Location of scummvm.ini

[Jimbob]

Please DON'T put it in the registry.

This is a mess to handle, edit, adminster, and backup...

I might be being a bit thick here but I don't understand why you'd want to edit, administer or backup the info contained in scummvm.ini. Surely the GUI generates all this information whenever the user adds or edits a game? Sure it might be nice not to have to configure the settings again but it's easy enough to do this using the GUI.

An earlier suggestion mentioned creating a shortcut on the Desktop, I guess this could be autogenerated with the install program, yes?


Jimbob

[joachimeberhard]

I never have to edit the preferences file on Mac OS X so why would a Windows user have to edit the scummvm.ini by hand?

Jimbob

Because of target_md5 business for example?
Because I rename the standard target names to get recognizable savegame names?

With the current abbreviation, if you add Monkey Amiga and Monkey DOS-CD for example, you end up with one target being [monkey] and one being [monkeya].

Now, I often purge the scummvm.ini because I do a lot of testing/reporting.

If I want to use those savegames then later on, I would have to either rename the savegame names, which get named after the games target and guess with which version of monkey it's been created with, since the savegames are not compatible.

If I give those gametargets meaningful descriptions like [monkeyamigade] instead of [monkeya], I end up with clearly distinguishable savegames.....

That's what I also did with the target names for fan-translations.

I bet those who use my preconfigured targets are quite happy with that?
Any feedback would be great....

Edit:

One more thought regarding savegames:

Wouldn't it be better to give all the savegames one common extension and count the savegame number in the first part of the filename instead?

I got troubles with StuffIt-Expander for example who claims all. the *.s01 and so on files.

Some standard .svm extension for savegames really would look nice to me....

[Jimbob]

I never have to edit the preferences file on Mac OS X so why would a Windows user have to edit the scummvm.ini by hand?

Jimbob

Because of target_md5 business for example?
Because I rename the standard target names to get recognizable savegame names?

With the current abbreviation, if you add Monkey Amiga and Monkey DOS-CD for example, you end up with one target being [monkey] and one being [monkeya].

Now, I often purge the scummvm.ini because I do a lot of testing/reporting.

If I want to use those savegames then later on, I would have to either rename the savegame names, which get named after the games target and guess with which version of monkey it's been created with, since the savegames are not compatible.

If I give those gametargets meaningful descriptions like [monkeyamigade] instead of [monkeya], I end up with clearly distinguishable savegames.....

That's what I also did with the target names for fan-translations.

I bet those who use my preconfigured targets are quite happy with that?
Any feedback would be great....

Edit:

One more thought regarding savegames:

Wouldn't it be better to give all the savegames one common extension and count the savegame number in the first part of the filename instead?


I got troubles with StuffIt-Expander for example who claims all. the *.s01 and so on files.

Some standard .svm extension for savegames really would look nice to me....

You're not an average user then that we're trying to fix this for?!? As far as I can see the average user wants to install ScummVM on their hard disk and be able to save their setup details some how. He / she is going to install the games via the method described in the readme files and play them, and that's all. No messing about with MD5's for example.

On changing the game target names (I can't test this now) but this can be changed in the GUI as well after the game is detected?

I'm probably wrong in what I said above and I won't be hurt if someone tells me to shut up!!! The only thing that will be hurt is my post count


Jimbob

PS.
On the game saves, either dump Stuffit Expander or stop it from creating the file links. It makes sense to have <game name>.sxx, where sxx is the slot number (I assume) for the game saves.

[joachimeberhard]

1st: Please don't quote entire posts, this really makes it unreadable

Well, of course you can add the target names in the gui, it's just a lot faster in the editor

Regarding the savegames:

You still can count the savegame-slots, but why not before the standard extension for savegames?

current example: monkey.s01

my idea: monkey01.svm
or: monkey.01.svm

The slots still would be clearly distinguishable, wouldn't they?

The advance is, there are not only savegames in the savegame folder, but also IQ-Points for example.

