[ANN] Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Custom Story Installation Creator

[MulleDK19]

Back when Amnesia: The Dark Descent was first released I created and released a tool that allowed easy creation of installers (Old thread).

However, it did not see a widespread use as large as I had hoped.
One of the reasons probably being that some people are using Linux or Mac, and would need a .zip version as well.

But since then I've rebooted the entire project, and can now present v2, with current support for both Windows and Linux (.NET Framework and Mono respectively).

I'm working on support for Mac OS/X as well.

What is this?
The Amnesia Custom Story Installer consists of two components.

• The creator
  
• The installer
  

As a developer, you will be interested mainly in the creator. As a player you will be interested mainly in the installer.

The creator is used by developers of custom stories to generate an installer for players of Amnesia. The developer will then distribute the generated installer for his or her custom story, for players to download.

Once a player has downloaded the installer for a custom story, he or she will execute it, and it'll automaticly find their game installation and install the custom story.


So won't I need to generate two installers? One for Windows and one for Linux?
No! That's what is so great about the CLI (Common Language Infrastructure).
In layman terms it means that a generated installer will run on both Windows and Linux without having to generate separate installers for each system.

To clarify, here's an example

1. A developer creates a custom story on Windows.
   
2. He downloads the creator (still on Windows) and generates an installer for the custom story.
   
3. He uploads it to the internet and publish a link to the installer.
   
4. A player downloads the installer on Windows, launches it, and the installer installs the custom story into his Amnesia game.
   
5. Another player downloads the exact same installer file on Linux, launches it and the installer installs the custom story into his Amnesia game.
   

Here's a video of it:



This also means that if you're just a player, the only thing you'll need to download from this thread, is what's specified in the requirements below.
Developers will publish the installer in their own custom story announcement threads, or whatever.



The old tool caused several anti-virus software to generate false positives. Has this been fixed?
Yes. The new version no longer uses methods that might be seen as suspicious by anti-virus software.
Creator: https://www.virustotal.com/file/5234268a...343914987/
Generated installer: https://www.virustotal.com/file/4e865e92...343914833/


What are the requirements?
For Windows you need the .NET Framework 4.0 (Or Mono, but I suggest the .NET Framework).
For Linux you need Mono.


Where can I download the creator?
v2.0.2.78 Beta
Lots of internal optimizations.
Added support for displaying the custom story description in any language available in the custom story.

v2.0.1.65 Beta
The creator now works on Linux as well.
The installer now displays the custom story image in the main window.
The description of the custom story in the installer is no longer selected when the installer starts.
The creator now has an icon.

v2.0.0.48 Beta
Initial release.

Known issues
None.




Now that there's no trouble with anti-virus software, and there's support for multiple platforms, perhaps the tool will find its way.

[Acies]

Sort of a rant concerning requests:
I would use it if it supports full-conversion mods, since that is what I'm currently working on :> I would also like it if it had the option to choose an image for display during the installation (a total of 1,5 gigs content atm, so extraction might take a while for the full release).

Ont: Nice work!

[MaGicBush]

Seems like a great idea, I will definitely use it for my custom story . Agree with Acies though about adding FC and image support.

[Kman]

I'm definitely with Acies on this one, installing normal custom stories is usually pretty simple, but installing FCs can be confusing for someone who hasn't installed one before, so that would be helpful.

[darkely]

I am a player, and I would not like developers to use this tool (Please specify why)

It is already to easy to do so it is kind of pointless.

____________________
For any one who cares...

https://www.virustotal.com/file/08f828cb...343974112/

[MulleDK19]

Sort of a rant concerning requests:
I would use it if it supports full-conversion mods, since that is what I'm currently working on :> I would also like it if it had the option to choose an image for display during the installation (a total of 1,5 gigs content atm, so extraction might take a while for the full release).

Ont: Nice work!

Image support is already being implemented. Just like the old release this one will also show an image.

Seems like a great idea, I will definitely use it for my custom story . Agree with Acies though about adding FC and image support.

I'm definitely with Acies on this one, installing normal custom stories is usually pretty simple, but installing FCs can be confusing for someone who hasn't installed one before, so that would be helpful.

I'll look into support for full conversions.

It is already to easy to do so it is kind of pointless.

Well, a lot of people still have trouble installing custom stories. This gives people an easy fast way of installing custom stories without having to worry how.

For any one who cares...

https://www.virustotal.com/file/08f828cb...343974112/

Yea, eSafe is crap.

[MaGicBush]

I am a player, and I would not like developers to use this tool (Please specify why)

It is already to easy to do so it is kind of pointless.

____________________
For any one who cares...

https://www.virustotal.com/file/08f828cb...343974112/

As Mulle said a lot of people are very computer ignorant so it's always helpful for those people to have it done automatically, most players are not familiar with installing mods on average even though it seems that way if your a forum user.

[Your Computer]

So i wanted to try out your program just to see how it works (though i don't really intend on using this program), and quickly came to realize that your install-creator program seems to require the existence of specific custom story files, and therefore throws an exception that was not handled by the program when one of these files don't exist (in my case, extra_english.lang). Although i am given the option to ignore and therefore continue the operation, do you plan on safely handling this for the more stable release (and is English the only supported LANG language)?

I also noticed the tool does not list my Steam copy of Amnesia. Will a future release consider Steam edition?

A lot of people tend to skip over a lot of the information provided in the Dev Wiki and so tend to have custom story files scattered throughout their Amnesia installation. I noticed your program currently assumes that the custom story developer has organized their story the proper way. Will this be how the program will remain, or do you plan on implementing a more abstract way of handling custom story file management?

[darkely]

Well, a lot of people still have trouble installing custom stories. This gives people an easy fast way of installing custom stories without having to worry how.

Well I guess it would be good for those who are new to CS stuff.

For any one who cares...

https://www.virustotal.com/file/08f828cb...343974112/

Yea, eSafe is crap.

It was nothing personal :p

[MulleDK19]

So i wanted to try out your program just to see how it works (though i don't really intend on using this program), and quickly came to realize that your install-creator program seems to require the existence of specific custom story files, and therefore throws an exception that was not handled by the program when one of these files don't exist (in my case, extra_english.lang). Although i am given the option to ignore and therefore continue the operation, do you plan on safely handling this for the more stable release (and is English the only supported LANG language)?

Any custom story worth releasing should have a description, and thus have a language file. English is the only supported language at this time.
I may incorporate multi-lingual support.

I also noticed the tool does not list my Steam copy of Amnesia. Will a future release consider Steam edition?

It should already, unless your Steam is not installed correctly.
What's your OS?

A lot of people tend to skip over a lot of the information provided in the Dev Wiki and so tend to have custom story files scattered throughout their Amnesia installation. I noticed your program currently assumes that the custom story developer has organized their story the proper way. Will this be how the program will remain, or do you plan on implementing a more abstract way of handling custom story file management?

Not sure what you mean, because custom_story_settings.cfg and language files must be placed in the root of the custom story to be found by the game. And those files are the only ones the program cares about.