Help - Odd Issues...

from Sins Forums

I had heard quite a bit about this game, had no clue what it was, decided to download the demo and try it yesterday.

And holy heck it is an RTS, a good one at that.  I played through the tutorials and started a skirmish game until it stated I ran out of time (demo time-limit).  Was quite pleased at how well it played.

I launched the game again today to try a few experiments with how to build things (and to do a lot better... first time play last time,  you can imagine how that went...), and noticed none of my settings were saved.  Reset my video to be something decent and just to test I closed the game and restarted it and, again, it did not save...

Testing a few other things also lead to a "Failed to save game due to file error" message anytime I tried to save a game/recording.  From that message I noticed that it was trying to save to F:\Document and Settings\MyUsername\Local Settings\etc..., which on my system is expressedly disallowed.  My F drive is reserved for the operating system only and nothing else has write access other then system daemons.  The usual thing a game does when it notices it cannot write to %appdata% is to try somewhere else, like in its own directory.  Has the Full version been patched to act like that, or is it broken in such a way as well, and would there be any chance of it getting patched to fix this?

I run my system based on a way that everything is well compartmentalized.  I have been running the same Windows XP install for almost 6 years (installed 12/11/2002 based on the systeminfo command), updating the occasional piece of hardware and such, and it has run very well this entire time (if Windows had BSD-style Jails, near every app I would run would be in its own jail as well... if only Windows would catch up...).  Due to the control, never any virus or other similar nasty incursions, never any infection by Securom (I once let Securom infest a little, it then caused 1 of the 2 BSOD's I have had during the entire Windows installed lifetime, I promptly cleaned it out and denied permission again; as such, Seucrom infected games do not run as you might imagine...) or other similar things.

I do have a server computer that might be able to run SoaSE well enough, and it has a more 'generic' install that tends to be reinstalled every two or so years, but I would prefer to play it on my well optimized and very fast main computer.

So, my question, is the Full version fixed to place its 'stuff' in its own directory if it cannot write to %appdata% or similar places (or something configurable as a command-line parameter, which some games also do), or is there any chance of this being patched to do so?

technical
2,328 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Testing a few other things also lead to a "Failed to save game due to file error" message anytime I tried to save a game/recording.  From that message I noticed that it was trying to save to F:\Document and Settings\MyUsername\Local Settings\etc..., which on my system is expressedly disallowed.  My F drive is reserved for the operating system only and nothing else has write access other then system daemons.  The usual thing a game does when it notices it cannot write to %appdata% is to try somewhere else, like in its own directory.  Has the Full version been patched to act like that, or is it broken in such a way as well, and would there be any chance of it getting patched to fix this?
End of quote

So, my question, is the Full version fixed to place its 'stuff' in its own directory if it cannot write to %appdata% or similar places (or something configurable as a command-line parameter, which some games also do), or is there any chance of this being patched to do so?
End of quote

No. Microsoft's Games for Windows program requires profile data like saves, settings, etc to be saved in the AppData path. In fact, in some cases Windows overrides a program trying to save it elsewhere.

So there's not much to be done about it. I don't think a junction point will work since you can't tell the game to save to the junction..

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I really do hate the Games for Windows thing, it so screws with a well setup system.  Still, that does not mean the game cannot do a fallback (and indeed, most do).

I made a simple program that just sets up a hook for file handles and redirects them elsewhere if the program tries to go into %appdata%, then launches the program at whatever privs, but that is still a rather bit of a hack, and although I can fallback to that, it prevents the ability to launch it through Impulse and so forth (which I also had to hack around due to its persistance of trying to stick things where it does not belong).

A junction point would not work since you can only create junctions within the same partition, and that partition is strictly off limits to things like games.  Although I could mount a new partition into that directory and allow access that way, it seems rather overkill to setup an entire partition just for a directory of a few megs.

 

I do not see why games today just cannot stay where they are put; no, they practically need to be putting random junk on five different drives...

Elemental: Reforged