Installers

[Phil Steinmeyer]

OK, so I'm looking for an installer. Key decision criteria are (in roughly descending order):

1) Ease of Use
2) Power/Flexibility
3) Reasonable Cost
4) Works on Win 98 or newer (preferably Win 95, too)

Bonus Features:
5) Support for multiple languages (the main ones - French, German, Italian, Spanish, and perhaps Japanese) would be nice
6) Cross-Platform support for Mac would be nice
7) The ability to run from command-line (so I can batch run it) would be nice


Thoughts/Suggestions?

[Todd Degani]

InnoSetup may be a good choice. Don't think it is cross platform though.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php#features

Key features:



Support for all 32-bit Windows versions in use today -- Windows 95, 98, 2000, 2003, XP, Me, NT 4.0.
Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Disk spanning is also supported.
Standard Windows 2000/XP-style wizard interface.
Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
Complete uninstall capabilities.
Installation of files: Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX's and type libraries, and install fonts.
Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
Creation of registry and .INI entries.
Integrated Pascal scripting engine.
Support for multilingual installs.
Silent install and uninstall.
Full source code is available (Borland Delphi 2.0-5.0).


Is it really free of charge, even for commercial use?

Yes, it may be used completely free of charge, even when deploying commercial applications. However if you wish to show your appreciation and support its development you can make a donation.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Inno Setup rocks! It's got everything I wanted (except Mac-Cross Platform, but that was a long shot), and it's free.

Thanks,
Phil

[tentons]

Are there any cross-platform installers? I don't think I've seen one.

Not to hijack this thread, but what do you guys use to create install packages on Macintosh?

[Diragor]

I like InnoSetup and I've read a lot of good things about NSIS (http://nsis.sourceforge.net/), which is also free for any use. Never seen a cross-platform installer.

[Travis Dorschel]

If you are filthy rich Installshield X and 10.5 offer cross platform installs using Java. Is you are slightly less filthy rich you can use JExpress from denova.com to create Java based installations. I have extensive experience with Installshield 9,X and 10.5 at work but I haven't used JExpress so I don't know if it is any good (it has a free trial though). I don't know if there are any good free or open source options for this.

[Travis Dorschel]

I thought I would drop a plug for WIX ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/wix ) since no one else has mentioned it. WIX is an open source solution for building Windows Installer based ( .msi ) installations. WIX is historic for being one of the first Mircrosoft developed tools to go open source. WIX is being used by a number of the big Microsoft teams for building their enterprise installations (see robmen's blogs - http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/archive/2004/04/05/107709.aspx ).

If you just need a simple setup, NSIS or Inno are probably a better tools, but if you want to go blackbelt with your windows installer based deployments, think WIX. As the deployment engineer for the company I work for I am going to push to migrate to WIX for all of our core products from our current use of Installshield 10.5.

[Russell Tracey]

This document (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Porting/Conceptual/PortingUnix/distributing/chapter_9_section_1.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30001003-CH211) concerns porting UNIX/Linux applications to Mac OS X but the deployment section applies in general.

In short if your game doesn't need to install any funky frameworks, just keep all your files in the application bundle and package it up using Disk Copy/PackageMaker.

Drag and drop install/uninstall on the Mac is the way to go.

[Mark Currie]

Here's the thread title "NSIS or InnoSetup?" It's somewhat related.

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=2540&highlight=nsis

I first tried the installer that comes with Visual Studio 2003. I was disappointed in the complexity, poor compression, and Win9X support issues. NSIS seems to be much better, although I have no idea if it's cross platform.

[stanchat]

I ran across this installer and works pretty well. It has a very good UI

GP Install (http://www.qsc.co.uk/info_ins.htm)

[mahlzeit]

I know this is an old thread, but for my games I'd like to have an installer that is like the ones from PopCap (if I remember correctly). Basically, it chooses sensible defaults for installing (the installation folder goes into "C:\Program Files"; yes, place a desktop icon; etc) and with one click it installs everything. None of this Wizard crap where you have to click twenty times before the game finally resides on your harddisk. There is also a Customize button that lets you change the defaults if you feel so inclined, but most users won't use it (or even notice it's there). After everything's copied, the user gets the choice to Play the Game or Exit. It would be nice if an installer maker for this kind of installer existed.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

I (heart) NSIS.

We initially used MSI (Microsoft Installer) for almost a year, and you wouldn't believe how hard we had to fight it, and it still never did what it was supposed to correctly, nor did it have what I consider to be essential mainstream UI features. We probably spent a *full week or two* trying to get a MSI installer working as we needed, and were not particularly close when we gave up.

Using NSIS, and copying an installer script from an open-source NASA project, we had a wondering working installer with all the bells and whistles we wanted in a day or less of dev time. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

In case it matters, our game is coded in .NET, so we had some extra hoops our installer had to jump through. MSI couldn't handle those hoops NOR did it have a good UI. NSIS (with the NASA script we found) handled everything with amazing grace out of the box for us.

