Table of Contents

Launcher Settings

The launcher persists two kinds of data:

  • Launcher-owned preferences — LauncherSettings.conf, read/written only by the launcher.
  • Game Studio shared data — the MRU list and the crash-report email. These live in Game Studio's own settings files; the launcher reads them to populate the "Recent projects" tab and to carry the email over if a crash happens.

Both go through the Stride.Core.Settings infrastructure (SettingsContainer + typed SettingsKey<T>), same as the editor.

LauncherSettings

LauncherSettings.cs owns the launcher's own state. File path: {EditorPath.UserDataPath}/LauncherSettings.conf.

As in Game Studio, the path says what a key is: Launcher/ for a preference the user chooses, Internal/Launcher/ for state the launcher remembers by itself.

Preferences

Key Default Written when
Launcher/CloseLauncherAutomatically false User toggles the "Close launcher after starting Game Studio" checkbox. Before 6.0.1 it was Internal/Launcher/CloseLauncherAutomatically, still read when the new key isn't saved yet (after an update from 5.x) and removed at the next save
Launcher/PreferredEditor "" User picks an editor (Avalonia or WPF) in the editor combo — set by MainView.EditorChanged
Launcher/PreferredRuntime "" (default entry) User picks a .NET major in the runtime combo — set by MainViewModel.SelectedRuntime
Launcher/DeveloperVersions [] Dev versions added manually by advanced users (no UI yet) — consumed at startup to add StrideDevVersionViewModel entries
Launcher/IncludePrereleaseUpdates false User ticks "Receive launcher pre-releases", in the launcher settings (gear in the title bar) — see self-update.md
Launcher/ThemeVariant not saved (Dark) Saved only once the user picks a theme variant ("Theme") in the launcher settings (gear in the title bar), so a later change of the default reaches the others: Dark, Light (shown as a preview: not tuned yet), or System (follows the light or dark mode of the system). Applied right away, and read at startup

State

Key Default Written when
Internal/Launcher/ActiveVersion "" MainViewModel.StartStudio — the name of the version used to start Game Studio
Internal/Launcher/CurrentTabSessions 0 User changes the active tab
Internal/Launcher/CompletedTasks [] A one-off task is done (LauncherSettings.MarkTaskCompleted)

LauncherSettings.Save() writes every field back. The class is static because the launcher has a single profile and no concept of user accounts.

A released key is renamed only with a fallback like the one of CloseLauncherAutomatically: otherwise users lose its value at the update.

Adding a new preference

  1. Declare a SettingsKey<T> with a unique path: Launcher/ for a preference, Internal/Launcher/ for state.
  2. Add a public static property that mirrors it and is read at static-init time.
  3. Mention it in the Save() method so it is persisted when the user acts on it.
  4. If the value must survive mid-session changes, call LauncherSettings.Save() from the setter that owns it.

GameStudioSettings

GameStudioSettings.cs reads Game Studio's own settings files:

  • EditorPath.InternalConfigPath — Internal/MostRecentlyUsedSessions (the MRU dictionary). Also includes a legacy deserializer for the 1.3-era plain list format.
  • EditorPath.EditorConfigPath — Interface/StoreCrashEmail (the user's email opt-in for crash reports).

The MRU list is wrapped in MostRecentlyUsedFileCollection from the shared Stride.Core.MostRecentlyUsedFiles project.

File watching. SettingsProfile.MonitorFileModification = true is set on the internal settings profile. When Game Studio rewrites the file from another process, FileModified fires, UpdateMostRecentlyUsed reloads the dictionary, and RecentProjectsUpdated is raised. MainViewModel dispatches back onto the UI thread and rebuilds RecentProjects.

Mutation. Only RemoveMostRecentlyUsed is exposed — the user can remove an entry from the launcher, but new entries only appear when Game Studio records them.

EditorPath

Path resolution goes through Stride.Core.Assets.Editor.EditorPath, linked directly into the launcher project. On Windows this resolves to %APPDATA%\Stride\ (roaming); on Linux/macOS it follows XDG conventions.

First-install tasks

MainViewModel.HasDoneTask(name) / SaveTaskAsDone(name) uses HKCU\SOFTWARE\Stride\ on Windows to remember whether a one-off task has already run. This is used for:

  • PrerequisitesRun — the prerequisites installer is only auto-launched on the very first run.
  • Announcement dismissal — AnnouncementViewModel stores "don't show again" per announcement name.

On Linux/macOS, HasDoneTask currently returns true unconditionally, meaning announcements are never shown and the prerequisites installer never runs — this matches the target platforms (no Windows DirectX redist needed). A FIXME xplat-editor comment in the code marks this for a future file-based implementation. See cross-platform.md.