berto
Posts: 20708
Joined: 3/13/2002 From: metro Chicago, Illinois, USA Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lobster quote:
ORIGINAL: junk2drive Post your wishlist requests for future updates here Mine for now Change folder structure to put saves, non stock content, and mods in Documents/My Games folder or similar. You are a Micro$oft planted spy, yes? They are the only ones who would want to scatter a game's files across the expanse of the hard drive. Something similar, discussed but back burnered in the dev forum: quote:
ORIGINAL: berto A "structural" issue: reorganizing the games' files and folders. Let's take a look at just one game, East Front. In East Front, there are [root@berto East Front]# ls -1 | wc -l 5282 5282 files, all of them in the top-level game folder. There is no hierarchy, no organization. It's hard to wade through and find stuff in all of that morass. This is what I propose: Retain the main, top-level folder: various .exe & .dll files, for the game engine, the editors, and whatnot; also .ini & other configuration files; and any miscellaneous files not covered by the following. Under the main, top-level folder, these folders, most of them new: Graphics: all .bmp, .bit, .jpg, .png & any other graphics files Pictures: all .bmp, .bit, .jpg, .png & any other picture files Sounds: all .ogg, .wav & any other sound files Scenarios: all .scn, .scl, .map & .org files, also any special scenario docs OOBs: all .oob & .obx files Saves: all .btt, .btl & any other save game files Manuals: all .pdf, .doc, .rtf & other documentation and text files (.hlp files?) Logs: error, AI & other log files Tools: CSlint files, unit viewers, maybe some encryption tools, etc. Mods: (details to be described at a later date) I would recode the game (not difficult) to look for files first, in their "proper" place, in the appropriate folder as described above; if not found, then second, in the main, top-level folder In this way, we can transition from the current layout to the new one. The game will still work whether all or only some of us adopt the new folder layout, or in the meantime keep the current single-folder layout. (Eventually, we will all want to have the same file/folder organization of course.) I'd like to move on this fairly soon. Thoughts? The problem is: how do we get to there from here? The current patching process adds files and overwrites files assuming that just about everything is contained with one, massive top-level per-game folder. How does the Matrix installer EXE create new folders? dump new content into those folders, while also deleting the corresponding data files from the top-level folder (so you don't have duplicate data files, in both the old location and the new)? deal with mods and other user customizations? Now throw into the mix the suggestion to move/install stuff in Documents/My Games? In many and unfortunate ways, we are constrained by what has gone before. It would be great, now with 2.00 or in a future version, to break all ties with the 1.00 legacy past and start entirely afresh. But I don't see that happening. Hence the back burnering of the File/Folder Reorganization Project, perhaps for good.
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