Releases: VolantisDev/Launchpad
Launchpad 6.1.0
Launchpad 6.1.0 adds much better error handling, online error submission, GUI enhancements, and more!
If Launchpad encounters an error, you can now submit the error, along with additional details and optionally contact information, right from the error message! This will greatly help in being able to track down and fix errors.
- Launchpad has a new, styled error message dialog that provides helpful information and the ability to submit the error to the Launchpad API
- Error messages are now much more relevant
- 64-bit OS detection should now be 100% accurate
- Titlebar buttons have been improved (maximize button turns into a restore button based on context)
- All Launchpad windows should now have a border and drop shadow so they don't blend together
Priorities and statuses announced several releases ago have changed significantly since then. The current focus is on GUI and user experience improvements and stabilization, online API enhancements, as well as improving Launchpad's integrations with game platforms and their games.
To that end, here's where we're at:
API status:
- Still has the new car smell!
- Retrieving data about games, platforms, launcher types, and game types works great
- Submitting errors right from Launchpad to the API is now a thing
- There are less than 50 games in the API database currently, but this is being expanded regularly
- Sharing your launchers with other users is underway and will hopefully be ready in the near future
Platforms supported:
- Bethesda.net
- Blizzard Battle.net
- Epic Games Launcher
- Origin
- Riot Client
- Steam
- Basic (no platform)
Platforms planned next:
- GOG
- Ubisoft
- Itch.io
- What other platforms would you like? Let us know!
Game Detection:
- Steam: 100% finished, games are detected based on Steam's VDF files
- Blizzard: 100% finished, games are detected based on Blizzard's product.db file
- Epic: 100% finished, games are detected based on Epic's manifest files
- Bethesda: 50% finished, game detection works but only for the "games" directory under the Bethesda.net installation folder currently
- Riot: 25% finished, Legends of Runeterra and Valorant are detected fully, but a better integration method is needed that doesn't require support for each game to be added manually.
- Basic: 0% finished, there is currently no way to detect games that weren't installed from a supported platform, but this is planned
Game Launching:
- Basic: 100%, you can launch almost anything but you need to configure more things yourself if the game isn't from a known platform
- Blizzard: 100%, works for new 2021 Battle.net client (support dropped for older client)
- Epic: 100%, better integration was released recently that makes most games work smoothly without any changes
- Origin: 50%, Works but integration is clunky (has to exit launcher before and after running a game)
- Riot: 50%, works when using the proper internal launcher ID, but some games need tweaks (such as disabling process replacement which prevents the Steam overlay from working)
- Bethesda: 50%, works but is clunky like Origin
- Steam: 25%, probably works but largely untested and many games need to be manually configured
Launchpad 6.0.1
After the major release of Launchpad 6.0, this is a very small follow-up that fixes and tweaks a few things. No biggie!
- Fixes an error that would prevent you from editing your API endpoint from the Settings window
- Adds "Platform" to main view and remove "Launcher Type" and "Game Type" since they are almost always redundant
- Adds "API Status" to main view so you know which games are automatically merging in data from the Launchpad API and which are not.
- Avoid setting a Display Name for a detected game if it's the same as the key (just like Launchpad's default behavior)
- Fixes some miscellaneous edge cases
Launchpad 6.0
Riot Games integration and a brand new API!
Riot Games
Experimental Riot Games platform support is now included! You can detect your installed Riot games and add them to Launchpad easily.
Currently, this integration can only auto-detect games installed in the same parent folder as the Riot Client. A better solution is in the works for a future release.
Additionally, Valorant and Legends of Runeterra will match up with their internal launcher ID automatically, while other games are still a work in progress. Launchpad will detect them, but you will have to enter the Launcher-Specific ID manually for the launcher to work properly. A universal solution for automatically reading the launcher ID from configuration files is in the works.
New API
Previously, Launchpad's "API" was a set of JSON files in a GitHub repository. There was nothing dynamic about it, and no way to add functionality on the API side.
Today, Launchpad has a new site (https://launchpad.games) which houses a brand new custom-built API service.
