[Scummvm-devel] Windows experience

[Travis Howell]

On 23/12/2011 8:19 AM, Willem Jan Palenstijn wrote:
> While I'm not a regular Windows user myself, I tried the ScummVM 1.4 release in
> Windows 7 earlier tonight.
>
> A few random remarks:
>
> * It's slightly weird that we have no 64 bit installer. Not a real problem, but
>    it made me look through the download list a few times to see if I missed
>    anything.

I don't know why we provide a Windows 64bit build at all, since it 
provides no advantage at all.

> * The status window in the background is just silly. I thought we had decided
>    to get rid of that, but apparently not? (Addendum: I just noticed we have a
>    "noconsole" version in the start menu. Why isn't this the default?)

Because the console window can still provide useful information at 
times, if users come across bug reports. Bugs and other issues can still 
frequently occur under ScummVM, especially since we no longer do any 
real regression testing at all, before major releases.

Users already have the option of no console window, as you already noticed.

> * It's very neat that we show recently played games in the start menu.

That is currently limited to Windows 7 only, since it relies on features 
specific to Windows 7.

> * The savegame location is bizarre. I actually had to do a full HD search to
>    find my savegames in
>    C:\Users\wjp\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\ScummVM
>    of all places. And that's only because I already know what filename to look
>    for. The README is also completely unhelpful when it comes to locating this.

That only occurs under Windows Vista/7 when UAC is enabled, which 
silently redirects any attempts to write files to \Program Files\, to 
the VirtualStore location.

There is no standard location for saved games, that covers all the 
various Windows versions. A standard location ( %USERPROFILE%\Saved 
games ) for saved games is only available in Windows Vista/7. APPDATA is 
only mean for configuration/preference files, while My Documents is only 
meant for user created files.

A better idea would be to prompt for a save game path on the initial 
startup of ScummVM (if not set) under Windows, and confirm that location 
is writable. This method could be used on other platforms that don't 
offer a default location for save games too.

On 23/12/2011 9:06 AM, Michael Madsen wrote:
> I thought it used %APPDATA%\ScummVM by default, not the program
> directory? Or does that depend on where it finds the INI file?

Currently only the config file is stored at that location.