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General discussionOffline installers with an option to install GOG Galaxy(1687 posts)(1687 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted July 06, 2017
low rated
Thanks for bearing with us in this thread. We’d like to announce that today we’ve introduced the addition of new installers, with implemented GOG Galaxy client.

Like Destro described it back in May, we decided to separate the „new" and „classic” installers, for your choice. So if you don’t care about the features like achievements or cloud-saves and don’t want to use GOG Galaxy, you can download the „Classic Game Installer", just like it was handled before. For games that have new installers, the default download view on „My account” will show the "GOG Galaxy Game Installers" - you will notice that, as it is visibly described in „My account” game view. To download the „classic” ones, just go to „Options" and choose „Classic Installers”.

The new GOG Galaxy Game Installers were added to +100 games - a selection of all games that make use of GOG Galaxy features. I'll post the current list of games with the new installers in a separate post.
Going forward, all new games that will use GOG Galaxy features, will now receive both GOG Galaxy Game Installer and Classic Game Installer.

Introduction of GOG Galaxy Game Installers doesn’t change anything in terms of keeping the Classic Game Installers up to date. As soon as we receive an update for any game, we will prepare an updated version of the classic installer, just like it was done in the past.

Edit: Pinned.
Post edited July 06, 2017 by fables22
Posted May 10, 2017
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mk47at: Creating Galaxy has cost a lot of money. Obviously everyone has to use it – otherwise the manager that decided to start the development will get fired.

It's like the Microsoft's Windows 10 update “campaign”. The fear and last spasm of a dying company.
Galaxy has been more than successful for them... hell even Gwent has been a big success and it not even officially released yet so I'm pretty sure that manager has nothing to worry about. Well unless we count how the manger actually manages then yea maybe worry a bit.

If you think GOG and MS are dying... then yea, that would be wrong. MS has been more than successful, Windows has never been a big money earner in the consumer sector. The cloud and business sector is their bread and butter.
Post edited May 10, 2017 by BKGaming
Posted May 10, 2017
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BKGaming: The installers can work offline even if Galaxy is included or not. This won't change that. If you can't connect online Galaxy would simply not be installed and the installation would continue and GOG can then point you to where to get Galaxy for when you can get online. It's not a good enough reason to bloat installers honestly.
They do in their present form. But who knows what form they could change to take, and likely any change would involve Galaxy in an effort to holistically integrate their software and processes.

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BKGaming: If they continue to build Galaxy in the way they have been, none of this should be an issue. The games hook into Galaxy, they are not built to fundamentally need Galaxy for anything (outside of online MP of course). This is why GOG already packages a butch of dll files, etc. into the builds that are packaged into the standalone installer so that the games can hook into Galaxy IF Galaxy is installed, but otherwise work like normal and some people around here already have irrational feelings about GOG doing that.

There are plenty of ways they could streamline this process though if they wanted too without having to devote to much resources to keep standalone installers up for a arguably much smaller user base.

No, I think it's clear GOG motive is to integrate Galaxy, the thing that have spent 2 years working on into everything that GOG now stands for. That doesn't mean that don't want to keep it optional, but they do want to make it the focal point of the GOG experience and they can do that, and still be respectful with how they do it.
the level of interaction between Galaxy and the game is dependent upon title. it can range from nothing, to slight hooking or wrapping of certain functions in the case of old games with multiplayer handling, to a situation of full-blown build support of Galaxy which would be possible for a new title shipping on gog.com. keeping things as they are can possibly go from being sub-optimal to impossible when you're trying to incorporate some new features depending on what types of feature you're trying to implement.

it's about cohesion in build chain and platform environment. and sure, you could do it lots of different ways, and have lots of different legs covering lots of different bases, but my point is, resources are limited, and they could be choosing to do it this way, with the galaxy thing that they're working on.

