Suggestion: Allow Game Access via Launchpad icon

[dirtyharry50]

It would be nice for some users who would prefer it to be able to access a game or games outside of Barrel and inside of Launchpad if they prefer.

I notice Steam for Mac does not store its Mac games in either the Applications or Home/Applications folders but does insert pointers to them in the user's home Applications folder so they automagically appear in Launchpad.

Some people like a client environment and some people want the simpler "standard way" and it would be nice to accommodate both groups in the future.

In doing this, the icon that appears in Launchpad should be the same icon used on the Barrel display pages, not the generic barrel of course.

I should add that I like the "client approach" here myself but I think it is wise to appeal to the broadest audience and more fully embrace standards too by doing what Steam for Mac does with this situation - giving users the best of both worlds.

[HiPhish]

In that case just use Wineskin, it creates standalone apps that don't need any client or manager application. http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

[ThanosSiopoudis]

This is a valid point. Barrel does create standalone apps that can work without the Barrel manager, and wineskin does not add the apps to Launchpad, unless you add them yourself

[HiPhish]

Wineskin apps do appear in the launchpad automaticaly like any other apps.

[ThanosSiopoudis]

They only appear in Launchpad if you have them installed in your ~/Applications path, like all apps. Anyway, this discussion here is for Barrel, and it can be implemented as an option in Preferences, it doesn't need to be enabled by default.

[HiPhish]

Right, I never use any folders other than /Applications and ~/Applications, so I didn't notice.

[dirtyharry50]

@HiPhish I read your comments and I think you might have missed the point of my suggestion. It isn't what I want personally and I did actually mention that. But I know there will be some users who while appreciating certain features and enhancements within Barrel may still want their finished results to be accessible in Launchpad rather than the Barrel app. So this could satisfy both groups of users nicely.

Barrel is a big step forward in making Wine accessible to the masses and it is also a step forward for those comfortable with Wineskin, where it will offer features such as pre-made ports that just work. How nice is that? Just because I know how to do this stuff does not mean I wouldn't love having it served up for me whenever possible, you know? People not fond of a client UI shouldn't miss out on this.

[HiPhish]

Id don't think barrel will have anything that Wineskin doesn't, and vice-versa. After all, they are all just frontends for Wine, and you will have to get your hands dirty one way or another. The only difference is in the end result: Wineskin creates standalone apps which can be distributed while Barrel uses a client to manage the finished games. It's like the difference between Boxer (like Barrel) and Boxer Standalone (like Wineskin). Neither is really simpler, it's just a matter of taste (thogh I bet Barrel will have a niver interface since it's copied from OpenEmu ^^)

[ThanosSiopoudis]

There's many more things I plan on doing with Barrel that Wineskin doesn't currently have. And you can use Barrel's bundles (at least you'll be able to do so more easily once it's 100% done) as standalone and distribute them in the same way you would use Wineskin's. Barrel also takes out all the setup issues with getting an empty pre-configured wrapper, and having the non-informed user setup the game and whatnot to get the game running. If you use Barrel, even in its current state, with a game that's been imported in the database, you'll see what I mean. Don't expect Mac users to understand what a "Setup", "Installation Wizards" C drives and everything that may sound easy for a windows user is, when they're used to just dragging and dropping an icon from their disk to their "apps" folder.

[HiPhish]

That sounds intriguing, but how are you going to accomplish this? Let's just assume I have a CD I bought off ebay (like Icewind Dale), how do you want to make Barrel know what Icewind Dale is, what the installer looks like and when to change the disc or how to decide what type of installation the player wants? if you can make it work like Drag&Drop that would b incredible, but I can't iamge this working. Windows gaming has had almost two decades of evolution and more often than not there was no clear rule for game developers how to do things.

[ThanosSiopoudis]

I never said I managed to take out the installation procedure. This still needs to be done. When a user uploads a recipe on the server, this recipe includes two identifiers. These are the name of the game, and the name of the volume. Now, next time a user uses the same disc, this will be picked up and Barrel will proceed with running the Setup.exe automatically. After the setup all winetricks that are needed are automatically installed, and the bundle is ready to run. In the event the volume identifier, or the name identifier are different, but marked as a positive match by the user (by doing a search and selecting) the identifier is (unobtrusively) saved for future reference. All generic identifiers, such as "setup.exe" are, of course, ignored. This works particularly well for gog games, as they use a non-standard name for their setup.exe and it's picked up successfully by Barrel. This works, now.

[HiPhish]

Sounds cool, but are you sure you want to host a server to cassy those recepies? I imagine it could get cluttered pretty quickly.

[ThanosSiopoudis]

The recipes are tiny files, around 700 bytes each. ;)