>Designated system folder to save game states>Game still uses Appdata or even worse My Documents folderWhy are devs like this?
>>108952403What would you prefer they use?
>>108952415The Saved Games folder?
>>108952403FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME
>>108952403>even worseNigger that's the best option. Easy to access, and you have to be 80 years old to actually put your documents in My Documents, and Saved Games IIRC was only introduced in W7 and nobody cared because mydocs was already actively used, so nobody remembers it exists anymore.Yet for some reason half the devs now decide to put their shit in a random appdata folder alongside 73 cache dirs and settings from that broken tool that you uninstalled after 10 minutes 5 years ago.But the actual absolute worst one (registry aside which is so stupid it's in a league of its own) is steam userdata. Though if you're pirating it usually just ends up in appdata again.
>>108952403Documents is best because it's consistent across different operating systems. Windows, macOS, and Linux all have a Documents folder in the user folder. The path is different, but the conceptual location exists and under the same name."Saved Games" is unique to Windows, and also a shitty name because developers usually want to package other stuff in a similar location to saves, such as program config settings, user keybinds, etc.
>>108952498anon, don't talk about other operating systems as if you know how they work. no fucking linux games save any files under ~/Documents you dumb fucking retard
>>108952584I included Linux out of charity. In practice it's not relevant because nobody uses it.
windows file system is an incomprehensible mess. it dawned upon me only recently because I have started doing things other than playing games and there's literally nowhere to put your folders except desktop. documents is unusable for the reason you mentioned. it's like a disorganized room, you can only place your things on the floor or you'll lose it among all the clutter. search function not working doesn't make it easier. I don't know what happened in windows 11 it couldn't find a txt file in documents even though I typed the name verbatim.
>>108952498>because developers usually want to package other stuff in a similar location to saves, such as program config settings, user keybinds, etc.Users should be able to find their saved games easily but storing configs in appdata makes more sense since you usually don't want the normie end-user to touch these because they can mess them up (they can through an options/settings screen or something like that)
>>108952640(My) Documents folder is usually for normies, they usually just make subfolders in there to keep their stuff but they get cluttered with other program files.What I used to do is make a "Personal" folder in My Documents and organize my shit there.Now I just make folders on my external SSD because a) if Windows fails to boot I will lose all my work if my stuff in on C:/ and b) No other program cares to directly access my SSD and c) there was a bug years back that deleted all your Documents, so I don't trust system folders anymore
>>108952640>nowhere to put your folders except desktop
>>108952480>steam userdataI still don't understand why steam does it's stupid long path for downloaded games instead of just using c:/Games/
>>108952660>external SSDI use my SSD for games, adding other folders will make it cluttered and defeat the purpose and unlike C:/ it's not password protected.I just throw everything I have on the desktop and use folders. backup important files to a USB stick.I'm happy windows 11 turns on at all honestly. I've had multiple frozen screens after waking up from sleep and login screen getting stuck, internet connectivity problems etc. I don't think they care about user experience. I mean at least the web browser works. at least most of the time.
>>108952677it's so that normies don't fuck with the files
>>108952403It would be an absolute mess for most engines.There's probably something already built into the distribution platform.It's Windows specific. And I don't just mean how it doesn't make sense on Mac or Linux, the developer might also want to release the game on various console and cloud gaming platforms.That folder is pretty much just for Xbox games.
>>108952403not my problemhttps://www.gamesave-manager.com/
>>108952641>Users should be able to find their saved games easily but storing configs in appdata makes more sense since you usually don't want the normie end-user to touch these because they can mess them up (they can through an options/settings screen or something like that)Devs are more likely to fuck shit up and require the end user to fix the file manually than end users are to mess with a boring config file if they don't have to. Put it somewhere it can be easily located when needed so that when your black retard gorilla nigger ass makes the keybinding screen not recognize mouse thumb buttons or whatever other stupid mistake you'll inevitably make, the user can easily locate the file and do it manually.
