1 (edited by Bojero 2008-01-24 18:20:06)

Topic: A nice suggestion.

I think it would be great if user settings were not saved in AppData but could be saved in the application folder itself. That way I could carry Teewars (being so tiny) around on my pen drive and play at other computers without having to download, extract, set up, play and then delete it.

It's just a simple suggestion, and the configs aren't exactly complex, just one file and a folder for screenshots.. So as you can see.. I'm not asking for much.

2

Re: A nice suggestion.

Well, this breaks the multiuser properties of the operating system. We might do an option for where it should save these kinds of files so you can pass it as a command line option to the exe.

3

Re: A nice suggestion.

If I had multiply users using this computer, I would still have several teewars installed for different users, since both skins and the game files (game.png and so on) are completely individual choices.

aka kiwi

4

Re: A nice suggestion.

Well... in that case you should put the mods in appdata, because that's where teewars should look for content first smile

Languages shapes the way we think, or don't.

5

Re: A nice suggestion.

Command line switch like:

-altsave

would be godlike. Think it could be implemented any time soon?

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Re: A nice suggestion.

void wrote:

Well... in that case you should put the mods in appdata, because that's where teewars should look for content first smile

I'm sorry, but you have to be kidding - more crap spread over my harddrive! No thanks.

IMHO, an app should be installed in a directory and it's settings and contents should also stay in that one directory. If you want to support multiple users on a machine, then store each users profile in a profile subdirectory (within the Teewars directory) and make them selectable at start up! If there is only one profile the game starts normally, if there are multiple profiles it first asks which you'd like to use...

Anyway, thats my controversial opinion on the subject.

7

Re: A nice suggestion.

munyul wrote:
void wrote:

Well... in that case you should put the mods in appdata, because that's where teewars should look for content first smile

I'm sorry, but you have to be kidding - more crap spread over my harddrive! No thanks.

IMHO, an app should be installed in a directory and it's settings and contents should also stay in that one directory. If you want to support multiple users on a machine, then store each users profile in a profile subdirectory (within the Teewars directory) and make them selectable at start up! If there is only one profile the game starts normally, if there are multiple profiles it first asks which you'd like to use...

Anyway, thats my controversial opinion on the subject.

Sounds like the best idea so far smile

8

Re: A nice suggestion.

I think I agree with munyul.

It's quite nice with software that stick to it's own folder.

Used to be very active waay back

9

Re: A nice suggestion.

Here is the problem with munyul proposal. It comes from single users system where an application needed multiple profiles. The problem with this it makes administration and security over the computer a mess. Executables and program filesetc shouldn't be writable by the common user. This prevents a lot of viruses etc from spreading on the system and makes a system more robust against attacks.

To make a system easier to administrate, each user get a folder where they can store their documents, music, settings etc. This is the only folder on the system that is writable to them.

This is how it's done on all unix systems. Why windows users tend to prefer the other way is because a windows machine is often just used by one person. I know that microsoft has done something in Vista to improve this and force more applications to be more multiuser aware. One of the problems is that microsoft has had a very bad directory structure (much better in vista however, one of the few good things about that os).

I know that a lot of people want this older "broken" system because it's nice to have everything that is connected to one application in one folder, I agree with this.

This is my proposal. Teewars will get a global.cfg that contains options for how teewars should behave on the perticular system. This file could look something like this.

add_path $USERDIR
add_path mods/mymod
add_path data

The first added path has the highest priority. This means that the engine will save screenshots, config etc to $USERDIR (~/.teewars under unix, "My Documents/Teewars"/APPDATA under windows etc). It will also first look for game.png under the userdir, then under mods/mymod and last under data. However, if the global.cfg looks like this.

add_path user
add_path mods/mymod
add_path data

It will save screenshots etc under Teewars/user/screenshots. This means that you very easily can add and remove the multiuser awareness and several different mods of you have. The default one would look like this.

add_path $USERDIR
add_path data

All happy?

10

Re: A nice suggestion.

Sounds awesome matricks. Thank you smile.

aka kiwi

11

Re: A nice suggestion.

I'm not understanding this much. Is it still going to use a command line switch?

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Re: A nice suggestion.

Bojero wrote:

I'm not understanding this much. Is it still going to use a command line switch?

It won't change the behavior of the game, only where it finds the configuration file. If you still doesn't understand, you don't need to bother. It will become clear what he means when it comes out.


Nice idea btw matricks! smile

Used to be very active waay back

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Re: A nice suggestion.

Bojero wrote:

I'm not understanding this much. Is it still going to use a command line switch?

No its not. The global.cfg will be in the same directory as teewars(.exe) and teewars_src(.exe) and it will tell teewars what to load, and where to save.

14

Re: A nice suggestion.

Matricks, sounds like a good compromise.

In that case I can see this happening on some machines:

Step1:
Create a copy of the global.cfg file, call it: user1.cfg

Step2:
Change the add_path lines:
add_path user1
add_path data

Step3:
Repeat Step1 and Step2 for other users.

Step4:
Create batch files for each user as follows:

user1.bat
cd \games\teewars
copy user1.cfg global.cfg
teewars

Done... All game data in the same folder and support for multiple users smile

15

Re: A nice suggestion.

That looks awesome! I understood finally! So will this make the next release or possibly a sooner one? I seriously can't wait to have this portable.

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Re: A nice suggestion.

until the carrying the zip file is a decent tip Bojero smile

looks like a solid idea matricks smile

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17

Re: A nice suggestion.

That's not really a new idea, many decent windows programs (finally) operate that way. Winamp and eMule are two examples.

And LOL @ "IMHO, an app should be installed in a directory and it's settings and contents should also stay in that one directory."

Welcome to the dark ages of Quick And Dirty Operating System (around 1980). tongue

18

Re: A nice suggestion.

Stroganoff wrote:

And LOL @ "IMHO, an app should be installed in a directory and it's settings and contents should also stay in that one directory."

Welcome to the dark ages of Quick And Dirty Operating System (around 1980). tongue

You, sir, are an idiot. First of all a lot of people don't like their OS to be crowded with files. I am the only one to use my computer and I do not install games for anyone else like me. There is no need for seperation. Plus, the reason why people like this "one dir - one app" idea is because of programs like Teewars right now. We do NOT have an installer, still Teewars dares to create user specific files in the appdata dir which is HIDDEN. I myself was wondering quite a few times when I redownloaded Teewars and still had my settings.

Unless there's a DECENT uninstaller, I don't want tools to dare to create files outside the current dir. And when running linux I came across a lot of crapware that had make install but no make uninstall and I'd curse the hell out of this piece of shit software. If it didn't try to install itself in the first place, that would've been way better.

I don't care.

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Re: A nice suggestion.

I think it is time to do the famous re-quoting:

You, sir, are an idiot.

Official Teeworlds map developer and community moderator
Administrator for the Teeworlds community Teesites