potterr on 8/9/2008 at 12:15
Quote Posted by Lovecraftian
Is there any major advantage using to GarrettLoader over DarkLoader?
It depends, how you play thief.
DarkLoader handles/has:
* Thief 1,Thief Gold,Thief 2,System Shock 2 FMs
* An FM Packager
* A Readme Maker
* Is more stable than the currently released version 1.41 of GarrettLoader
GarrettLoader handles/has:
* Thief 1,Thief Gold,Thief 2,Thief 3, System Shock 2, Doom 3, The Dark Mod FMs (under its core games list)
* Half Life, Half Life 2, Never Winter Nights, and hundreds more games (under its custom game support, QBAR, which you can extend yourself)
* An FM Packager
* A Readme Maker
* Game diagnostic tool (creates reference files for supported games which can then be used to determine if there are issues with current game installs)
* Loot List Tool (allows creation and viewing of loot lists for FMs, done in a way so that you see bits you are stuck in and not everything).
* HTML readmes (converts the text and rtf readme files into html within its browser).
* Skins (each FM can have a skin for GarrettLoader)
* FM Readme Toolbar - allows you to add links to loot lists, walkthroughs, Forum threads against each FM. (Currently being extended with additional options)
*
One of the major advantages is the scores system within GL. It allows you to score FMs for your own use, upload them to GLs server which can then mean anyone else using GL can download the scores. This is a great way of determining what FMs are good and not based upon what everyone else is saying about them* Similar to the score is categories, in which you can categorise each FM, for example an FM can be categorised to contain zombies, be based in a city, have mechanists, etc. These can also be uploaded and downloaded by everyone else. This then means you can filter the FM lists to only show FMs that contain zombies, etc.
* Has a plugin tools system in that you can add exes and bat files to it so that they auto start when you start any game supported by GL (custom games included). E.g. say you need to run a fix file before running thief 2 each time, you can configure GL to do that for you (indeo codec re-register is already built in).
* Has limited multi-lingual support (although that is being addressed).
* RSS review feeds from Southquarter.com - downloads and displays reviews of FMs within GLs interface for FMs.
* A competition manager - This allows competition runners to add competition reference files to FMs for competitions. What then happens is that GL will then display a competition tab within its interface which will allow you to easily submit votes for FMs in competitions (based upon your scores, completion difficulty, and completion of other FMs in the competition). Although the client side of this is in place there is no easy means to create the reference files yet, this is being worked on, and can be applied to any game GL supports.
* As a side process to the Competition Manager, there is also an FM Feedback process as well. It basically works in the same way the Competition Manager does but just provides a standard feedback form for FMs that FM makers can use. Both of which have expiry dates and structured form creations.
*
Version 1.42 (in beta):* is far more stable than the released version 1.41
* Auto fixing of dual core affinity issues (when you start Thief via GL it will correct the processor core affinity on the fly so that you don't get game crashes), which is seen on most new PCs.
* Resource manager, for FM Makers but allows you to rip out graphics from FMs for use in your own (with the authors permission).
* Dual screen support, currently allows you to view FMs maps on one screen while playing on another (pressing Ctrl + G in game changes maps), also displays various stats on play. I aim to also have displaying info on Multiplayer SS2 (and thief 2 when that's released), objectives, and various other bits of info.
* Enhancement packs - currently this is new splash screens for thief 1,gold,2 and The Dark Mod/Doom 3, but will be extended for System Shock 2, Thief 3 with other enhancements (you can apply whatever one you want)
* Auto Update process - GL will update itself with patches, new loot lists, custom game reference files, skins, enhancement packs (you can choose whatever you want to be updated).
* Improved Vista support - GL has problems if your Thief installs and GL itself are installed into
Program Files on Vista due to Application Virtualization and Program Files being heavily locked down. This is being addressed in various ways, firstly changing the methodology GL uses to install FMs, secondly changing GLs dfault install path to
C:\Games rather than
C:\Program Files (like DarkLoaders is), and Finally adding additional verifications against installs to confirm that things have been installed correctly.
So basically its more how you play FMs, if you don't really care about the other games GL supports, or scoring FMs ((
http://www.potterdevelopments.org.uk/fm/scores/results.pl) scores can also be viewed here by the way), or (until next release) want a more stable install of FMs (thief 3 mainly as the T1,G,2, SS2 support in version 1.41 is fine), etc then DarkLoader is for you. If you want some of the features mentioned above then GarrettLoader is for you.
