Testing levels with Play

The Play buttons start the game with the level you are editing. They go through a game launcher, which the RED+ package does not include. They use Alpine Faction, and RED+ finds it for you.

The Play buttons

The Play buttons are at the top of the editor window, next to Save and Pack:

Finding Alpine Faction

When you press Play and RED+ has no launcher yet, it looks for AlpineFactionLauncher.exe in these places, in this order:

1. The Alpine Faction folder in Program Files (x86).
2. Programs\Alpine Faction in your local application data folder.
3. Your Red Faction folder, an Alpine Faction folder inside it, and an Alpine Faction folder next to it.
4. The folder the Alpine Faction installer recorded in Windows.

If RED+ finds it, Play starts the game at once, and RED+ writes the path into redplus.ini as PLAY_LAUNCHER, so it does not look again.

If RED+ does not find it, a message titled Play asks you to show it where AlpineFactionLauncher.exe is:

1. Click OK.
2. In the Where is AlpineFactionLauncher.exe? box, pick the file.

RED+ remembers your answer in redplus.ini, so it asks only once. If you click Cancel, Play does not start the game, and a message says that Play needs a game launcher. The next Play looks and asks again.

If RED+ cannot write redplus.ini, Play still works until you close the editor, and RED+ asks again next time. See Install and start RED+ about a RED+ folder you cannot write to.

Use a different launcher

To use a different launcher, or to change the one RED+ found, set PLAY_LAUNCHER yourself:

1. Close RED+ and open redplus.ini in the RED+ folder.

2. Find the line that starts PLAY_LAUNCHER=, or ;PLAY_LAUNCHER= if RED+ has not written it yet. Delete any semicolon and put the full path to the launcher after the equals sign:

   PLAY_LAUNCHER=C:\Program Files (x86)\Alpine Faction\AlpineFactionLauncher.exe
   

   Start the line with PLAY_LAUNCHER, with no space in front, and do not put quotes around the path.

3. Save the file and start RED+.

RED+ reads PLAY_LAUNCHER when it starts. logs\RedPlusEditor.log then has a line containing [RF+] Play buttons will launch: followed by the path. If the file is not there, the log has a line containing PLAY_LAUNCHER in redplus.ini does not exist, and the next Play looks for Alpine Faction again.

Which game starts

RED+ tells the launcher which game to run: RF_120na.exe in your Red Faction folder if it is there, otherwise RF.exe. The Red Faction folder is RF_DIR if you set it, otherwise the folder the editor runs from. If neither file is there, the launcher runs the game it is set up for.

Each time you press Play, the log has a line containing [RF+] Play: the launcher runs followed by the game it asked for.