Rewrite/Redesign

[Zedb0T]

The modlauncher works but it hasn't aged well and a lot of its issues are starting to become very obvious.

Here I will be updating a list of issues I would like to solve with a rewrite.

• Move away from using the Mod creator as a key value for sorting mods, while this is nice and maybe we can filter on it, it doesn't make much sense to show the same mod when you select 7 different modders.
• Linux Cross platform should be solved from Day 1
• Consider how we will approach adding support for Jak 2/3, and hopefully be prepared when they launch
• Add an internal Identification key/string for mods in the JSON, this way we can change the displayed name without the launcher thinking its a "new" mod.
• Consider moving away from pysimpleGUI. Not required as it does have quite a few benefits, but maybe the benefits don't outweigh the negative limits/approaches it forces?
• read settings from a file? I feel like we shouldn't limit users to C:\Users\NinjaPC\AppData\Roaming\OpenGOAL-Mods If its not needed, however maybe it makes troubleshooting and such easier. Maybe we can just provide a clearer way to access this folder?

[dallmeyer]

For 1 and 4, here's a reoriented JSON for the mods, definitely open to feedback before I try to rework the UI with this
https://github.com/OpenGOAL-Unofficial-Mods/OpenGoal-ModLauncher-dev/blob/overhaul/resources/list_of_mods.json

[Zedb0T]

This looks good, however I kind of want to sit on it and think for 1-3 days and revisit it a few times. I don't want to rush into it and overlook something then have us be required to work around/support said oversight. At first look it looks great tho!

[dallmeyer]

One idea I was tossing around was allowing for any number of links setup as a dictionary (separate from install URL), something like:

"orb_hunt": {
    "name": "Orb Hunt",
    "desc": "Jak 1 but everything is all moved around! More info on the GitHub page",
    "contributors": [
      "barg034"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "gameplay-mod",
      "challenge"
    ],
    "URL": "https://github.com/dallmeyer/opengoal-orbhunt"
    "links": {
        "GitHub README" : "https://github.com/dallmeyer/opengoal-orbhunt/blob/main/README.md",
        "Video": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "Screenshots": "imgur.com/somealbum"
    }
}

But I'm not sure if there's a great way to then display that dynamic list of links on the launcher, so idk

[Zedb0T]

I guess we could have a drop down box then a "go"/"Launch" button?

Maybe do we want to support versions as well?
(Imo needed if we want to add speedrun leaderboards for flutflut legacy and such)
But we could also just provide speedrun versions of these mods as standalones

[dallmeyer]

Doesn't hurt to include version, though imo for the purposes of verification we should probably just piggyback on the existing speedrun HUD display GOAL-side within each mod that supports speedrunning

[Zedb0T]

One idea I was tossing around was allowing for any number of links setup as a dictionary (separate from install URL), something like:

"orb_hunt": {
    "name": "Orb Hunt",
    "desc": "Jak 1 but everything is all moved around! More info on the GitHub page",
    "contributors": [
      "barg034"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "gameplay-mod",
      "challenge"
    ],
    "URL": "https://github.com/dallmeyer/opengoal-orbhunt"
    "links": {
        "GitHub README" : "https://github.com/dallmeyer/opengoal-orbhunt/blob/main/README.md",
        "Video": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "Screenshots": "imgur.com/somealbum"
    }
}

But I'm not sure if there's a great way to then display that dynamic list of links on the launcher, so idk

I guess we could have a drop down box then a "go"/"Launch" button?
Store each link as Display Name/URL pair

I am not sure if you replied as I was adding this lol

[dallmeyer]

maybe we should just support specific link types, e.g. readme_faq_link, video_link, photo_link and use dedicated icons?