NSIS - Nullsoft Installer System, or others? Advice needed!

[mr.g-c 6]

I'm sorry, but i dunno in which board i should post it, so i hope a moderator has a idea...

I would like to use a installer system which gives option for install, detection of Arma path, option for uninstall, creation of shortcut for Arma.exe and creation of updates (delete old addons+keys and replace all keys + certain addons on update).

I saw that all serious mods are using NSIS, but i downloaded it and i have no clue how to do what... can anyone give me some help/advice/script template?

Thanks in advance!

[Snake Man 407]

OFP and ArmA (and ArmA 2 soon) addons/mods are NOT supposed to be installed with executable installers. Period.

[mr.g-c 6]

OFP and ArmA (and ArmA 2 soon) addons/mods are NOT supposed to be installed with executable installers. Period.

Ahhmmm.... still the bit bigger and/or more professional mods do it!:cool:

[binkster 0]

I had this problem awhile back. I got as far as finding the install path but I could never figure out how to create a correct shortcut. NSIS is complicated too. I used some application to create mine. You might have better luck with those. Try out some trials before u buy if you decide to go in that direction.

[.kju 3245]

NSIS exe can simply be extracted with 7z in addition to install.. :rolleyes:

Mr.g-c contact Sickboy for the nsis template ACE uses.

[Snake Man 407]

Ahhmmm.... still the bit bigger and/or more professional mods do it!

Well they aren't so professional if they use EXE installer, very simple.

Anyone with half a brain knows that you don't use those, I mean look what happened to the ASE initiative by BIS (maybe many of you don't even know what that is).

[mr.g-c 6]

Mr.g-c contact Sickboy for the nsis template ACE uses.

Thanks, i will! :)

[OChristie 0]

OFP and ArmA (and ArmA 2 soon) addons/mods are NOT supposed to be installed with executable installers. Period.

Why not? All an installer is, is a more streamlined way to copy large files with accuracy. Its way more simple than Copying large files into folders it is really time consuming. etc.

[Dwarden 1125]

Well they aren't so professional if they use EXE installer, very simple.

Anyone with half a brain knows that you don't use those, I mean look what happened to the ASE initiative by BIS (maybe many of you don't even know what that is).

as long as there exist unpackable version then therei s no issue with installer version ...

e.g. for server admins / people who don't like 'rogue' executables ..

[Yoma 0]

Well they aren't so professional if they use EXE installer, very simple.

Anyone with half a brain knows that you don't use those, I mean look what happened to the ASE initiative by BIS (maybe many of you don't even know what that is).

Damn does that mean that every program that uses an installer is unprofessional?

Ruling out use of your program by less pc witty people might very well be considered even more unprofessional.

I understand perfectly fine what you are saying, but if you ever made and deployed a program to thousands of people then soon you'd realise the importance of a decent installer.

What your saying is very akin to the "we don't need higher programming languages" argument.

Unless you like getting tons of mails asking how to extract/copy files etc.

Hey didn't Arma itself get installed via an installer on your system, ever figured out why they do it like that?

Back ontopic:

InnoSetup is a nice one too.

Can be very easy to use (made a simple installer for work within an hour with it). You do have to download some small addon program to make gui components. The code behind it is Delphi.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Edited April 16, 2009 by Yoma

[Snake Man 407]

Why not? All an installer is, is a more streamlined way to copy large files with accuracy. Its way more simple than Copying large files into folders it is really time consuming. etc.

I wish you good luck in your endeavors if you think using executable installer for OFP/ArmA addon is more streamlined way than unpacking a RAR.

Damn does that mean that every program that uses an installer is unprofessional?

No. I use NSIS installers for all PMC Theaters on Falcon 4 for example. F4 theaters are completely different thing than OFP/ArmA addons, lets not get sidetracked here, we are talking about NSIS + pbo's.

I understand perfectly fine what you are saying, but if you ever made and deployed a program to thousands of people then soon you'd realise the importance of a decent installer.

Well so far all VTE downloads which exceed one thousand (if we combine every release from OFP and ArmA, I might be even bold as to say tens of thousands) and I haven't had much problems yet. Yes we did the install help page when few people asked instructions, but considering the amount of downloads, we have had "no" questions how to unpack & install the mod.

What your saying is very akin to the "we don't need higher programming languages" argument.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Hey didn't Arma itself get installed via an installer on your system, ever figured out why they do it like that?

Okay... now you're just being childish. That is again... completely and utterly different thing.

Sigh.

[mr.g-c 6]

Damn does that mean that every program that

Back ontopic:

InnoSetup is a nice one too.

