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Topic: Where are the save files? (Read 9187 times)
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Dan
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I want to move my saved game onto another computer but I don't know where the saved game files are located. Could someone tell me where they are located?
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chrisd
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i cant find it in the Application Data folder
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Joe_Cool
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Storing Savegames in some Windows folders is something I hate about lots of commercial games.
That is a VERY annoying feature. Some people even made a patch to fix the savegame location of GTA: San Andreas. So I'm probably not the only one offended by this.
Please make an option to store all files in the games main folder. I don't see the sense in storing it anywhere else it just clutters your harddrive. For multiple users just create profiles in the game.
For Linux it might make sense to store stuff in the user's home directory. But please don't do so on Windows.
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Novus
Enlightened
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Gender: 
Posts: 1938
Fot or not?
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Storing Savegames in some Windows folders is something I hate about lots of commercial games.
That is a VERY annoying feature. Some people even made a patch to fix the savegame location of GTA: San Andreas. So I'm probably not the only one offended by this.
You do realise that some people actually like it the way it is? There are several very good reasons for saving to the user's home directory:
- Easier backups and transfers: if all of a user's files are in one place, you don't have to hunt all over the hard drive for them.
- Less security problems: each user's directory is private to them by default and they always have write access to it. This means that:
- You can have a game installed as Administrator/root and have it accessible to all users without them being able to interfere with each other or the game installation. Allowing users to create new files inside the game directory makes it harder to enforce disk quotas effectively and complicates separation of user data. You've obviously never had a evil co-user (e.g. a malicious sibling) overwrite or delete your save game files.
- This neatly fixes one of my pet peeves: having to run almost every major Windows game under the Sun as Administrator or equivalent (especially under XP Home).
- If you do things this way, chances of failing to save due to access restrictions are much smaller.
[li]This also fits in nicely with Microsoft's policy of hiding system directories such as Program Files (although this is admittedly done quite badly in Windows).[/li]
[li]Easier access to user data on networked machines with shared profiles: OK, this probably makes more sense on a university network (where you use whatever machine is available) than at home (which is where I assume most of you run UQM).[/li]
[li]Easier uninstall/installation change/upgrade/maintenance: if everything in the game directory belongs to the game, you can uninstall the game and reinstall it later or elsewhere without ever having to touch your saves.[/li]
[/list]
That said, the user's Application Data folder is just a little bit too hard to access in Windows (I don't see why it doesn't get a nice desktop shortcut). Perhaps My Documents would be a better place for save games; it has most of the advantages and no disadvantages I can perceive.
Saving to \WINDOWS\Application Data on a single-user system is just plain silly, I'll give you that. Consistent, but silly.
Please make an option to store all files in the games main folder. I don't see the sense in storing it anywhere else it just clutters your harddrive. For multiple users just create profiles in the game.
Making the save game directory user-selectable is not a big hassle. Changing the default directory would, however, create problems with upgrading users (which I suppose you could work around by checking for previous installations, but this is going to make things even messier). If you only care about where the saves are stored, you could add a setting to the existing configuration data that tells UQM where to find the saves.
By the way, I don't quite understand why you consider a normal separation of user and application files to be "clutter". I suppose this is mostly a result of being used to putting user files for a program in the program directory. The reasons I outlined above may help you understand why UQM is set up to behave as it does.
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Joe_Cool
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"--configdir" yes, that's it 
Thanks...
Perhaps I explain a bit further:
Have you ever installed Dragon Naturally Speaking? It is consistent with Microsoft's recommendations and does the following:
Install about 550 MB of dictionaries and to "All Users" profile
Create all User's files under a All Users\Application Data\...\...\Myuser Directory -> Stupid
My WinXP Partition is a 1.7 GB NTFS Volume... There's no space for that...
The Installer is so stupid that I can't even specifiy the path where I want my files. I have to edit my registry to get the app to install.
I like to play my games on different OSes. I played Freelancer in Win98, when I want to load a game in WinXP there are no savegames until I copy them over from the "my documents" folder... copying them back: NTFS and Win98 -> no go! annoying.
