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Glossary:Game data

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 14:16, 4 February 2016 by Vetle (talk | contribs) (→‎Windows data paths: super > Win)
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Installation folder

The game's installation folder is where the game's files are stored, displayed as <path-to-game>. Save files are sometimes stored here as well but many newer games will put them in a different location.

Windows

  • For non-Steam games right click the shortcut and choose Open file location.
  • For Steam games right-click the game in the Steam library and choose Properties, then go to the Local files tab and click Browse local files.
  • Changes to %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMFILES(X86)% and %WINDIR% are redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later when the process is elevated (a User Account Control prompt is shown on launch); Steam and many MMOGs change folder permissions to save directly into the installation folder.

OS X

  • For non-Steam games open Finder and click Applications on the side. Some games will be in folders.
  • For Steam games right-click the game in the Steam library and choose Properties, then go to the Local files tab and click Browse local files.

Linux

  • For Steam games right-click the game in the Steam library and choose Properties, then go to the Local files tab and click Browse local files.

Client folder

Steam

The Steam folder contains data for games using Steam integration; it uses the following locations by default:

  • 64-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Steam
  • 32-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%\Steam
  • OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/
  • Linux: ~/.steam/steam/

Game data is saved within a folder called steamapps found within the Steam directory.

Uplay

The Uplay folder contains data for games using Uplay integration; it uses the following locations by default:

  • 64-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher
  • 32-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher

Origin

The Origin Client folder contains data for games using Origin integration; it uses the following locations by default:

  • 64-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Origin
  • 32-bit Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%\Origin

Windows data paths

Documentation on how to incorporate these paths into any wiki articles can be found here.
To open the enviromental variable path, either copy/paste or write the desired path variable to file explorer, to start menu search bar or to run dialog which can be opened with Win+R.

User profile

%USERPROFILE% points to the current user's profile folder. Which is usually "C:\Users\(Username)"
Some games use a path based on %USERNAME%; this method does not redirect when the user folder locations have been customised.

Appdata

%APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% contain application settings for the current user profile.
On Windows Vista or later, %APPDATA% - which most games use points to "C:\Users\(Username)\AppData\Roaming", while %LOCALAPPDATA% points to "C:\Users\(Username)\AppData\Local". C= Drive windows is installed on, which can vary on some weird configurations.
Some games use %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow, this location does not have a short environmental variable so must be specified in this longer form. For Windows XP use %APPDATA%.
For Windows XP the %LOCALAPPDATA% files are stored in %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data.
Note that the AppData folder is hidden by default. Enable show hidden files and folders in your windows folder configuration to view it.

Public

%PUBLIC% points to the Public user profile folder shared between all users.

ProgramData

%PROGRAMDATA% contains program data shared between all users, for Windows XP use %ALLUSERSPROFILE%.

Windows registry

  1. Open the Registry Editor:
    • Vista and later: open the Start screen/Start menu, type regedit, press Enter.
    • Windows XP: press Win+R, type regedit, press Enter.
  2. Go to bills/awsome.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Programs writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE without elevation are redirected to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE on Windows Vista and later.
Elevated 32-bit programs writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE are redirected to a Wow6432Node folder there; omit Wow6432Node if you are using a 32-bit version of Windows.
Non-elevated programs writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE are redirected to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\; omit Wow6432Node if you are using a 32-bit version of Windows.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Note that 32-bit programs writing to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software are NOT redirected to a Wow6432Node folder unlike local machine writes. They are stored in the same location, as programs per user edits are assumed to always be compatible between architectures. Per machine edits are too, 99.99% of the time, the restriction was mostly a poor choice by microsoft.

Linux paths

The correct place on Linux to store save data and configuration files are specified by the XDG base directory specification.

XDG paths

Most distributions do not set a default option for these environmental variables.
Games using $XDG_DATA_HOME should default to $HOME/.local/share for the save path.
Games using $XDG_CONFIG_HOME should default to $HOME/.config for the configuration path.

Note: a game using the fall-back paths doesn't guarantee it is following the XDG specification. For example, Game Maker and Unity 4 titles do not actually use the relevant environmental variables, despite using the correct fall-back path.

Home

$HOME refers to the user's home folder, for example /home/user.