2.1.0 | LANCommander

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Latest Version<br>This page covers the full LANCommander 2.1 series. The latest patch is 2.1.1 — see Patch Updates below for what's changed since the initial release.

LANCommander 2.1.0 is a landmark release that touches virtually every part of the platform. A brand new launcher built on Avalonia, a standalone packager application, a C++ SDK powering a legacy Win32 launcher, major server improvements, and the launch of LANCommander HQ all come together in what has been the most ambitious update cycle to date.

Breaking Changes​

.NET 10​

LANCommander has been upgraded from .NET 8 to .NET 10. This should be a seamless transition as all LANCommander binaries are self-contained and include the appropriate .NET runtime. However, if you are running an older version of Windows that does not support .NET 10, you may encounter issues running this version of LANCommander. The minimum supported Windows version is now Windows 10 version 1809.

Launching Into the Future​

To kick things off, LANCommander 2.1.0 introduces a new launcher. As a recap, the previous launcher was built using .NET Blazor and wrapped into a Webview2 chrome using the open source project Photino. This decision was originally made in an effort to maintain a somewhat shared codebase with the server web UI.

Unfortunately, over time limitations of the platform made it apparent that a change had to be made. Community member aaronpowell stepped up and built out a proof of concept for a launcher using Avalonia, an open-source native cross-platform UI framework for .NET. The potential was immediately clear and the decision was made to jump in head first. The following months saw the project refocus on building a new launcher with a major emphasis on performance, reliability, design, and feature parity.

The result is, well, a project that went off a little off the rails in the best possible fashion:

Launcher

The brand new Avalonia-based launcher

I think the screenshots speak for themselves. Okay, not quite, there's a lot of fun stuff in this build so let's dive right in!

User Library​

Previous versions of the launcher attempted to bring the art of a game to the forefront. These views are where most players spend their time interacting with the application. However, everyone's tastes are different. As such the library now contains three main views; cover grid, list, and shelf.

Game Details​

Browsing the user library is great and all, but the detail view is where a game really gets to shine. Metadata has shifted to the right-hand side, descriptions now support more complex formatting with Markdown rendering support, and finally videos and screenshots are displayed in a carousel. A lightbox viewer lets you zoom in on screenshots, watch videos, and even read game manuals right from the detail view thanks to the new built-in PDF viewer.

This is really just the start of something new. Expect this part of the launcher to be built out more in the future with better publishing tools and metadata expansion.

Depot​

The depot has been overhauled too, probably more than any other part of the launcher. Previous iterations have been fine, but with large game sets it was hard to find just what you needed. The new depot puts a focus on categorization while maintaining granular filtering tools to get you exactly where you need to go.

As you can see, this section more than any other benefits from high quality metadata. We'll get into that later, but first let's talk about game installation.

Download Queue​

Game installation and downloading has been the hardest component to develop in the entire LANCommander platform. And rightly so! Without game installation, all you get is a fancy web UI and a pretty launcher that can't launch any games.

The LANCommander launcher is essentially a UI wrapper for the LANCommander SDK. The SDK is a .NET library that provides all of the useful bits of communicating with a LANCommander server install. Authentication, script execution, save management, game installation and so much more are provided through this library. In previous iterations, the SDK had a very strict execution plan for installing games. Often times this would lead to deadlocks and outright failures.

To resolve this in 2.1.0, the game install process has moved to a two-layer queuing system. The first layer of the queue manages what actually enters the download queue. This could be a game, redistributable, tool, or addon. The second layer handles any subprocessing step such as executing the different script types, save downloading, existing file verification, etc. The result is a system that is more transparent and reliable.

This queuing system has been exposed somewhat in the download queue:

Each entry in the download queue will now report each step of the process during a game installation. In addition to looking a bit less mystical, this should give users an idea of what exactly is happening...