Configuring the GameCore Launcher

By default, GameCore includes a startup launcher front end for your games.  This provides a customizable startup screen to allow the user to configure the screen resolution, quality settings and other settings prior to launching the game.

Default Appearance

The following images show the default Launcher appearance:

GameCore Launcher Startup Screen

GameCore Launcher Advanced Settings Page

Adding the Launcher to your Project

GameCore will automatically add the launcher to your project if it does not already exist when the project is opened in the GameCore editor. 

Note: By default, every GameCore project should already have this directory, however if you are opening an older project (upgrading from Beyond Virtual for example), this directory may not exist until opened in GameCore.

The directory is placed in your projects 'media' directory, as shown below:

Customizing the Launcher

Unlike standard GameCore menu's and interface elements, the Startup Launcher uses a preconfigured layout which determines the placement and content of the startup interface.  However, you are entirely free to customize the look & feel of the individual interface elements, should you so desire.

Launcher Background

The easiest way to customize the launcher is simply to replace the 'launcher.jpg' background image with a custom image of your own. 

Note that the background image does not necessarily need to be the exact dimensions of the original image.  GameCore will automatically right-align all of the launcher's interface elements.  

You should take care to leave space for the launcher interface elements, which will occupy an area roughly 300x300 pixels in size.  You can use the original Launcher background image as a guide for where these elements will be placed.

To customize any of the other launcher elements, simply replace the existing image files with your own custom images and the launcher will display the updated elements the next time you test your game.

Replacing the Launcher Font

The launcher font is a standard GameCore bitfont, and as such can be replaced using a font exported from the editor if desired.  You may need to experiment with font sizes however, as this can vary from font to font.

The launcher font must be named 'font.fnt', so if you are copying an existing font from your project, simply rename the .fnt file to this after copying it into the launcher directory.