Nadrew wrote:

You can distribute BYOND with your project, but you have to distribute it entirely, meaning every file installed by the installer must be included with your launcher. You should look into the BYONDexe system.

Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification.

I have two reasons for not currently using the BYONDexe.

The main one is that I'm trying to expand my knowledge past DM, so that I can gain experience in other languages. My current project is sort of a new area for me. I'm using PHP SQL, C#, and DM for the whole thing. It's more or less a big learning curve for me.

Before I actually dove that deep though, I was under the impression that to use BYONDexe I was required to have a project ready for release. I wasn't planning on releasing it for quite some time. That and I have no idea how it works; so I shifted my attention to other things that I was interested in learning at some point.

Also, I'm not quite sure how much BYONDexe offers. I know you can do a lot in C and it's sisters, so I've just chosen that route.

My only concern was with redistribution. I was told that distributing Byond through the launcher is illegal because of some terms of use with the FMOD lib that Byond includes.

Which brought me around to asking about having the launcher download Byond from the website rather than including it with the launcher itself.

Nadrew wrote:

The main benefit of using BYONDexe is that it packages a form of BYOND that works without using extra exe files and/or the pager. There's no inclination to the client that they're using BYOND at all, just a program called [yourgame].exe. It's also more light-weight. Less files required.

Oh, I see. Do you know if I'd be able to launch the exe connecting it to a specific server via command line? Or does the exe actually allow you to see all servers online and let you chose which one you'd like to join?

Are keys required? My project isn't really being built around identifying players by keys, and all keys are basically not used for anything with the exception as another banning method to try and keep people out.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out the legal part of distribution of Byond itself.

Don't quote me on this, but I heard Murrawhip was the one to actually disclose this information. Generally Murra has this thing of always being right, no matter how hard I try and prove him wrong. ;D

Are you sure byond can be packaged with the Launcher without conflicting with any agreements? And if it does conflict, would having my launcher download it from BYOND.com avoid any ToS restrictions it might have?

Thanks for the help. :)

I'd vote you as the best answer, but sadly there is not one in this section of the forums. :(

Also, I got a message that it sounded like I was being rude to Murrawhip with an above post. That was not my intention at all. I was simply trying to say that he's a very intelligent person, and normally when he states something he's done his research and has supporting facts to back him.

So, FMOD does have a distribution license and would require extra steps in order to distribute through my own launcher.

Which brings me back to my original question, would having my launcher download Byond through Byond.com be a simple work-around?