You're right it might be easier to back up your savegames (if more developers did that). But might also cause confusion (like these forum topics here)
All stuff should be in one place. no installer, no uninstaller. Just unzip and be happy. non administrators won't have trouble with the installer. and if you don't want anyone touching your files, unzip/unrar/unpack to your home directory.
The way Linux handles multiple users makes a lot more sense. In windows it still is like Win3.11 having your INI files all over the Windows directory. At least with 98/XP you can set the folders in the registry.
Just my two cents
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meep-eep
Forum Admin
Enlightened
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Posts: 2847
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Have you ever installed Dragon Naturally Speaking? It is consistent with Microsoft's recommendations and does the following: I haven't. But just because one program does silly things, doesn't mean the concept itself is flawed.
I like to play my games on different OSes. I played Freelancer in Win98, when I want to load a game in WinXP there are no savegames until I copy them over from the "my documents" folder... copying them back: NTFS and Win98 -> no go! annoying. It looks like you're not quite a standard user. Anyhow, I'm only willing to take backwards compatibility so far. Requiring that the game runs on Win98, OK. Binary compatibility between saved games on platforms, OK. But requiring the file structure layout of an old system so that people who use multiple versions at once have can run without copying goes too far.
Btw, aren't shortcuts usable for this? I know they're not quite like symbolic links.
You're right it might be easier to back up your savegames (if more developers did that). But might also cause confusion (like these forum topics here) Two topics since the start of the project. Not a big deal if you ask me. And the other one was because someone deleted his Windows folder and didn't check if there was anything worth keeping.
All stuff should be in one place. no installer, no uninstaller. Just unzip and be happy. non administrators won't have trouble with the installer. and if you don't want anyone touching your files, unzip/unrar/unpack to your home directory. Even unzip is too difficult for some people. Anyhow, the game is runnable like that. But the saved games will be stored elsewhere. Anyhow, "All stuff should be in one place", I got it that you would like that. But I don't get why exactly.
The way Linux handles multiple users makes a lot more sense. In windows it still is like Win3.11 having your INI files all over the Windows directory. At least with 98/XP you can set the folders in the registry. Just my two cents
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
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Joe_Cool
Guest
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Apparently we like to organize our stuff differently...
That's fine, life would be boring if everyone liked the same thing 
I'm afraid shotcuts (you mean lnk files?) won't do that since they need to be opened differently than normal files if a programmer wants to use them like symbolic lnks (for the Win explorer they work fine)
Actually I play games in Win98 (much faster for games on my Athlon 800, even runs GTA San Andreas although not supported) and do work in WinXP (a little more stable for networking) or Linux (have yet to try UQM there)
It's a shame that many people don't even know what the C before the ":" stands for... Too high dosages of usability seem to affect people's intellects  I would prescribe the use of C64 BASIC... 
I'm happy that I can specify the path where I want my stuff. And other people might be happy when they have their's in their user profile. Perhaps I'm just a bit nostalgic when thinking about the 9MB of StarCon 2 still on the 1.6GB Harddrive of my P200 Deskpro and it's SAVEGAME.0x files (each taking about 2KB).
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Megagun
Enlightened
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Gender:
Posts: 580
Moo
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If you have multiple PCs networked together, having savegames in the programs directory is just the best thing to do, IMHO... And in fact, I don't like the user directory either. It just feels too cluttered, and since I run a lot of my applications over the network....... You get the idea, I hope..
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Joe_Cool
Guest
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XP allows you to choose where user profiles are stored, doesn't it? I'd check this right now, but my work machine only has Linux.
Yes, but AFAIK only by modifying your registry, or maybe with TweakUI...
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Novus
Enlightened
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Posts: 1938
Fot or not?
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Editing registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory should do the trick, but it certainly isn't user friendly. Under Unix and related systems, moving a user's home directory is almost as easy as changing his password.
There seems to be some UI related to moving profiles in XP in Control Panel\System\Advanced\User Profiles, but this only appears to produce copies of the profile without affecting which profile is used. XP Pro probably has something in its management tools, but I don't have a copy of that.
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