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Now, the problem as you can imagine becomes needing to do this for each Steam game one sets up. It is minimally an inconvenience but more importantly, there may be a limit to how many machines Steam allows you to be able to login to in total. Let's just guess that number is 20. You can see the problem there. I haven't looked into this but I doubt very much the number of machines allowed is very large, never mind infinite. So this needs to be addressed somehow and I agree with you that trying to install all Steam games with one steam client in one "app" is not wise.
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I am curious. Did you already consider all of this with Steamguard and come up with some similar or different solution for implementing Steam games support in Barrel?
Of course I have! I wouldn't cause any trouble to you guys
Look here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4020-ALZM-5519
Excerpt: "Is there a limit to the number of machines that can be authorized at once?
No, there's no limit. Steam Guard is aimed to protect the value that is yours, not limit your access to your stuff. As always, you can access your Steam account and library from as many machines as you'd like."
I've done quite a few myself testing this app, trust me!
I thought I'd add some more feedback as this looks very nice and I'm sure you've been working hard on it. It is good of you to do so and share the fruits of your labor with the rest of us.
I like the look of the UI. It reminds me of the Boxer approach for DOSBox games where they are all accessible in one Window, separate from your native Mac games. I guess some might prefer more integration with Launchpad and separate icons per game but I've warmed up after using Boxer to the idea of segregating games for DOS and Windows and my Launchpad has quite enough icons as it is - too many games!
I really, really like the implementation of a system whereby work is reused and those less technically inclined can benefit from "wrappers" already tweaked by those with the talent and inclination to do so. That is a very nice and significant touch to this app. Even for someone who knows how to fiddle around with Wine, research AppDB for hints, google for more, etc., etc. it sure is nice to be able to just grab an already working configuration and go play instead of work for it. That was a great idea.
I like the rating system too, like the App Store. I see this as another very cool and useful feature.
Limiting the system to stuff that works and weeding out stuff that does not would be a real blessing as well. I imagine you've already given some thought to this but I'll mention too that it would be really welcome and in my opinion an elegant feature to inform the user on install if the game is already in the database with a working solution ready to go, if it is not in the database and it is up to you to get it running if possible and then upload it or if it is simply known to not work with any current version of Wine. For example, we know anything requiring DirectX 11 does not work. There are plenty of titles in AppDB that are known to be garbage too sadly. So hopefully over time the database could grow to incorporate all this info and offer feedback to users drawing from it.
By the way, who the heck pays for the database, the server it is on, the bandwidth? It seems like that could be a significant expense if this takes off but I have no experience in that area.
Don't mind me rambling. Those were just some thoughts coming to mind as I typed along here.
I'll download this today and play with it soon so I can give more educated feedback if you want it once I've tried using it some. I actually have a first pet project in mind. I'd like to get Fallout 3 GoTY Edition (on Steam) running in Wine so I don't have to reboot for it. I've heard this title should run okay with Wine. I'll have to see if Barrel is ready for it yet. ;-)
Thanks for the suggestions and the good words. I'll transfer this post over to github for discussion, there are some good ideas in here. I like, for example, the part where the user would be notified that a game he/she is trying to install is incompatible.
Regarding the server, I have a small dedicated VPS for my projects, which I currently use for wine. Not many resources on it, but it has unlimited bandwidth. Barrel is also trying to be "smart" bandwidth-wise, so all "recipes" for games are nothing more than plain little xml files, tiny (KB) in size. The engines can also be cached locally to save bandwidth, and the database is a simple little RESTful service, nothing more. I'll have to reconsider server usage once it starts to gain traction, for now it is really tiny.
Still don't manage to install any games... My problem now is that every time I try to install Planetside 2 from Steam by simply going to File>Add Steam game i am told to put a name and the wine engine. I simply select the default one because I don't know what that means. Then I get a message that says that Steam is going to be installed and it may seem as it gets stuck but it really won't. I accept.
Finally, when the game is installed I do a Debug Run by right-clicking and Advance Options. It tests it and a second later it tells me it finished and asks me if I want to view the log. I say yes and here is what the log says:
Code:
wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\Steam.exe"
So... Am I doing something wrong??
This is really weird, it should point to system32. Try changing the executable path to C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe
If you get the same message, check your running processes to make sure that wine is not stuck (it happens sometimes). Go to spotlight > Activity Monitor and look for either "Wine" and "Wineserver" processes, or Barrel[random number here]Wine*
If you find any stuck processes there, select them and force-quit them, and then try again.
Can I please ask that all support requests go through Github? (
https://github.com/ThanosSiopoudis/BarrelApp/issues/new)
This way I'll be able to answer to all your issues and track any possible bugs you guys may find, it's a beta release after all! Thanks in advance!