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acreloaded / acr

AssaultCube Reloaded (first-person-shooter game)
https://acr.victorz.ca
128 stars 23 forks source link

Confusing to launch ACR correctly #213

Open Dutchman101 opened 6 years ago

Dutchman101 commented 6 years ago

Hi,

In certain usage scenarios, launching ACR is complicated because of errors which can all be clarified and individually resolved by the user. This issue is to document the reason for improper throwing of errors (which may also help others for now..) so I can suggest you to get rid of them being thrown in the wrong context.

AssaultCube Reloaded > client.bat: ACR fatal error - Windows cannot find 'bin_win32\acr_client.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. Currently, running client.bat is the only proper (and eventually working) way to launch ACR. However, the problem is that when you rightclick > 'Run as Administrator', it will throw this error. It will only work when you simply double-click it, without manually running it as admin.

The result of my tests show that ACR (the .bat) is currently incompatible with running under admin privileges in the way I described. The issue arises from the fact that lots of (advanced) PC users made a habit of rightclicking applications and selecting 'Run as Administrator'. If there is any problem launching any app, it is expected that running it as admin only yields a chance to resolve it, not create the actual problem.

AssaultCube Reloaded > bin_win32 > acr_client.exe: could not find core textures (hint: run ACR from the parent of the bin directory) (Couldn't open packages\misc\notexture.jpg) This error is a result of launching ACR using the .exe, and the issue I recognize is that lots of people, due to its naming and location, would figure running this executable (considered a launcher) is the right thing to do in order to start the game.

I would suggest that the 'hint' in the error message is tweaked so that it points to the most often underlying mistake made, which is not launching the game using the client.bat file, or actually properly fixing the issue by not relying on a .bat but making the game able to launch using acr_client.exe as expected.

veksha commented 6 years ago

solution: do not run game as administrator. done.

As for ACR command line parameters, I think --mod=acr parameter should be the default, and "--home" parameter handling should be revised. So in the end we would have one binary to launch and go :-)

Dutchman101 commented 6 years ago

solution: do not run game as administrator. done.

This project is full of improper practise, just like how the need to run a .bat testifies of laziness (or worse).. having unexpected behaviour in the game like inability to run as admin is never to settle for. But it's all about developer priorities ofcourse, so be my guest

theonlypwner commented 6 years ago
  1. Don't run as administrator unless needed.
  2. It can be run as admin by running the .bat in an admin command prompt. On Windows 10, it seems that right-click > Run as administrator sets the current directory to C:\Windows\System32, which makes the script not run, but that appears to be a Windows issue.

Is there a reason for running as administrator? From a security viewpoint, there is no reason why video games should be running with elevated access.

Running a .bat is actually the opposite of laziness. The program is configurable, so users can customize the parameters (e.g. store data in a different folder).

Also, AC and ACR support multiple platforms, and all related binaries are organized in the same folder, so the current directory has to be correct (the parent of the binary directory). This requires using the launcher scripts (.bat or .sh). "hint: run ACR from the parent of the bin directory" makes it quite clear that the current directory has to be changed.