Astra - Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I use this over the official launcher?
If you’re a Windows user, this launcher supports Dalamud plugins. If you have multiple accounts, you’ll find the profiles feature to be useful as well. Unlike the PC launcher, Astra allows you to save your password securely.
For macOS users, the same features from above apply, since Astra is cross-platform. Also, since Astra is native - you will no longer suffer running the launcher in Wine (which constantly gets stuck on your cursor.)
For Linux users, you enjoy everything from above!
Why should I use this over XIVQuickLauncher/XLCore?
For Windows users, you will be happy with either launcher since they support similar features.
For macOS and Linux users, Astra’s interface looks completely native if that’s what you’re into.
What’s some other neat stuff I should know?
You can login into Sapphire servers, bypassing the need for the Sapphire Launcher especially since it only supports Windows. Naturally, Dalamud injection and everything else should work as well!
For those who do not want to set up Wine manually on macOS, check out XIV on Mac! Their native Swift launcher has a similar feature set and provide their own bundled Wine with modern DXVK and other goodies. For those who wish to use XIV on Mac’s bundled Wine, but still want to use Astra - that’s possible too!
How secure is this? Can I trust Astra with saving my credentials and launching my game?
The code is open source, and the boot/launcher portion is contained here and here for your code reading pleasure. For saving passwords, we leverage qtkeychain which uses your already secure system wallet and will not put anything in plaintext.
Help?? Something broke??
If you have an issue, please report it on the bug tracker!
Nothing broke, but I want a feature implemented!
You can either discuss it on my mailing list, or report it through the tracker. Please note that I work on this on my free time, so monetary support is appreciated if possible. :-)