spartan563 10 Posted May 27, 2010 (edited) What is ArmA 2 Mod Launcher? ArmA 2 Mod Launcher is a compact command line application designed to allow advanced ArmA 2 players to launch a predefined set of mods quickly and easily. Its main objective is to allow people with very large mod collections to start mods without worrying about the constraints of a windows shortcut's path length and to make their lives easier by making use of a search to specify mods within your ArmA 2 directory. NEW ArmA 2 Mod Launcher can now launch Operation Arrowhead and Combined Operations, and with the -modfolder option you can even specify folders outside your ArmA 2 / OA directory from which to load mods. Why make ArmA 2 Mod Launcher? ArmA 2 Mod Launcher was created to allow you to launch a large library of mods without a great deal of fuss. Unlike many other ArmA 2 launchers this one is based around a command prompt, that means two things. Firstly, the application will load very quickly and get you into your game a lot faster than any other ArmA 2 launcher. Secondly, it is completely controlled by startup parameters. So creating a shortcut for each mod loadout can easily be done with this application. How do I use ArmA 2 Mod Launcher? ArmA 2 Mod Launcher is best run by creating a shortcut to it. Once the shortcut is created right click on it and select Properties. In the Target field scroll right to the end and then type the following in: -y -option noSplash -mod @ That will launch ArmA 2 with the No Splash option and all of your mods (provided they have the @ prefix in their folder names). You can also use the ! prefix in a search to exclude mods which match that search's results. For example: -mod=@ -mod=!ACE will launch all mods except those containing the word ACE in their names. For more info on how to use this application please read this page. There is a very detailed breakdown of features, the different parameters which can be used and how to use them. Change Log v1.0.0.0 - Initial version v1.1.0.0 - Now uses RegEx for parsing command line arguments - Allows ! prefix for exclusion searches - Revised logic to make use of updated command line parsing - Colour text in console for enhanced readability - Updated -help and -about options - Highlights missing mods - Highlights mods that are selected more than once by the search(es). - May help with optimising searches - Added -y option - Added -silent option v1.2.0.0 - Will not allow system directories (ArmA 2) to be added as mods (e.g. AddOns) - About page and Help page will now show the Sierra Softworks project page's address - Added -web argument for displaying Sierra Softworks project page v1.3.0.0 - Can specify search engine, either RegEx or a standard search using Wildcards. - Considerably better self updating code. Much less likely to crash or fail to update. v1.4.0.0 - Adds ability to disable coloured text in the console (-nocolour) v1.4.1.0 - Fixes problem with 1.4.0.0 which caused it to think it was v1.3.0.0 when checking for updates. v1.5.0.0 - Adds the ability to launch a list of mods that are specified in a file with the -file="" parameter. - Adds a -newest option that will launch the latest version of the game (beta or stable). - Adds an "explicit" option to the search engine which will only select mods with the exact name that is specified (same as ArmA 2 standard behaviour) v1.6.0.0 - Adds a -openfolder switch which will open the ArmA 2 directory in windows Explorer. - Adds a -copy switch which will copy the launch parameters to the clipboard for use in creating shortcuts - Adds a -mock switch which will perform all the steps prior to launching the game without actually doing so. - Adds a nameless parameter which can be used alone to open a file which holds all the command line options that should be used by the application. - Fixes some code to reduce the likelihood of the wrong version number being used when checking for updates. V1.7.0.0 - Adds -oa option to launch ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead - Adds -co option to launch ArmA 2: Combined Operations - Fixes a possible crash should the "beta" folder not be present. - Adds checks to make sure that the application can in fact find he ArmA 2 or Operation Arrowhead executables before trying to launch them. - More robust Registry Key handling code to reduce the chances of a crash. V1.7.1.0 - Adds exclusion list for default Operation Arrowhead folders. V1.7.2.0 - Adds a check for Combined Operations to prevent the game from launching if ArmA 2's directory could not be found. V1.7.3.0 - Adds Google Analytics tracking to the application. - Fixes certain bugs with Registry Key handling. V1.7.4.0 - Adds checks for ArmA 2 and ArmA 2: OA paths before attempting to launch either game. - Adds global exception capture code to prevent crash dialogs from appearing and to give the user time to react. - Fixes a bug in the code that checks for ArmA 2 and ArmA 2: OA executable files to prevent a crash in certain cases where the files were missing. - Fixed a small problem with how the application handled missing registry keys but a present executable file in the current directory (wherever the launcher is placed) which could cause it to mistakenly say that the game was not present. (Relapse from version 1.6.0 onwards) V1.7.5.0 - Fixed incorrect location for registry items (Bohemia Interactive Studios -> Bohemia Interactive Studio) Problem was introduced in V1.7.0.0 - Preliminary code for launching mods from folders outside the base game directory through the use of the -modfolder="" option (Experimental, may be removed at a later date) V1.7.6.0 - Adds Google Analytics tracking code for unhandled exceptions to help improve the stability of release versions. - Adds a -ga="" option to disable Google Analytics should you prefer not to provide this information. You can disable it by adding -ga=off to your command line. V1.7.7.0 - Adds parenthesis to mod paths which contain spaces to prevent them from failing to load. - Adds a -ga=full option which will additionally report information about which game you are choosing to launch to help us track where we should be focussing development time. This option is disabled by default. Current Version: 1.7.7.0 Sierra Softworks Download Page - Download Now Armaholic mirror: - ArmA 2 Mod Launcher [Console Based] More Information If there are any problems that you find (maybe it doesn't launch the mods you chose or it crashes when doing something) or any features you would like me to implement, please don't hesitate to contact me at contact@sierrasoftworks.com and I'll see if I can accommodate your request. Regards, SPARTAN-563 Edited November 18, 2010 by SPARTAN-563 Update Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
