itssim / fsolauncher-next

Next-gen FreeSO Launcher

fsolauncher-next

A next-gen FreeSO Launcher.

(UI design not final)

Goals

• More than x10 smaller, lower memory usage, and improved startup times.

  • How: By ditching Electron and using a desktop application framework that does not bundle Chromium.

• A more intuitive, less clicky launcher.

  • How: The launcher now uses a modern JavaScript framework that makes it easier to build intuitive experiences. The process of installing and running FreeSO has been thoroughly improved.

• An all new Widget system to keep up with what happens in Sunrise Crater.

  • How: The launcher now consumes FreeSO’s APIs in order to offer you the latest information about what’s going on in-game.

• Windows, macOS (Intel/M1) and linux support.

  • How: The previous launcher already achieved macOS support. This version is taking it a step further to support linux-based operating systems as well.

• A fresh new look.

  • How: The whole interface is being revamped, using space more efficiently and improving the user experience.

• Full rewrite! The current launcher has been pretty much the same since 2016.

  • How: By following popular JavaScript conventions with modern frameworks. This makes the launcher overall better and makes it easier for people to contribute to its development over time.

• Hybrid features (CLI/GUI mode).

  • How: The launcher now supports CLI and GUI modes. This means that if you prefer to use the launcher as a command line application, you will be able to.

Transition plans

TBD

fsolauncher-next's Issues

Development stack planned?

Hi, only just noticed you updated the readme a few months ago - have any rough plans been thought of about what kind of dev stack you might want to use for this rewrite? Just curious as I'd love to continue to make contributions when I get time.

I was considering creating a GUI frontend for my Linux install script (freeso-linux repo).

The stack I had in mind was:

• Javascript (JSDoc for type safety) - or Typescript, but JSDoc seems to play nicer and easier to maintain when used with my choice of app framework...
• SvelteKit for the frontend framework.
• Node.js LTS (18.12.1 currently)
• unocss or Twind for styling (both are high performance, low footprint CSS frameworks fully compatible with Tailwind classes)
• Tauri - alternative to Electron, uses the system's native web rendering engine for a small filesize. Any weirdness due to different browser/rendering engine's handling of styles etc should be taken care with by the tailwind style reset.

You might be familiar with some of them and of course these are just suggestions and to kick off a bit of discussion :) The learning curve to use the stack I'm mentioning or something similar is actually quite easy, and SvelteKit (which is a breeze of an app framework to use) is now in Release Candidate stage with feature/structure freeze.
Like I mentioned before, would be great to be able to help out - I'm guessing you plan on designing the new version to be flexible and cross-platform from the ground up, so I would most likely deprecate my linux script and PR linux install support directly into something like this based on the work I've done before.

Hope all is well! Thanks :)