Difference between revisions of "Summer of Code/GSoC Ideas 2022"

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Adding "In-app downloads of demos, freeware games, and addons"
(Adding "In-app downloads of demos, freeware games, and addons")
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Examples are: Linux packages, Google Play, Apple App Store, Steam, ForgeTV store, and anything beyond that.
Examples are: Linux packages, Google Play, Apple App Store, Steam, ForgeTV store, and anything beyond that.
=== In-app downloads of demos, freeware games, and addons ===
Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]]
==== Background ====
Similar to "Game packaging system", provide a means for users to download [https://www.scummvm.org/demos/ demos], [https://www.scummvm.org/games/ freeware games], and game [https://www.scummvm.org/games/#addons addons] (e.g. subtitle packs) from within the ScummVM app.
These downloads are all currently hosted on https://www.scummvm.org/. In order to use them, the user must go to the website, find the listing, download and extract the files, place them in a location of their choosing, open ScummVM, navigate to the downloaded files, and then navigate through any additional dialogs.
==== Proposal ====
It would be much better to add functionality to ScummVM allowing for users to
# Browse demos and freeware games within the app
# Click a button to download and automatically add it to ScummVM (behind the scenes, it downloads to a path such as the "Application Support" folder, just like ScummVM preferences and logs)
# Manage and delete existing installations downloaded in this manner
This feature would be able to be able to be enabled or disabled during compilation. It would presumably be enabled on general desktop releases (e.g. Windows, macOS, Linux), but disabled on bundled releases (e.g. version included with GOG.com or Steam games) and releases for limited hardware or no internet connectivity (e.g. handheld console ports).
User benefits would be a better first-time experience (no more opening ScummVM and finding they can't do anything yet), greater discoverability of the sorts of games that ScummVM supports, and greatly simplifying what is now a multi-step process.
==== Examples ====
Examples of this sort of in-app download feature in other open-source projects include:
* The [https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/11375 content installer] in [https://www.openra.net OpenRA] (allows for downloading ''Command & Conquer'' games released as freeware by EA)
* The [https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu/blob/28ef6e493aadea2be7815158ccb05d37ad43ae17/OpenEmu/HomebrewViewController.swift "homebrew tab"] in [https://openemu.org OpenEmu] (allows for downloading "fanmade" homebrew ROMs with no commercial assets, freely released by the authors)


=== Support for shaders and arbitrary scalers ===
=== Support for shaders and arbitrary scalers ===
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