[hristobg]

Hi, fellas!

I need your help. Okay, first of all, I have absolutely none knowledge of coding in Delphi, Visual Basic or whatever software it is.

I'm still a beginner and I need help. I want to create a simple launcher for my GTA San Andreas game (mod). Just, maybe, a few
features - a button that leads to the official site of the mod, list chooser (I have to explain it more detailed) that loads two different files.

Okay, you didn't get what I said, right? I love to explain myself with examples. Okay, this launcher is planned for ENB Series. I have
enbseries_low.ini and enbseries_high.ini. In the launcher I want a list that chooses which file to load, before starting the game, '_low'
is for users that uses weak computers and '_high' - for the powerful one.

I don't want the final users to manual rename enbseries_high to enbseries, just game to work, I want that launcher to automaticaly do it for them.

Hope you understood me well, because my English isn't very good, as you see...

Thank you in advance!

Regards,
Christo

[Andrew]

So you basically want an application that renames some files and then loads the game?

CODE

Using System.IO; File.Move("oldfilename.ext", "newfilename.ext");

CODE

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("gtaiv.exe");

The two snippets of code to rename and launch the game.

[hristobg]

Using Virtual Basic, right? I have no idea where to put that code, but I'll experiment. Thank you.

EDIT: After the game is closed, I guess the file will remain with it's new name. Maybe there should be something like checking before renaming.

Regards,
Christo

This post has been edited by hristobg on Thursday, Sep 15 2011, 18:38

[Andrew]

That's Visual C# code, not visual basic.

You can make the launcher wait until the game exits and then perform clean up back to normal

[hristobg]

Which program can I use for that program language?

[Andrew]

You can download Visual C# Express 2010 from Microsoft for free. -> http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-u...ditions/express

[hristobg]

Thank you, Andrew! I'll try it out and write if I have a question.

Regards,
Christo

[Andrew]

Not a problem, you'll probably want two command buttons on a form and a textfield to allow them to set the path to GTAIV, however you can pre-set this by checking if the file exists first. I'll be happy to help as much as I can.

[hristobg]

Thank you very much for offering your help! I was wondering is there a way to read from the registry and search where the game (actually is San Andreas, but doesn't matter) is installed, so there will be no need to add the launcher into game folder. But, I guess, I should test my skills first, gain some experience with this software, then asking about that.

This post has been edited by hristobg on Thursday, Sep 15 2011, 18:58

[Andrew]

it is entirely possible to read from the Registry, if the register for SA does store the path to the game then this would be even easier than checking the files.

CODE

RegistryKey saKey = Registry.LocalMachine.CreateSubKey ("SOFTWARE\\Rockstargames\\saetc"); if (saKey != null) {   //key found get value String sPath = saKey.GetValue ("path")); }

[hristobg]

As I said earilier, I have none knowledge and I'm completely new to this kind of stuff ( ), so I want to ask you another question. I have button 'Start' and I pasted the code you gave me. The path is SOFTWARE\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\Installation and the key in which is writen the installation path is 'ExePath'. I pasted all that in the code box which appeared after double clicking on the button 'Start' that I've created. And then... I failed. It says there is some error when I try to start the application, maybe I just need to watch more tutorials. And I have some radio buttons (high settings, medium settings, low settings), but they're just useless, they have no operations. I don't know how to check which radiobutton is choosed. I know, I sound as a total retard now to you...

EDIT: Looks like the program thinks the RegistryKey is unknown, also, I simply tried that code:

CODE

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("gtaiv.exe");

^ I changed the .exe path, builded the project, pressed the button that this code was relative to and nothing happened.

Regards,
Christo

This post has been edited by hristobg on Thursday, Sep 15 2011, 20:21

[Andrew]

Radio buttons are fairly simple to do each button has a checked property, so if you're setting some value to say what its loaded IE a path.

CODE

String path = "some path here"; if(radiohigh.Checked) { path = "highpath"; } else if (radioMed.checked) { path = "medpath"; }

The error messages are normally pretty good about what's going wrong, post the error message and I'll be able to help you.

[hristobg]

Okay, one guy helped me a lot with coding, he choosed to paste the needed files into \debug\ folder and from there to copy them into San Andreas folder. Everything was fine in Debug mode, but now I want to build it into application. How can I do that? I selected - Publish -> Publish "xxx" and the wizard created an installer. I don't want installer, also the included files for San Andreas in debug folder were missing. How can I build stand-alone application without installer, but with included files for SA in it.

[Swoorup]

You can set in the release mode and then the exe will be in the release folder.

[hristobg]

I don't understand what you mean...

[K^2]

The compiler works in two modes. Debug mode and Release mode. In Debug mode, a lot of additional error-checking code is added to the output. It's helpful if you know how to use it, but it will be generally useless in final program.

This is all part of the project settings.

[nightwalker83]

Hi,

I recently rewrote my program Xassist in VB.NET (was originally written in VB6). Anyway, most of the code is the same as to what is written above. PM me if you would like the code. Last time I posted the code here I was yelled at.

[K^2]

You got "yelled at" for posting a source to something that would have been more useful as a binary download. There is nothing wrong with posting source code if that's what the discussion is about. But yeah, in this case, it's probably better kept to PM. It looks like hristobg has the coding portion covered anyways.

[nightwalker83]

QUOTE (K^2 @ Monday, Sep 19 2011, 21:39)

You got "yelled at" for posting a source to something that would have been more useful as a binary download. There is nothing wrong with posting source code if that's what the discussion is about. But yeah, in this case, it's probably better kept to PM. It looks like hristobg has the coding portion covered anyways.

No, that is not why I was yelled at, it was a thread I started! The reason I was yeleld at was because I didn't realize the not everyone on here would have access to VB6.
On the other forum I frequent they only allow posting source code to protect the user from dangers that might be in the compiled files. Yeah, although, I personally think Andrew would have been better teaching hristobg VB rather than C# since it is a bit easier to understand if you are new to programming but whatever. I know how to code in C# I have a bad habit of going back to VB6.

This post has been edited by nightwalker83 on Monday, Sep 19 2011, 11:26

[K^2]

Back in the days, when C# didn't even exist and Visual Basic was up to something like 4.0, I remember something a university professor was telling to his introduction to programming students.

"It is ok if you know nothing about programming. It's much worse if you know BASIC."

Back then I programmed in QBasic and played a bit with VB. I knew enough C to get by, but haven't really gotten into it yet. I did not really understand what the hate was all about. Nor did I understand it after switching completely to C++. The phrase really gained clarity over time, as I learned processor architecture, wrote machine code on different platforms, some audio drivers, got proficient with C and C++, picked up a few more languages. It's true. Visual Basic is completely fine if that's all you are ever planning to do, but if you ever want to program something serious, any variation of BASIC is absolutely the worst choice for your first language. Yes it's easy. Yes, you can teach it to someone who've never programmed in less time than any other language. But damn, does it mess you up! I'm not even sure I can point to a specific problem with it. It just makes you used to doing things the wrong way. The messy inefficient way. The kind of way that will make you want to cry every time you see a Dr. Watson window pop up. I remember that feeling when I was first learning linked lists and binary trees.

I honestly couldn't tell you if C# is any better in that regard. I suspect it is, but having grown up on BASIC, I can only make claims about pitfalls of that particular language.