don't get me wrong though I am not arguing that all of this successfully justifies the installer bloat problem. 100 or so MB is a huge deal when you're talking about many installers, especially when some of these installers would be around that size or less on their own.
Post edited May 10, 2017 by johnnygoging
Posted May 10, 2017
Really: Does anyone think the decision can be changed? Okay, for example in details perhaps. But anything else? And what community exactly? The one argueing most of the time? Downvoting and hating? Wow, seriously I'm impressed. Showing GOG what throughout the wishlists? That's a real nice hamster wheel, of course. But nothing more: Wishes fullfilled counting, but what else? And when a wish is fullfilled GOG can show how good they are performing, if not ... they can find some excuse without saying too much for example the missing Linux-support for many titles here. Win-Win-situation by all means. Where is the decision maker here? A community-management taking up the points, but really: Have seen this multiple times before and most of the time the decision makers ignore the criticism. Even now it is more and more quiet: Let's wait ... let's see how it could be. Perhaps it won't be that bad for now. But let's face the facts: 100 installations got some bloatware, for what? And instead talking to the one's responsible Fable takes here the big amount of criticism, summarize it and send this up, up and away. Waiting for response. That's the real state now and afterwards there will be nothing more than just a storm within a glass full of water. ;-) But yeah: Let's wait till Friday and see how it goes, how many here draw consequences or even register how dependent we are in fact as GOG positioned as one last station for DRM-free possibilities. But when is the line crossed and they just use this for another purpose? Some thoughts. See you ... Friday. ;-)
Post edited May 10, 2017 by throgh
Posted May 10, 2017
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throgh: how dependent we are in fact as GOG positioned as one last station for DRM-free possibilities.
There are always possibilities.
Posted May 10, 2017
high rated
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throgh: how dependent we are in fact as GOG positioned as one last station for DRM-free possibilities.
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Breja: There are always possibilities.
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/search/drm/download/sort/bestselling
Posted May 10, 2017
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throgh: Really: Does anyone think the decision can be changed?
Yes, yes I do. Here's an example from a couple years ago:

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/dont_slip_into_drm_swamp_stop_using_password_protection_on_installer_packages

GoG was password-protecting various archives for similarly stupid reasons and the backlash was great enough that GoG reversed its decision. I'm hoping for a repeat of that.

[EDIT] GoG's decision on the matter:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/on_gnulinux_has_anyone_be_able_to_extract_the_rar_innosetup_installers/post470
Post edited May 10, 2017 by tremere110
Posted May 10, 2017
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Breja: There are always possibilities.
Some known, but Fireflower Games? Nice, thanks for the notes. Could I add some more? GamersGate

They have another way for distribution: A downloader and the complete Setup-routine is ready for usage. Used that for some classics a while ago, which I doubt GOG will ever have here.

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throgh: Really: Does anyone think the decision can be changed?
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tremere110: Yes, yes I do. Here's an example from a couple years ago:

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/dont_slip_into_drm_swamp_stop_using_password_protection_on_installer_packages

GoG was password-protecting various archives for similarly stupid reasons and the backlash was great enough that GoG reversed its decision. I'm hoping for a repeat of that.
Erm, I meant fullfilling ALL wishes or not fullfilling them with a reason given. This wishlist is just a nice game and for times like this perfect. So GOG can pick up some easy-to-go wishes and fullfill them. Granted and some voices are done. As I've said: Hamster wheel and win-win-situation. ;)

Perhaps I'm wrong: Really I want to be wrong. But as many others said. There are other stores out there. No boundary to GOG needed!
Post edited May 10, 2017 by throgh
Posted May 10, 2017
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throgh: Some known, but Fireflower Games? Nice, thanks for the notes. Could I add some more? GamersGate

They have another way for distribution: A downloader and the complete Setup-routine is ready for usage. Used that for some classics a while ago, which I doubt GOG will ever have here.
Unfortunately, they're becoming more and more a (legit) Steam key seller. And getting your games DRM-free does involve a bit of computer legerdemain. But yeah, you can get DRM-free there as well.
Posted May 10, 2017
high rated
Thanks GOG for another customer unfriendly move.
From now on you have to be better than the other stores. You lost the last small bit of Good old Games/DRM-free "bonus" from my side.
Posted May 10, 2017
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throgh: Some known, but Fireflower Games? Nice, thanks for the notes. Could I add some more? GamersGate