-Hiro_Antagonist

[NuclearNova]

Most mac programs don't use installers. Unless you NEED one just make a internet enabled disk image, so when they download it they get a nice folder with everything in it on the desktop, and no .dmg file left behind

[Bad Sector]

I use Slashstone Setup (http://www.slashstone.com/prod.php?id=2), a little setup tool i created 1 or 2 years ago (at the beginning the name was BSSetup, but then i renamed it to Slashstone Setup :-P). It uses BZIP2 compression, level 9. Only. I've tested it and works nicely in Win98 and better environments, but it requires MSVCRT.DLL in vanilla Windows 95 (but it gets installed with IE4 or IE5, IIRC).

Still, it has two tragically missing features: it can't create directories and the uninstall programm can't delete directories (start->programs entry and Program Files directory). Updating it is currently a low priority for me - but i'll probably do it, in order to make a cross-setup program for Windows/Linux (ie. a single script to spit out two installation files; one for win and one for linux). And yes, i'll definitelly fix the 'not deleting directories' problem.

ps. i'm not going to discuss why i rolled my own setup instead of using Inno or NSIS.

[HappyCat]

I ran across this installer and works pretty well. It has a very good UI

GP Install (http://www.qsc.co.uk/info_ins.htm)
And it's written by a guy I used to work with :-)

I don't actually use it (I've been an Inno fan for years) but Team Coherence (http://www.qsc.co.uk/teamcoherence.htm), his version control software, has proven invaluable over the years.

[ZephyrXero]

If you are wanting to release your game on Linux, I would suggest looking into Autopackage (http://autopackage.org). It will install on just about any distro out there. It's still very new, so it's far from perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction.

And if you're using compiled code, I don't think there's going to be a real cross -platform solution as you usually have to recompile for each platform...then again I could be wrong.

[Tom Gilleland]

I know this is an old thread, but for my games I'd like to have an installer that is like the ones from PopCap (if I remember correctly). Basically, it chooses sensible defaults for installing (the installation folder goes into "C:\Program Files"; yes, place a desktop icon; etc) and with one click it installs everything. None of this Wizard crap where you have to click twenty times before the game finally resides on your harddisk. There is also a Customize button that lets you change the defaults if you feel so inclined, but most users won't use it (or even notice it's there). After everything's copied, the user gets the choice to Play the Game or Exit. It would be nice if an installer maker for this kind of installer existed.

I also have a need for a simple Windows installer that just chooses common defaults and skips all those next-next-next menus that confuse total beginners. (Think CD autoplay - just put it in and it runs.) Does anyone have a good solution for this?

Tom

[soniCron]

Try NSIS (http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) and script it not to ask for details. However, I'd warn you that you should have an option for advanced users to change default settings, or else you may find yourself with a handful of pissy folks that like to install their programs on D:\ and store their data on C:\! ;)

[Savant]

Most mac programs don't use installers. Unless you NEED one just make a internet enabled disk image, so when they download it they get a nice folder with everything in it on the desktop, and no .dmg file left behind
As a side note, I just had to go through figuring out how to do a full Mac installer and it's ridiculously easy. If you have OSX and have installed the developer tools, look in your developer folder under utils for something called PackageMaker. Create a PKG file of your games directory with it and you'll have a true OSX installer on your hands. Looks just like installing iTunes or anything from Apple.

The user simply downloads the PKG file and double clicks it!

[Leper]

What's the learning curve with using NSIS as opposed to others? I've been interested in using something other than clickteam's but I really dont like the idea of having to learn a programming language to make a simple installer. Of course if NSIS is easy to use then I'll give it a try, but I would hate to have to spend hours trying to figure it out :)

[ggambett]

What's the learning curve with using NSIS as opposed to others?
Nearly zero, so go ahead. Assuming you don't have "disinstallulia", of course ;)

[Red Marble Games]

As a side note, I just had to go through figuring out how to do a full Mac installer and it's ridiculously easy. If you have OSX and have installed the developer tools, look in your developer folder under utils for something called PackageMaker. Create a PKG file of your games directory with it and you'll have a true OSX installer on your hands. Looks just like installing iTunes or anything from Apple.

The user simply downloads the PKG file and double clicks it!

The only issue about PackageMaker is that it is used mostly by the heavy programs that need to install files in lots of different places, so I've always been concerned that users who are just checking out a demo might be turned off by such a solution -- as opposed to a simple disk image that they know they can easily throw away if they don't like the game. Uninstalling something installed with PackageMaker MAY be just as easy, but users don't necessarily know that.

One more opinion that I have not tested empirically, so YMMV.

Mark

[Savant]

Ahh, thanks for the extra info. My requirement in this case was that it had to be installable from a CD and the PKG solution seemed to work well for that.

For downloadable games, yeah, I would stick with DMG.

[Backov]

In that case, you still shouldn't use PKG.

A DMG is just a disk image - in short, a virtual cd.

So a CD is just the same - it should have your bundled application, and maybe a couple of readmes. The user drags the application to Applications, and he/she is done.

No need for silly windows style installation when there's such a beautiful installation standard on OS X.