Roadmap for version 2.x

[BigETI]

Roadmap for version 2.x

This is a roadmap for the upcoming 2.x release.
The name SAMPLauncherNET will change to CSL (Community San Andreas Multiplayer Launcher). This has been decided by the San Andreas Multiplayer community.
An in-depth feature list is available at https://gist.github.com/BigETI/cfc909f075d8e1140354cf0ad9a7d6ca
Suggestions for version 2.x are appreciated.

Changes

Core features

• Minimize code to essential features and off-load extended features to CSL modules.

Visuals

• Change to a different framework that is still compatible with older Windows versions

License

• Change to a permissive license, because I care about people making their own launcher builds for their own servers or just develop modules for CSL.

New features

Core features

• User profiles (local and online)
• Virtualizable San Andreas Multiplayer installations
• Allow reporting San Andreas Multiplayer servers
• Cache server query data
• Extensible and modularized launcher features

Visuals

• New user interface design

Modules

• CSL dashboard
• Server browser and server lists
• Media
• San Andreas Multiplayer versions browser and installer
• ASI plugins browser and installer
• San Andreas Multiplayer developer tools
• San Andreas Multiplayer and Community San Andreas Multiplayer Launcher settings
• San Andreas Multiplayer server passwords
• About CSL

[markski1]

Change framework to Universal Windows Platform

Won't this cripple support for Windows 7? As well as potentially crippling Wine support too

[BigETI]

It will indeed cripple support for Windows 8.1 and below. There are good and bad things about using UWP. The rendering engine is superior compared to MFC, Winforms and WPF and contains modern UI controls. However right now UWP is proprietary and is not backwards compatible with older operating systems. If there are good solutions for compatible and modern user interfaces and app building solutions, I am happy to use them. I have marked Universal Windows Platform and Windows Store as a question.

[eoussama]

It will indeed cripple support for Windows 8.1 and below. There are good and bad things about using UWP. The rendering engine is superior compared to MFC, Winforms and WPF and contains modern UI controls. However right now UWP is proprietary and is not backwards compatible with older operating systems. If there are good solutions for compatible and modern user interfaces and app building solutions, I am happy to use them. I have marked Universal Windows Platform and Windows Store as a question.

I do believe that UWP is almost the right thing to do, however, batting an eye on legacy windows version users is kind of a big loss, a lot of other people still using older versions of the OS, plus a lot other can make use of the .NET core compatibility on other platforms.
Unless the aim was for the new launcher to be published in the Microsoft store I don't see any stronger reason not to use WPF as a solution, it surely is much more superior to basic winforms, and with some powerful libraries, it becomes a real killer (MaterialDesign).

[markski1]

I don't plan to contribute any code so I don't really have much of a big say here, but I still believe crippling legacy windows versions is an important loss specially in a community like sa-mp where most of the players don't have outstanding machines

[BigETI]

I changed my mind about UWP. I care about backwards compatibility which should cover up users who are stubborn enough to use Windows systems that are no longer supported.

[ADRFranklin]

1. Global list of GTA Folders (Which should be choosable upon selecting a server)
2. Client Settings for individual servers, font-size, audio links, etc (favourites only)
3. Light and Minimnal password manager with history
4. A monitor with a scheduler for notifying the user of when a server has gone offline or has come back online,
   as well as the user being able to set custom notifications for when a server has x amount of players online
5. Dashboard that shows some stats about the user, top 5 played servers, hours played this week, news about launcher (bonus)
6. Crash handler, a better and simpler way for users to identify crashes with the client/samp, maybe detect the crash code
   and maybe provide links, helpful advice, or even provide some internal tools to automate the fix. (useful)
7. A possible overlay for in-game that would provide useful information, as well as in the future to allow use of services like,
   Spotify, Amazon Music, Soundcloud. (For when you run out of things to do)
8. Mod support, build in or provide as an external extension the ability to use a custom version of modloader, where the client
   could add mods they want, to use based on the server they join. (another out of things to do idea)
9. A status checker for SA-MP and other server list API's.
10. Provide an in-built way to downgrade GTA_SA to the correct version (just to help users out, on steam and that)

This is my list, will add more when I think of them

[BigETI]

Thank you for your ideas.

1. The launcher will prompt a dialog, if more than 1 installation paths for GTA San Andreas exist. It will also prompt if there are no installation paths defined.

2. I will add the feature that allows having settings for servers which override global settings to the planned features.

3. The password manager will be like any minimal password manager which should automate the process of connecting to password locked servers, as well as logging in as a RCON admin.

4. That could get quite annoying. The user should be able to set conditions on servers when the user should get notified.
   I might add that to the planned features.

5. There is already a server connection history in the planned features. About game related user statistics the launcher will not read values from the game.

6. There is no way other than hacking the game to add a crash handler to the game. San Andreas Multiplayer will only show a dialog if the game crashes.

7. I do not think that the launcher should do stuff in game other than loading San Andreas Multiplayer or ASI plugins. The overlay feature can be introduced as another ASI plugin for the game.

8. This could be considered as a feature, if samp-server-api can provide server related modding resources. otherwise I do not think it would be beneficial to make a mod installer/loader yet.

9. Can you please tell how this should behave or look like?

10. I could add a game version check and if the version isn't correct, an option for downgrading the game before launching could be added.
    I might add this to the planned features.

[RenanMsV]

Suggestion: Server mods (since we have no more 0.3DL until the next versions in a few years. So servers can set their modpack in a zip file and the launcher will download and install it automatically as MTA does

[BigETI]

Suggestion: Server mods (since we have no more 0.3DL until the next versions in a few years. So servers can set their modpack in a zip file and the launcher will download and install it automatically as MTA does

This is something samp-servers-api could implement for server owners.

[irealworlds]

As .NET Core 3 is going to be launched soon and it includes Windows Forms and cross-platform support, will this project use it?

[BigETI]

If it is compatible with older versions of Windows, sure.

[markski1]

Bump. Where will this go?

[BigETI]

I will hopefully start working on it after my semester project.