[Scummvm-devel] Windows experience

Willem Jan Palenstijn wjp at usecode.org
Fri Dec 23 00:35:56 CET 2011


On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 10:03:57AM +1100, Travis Howell wrote:
> On 23/12/2011 8:19 AM, Willem Jan Palenstijn wrote:
> > * 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.

Thanks for the background information, but that just changes the question to
why we're writing to Program Files.

>
> 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.

There are hundreds of modern Windows games around. Surely there's something
resembling a consensus about where savegames go?

And if there's a standard location for Windows Vista and Windows 7, why aren't
we using it? Are we really letting ancient versions dictate our behaviour on
modern Windows versions?

> 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.

I disagree; I really wouldn't want to be bothered by that question when setting
up ScummVM. If we do ask that, we need sensible defaults. If we have sensible
defaults, we might as well use them...

Are there are any other platforms that don't come with a sensible savegame
location? Linux and other Unix variants have one, Mac OS X has one, the various
mobile devices probably have one out of necessity, ...


-Willem Jan




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