[Launcher] Add a gk or something outside of the tooling versions that simply finds and defaults to the newest tooling release

[ArcaneEntity]

it would be preferable to have game shortcuts (think steam and steamdeck game additions) not be tied to the tooling version so one can simply update it with the launcher,

(the following example is based on my experience with linux on my pc and steamdeck)

the "manager gk" file could just be a simple manager that just gets prompted by the launcher or steam to launch the specified game with commandline parameters,
something like -jak1 -tooling version(if someone wants specific) -data location -saves/settings location. similar to how the gk files work currently.

and then the "manager gk" process would just die after passing on its information.

[xTVaser]

Kind of redundant and a considerable amount of effort to have an entire new executable just to act as a middleman between the launcher and the game.

If someone really wants to solve this, it could just be improved in the launcher itself (the thing that controls how/where the games are installed in the first place). Some potential ideas:

• move or copy the latest installation to a static location so the shortcut continues to work
• use some sort of symlink to point to the latest installation and then target that with the steam shortcut instead.
• modify/create the steam shortcuts directly via the launcher instead of requiring the user to create and update them.

Would be better to move this discussion to the launcher repo as such.

[trippjoe]

I'm planning on adding steam shortcuts to the launcher.
The static install location is a good idea and I'll probably give it a try.
Please transfer this discussion to the launcher repo, assuming that's an available option similar to moving issues.

[xTVaser]

Can't transfer the discussion, the launcher repo doesn't have discussions enabled. Just make a new issue / copy the content from here to it.

Bear in mind that the above each has drawbacks. For example a static install location means that you can no longer easily launch multiple versions of the game and/or you have to duplicate the install footprint.