Portable FL [Updated 16/06]

StarTrader

Very well done Zyos, thank you.

Sad nobody said it before - what happened to etiquette, guys? Credit where it’s due?

Zyos

Hey guys, sorry, real life got in the way as it does…

@Thoughtless
Yes it was this June, I had just gone back to work at the time, after recovering from pancreatitis. It was placed on a back burner whilst I was getting back into work because I was still feeling pretty weak after work, and the lack of energy was making motivation hard.

I am a little stronger now though, but I also have other little projects on the go right now.

@StarTrader
Thank you for the kind comments.
I hope you find it useful, as it stands it’s a pretty neat proof of concept. Only thing left to do with it is tidy it up some more. I was going to start the project again for Windows 10 and was taking a break for just that reason, but me and Windows 10 have had a falll out, so I’m still on Windows 7.

I was experimenting with different GUI options, as the proof is rather GUI-less, I will revisit this soon.

cata123

Damn, pancreatitis ?
This frequently is lethal, sometimes been caused by chronicle alcohol consumption, but im sure its not the case
Anyway, i tested Portable Freelancer, works good, but it lacks the server portability feature, just the game can be launched.

Zyos

Severe acute pancreatitis, I started with various infections, stomach, chest, pnuemonia, THEN severe pancreatitis. The as a complication got a cyst on my pancreas which they had to drain, then cut away half of my already dead pancreas, remove my gallbladder and fit me with a colostomy lol. I could barely walk for a couple of weeks after that surgery, they had to keep me asleep for 3 days to allow me to heal.

But enough about that.

Yes, it was a proof of concept, I never got into creating a server, but it’s the same principles, it was one of the stages I had in mind, but someone else will have to arrange that more than likely. I can make any software that needs to be installed, and that needs the default Freelancer folder, completely portable.

All I need is to grab the registry files and any needed DLLs or other frameworks and they will function fine. If anyone wants to contribute to this, then that’s awesome.

I wanted to include a bunch of mod tools as add on modules to the environment anyways. My time is just limited right now.

This platform can actually be applied to ANY software as long as it is made compatible.

The motivation behind this here was to make it as simple as possible for folk to get the game up and running from scratch, I do intend to even extract the needed files from the retail CD, ISO, or from the already installed game. Once done it is from that point a completely portable game.

The actual entire scope of the platform was to Unify a lot of stuff, I might call it that actually, The Unity platform.

HunterKiller

Glad to know you’re recovering and doing well. Freelancers only need to die in the virtual world, not in this one. At least then, they can respawn.

Zyos

I very nearly did die, I feel like it was one of those moments on the VOID server when I was BBD and was fighting against half the server lol.

Thoughtless

I hope you get better we need people like you who think outside the box

Zyos

I’m glad someone appreciates the effort

Working on a GUI based downloader/installer now actually. Lots of plans for this, it’s just going to take time, when the proof is functional in GUI form I will open it up to everyone to contribute to. Adding in extra modules or mods will be easy and follow a format. So there should be no issues in getting stuff add to it by the community.

Zyos

Sigh, I hate work on logo’s, fonts look so rubbish, so I went and solved the god damn issue by creating a fairly simple app that I can just adjust the CSS of and display fonts so I can screenshot them and then edit them in an image program.

Zyos

Some logo action. Not finished yet, some inside texturing work to do

Zyos

Just to keep you guys in the loop, I got a new job a couple of months back, unfortunately as I was effectively starting again I had to focus on that for a while, which left me drained at the end of the day. Now I am more comfortable in the role it’s taking less energy, so hopefully I can put some time into this project soon.

I also have a Minecraft modpack I am working on too. Freelancer isn’t going anywhere though (hopefully lol).

shaggygoblin

maybe of interest to you, the ability to make FL create save games in it’s own path, rather than users\my docs\my games\fl…
this would make it able to save directly to the portable drive I assume FL Portable is being run from?

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?post_id=60985#forumpost60985

adoxa wrote:

# Use "..\Saves" & "..\FreelancerShots" (relative to EXE) instead of your
# "Documents\My Games\Freelancer" & "Pictures" folders.
# Jason Hood, 16 November, 2015.

File: Common.dll
0A2FB1: C7 06 2E 2E 00 00 EB 0E	[ 56 6A 00 6A 00 68 05 80 ]
0A300A: 0C			[ 21 ]
0A3018: 7C			[ 13 ]
0A30BE: C7 06 2E 2E 00 00 EB 0E	[ 56 6A 00 6A 00 68 27 80 ]
142690: "Saves" 00              [ "My Gam" ]

```(Use [BwPatch](http://misc.adoxa.vze.com/#bwpatch) to apply, or DIY - [c]offset: new bytes [ old bytes ][/c].)

follow the thread: It was discovered that the info at offsets is different between the two .dll’s. His info appears to be for the Official Patch common.dll.

EDIT: The correct info is there for both versions of common.dll.

Zyos

PortableFL already functions independently of the main save location. It temporaringly overrides the windows environment variable that points to that location, saves are merely created and loaded from the My Documents folder internal to PortableFLs folder structure. It’s one of the main reasons for it being Portable.

Thanks for the detailed info though man.