The new API has many benefits:
- Improves performance due to edge caching
- Greatly improves the functionality that the Launchpad API can offer due to being a dynamic service instead of serving static files
- User submissions for games, platforms, launcher types, and game types can finally become a thing! We are working behind the scenes to create functionality both on the web and within Launchpad itself that will allow you to share your launcher configurations with the Launchpad community and expand the number of games and platforms that Launchpad offers out of the box!
Fixes
- Fixed paths in library include files--if you were getting missing file errors running Launchpad launchers before, the issue should be resolved.
- Fixed detected games so they properly store a reference to the install directory of their associated launcher
- Minor fixes and performance improvements
Update Notes
This is a breaking release in that the API handling has been significantly upgraded. Launchpad 6 will not work with the old "LauncherDB" format, and Launchpad <= 5 will never support the new v1 API from https://launchpad.games.
Updating Launchpad does not automatically change your existing Launchpad.ini configuration or clear your existing API cache. For this reason, it is recommended to either uninstall and reinstall Launchpad from scratch, or just manually make these two changes to your system before running Launchpad 6:
- Open Launchpad.ini from your installation folder and change the API URL to
https://launchpad.games/api/v1
- Delete %TEMP%\Launchpad\Cache
Regardless, your launcher configurations are all safe and sound in your Launchers.json file and won't be modified by upgrading Launchpad. You can always find the location of Launchers.json in the Settings window and back it up to a location of your choice.
Launchpad 5.4.3
This is mainly a hotfix release containing a fix for yesterday's update, which introduced a bug where selecting list items in the main window or Platforms window would not cause the related buttons to appear.
Another minor change this round is that the Manage window and Platforms window start out larger by default.
Launchpad 5.4.2
Launchpad 5 is on a mission to improve the user interface, and this version has made some significant strides.
Highlights of this release include:
- Game detection uses data from other data stores when initially importing games, so if certain games need special handling, it will happen automatically
- Themes can now style titlebars and listview headers
- Button styling has been improved
- Many minor visual issues have been resolved to start giving the UI a more polished appearance
- The Steampad theme looks substantially more like Steam now!
Launchpad 5.4.1
This minor release makes the new mini progress indicator for launchers prettier. It no longer displays a border or title bar, and it shows the game's title and icon within the window.
Launchpad 5.4.0
This release of Launchpad introduces a mini progress indicator window that is used by game launchers.
Previously, launchers used the game progress window as actual bulk operations (such as installers), but there was a lot of wasted space and the progress bar didn't really mean anything. Now, launchers will still optionally offer a progress window, but it will be a small tool window with just the progress text.
The plan is to add a spinner to this window in the future once some kinks are worked out.
Launchpad 5.3.1
This is a bug fix release that resolves the following:
- Properly sets detected Epic games to the game type Epic instead of Default
- Fixes the "Run Command" option on managed entity editors which previously didn't show the existing value
Epic game detection should be fully working without you needing to do anything special. It's recommended you delete and re-detect your Launchpad launchers for your Epic games to make sure you get the latest config changes.
Launchpad 5.3.0
Launchpad 5.3.0 includes the following fixes:
- Resolves error when trying to change Launcher Type or Game Type from child editor windows
- Resolves an issue with modified child entity values not saving in many circumstances
Launcher DB has also been updated to include experimental support for substantially better Epic Games handling. Epic Games should now be on-par with Blizzard games handling, and no longer requires exiting the Epic Games client before or after launching the game. Additionally, the Steam overlay should work in more games.
If you use Game Detection, you should be all set. If you manually add Epic games, make sure to add the game's internal ID to the Launcher-Specific ID field if you want to use the new launching functionality.
If you had existing Epic games configured in Launchpad, it is recommended to delete and re-add them, or at least manually change the game type to "Epic" from "Default".
Launchpad 5.2.1
This is a hotfix release that resolves an error that previously prevented the Platforms window from opening.
All users are recommended to update when possible, particularly if you are using the Platform Manager functionality.