Hi Thomas, Frankly, given Jeremy's success, I would suggest that this isn't a serious problem. A zip file is universal, and if that would make it easier to support something cross-platform I'm all for it. Incidentally, I am guessing your plans do not include a Mac version of this game, at least not of the beta? I did recently installed windows on another partition, so I can always use that. All the best, Zack. On Jun 9, 2013, at 8:57 PM, Thomas Ward <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi all, > > Over the last couple of months or so I've been busy as a bee porting > Mysteries of the Ancients etc over to my cross-platform Evolution > engine, and now I am busy writing the documentation for the new > cross-platform beta of Mysteries of the Ancients which I hope to have > out sometime this summer. However, as I've been porting the code, > testing it on multiple operating systems, etc I need to decide upon > the method of installation for the game. So here is the deal. > > One issue I am experiencing with the cross-platform version of a game > like Mysteries of the Ancients is that every operating system has its > own directory structure, its own special place for storing files, > which means I have to constantly change the directory paths for my > files every time I compile it on a different OS. For example, on > Windows saved games should go in c:\Users\user name\Application > Data\MOTA, but on Linux it would go in /home/user name/.mota. Its not > difficult to support both, but an easier way is just to keep > everything in a single directory and run it from your home directory > on Linux or from your User directory on Windows. > > There is a similar issue with things like sound and music. Typically > on Windows a game's sounds and music would be in the same directory as > the executable like c:\Program Files\Mysteries of the Ancients\Sounds > or c:\Program Files\Mysteries of the Ancients\Music, but Linux has a > totally different directory structure where files should go. For > example, the manual would go in /usr/shared/docs/MOTA, the sounds in > /usr/MOTA/Sounds, the music would go in /usr/MOTA/Music, and the > executable goes in /usr/bin. In short, there is no middle ground in > terms of where files would go just because they are totally different. > > The easiest solution I can see for this problem is to simply zip the > game up, and rather than installing it you would extract the contents > to c:\Users\user name\MOTA on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 > and would unzip them in /home/user name/MOTA on Linux. That way I can > keep all the files together, not worry about different environment > variables or different directory paths, and of course not have to > worry about things like User Account Control griping about saving > files to the program directory. > > While this method seems to work well for Jeremy Kaldobsky, AKA Aprone, > I am worried that some users would want an actual installer like Inno > Setup rather than unzipping and manually installing the program > themselves. I can do that, of course, but I'd prefer not have to > unless it is necessary. Any thoughts, opinions, or suggestions about > this issue? > > Thanks. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