Or: In the default setup, ScummVM stores it's savegames in the ScummVM directory. That way, with all the program files and so on in there, it isn't that nice to sort out all the savegames.

Another benefit of one standard savegame-extension would be, that you could give it a recognizable Icon.

Well these are just my thoughts, so please don't hurt me either....

[Jimbob]

1st: Please don't quote entire posts, this really makes it unreadable

Yeah, sorry and apologies. One day I'll get the hang of using forums

You still can count the savegame-slots, but why not before the standard extension for savegames?

current example: monkey.s01

my idea: monkey01.svm
or: monkey.01.svm

The slots still would be clearly distinguishable, wouldn't they?

You might still get trouble with that extension, maybe a full .scummvm extension will fix that. Again, I'm not sure you can do that in Windows but for Unix based version I think it'll be fine.

Well these are just my thoughts, so please don't hurt me either....

We won't!!

Jimbob

[joachimeberhard]

You might still get trouble with that extension, maybe a full .scummvm extension will fix that. Again, I'm not sure you can do that in Windows but for Unix based version I think it'll be fine.

Just tried:

I get no problems with a file called "ScummVM.ScummVM" here.

But I'm using XP with NTFS, I haven't tested this yet on either VFAT16 or FAT32....

If I get to testing this, I'll report my findings.

Of course, changing the way ScummVM handles savegame names could possibly mean compatibility issues....

Any thoughts from a developer would be nice though regarding a common savegame extension....

[Jimbob]

Of course, changing the way ScummVM handles savegame names could possibly mean compatibility issues....

A small renaming utility could take care of this if needed for games already saved, a .BAT file or shell script for example. Changes to the source will of course be needed but I guess it wouldn't take too long.

Jimbob

[Kaminari]

I never have to edit the preferences file on Mac OS X

You would have to if you were using third-party translations -- or changing the ID of your CD-ROM -- or changing the audio frequency -- or defining some boot params -- or...

Well, hopefully you get the idea.

[LogicDeLuxe]

I never have to edit the preferences file on Mac OS X so why would a Windows user have to edit the scummvm.ini by hand?

Inofficial patches for example. You need to add the target_md5 there.
Also there are still some options missing in the GUI like the sample rate, for instance, you might want to add manually.

[Jimbob]

You would have to if you were using third-party translations -- or changing the ID of your CD-ROM -- or changing the audio frequency -- or defining some boot params -- or...

Well, hopefully you get the idea.

Yes, I think I do I've used neither of those things because I don't have to change any of that stuff .... it just works. But this is coming back to how you define the standard user, are they going to do this or just play the game(s)?

Jimbob

[Jimbob]

Inofficial patches for example. You need to add the target_md5 there.
Also there are still some options missing in the GUI like the sample rate, for instance, you might want to add manually.

These are unsupported patches, yes? So if something does go wrong when the user is playing the game then there's no official help/support from the ScummVM team.

I'm sure there are some options that aren't accessed from the GUI but as I said in reply to Kaminari, it comes down to what the 'normal' user is going to do. We could start adding these options to the GUI if needs be, remember it is an open source project and donations of code are welcome.

Jimbob

[joachimeberhard]

Well, I think the main issue wasn't that the average user wants to edit the ini, it was where to store the ini so he wouldn't have to mess around with admin rights, writing permissions or parameters.

[Jimbob]

Well, I think the main issue wasn't that the average user wants to edit the ini, it was where to store the ini so he wouldn't have to mess around with admin rights, writing permissions or parameters.

Yes it was. I still think the registry should seriously be considered, after all that's what it is there for - well that's what Microsoft support tells me.

Jimbob

[lavosspawn]

The main reason for using an ini instead of the registry is that there is no Registry for mac os/linux/pocket pc/psp/ps2/dreamcast etc.
An ini file works for all ports obviously.

[joachimeberhard]

Using the registry would make it even worse, because then you'd definitely have to have admin rights, the issue I was concerned most.

As I explained before, good games shouldn't need admin rights to install, and most modern games don't.