Where are games really stored?

[MasterBel2]

I'm trying to experiment with making my own BA - based game. Problem is, when I copy the .sdd file into the ~/.spring/games it doesn't show up when I open springrts. I've also noticed that not all of the games I have downloaded are this directory (though it is the directory I instructed SL to download to). So where are they?

When I first copied the .sdd in it did show up, for a bit, providing the engine I had selected was 101.0 and not 100.0. It came up as Balanced Annihilation $Version, which is understandable - I hadn't yet changed the modinfo.lua file. But then I modified the file, and the game now doesn't seem to be detected by SL or spring itself, reguardless of engine selected.

I am on a mac - which is probably relevant. Would this post be better in the MacOSX forum here?

Thanks!

[Silentwings]

Your "automatic" downloads have come via rapid, and are stored broken up into tiny pieces inside the pool directory, as described in https://springrts.com/wiki/Rapid#Files_structures.

If you want a game stored as an sdd (for developing, etc) the best way to get it is download the original sdz and unzip it.

Your issues with modinfo/sdds might be caused by
(a) Editing the modinfo file and introducing a bug -> it can no longer be parsed -> unitsync doesn't regonized your sdd as valid.
(b) The archive cache (see the cache dir) not handling sdd's having their modinfo changed without their dir also changing.
(c) Putting your sdd into one of your engines local /games/ dirs instead of the /games/ dir in your main spring datadir.

though it is the directory I instructed SL to download to

As far as I know, you don't have the option to choose this. Nor can you instruct SL to download/produce sdz files instead of pool archives. Use springfiles.com.

[Forboding Angel]

If you don't change the name in modinfo.lua, spring won't be able to differentiate it from actual BA.

[MasterBel2]

So: I shouldn't have editted the modinfo.lua file at all (or is there something that I can edit?), or what exactly will I have to change in order to allow me to keep my changes of modinfo.lua?

And are there other modifications I might make to other files that might make spring not find the game?

And thanks, good to know that the games aren't just hidden or something where it's impossible to find.

[Forboding Angel]

That's not what I said...

If you don't change the name in modinfo.lua, spring won't be able to differentiate it from actual BA.

Therefore, in order for spring to be able to tell that your game is different from ba or whatever it used to be, you MUST edit modinfo with a different name or version (or both).

If you have started spring before editing modinfo with the .sdd in place, you must change the directory name of the .sdd and start spring after modifying the modinfo.lua, otherwise spring will not rehash (? Proper terminology ?) the changed modinfo.lua.

Every time you change the modinfo.lua of an .sdd, you MUST rename the <whatever>.sdd directory name in order to make spring see the changes. The directory must be "touched" (Yes this applies to windows too), and changing the directory name effectively accomplishes "touch"ing the folder (in a much more crude yet ultimately effective way).

[gajop]

Just repeating what others have said:
- You probably made an error when changing the modinfo.lua file, show us
- If you modify modinfo.lua, you must also change some other file or delete the cache. Spring doesn't detect changes in the modinfo.lua file on its own (which is imo a very annoying bug...)

[MasterBel2]

Ok, I think I understand now. I renamed the folder, and it still isn't found, however when I put back the original stuff, it shows up. So I guess there's an error. I can't find it myself so here's an image of the original and mine side by side:

Screen Shot 2016-06-23 at 2.45.02 PM.png

(69.02 KiB) Not downloaded yet

[gajop]

Your quotes characters seem wrong (they should all be ' ). Don't use word to edit text files.
EDIT: Or is it just italics?? Please sent actual text file of modinfo.lua

[MasterBel2]

I was using textedit. And they were smart quotes, so no wonder they broke it :D

So fixed and works now. Thanks!

[MasterBel2]

Ok, so I've got a working game and I compress it to .7z and rename it as an .sd7 file (I've made sure that the computer doesn't still think it's a 7z). Problem is when I put it in the /.spring/games directory it isn't found.
I've double checked both extension issues and smart quote issues. So is there something that could stop springlobby recognising the .sd7 file?

The exact file name :

Code: Select all

strategic_annihilation.sd7

Springlobby is now thinking longer than it used to when it rejected the miseditted file, about the same length of time as if it's found what it's looking for.

[abma]

delete ArchiveCache.lua, start spring.exe and then look into infolog.txt for errors wrt archive loading.

So is there something that could stop springlobby recognising the .sd7 file?

possible a syntax error / compressed solid.

[Silentwings]

So is there something that could stop springlobby recognising the .sd7 file?

By convention, games are sdz files and maps are sd7 files. This actually won't stop Spring recognizing a game with a sd7 extension, but you should change it anyway to be consistent with everyone else. What might stop it are:
(1) Zipping it has accidentally changed the folder structure and the base dir is not what you think it is.
(2) Syntax errors.
(3) If your sdz shares the same mod name & version in its modinfo as another sdd or sdz that you previously/currently had (as mentioned above, the archive cache can't handle this sort of circumstance properly - its a massive pain, I know).

[MasterBel2]

So after an hour of experimenting my game is uploaded to springfiles. I'm yet to test the download works.

https://springfiles.com/spring/games/st ... ation-test

[PicassoCT]

Maybe show not recognized games (but found files) as red- with the appendage (not recognized game)?