Change save file location?

[Maoh 13]

So yeah do you guys know any way to change vn's saves folder? there has to be a file who specifies the location for them

Mostly because i want to burn some of them on DVDs and be able to play them from there without having to copy the data to the pc (gotta edit the save path since most of them write to the same folder they're installed)

Any idea would be appreciated

[ret 12]

Hardly possible. Most games are hardcoded to read either from %appdata% or the program's own folder.

 

What you could do is make a batch script, residing in your DVD, that will copy the files to the right place, e.g.:

 

Have the "savedata" (or save files, whatever) in the same folder as the batch file.

Write in notepad, save as .bat

Example for game that writes to game folder, multiple files
@echo off
copy .\save001.sav %programfiles%\\\save001.sav
copy .\save002.sav %programfiles%\\\save002.sav

Example for game that writes to appdata folder, single folder that holds all files
@echo off
copy .\\ %appdata%\\

 

Some games will need registry entries, or else they refuse to run because they're "not installed". For these, you'll need to install the game, open the relevant entries with regedit, change the paths so that they point to your disc drive, and export the .reg file so you can easily import back the keys when needed.

A couple of VNs that I remember having this are Hinatabokko and Kanojo to Ore no Koibito to.

 

Here's a fragment of Kanojo's .reg file entries:

 

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WILLPLUS]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WILLPLUS\tototo]
"InstallType"=hex:02,00,00,00
"InstallDir"="C:\\WILLPLUS\\tototo"
"InstallSrc"="E:\\"

 

The InstallDir key is the one that points to the files the game wants. No key, it won't think it's installed. The source key only points to the install media drive, which is E in the case of the VM I used. There are other keys in there, but they pertain to game settings.

A few games have a registry key that sets the save directory, but this also defeats portability since it depends on inserting registry entries.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Double clicking these batch files should copy the saves in question. If you're using Vista or 7, you may need to run as admin if writing to Program Files.

Likewise, double clicking reg files will do the trick for importing the keys.

 

Anyway, shortly: Short of hacking your way through, you can't make every VN truly portable because of a) hardcoded save locations and/or b) dependency on registry entries.

 

Lastly, many VNs don't give a fuck about registry entries. These should be trivial to work with, as long as you take care of the savefiles either manually, or through batch scripts.

Edited September 22, 2013 by ret

[Maoh 13]

Oh damn i thought it was just like an .dat file with the stuff inside

god damn programmers and their unnecesarily complicated stuff

thanks for the info, i guess the portable project is cancelled xd

[ret 12]

You'll have to try and see for each game. I keep a text list of problematic games with instructions (e.g. how to crack, how to run on VM, etc) so that I can take the necessary action when needed. Using a VM also comes in handy because I can revert to previous snapshots, completely undoing whatever the title in question installed and added to the registry.

You can at least burn the "direct run" titles for semi-portability.

 

Examples of games that run directly are Baseson titles (easily recognizable because the install disc has a "WinRoot" folder), the recently released Eroge! and Eushully titles such as Kamidori.