neat.

I take it that the reliance on .net means there isn't going to be a Linux version?
Just thought I'd ask.

Accensus (dev) response: Likely, but mostly because I have no way to test compiling for Linux. But it uses .NET 5 so it should technically run fine under Wine despite using WPF. But with no way to test that I can't say if it's true or not.
 

On 5/5/2023 at 2:51 PM, Ersim said:

How do I link a github doom mod to use AceCorp to update the mod file?

You need to have a repo folder added in the load order that's been cloned through Git for Windows. ACL will automatically use Git for Windows while pulling updates so there isn't any manual "linking" involved on your end.

[Xerenogan]

On 5/10/2023 at 5:24 AM, UndeadRyker said:

Accensus (dev) response: Likely, but mostly because I have no way to test compiling for Linux. But it uses .NET 5 so it should technically run fine under Wine despite using WPF. But with no way to test that I can't say if it's true or not.

I should have asked that better. What I meant was, a native Linux build.

I'm aware of wine. For me, wine is not a solution. I appreciate the suggestion though.

 

Still looks cool. Thanks for the reply.

Cheers :)

[RevanTCO]

Can AceCorp Launcher use .ogg files for custom skin sound effects, or can it only use .wav?