They have another way for distribution: A downloader and the complete Setup-routine is ready for usage. Used that for some classics a while ago, which I doubt GOG will ever have here.
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GR00T: Unfortunately, they're becoming more and more a (legit) Steam key seller. And getting your games DRM-free does involve a bit of computer legerdemain. But yeah, you can get DRM-free there as well.
Well same in ways for the Humble-store - regarding the key-seller for STEAM. :(
Posted May 10, 2017
high rated
Considering the overwhelming negativity that this move has generated, I wonder if GOG will prepare another letter that will be stating how they will be returning back to their roots. Like totally.
Posted May 10, 2017
high rated
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throgh: Well same in ways for the Humble-store - regarding the key-seller for STEAM. :(
Oh, aye. Humble is actually even more egregious. The vast majority of their bundles now have few or no DRM-free games in them. But, again, they still can be used to grab DRM-free if you want them, and at least they actually have a DRM-free search function on their site. So there's that.
Posted May 10, 2017
low rated
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johnnygoging: They do in their present form. But who knows what form they could change to take, and likely any change would involve Galaxy in an effort to holistically integrate their software and processes.

---

the level of interaction between Galaxy and the game is dependent upon title. it can range from nothing, to slight hooking or wrapping of certain functions in the case of old games with multiplayer handling, to a situation of full-blown build support of Galaxy which would be possible for a new title shipping on gog.com. keeping things as they are can possibly go from being sub-optimal to impossible when you're trying to incorporate some new features depending on what types of feature you're trying to implement.

it's about cohesion in build chain and platform environment. and sure, you could do it lots of different ways, and have lots of different legs covering lots of different bases, but my point is, resources are limited, and they could be choosing to do it this way, with the galaxy thing that they're working on.

don't get me wrong though I am not arguing that all of this successfully justifies the installer bloat problem. 100 or so MB is a huge deal when you're talking about many installers, especially when some of these installers would be around that size or less on their own.
There is no feature that they can implement in a way that would stop a game from functioning if that feature isn't available due to not having Galaxy. If they did that they would not give a user the ability to even opt out or to launch games without Galaxy. The core foundation is already built and well as the core features (as compared to Steam).

So at this point, it's basically adding to the foundation and that foundation hooks into Galaxy regardless of which features a game title makes use of via a Software Development Kit and butch of API's.

I would imagine if a game tries to call a function to start cloud saves for instance, or to unlock an achievement GOG has competent programmers who were smart enough to kill those functions when called if Galaxy isn't installed and catch any errors to handle them. This basically all we are talking about here and optimization can always occur, this is why programmers refactor code.

Before programmers start any coding or design (well if competent) they will walk through the program and think about any future features and issues they may have to account for. I think (or rather hope) the programmers at GOG did just that.
Post edited May 11, 2017 by BKGaming
Posted May 10, 2017
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throgh: Well same in ways for the Humble-store - regarding the key-seller for STEAM. :(
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GR00T: Oh, aye. Humble is actually even more egregious. The vast majority of their bundles now have few or no DRM-free games in them. But, again, they still can be used to grab DRM-free if you want them, and at least they actually have a DRM-free search function on their site. So there's that.
Yap, using this one! :)
Posted May 10, 2017
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eiii: Voted! Although I would have worded it more like "Do not integrate a Galaxy installer into the offline game installers" (a pointer to Galaxy would be OK for me).
I agree completely but for some reason, I was the first person who discovered the wishlist entry for that. After I posted it here, people obviously voted on it.

So, please everybody re-post these links in this thread whenever the links get buried.
Can anyone who has posted on the first page maybe add these links to their first post? That would be amazing! :D

<span class="bold">Remove</span> the so-called "optional" <span class="bold">Galaxy</span> client <span class="bold">from</span> any &amp; <span class="bold">all offline installers </span>

<span class="bold">Don't make installing Galaxy the default</span> setting in standalone game installers

Galaxy-free installers: account-based option

<span class="bold">Be optional till the end of days</span>
Post edited May 10, 2017 by 0Grapher
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionOffline installers with an option to install GOG Galaxy(1687 posts)(1687 posts)
(1687 posts)