New launcher version: 2019.11.2

[Deuterium Oxide]

Good day!

It's time for another launcher update - This one is lovingly named 11.2 and was put into the wild last evening (around 17.30 CET). Release notes below:

New stuff

• A warning will now be displayed when playing with active DLC containing copyrighted material (reminder that streams and videos might get demonetized etc.)
• Mods created with the launcher for our PDS titles (but not other titles like Planetfall etc.) now include a "supported_version" field, making that function more visible and easier to use
• The missing scroll bar in the Manage Mods and Manage DLC screens is no longer missing
• Games may now signal save game compatibility so that the "Resume" button doesn't try to load a save file that is incmpatible with the base game version. Please note that this requires a bit of work by the game team as well, so it won't be immediately available for all titles
• Opt-out of personalized marketing now available. We don't actually personalize any marketing right now, but better GDPR-safe than GDPR-sorry

Changes

• Some Linux users have been experiencing launcher crashes. These seem to originate in SDL2 when the launcher queries for hardware presence. We have pinned some of those down to hardware acceleration - probably some nasty intersection between Electron and graphics driver issues - and hence, we have disabled hardware acceleration on Linux which should improve the situation. If problems presist, try starting the launcher with the argument --pdxlDisableHardwareSettings. This will void the entire hardware query and settings section and hopefully allow the launcher to start properly.
• Improved error message in mod tools window on connection problems with PDX Mods backend servers

Fixes

• "cpatch" process should now shut down properly even if the launcher should crash. This means that Steam will register the game as no longer running and allow a restart
• Incorrect login would sometimes not allow a retry. This is now fixed and you may proceed to fail your login any number of times
• Mods with apostrophes would fail to upload properly. It's fix'd!
• Corrected the error message seen when choosing an invalid user name during account creation

We'll update at least once more before Yuletide with more substantial mods management UX improvements - These are still in QA, but looking pretty good.

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

My version is still 10.3. Any way to force an update?

The launcher check for updates when it starts and will try to initiate a download if one is available. Do you get the little spinner up in the left corner or perhaps the little red dot saying that the update failed? If you are on slow internet, you might have to wait a bit for the download to complete, indicated by the spinner stopping and a yellow dot appearing.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Good day!
We'll update at least once more before Yuletide with more substantial mods management UX improvements - These are still in QA, but looking pretty good.

Is there a beta programme for the launcher?

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

Is there a beta programme for the launcher?

Not at present, but we are looking at how to introduce one. Seeing as there are many things to improve, getting that up and running might take a back seat for a while. The ambition is to have an open beta of the launcher at some point though!

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

Why the launcher updates are not distributed through the same platform as the game updates (eg. in my case through Steam)? Sounds bit weird if part of the game is updated using a different method. Installing the launcher silently under <user>\AppData is kind of weird, though not unheard of though personally I dislike that

It might seem weird until you consider the following:

• We publish games on three PC operating systems
• We deliver games through five distribution platforms (Steam, Microsoft Store, GoG, Epic and our own PDX Dist. platform)
• We use the launcher on seven games, with more being onboarded all the time

If we chose to go with native distribution platform updates we would have to:

• Install multiple copies of the launcher, one for each PDX game you have installed, on your computer
• Every single game team would have to make new releases on every single distribution platform and OS combination in order to deploy launcher updates and bug fixes
• In order to get new features and bug fixes out in a timely fashion, the launcher is updated every three weeks on average. With vacations meaning around 15 releases per year

This would amount to well over 1k published builds per year across just the currently onboarded games in order to merely stay abreast with launcher development. I think you can imagine how the game teams, not to mention company management, would feel about a proposition like that.

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

this issue affects all games with this launcher like eu4 prison architect and imperator in the case of prison architect it has been a problem for multiple months

Sorry to hear that you are having problems - The best thing to do when you experience issues is to report the bug to our support: It's very easy to get lost in the noise here on the forum. Also our support keep records of problem frequency that I use to prioritize bugs, so it helps with that as well.

In any case, you must specify operating system and version thereof, launcher version, distribution platform and steps to reproduce. If you also include what you have done to resolve the problem, that will help as well.