Can be very easy to use (made a simple installer for work within an hour with it). You do have to download some small addon program to make gui components. The code behind it is Delphi.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Thanks i will look at this, what was important for me is of course lzma 7z compression - i won't try anything else.

Is it really hard to make it? Can you maybe share some of your knowledge what you found out about this tool (im not a programmer).

Thanks!

[Yoma 0]

No. I use NSIS installers for all PMC Theaters on Falcon 4 for example. F4 theaters are completely different thing than OFP/ArmA addons, lets not get sidetracked here, we are talking about NSIS + pbo's

Well maybe some day you'll get a higly configurable mod that gives users the possibility to set custom options.

("High/Low textures", default dynamic VD, etc spring to mind)

At that point it may be preferable to set these options via a setup wizzard rather then pointing thousands of people to a config file they can screw up easily

The "higher programming argument" refers to people that say that all the world needs is assembler. They are right in some ways, (assembler is about as optimised as you can get on a cpu if you do it right) but productivity wise they mostly loose the argument.

I admit my last remark was a tad childish :)

[Yoma 0]

It's not very hard. I think it's easier then nsis, but then again i'm not a very experienced person in the world of setups.

I'll use InnoSetup to make an installer for AddonSync2009 when it gets a bit better.

Whatever installer you're gonna use, you'll need a bit of time to get into it.

Check the InnoSetup FAQ for stuff like looking up regkeys etc. It's all written out there.

[mr.g-c 6]

It's not very hard. I think it's easier then nsis, but then again i'm not a very experienced person in the world of setups.

I'll use InnoSetup to make an installer for AddonSync2009 when it gets a bit better.

Whatever installer you're gonna use, you'll need a bit of time to get into it.

Check the InnoSetup FAQ for stuff like looking up regkeys etc. It's all written out there.

Thanks i tried it with the extra tools and it worked great with the wizard, however now i need to figure out how to make a shortcut to players arma.exe with "-mod=@mymod" stuff...

I could not find it yet in the FAQs..... :)

[DaveyBoy 0]

For this desktop shortcut just create a custom one (Just right click on it and edit the target path with the start up parameters you want) and include it as part of the install exe.

... http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Startup_Parameters

good luck

[DaveyBoy 0]

one question I would have of such a tool also to be considered Mr G-C would be that you may have to consider the varied install paths that may/ can exsist for different versions per region or publisher of ARMA I.E. the diference between languages or atari versus 505 games (am not sure if there is a differences?). However there should be a workaround cause i see with inno setup you can allow the user to specify there own install path(s). One real power of learning this scripting would be the ability to script for these regional/publisher/language differences

[Yoma 0]

Something like this might do the trick

[icons]

Name: {commondesktop}\2008Program; Filename: {app}\arma.exe; Parameters: """{app}\-mod=bla;bloe;blie"""; WorkingDir: {app}; IconIndex: 0

[Yoma 0]

one question I would have of such a tool also to be considered Mr G-C would be that you may have to consider the varied install paths that may/ can exsist for different versions per region or publisher of ARMA I.E. the diference between languages or atari versus 505 games (am not sure if there is a differences?). However there should be a workaround cause i see with inno setup you can allow the user to specify there own install path(s). One real power of learning this scripting would be the ability to script for these regional/publisher/language differences

Innosetup should be able to read out the Arma install directory from the registry avoiding these issues.

However i'm not too sure how it handles X64 registries.

And i'm not sure if all Arma deployments use the same registry key. I'm actually interested in knowing if they do.

[DaveyBoy 0]

And i'm not sure if all Arma deployments use the same registry key. I'm actually interested in knowing if they do.

rtfm :D

[Yoma 0]

rtfm :D

It's not officially stated in my manual and doing a quick search for it on the BIKI didn't spring any relevant results.

So gimme a link to that fm i'm supposed to read :D

Anyway i don't think it differs for the different deployments and the values can be found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA or X64 equivalents.

[mr.g-c 6]

So, how can we get the values for use to automatically use correct install path?

I somehow can't find it anywhere in the FAQ and also Google search couldn't help me...

[Yoma 0]

Well you could start off with the registry key your installation has. And have some people that have for example Steam version test it after it works on your system.

Also check the installer Ace uses and ask some questions there.

That said chances are high all deployments use the same key for game path settings.

[mr.g-c 6]

Also check the installer Ace uses and ask some questions there.

That said chances are high all deployments use the same key for game path settings.

Unfortunately Sickboy don't answer me for some reason....:(

[i0n0s 0]

Then he will have a reason.

@Yoma:

RegQueryStringValue(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 'SOFTWARE\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA', 'MAIN', ArmAFolder);

But I'm not sure how to set {APP}-path to the new one.