[SUGGESTION] Multiple Parallel Configurations - Separation by executable name

[MyThos]

Hi,

I was looking at a way to run multiple installs (extracts) of OpenXcom in parallel, allowing me to experiment with mods and run OpenTftd with a separate configuration using common installation.

Currently all "user data" is located in "C:\Users\<user>\Documents\OpenXcom" per default. It would be nice if the last element ("OpenXcom") would not be static but derived from the executable name in the installation folders. As such we could copy & paste multiple executables that correspond to separate configuration and save folders. Additionally there would be no impact for anyone not using this approach as he/she would just continue using the default \Documents\OpenXcom folder.

Background: I used to run ThirdWire Strike Fighters series which is very flexible and moddable and used this approach to manage multiple configurations using one base installation.

Best Regards,
Michael

[R1dO]

Try starting the game with the following option:

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-user "path-where-you-want-to-store-this-specific-user-configuration"
This should provide you the requested flexibility

[MyThos]

Thanks for the info

Is there an overview of supported commandline options ?

[R1dO]

Try using

Code: [Select]

-help

[MyThos]

Hmm, tried it via cmd but no output on my Windows 7 shell ?!

[R1dO]

I'm not familiar with windows 7 shell

You could try the following alternative options:

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--help and -?
If the first solves the problem, then the double minus is probably required for all options on your system.

[MyThos]

Yeah had already tried with "--help" and now with "-?" or "--?". Does not work either way ...

But the  "-user" option is working, tried

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openxcom.exe -user %HOMEPATH%/Documents/OpenTftd

and created "OpenTftd" folder in my users Documents folder. So this will help me greatly.

[Solarius Scorch]

Dude, just make a "user" folder in your Openxcom folder and move all your user files there (saves, configs, mods and so on). The game will use these from now on and won't look for the one in Documents.

Then you can just make multiple copies of the entire Openxcom folder and play them all as you like.

[Arthanor]

Dude! He wants multiple configs for the same executable! Why have multiple copies of the same executable when you can use it with different folders?

That's terribly inefficient! (not only space-wise, but also when comes time to update them)

[Solarius Scorch]

Dude! What a bizarre idea.

[Dioxine]

Hey, Solar, stop making fun of people. They might be poor and not have terabytes of fast hard disk space like you do. It's not nice to hit on the poor

[Solarius Scorch]

Hey, Solar, stop making fun of people. They might be poor and not have terabytes of fast hard disk space like you do. It's not nice to hit on the poor

Well, you only save the space on the .exe and associated .dlls, no?

And I'm not making fun!

[MyThos]

a

Well, you only save the space on the .exe and associated .dlls, no?

And I'm not making fun!

Not to forget the data files for UFO and TFTD  I like this approach better than mixing installation files and configuration.

Anyway the "-user" option is sufficient for me to run multiple configurations and I want to thank R1do for pointing this out. I'll withdraw my suggestion and apologize for not completely reading the readme where this was mentioned as well.

So long ...