Editable paths in launcher - Portable setup

[NULUSIOS]

The subject pretty much says it all.
It would be very nice if all the paths shown in launcher are editable instead of view only.
Including launcher's own configuration path (which depending on depth of the code, could be moved by launcher to new destination, or just look in the new destination on next launcher run).

This would also need the launcher to have a list of paths to look when starting up and seeking its own configuration file.
Maybe first look in own folder, then in appdata (or documents or whatever). Or the opposite - depending on "philosophy" (i.e. if local config is more important or "bring your own disk" is more important).
Or of course make it a parameter that can work on the shortcut (not sure if this is already implemented).

All these are towards the target of a fully portable setup with no dependencies on user appdata or anything else outside launcher + terasology folder.

Thanks. Happy new year. Keep up the good work.

[skaldarnar]

@NULUSIOS Thanks for submitting this idea. 👍 The launcher is developed under https://github.com/MovingBlocks/TerasologyLauncher, I should probably create a matching feature ticket for this idea... 🤓

We deliberately removed the possibility to modify the paths in the launcher settings to prevent broken state through seemingly valid user actions. Being able to move files around if the directory is changed would mitigate this, and we could enable that feature again.
I'm wondering whether the launcher should support a list of paths to evaluate, or whether we need a way to explicitly reference relative paths to the local launcher installation directory.

I'm wondering which impact this might have if you want to make it portable between different operating systems 🤔 the launcher itself comes bundled for each platform, but we have plans to potentially change that (or rather, change how it is bundled and installed). Would it be too much of a restriction if the portable setup only works for the same operating system?

[NULUSIOS]

List of paths and support for relative paths (I am all in for relative paths) are not mutually exclusive.
After all this is the role of a launcher, to actually "smoothen out" things that need to be transparent for the user.

Cross platform (concerning paths) is not that hard to implement (at least for the three major OS families), as it is a matter of (a) using system variables (to find user home), which when the launcher knows the environment it works on, it knows which system variable is available to read and (b) understanding the minor path description differences (like / vs ). It can be done.

Plus, own launcher path (and relative path to that) is more or less same thing for every OS.

If you ask me personally, I am a 90% MS-Win person nowadays, so I "don't care" for cross-OS usage - but towards the end of a more "universal" launcher system, why not.

Disclaimer: Sorry about the casual reference of what is hard or simple, I know it can lead to reactions ("then do it yourself"), it just comes from my (lost in time nowadays) background in development, so even though I don't actively code now, my brain still works out the pseudo-code of how things can be done. Sorry again.