Default Save path

Error · Post by **Error** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:10 pm

I toyed a bit around with the ScummVM options today (Secret of Monkey Island) and suddenly I got the idea to change the path where the saves should go. I put it a random place, but when I were loading the game my saves suddenly weren't there anymore. I figured out that I had to set the path back to default, but I can't for the life of me find where the default path is, or where the saves are actually saved.

I'm usin Windows XP.

On beforehand - Thanks
- Error

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:19 pm

I don't know what the default save path is, but the simplest thing would probably to be to save a game in the new folder, then search the hard disk for similarly named files.

fingolfin · Post by **fingolfin** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:44 pm

We really should have a "reset to default" button there, this has been on the TODO for quite some time now.

Mataku · Post by **Mataku** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:49 pm

isn't the default directory is where scummvm is installed?

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:54 pm

No that was changed some time ago, if I remember correctly, because it won't work on Vista for example. I think it's somewhere placed in %APPDATA% now. I could be wrong though and that new place only applies for the config file.

bobdevis · Post by **bobdevis** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:25 pm

- For WinXP and the current ScummVM SVN (first time install);
Savegames go to to C:\Program Files\ScummVM (the install dir)
The config ini goes to C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\ScummVM
Rather messy behavior you have to admit.

- For Linux and the June 30th ScummVM SVN; (have been using this one for half a year or so)
Savegames go to /home/[user]/.scummvm
The config file is /home/[user]/.scummvmrc

- For WinVista 64bit and the current ScummVM SVN (first time install);
The config ini went to C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM
The savegames went to C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\ScummVM
VirtualStore? A bit confusing....

- For OSX 10.4 and the current ScummVM SVN (first time install);
Savegames are in /users/[user]/Documents/ScummVM Savegames
I have no idea where the config file is or how to look for it. Excuse my mac-noobness.

It might be a good idea to think about switching to a system where the savegames and the config file are both in the same dir, so you only have to worry about one path per platform. It would probably reduce the help requests here at least.

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:35 pm

I guess then for Windows the default save path is ".", thus where the exe is or to be precise the current working directory.

Schnaks · Post by **Schnaks** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:11 pm

bobdevis wrote:For OSX 10.4 […] I have no idea where the config file is

The config file on OS X is ~/Library/Preferences/ScummVM Preferences.

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:35 pm

bobdevis wrote:- For WinVista 64bit and the current ScummVM SVN (first time install);
The config ini went to C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM
The savegames went to C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\ScummVM
VirtualStore? A bit confusing....

Well Windows is using this since "C:\Program Files (x86)" isn't writable on Vista, at least not without admin rights. Thus they create a fake path, were all data written to "C:\Program Files (x86)" is placed in. Now since ScummVM is placed in "C:\Program Files (x86)", Windows uses this path you described instead of placing the files inside "C:\Program Files (x86)". As I pointed out the default save path for ScummVM on Windows should be ".", thus the dir were you execute ScummVM in. (This *is* messy, since a user could create a shortcut, which executes ScummVM in another directory).

As I said the ScummVM config file is inside %APPDATA% that path seems to change on different Windows versions too. We can't help that, but AFAIK Microsoft even suggests to use %APPDATA% for that usage case. Back in the old days, the scummvm.ini file on Windows was in "C:\Windows", so this is definitely an advantage, since %APPDATA% allows multiple users to have their own ScummVM config file. AFAIK many recent Windows games are using %APPDATA% for their config files too.

I guess the savepath being '.' on Windows has historical reasons. For example if we would now change the savepath to %APPDATA%/ScummVM too, users migrating from an old ScummVM version, without a customly setup savepath, wouldn't be able to see their old savegames anymore.

Of course one can add some ScummVM internal migration tool for that, but then we should be sure that we moved the path to a real good location.

Actually I'm all against moving the config file into the (default) save path. First of all if the save path changes, should the config file be moved too? Ugly. And on the other hand keeping another path around just for the config file isn't any better.

For Linux I think "~/.scummvmrc" is perfectly fine for the config file. Another possibility would be to place it inside "~/.config", thus the path being "~/.config/scummvmrc".

For OS X we place the ScummVM config file into "~/Library/Preferences", which is AFAIK the default place for per user configs on OS X. So it would be *bad* to move it to another location, just to have it alongside with the savegames by default.

In our README we describe where the config file is placed. Check out section 8.0 for that. Also we do describe where savefiles are placed by default. That's in section 6.0.

Actually I have no problems if the Windows port would change the default for the savepath. IMHO it would be really better to have it inside the user directory somewhere. But changing all ports to keep the config file in the savepath is really bad IMHO.

bobdevis · Post by **bobdevis** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:33 am

Ah yes... now I understand the hack that MS used to allow programs to run on Vista that are used to write in their own Program Files dir. It all makes sense now.

You could use some transition arrangement where the %APPDATA% dir, the current dir (".") and the install dir are all valid for loading a savegame from but only the %APPDATA% dir is used to write new savegames in.
This would screw up Win9x support I guess, but you can do that now without much disappointed users methinks. Especially since you can always set the path manually anyway.

nolange · Post by **nolange** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:07 pm

bobdevis wrote:You could use some transition arrangement where the %APPDATA% dir, the current dir (".") and the install dir are all valid for loading a savegame from but only the %APPDATA% dir is used to write new savegames in.
This would screw up Win9x support I guess, but you can do that now without much disappointed users methinks. Especially since you can always set the path manually anyway.

actually you can get something similar to %APPDATA% even for Win95 (aslong IE4.0 is installed which is a given for any later Windows), its c:\windows\Appdata on Win9x systems AFAIR.
So that wont be a problem.

Default Save path

Default Save path

Re: Default Save path