[Cactus] 2025-11-21-2200 is now available! Major simplification for D2 Root Directory, new OOTB screen, bug fixes, and general improvements.

[fearedbliss]

Hello all,

I'm happy to announce Cactus 4.0.0 (yes that's right, I bumped it from 3.2.0 to 4.0.0)! There's a lot of nice improvements, bug fixes, and simplifications in this particular release. The major parts are that:

• You no longer need to set the "Diablo II Root Directory" in the settings.
• There is a new OOTB screen which looks way better, has slightly better instructions due to the simplifications above, and you can launch the OOTB screen again if you need to take a look at it again.

The first bullet is a big thing. It's something that has been in Cactus since the beginning, and I believe it was there also with its predecessor, Bliss Version Switcher. Today we have finally eliminated that. The "Diablo II Root Directory" is the folder that I've already been telling people to drop the files in when they first install Cactus, thus it's redundant and an over complication to not assume that Cactus is already in this folder. I also had documented before that running Cactus outside of the Diablo II Root Directory can lead to weirdness when taking screenshots and also when running mods using -direct -txt. The new behavior is that Cactus will automatically use its current directory as the Diablo II Root Directory, which would be the directory that your Game.exe and your MPQs are in. Therefore you no longer need to set it. If you are an existing Cactus user that already has their Cactus.exe in the same directory as Game.exe and the MPQs, nothing will change on your end and things will just continue working as normal. If you have Cactus.exe outside of your D2 Root Directory, you need to move Cactus and its files into your D2 Root Directory before it will work again.

We can see how the new Settings screen looks like without having to set the Root Directory anymore. Due to the increased space, I've expanded the amount of colors that can be seen at once to 8 :

For the second bullet, I never liked that the new OOTB window was sticking out of the main window container, and I've finally gotten time to think and re-look at this screen. Behold the new OOTB screen:

You are also able to re-visit this screen easily by clicking [About] -> [OOTB]. This is good if you ever want to re-look at these instructions. You can of course also take a look at the README.md that already comes with Cactus.

Besides this, there are a bunch of bug fixes, small optimizations, and general improvements. You can check out the full release notes below. As always, you can get the latest release from the Resource Manager or the Cactus page.

And of course, it still works offline and on FreeBSD/Linux:

Take care and stay safe,
Jonathan

Patch Notes

Improvements
-------------

- The Diablo II Root Directory is now automatically set and does not need
  to be manually specified by the user.

  For a very long time, the Cactus installation instructions have guided the
  user to make sure that they place Cactus and all of its files inside the
  Diablo II Root Directory, or weird things will happen when taking screenshots,
  or running mods via the -direct -txt flag. Since Cactus was already in this
  directory, we can now automatically assume and enforce this behavior in the
  code. This means that the user no longer needs to manually specify nor worry
  about this as much. They just need to install Cactus to the correct location
  (the folder that contains your Game.exe and the MPQs), and that's it. Everything
  will be automatically set and working when you launch Cactus. This massively
  simplifies user installation, UI/UX, and the code base.

  If you are using Cactus outside of your Diablo II Root Directory, you simply
  need to move it inside that folder in order for everything to automatically
  work again.

  Additionally, since this cleared up a good amount of room in the Settings,
  I have now modified the size of that window so you can see up to 8 colors
  at once :D!

- The Out of the Box Experience (OOTB) screen has been re-designed. It is now
  much more pleasing to the eye, and no longer pops out of the Main Window.

- You can now see the OOTB screen again by clicking [About] -> [OOTB].

  This is useful since one may want to re-visit the initial instructions
  or other information at a later date.

- Slightly re-arranged the Main Window buttons.
- The Note is now also copied when you copy an Entry.

Bug Fixes
----------

- Fixed a bug where the backup directory wasn't being checked for existence
  when modified.
- Fixed a bug where the Automatic Backups setting and the Backups Directory
  were allowed to be changed while the game was running. This prevents any
  confusion and ensures that the proper settings are in effect while you are
  playing the game.
- Removed some secondary message boxes that were showing up in some situations
  when changing settings.
- Fixed a bug where text inside the OOTB screen was selectable, causing
  a horizontal line to appear at the bottom of the box.
- Buttons no longer stay focused after the first click.

 

[Manny]

yooo.... estaba agachao....

Absolutely going to get this updated tonight. Thanks as always for the incredible work!

 

[fearedbliss]

Lol I was thinking about the Diablo II Root Directory a few days ago and I’m like “Wait a minute…. If Cactus is already in there why people gotta set this up manually and do all these extra steps lol?”. Originally back during BVS days, I designed it so you can put it anywhere and it worked fine but the game started putting the screenshots in the place that the version switcher was in, not in the place that Diablo was in if I remember correctly.. and also the -direct -txt mods paths were different… so I think after that I started recommending people to just put Cactus with the rest of the Diablo files. It just makes things easier and more predictable.

 

[Manny]

@fearedbliss For sure! Minimal is better. I've always had the Cactus files in my Diablo II folder anyway so this just makes sense. Bravo!

 

[Manny]

Behold, the new hotness! I am a fan of the orange color.

I recently cleaned up some old platforms/labels, and went back to basics, with a renewed focus on my favorite patches. And you already know OG Succulent holds a special place in my heart.

 

[fearedbliss]

Lmfao nice . You never gonna let that version of Succulent go, I can't blame you lol.

 

[Manny]

Lmfao nice . You never gonna let that version of Succulent go, I can't blame you lol.

With items like these being possible, how could I?!

 

[fearedbliss]

lmfao that's wild dude... I didn't even think about 294% ED on a ring lol, although I am and am not surprised. This is true maximum RNG, doesn't need to make sense, just needs to exist lol.

 

[Manny]

lmfao that's wild dude... I didn't even think about 294% ED on a ring lol, although I am and am not surprised. This is true maximum RNG, doesn't need to make sense, just needs to exist lol.

Absolutely my dude! I love gambling especially with that mod so much cuz anything is possible!