>>108952403>save game in game folderwew, that was fucking hard
>you have to get a third party tool to uninstall software>you have to get a third party tool to search files>you have to get a third party tool to just make windows not run like shit from all the telemetry I had to replace my OS with windows 10 LSTC on my old laptop when handing it down to a family member because the windows 11 installation was fucking refusing to sign me out despite force-signing out of the device on microshit's website and clearing outlook's cache. I can't believe windows can't fucking figure out how to index files for search for over 40 fucking years now. Linux Mint does it in SECONDS when I'm searching through multiple folders and doesn't need to make "windows exclusive partitions" on the installation drive that i have to overwrite on re installation because I can't manually disable or remove them.
>>108952403>folder exists>still saves to "Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Saves\"the fuck's the point if nobody is going to actually USE IT
>>108952403Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Saved Games folder meant for GFWL games?So far only Crytek games and CDProjektRed games use it.
>>108952403Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc... are all fucking retarded, in my user/home folder i would be willing to accept as preconfigured a "Desktop", an " Appdata" and an "Archive" subdirectory tops, anything more is simply superfluous.
>>108952403I save my games across my entire network
These days I expect all of my save data to be synced via steam cloud.
>>108952403It's better if every "app" uses the same folder imo. I don't particularly like the "AppData" name, but whatever. Make a symlink if it flusters your bussy.
>>108952498>"Saved Games" is unique to Windows, and also a shitty name because developers usually want to package other stuff in a similar location to saves, such as program config settings, user keybinds, etc."Saved Games" is for saved games. And just for saved games.Game configuration, keybinds, etc. goes in AppConfig - which is where application configuration belongs.Specifically it belongs in AppConfig/Local, as you don't want it to roam over an AD.And honestly: if a software dev cannot manage splitting these files correctly for different platforms, then they're not worth much as a software dev. This is one of those things you write a small abstraction layer for, and then never worry about anymore.
>>108952403I know, man, it’s fucking awfulI play most of my games from FitGirl repacks because there’s no way I’m spending money on fucking games in 2023+3Every time I wanted to format my pc, I’d end up wasting half a day trying to find where each game stored its saves for backing up them, digging through PCGamingWiki because every developer decides to use a different location for no fucking reasonEarlier this year I stumbled across this repo https://github.com/dam-cav/win-path-shim, and now I just create a subfolder for every game inside a cloud-synced directoryI know I’m probably backing up not only saves but also cache files and a bunch of other random game data, but honestly I don’t want to deal with that shit anymoreI'm tired of looking for yet another workaround, and I’m definitely not going to write code myself for a problem that should have been solved 20 years ago
>>108953216That would mean giving write access to the installation folder, which violates security boundaries.
>>108953697>Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Saved Games folder meant for GFWL games?No. That was the GameExplorer special folder. And that one has been deprecated since Windows 10 build 1803, and if you attempt to request it via its KnownfolderID, it will return E_INVALIDARG.
>>108952403My Documents on Windows is basically the ~/ on Unix like system, aka, your user's home. Like it or not, your apps, including games, need a place automatically place their save data and the best place without modifying System directories or external user drives is the home. That is the primary purpose of the home directory.>but it mixes up with my dataYour long term data should be isolated and backed up on an external drive ideally. USB or network, doesn't matter. Your short term working data should either be on a different internal drive or at least different partition. At the absolute worst, at least make a sub-directory inside your home directory (don't used documents, movies, music, downloads or any "default" directory, those are for user space software).
>>108953601Backwards compatibility plus lack of need. IMO, the home directory should be "empty", with hidden directories for each app. But since that's not the case, at least on Windows, using My Docs shoudl be fine.Creating default subdirectories for each type of data is a waste or time and only clutters the interface with useless shit.
They should let me choose
>>108952609That doesn't make sense since Linux has more players than macOS.
>>108954582Right-click Documents, click properties, click Location tab and change it to the folder you want.
>>108952403>My Games has existed for decades>no one uses it>appdata now literally goes for ANYTHING, even installs
>>108952403I just let Steam handle my saved games, could give less of a fuck where they are.
