Launcher 0.2.1 is out today. Every launcher before this one was a test version on the way to a release, and this is the first proper release. It's still early days, so its About card says Alpha, and each game now tells you honestly where it stands: Jak X is in alpha, so it plays but expect bugs, and Jak and Daxter, Jak II and Jak 3 are in beta, playable with a few rough edges.
What's new for everyone
Most of this release is small things that add up to a launcher that's nicer to live with:
- Settings saves as you go, so there's no Save button to forget.
- You can bring a save over from a PS2 or PCSX2 memory card into Jak and Daxter, Jak II or Jak 3.
- The window opens right away, without waiting to hear back from the internet.
- Windows lets you know when an install, update or import finishes while you're busy elsewhere.
- If your disk fills up during an install, the launcher tells you how much space it needs instead of crashing.
- PLAY checks for an update first if it hasn't looked in the last hour.
- You can pick a dark look, a light one, or match whatever Windows is using.
A few settings, Jak X's volume sliders among them, will show up once the games catch up with the launcher, and the games on Release are still the build from September 26th. If you'd like every last detail, it's all in the changelog.
The beta
This release also opens a small beta. It's invite only for now, so there's no form to fill in; I'm reaching out to people myself. If you're in, you'll see a Beta badge on your account page and in the launcher, and you can choose between two channels: Release and Canary. Everyone starts on Release, and your choice follows your account to every PC you sign in on.
Release is the steady one. What it installs today is exactly what it installed yesterday.
Canary is where the newest work lives. There's a fresh build every night when something has changed, and sooner when a fix shouldn't wait. Each one is signed just like a release, so you know it came from me. The very first nightly build went out on October 28th.
Canary keeps to itself. It has its own folder, saves and settings, starting from a copy of your Release ones, so nothing you do on Canary can touch your Release games. If you'd rather go back, just switch: the launcher will point out the Canary build you left behind, and you can remove it from Settings.
Beta players also get two early pages in the launcher. Achievements shows every achievement for each game, though none are tracked just yet, and Servers shows the Jak X races that are open online.
Online play starts on Canary
Online play is on Canary now. LAN games work, and so do races between players in different homes, through Phaethon's relay. Next up is letting two players connect straight to each other, and like everything new, it reaches Canary first, so the testers get to race it before anyone else. If you'd like to keep your IP address private, the Online play switch on the launcher's Account page sends your games through the relay.
How Canary becomes the next release
When online play is ready, I won't rebuild anything for Release. Instead, one Canary build the testers have already played becomes the next release, exactly as it is, so what everyone gets is something real players have already put through its paces. It'll also bring along everything that's been waiting since September 26th, all at once.
When
I don't have a date yet. Online play sets the pace: once it holds up, Canary becomes the release, and I'll share the news here when it does.
Alex (maintainer, and a mechanical engineer by trade)