>>108954156It's for the user's benefit you fucking retard. The user shouldn't have to hunt down a unique path for his particular OS and game, all games should put their document files (settings, save games, keybinds, logs, its) in the user's Documents folder. Clue's in the name, retard.
>>108952403nobody manually does that, retard. that's the game engine's job.
>>108952403the designated state should always be the folder where it is installed>appdata>documentsbloat
>>108954156Does Roaming even do anything? I've never seen it in action since Steam games use their own folder
>>108952403>not saving games in "C:\game_name\save" like god intended
>>108958038>"C:\game_n~1\save" like god intendedYou spelled DOS wrong.>not saving games in "C:\games\game_name\save" like God intended
>>108953601>>108952403make a syslink from Documents\My Games to the save folder you want
I save all my games in system32 and when I start a new game it corrupts Windows.
>>108952403
>>108952415>What would you prefer they use?the install directory
>>108959352The entire Neutral row is worse than Evil, who the fuck even does any of those?Yet it's missing LocalLow, <gameid> under Steam/Userdata/<userid>/, and the game folder itself.
>>108954185>That would mean giving write access to the installation folder, which violates security boundaries.>game dev, please protect me from myself!Maybe dont install your games to C:\Program Files. I extract (not install) my games to D:\[game_name].
>>108952403Because XP doesn't have one in the Documents and Settings folder due to junction nonsense I guess.
>>108959398>the game folder itself.That was (clumsily) implied in True Neutral
>>108952584some games running under proton still do, like Deus Ex.
>>108954241No not really. The home on windows is something like c:\users\anon. It's just windows makes it stupidly annoying to access.
>>108952403just symlink them to saved games bro... OH WAIT WINTODDLERS CAN'T DO IT GEEEEEG
>>108953601>install skyrim SE recently>steam cloud shits 3GB worth of saves from the past 10 years into my documentsthanks todd and gayben, very cool
>>108959352>True Neutral>Program FilesOh yes, I definitely need to run games with admin right in order for them to make saves!
>>108956397I conceed your acceptance.
>>108954241>My Documents on Windows is basically the ~/ on Unix like system, aka, your user's home.Wrong. ~/ is iirc equivalent to the FOLDERID_UsersFiles known folder ID.It is a virtual folder that iirc aggregates all the profile-specific virtual folders like documents, music, video, etc. which all can individually be relocated to anywhere on any disk and should not be interpreted as being physically present as actual folders in the user profile folder. (If you want the physical user profile folder, then use FOLDERID_Profile - but that will probably be wrong for most purposes, as would the %userprofile% environment variable, as it might not take into account relocated virtual folders.)
>>108957844>Does Roaming even do anything?If you have a user profile that is managed via an Active Directory and the Active Directory in question has roaming profiles support enabled, then anything placed in AppData/Roaming moves along with your profile to whatever physical machine you log in on with that same user account in the same AD domain.It's basically cloud-sync avant-la-lettre.That's why AppData/Roaming is supposed to only contain hardware-agnostic configuration; and any hardware-specific configuration is supposed to go in AppData/Local.
>>108959352>Program Files>Desktop>Roaming app data>RegistryYou're still missing NTFS alternate data streams.
>/game folder/saveswhy not this?
>>108952677>>108952708Do what you feel like it's not a console.
>>108963205>roaming profilesOnly insane people have this enabled in AD but yet. It's still useful without AD. Just yank the whole thing from one PC to another if you're too lazy to do something like USMT.
>>10895240312 GB of fucking poe2 shaders in my appdataAnd the game weights 140, god damn isometric hack and slop.Fuck devs
>>108962059>retarded on purposeI assume you're just trolling.
>>108952403same reason devs still shit up $HOME or %USERPROFILE% with dotfiles.laziness and incompetence.
>>108963404what the fuck is a DeLorean Copy?
>>108963429Backups.https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html#deloreancopy
I wish OSes were built where every executable just gets a custom namespaced rootfs they can shit up how they see fit and curated user-controlled views into the real rootfs.
>>108963438so it's just reflinks? ok.....
>>108963404to be fair, Symlinks, by default, require Admin because the default only grants SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege to Builtin\Administrators
