Problem moving DFU to another PC

[hokujin]

A while ago i managed to fix my windows7 pc and decided to move DFU onto it. I copied the appdata files, the game, and DFU onto the pc and managed to run it once. However the next time i try to run DFU it shows up in the processes but doesn't actually run a new window. The memory allocated for it also seems to not change and stops at 15,000K.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what could be causing the problem? I know my whole process of moving the game was kinda jank, but it did manage to run at least once.

[Jay_H]

Except for mods, you don't need to transfer DFU over; a clean install would be better. Just make sure your saves are moved, and everything else should work properly. Who knows if a GUI setting on your old computer is incompatible with the new one, or something.

Can you upload your player log? That might show something of what's going on.

[hokujin]

In the DFU locallow folders i can't find a player_log. only an output and quest log. I made a fresh install of DFU and deleted the DFU appdata folders. DFU manages to create new folders for the appdata but seems to get stuck as there are no files created.

Maybe I'm missing redistributables. The Win7 pc i'm trying to get it in is completely fresh aside from chipset and graphics drivers. Now i'm really wondering how I managed to make it run once in the first place.

EDIT

Found the solution, though im not too sure which one really did it.
1st i deleted all the amd DX, OpenGL, and Vulcan chache's.
2nd i opened up regedit and searched for anything that mentioned DFU
3rd i deleted those registries as well

when i restarted my computer and ran DFU it worked. gonna do more testing to see why it stops working

[Jay_H]

The player log is the output: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2360&p=27552#p27552. Hopefully it'll bring out some useful information.

[Interkarma]

Could be an issue with the Unity runtime itself - seems likely if DFU isn't starting up or creating a new output log. Try deleting the following registry key and let us know if that helps.

Code: Select all

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Daggerfall Workshop\Daggerfall Unity

Sometimes Unity runtime caches some bad startup data in there (usually after changing video drivers, etc.) which prevents the game from even opening.

[hokujin]

yep, you were right its the DFU regestry you posted. Is there any way to prevent unity from makng a bad registry? so far every time i wanna run it, i'll have to delete the registry every time

*edit*
heres the player log. on 1st run it's created. on the second run it's erased but DFU gets stuck before it can start logging

[BansheeXYZ]

Do we know why DFU saves data in a user folder distant from the executable? This doesn't seem to be common practice for smalltime apps, even though Microsoft pushes for it. One of the more bizarre reasons for this push was to make other users not be able to access your data, so it's assuming that you share your PC with other people when that's not the case for most PCs.

I recently reinstalled Windows to a newer version of 10, and forgot to go into the appdata folder and extract my dfworkshop stuff for backup (which I then would've had to put back in the appropriate local/roaming/localLow circus of choices). As a result, I lost all my saves and had to redo all my configuration. eDuke32, gzdoom, Beelzebub, homm3hd, none of these remakes had that problem.

[pango]

Do we know why DFU saves data in a user folder distant from the executable?

This is because the two kind of files have totally different life cycles; You install and reinstall apps as administrator, save games are created while using the app as a standard user, and you want to keep them between reinstalls.
(for multiuser applications there's also a difference of cardinality, it makes sense that the settings and data of each user is handled separately from others', and from the application)
It has been this way for ages on other operating systems, say Unices. All user files are below a single directory (s)he has write access to, copy that directory over and you get back all documents and settings.
Windows is somewhat to blame here, making copying of all documents and settings harder than it should be. But beside that, you should blame yourself. Also, making backups periodically is good practice, any information that is in only one location has a significant probability of disappearing.

[BansheeXYZ]

What about putting apps on a usb stick and having the saves/configuration go with it? If I were running apps from a stick on a computer at work or school, I wouldn't want it to save data to the computer. Not only would that leave a trail of personal data behind, I'd have to manually extract my progress out each time I switched computers or I'd lose my progress.

When apps were self-contained instead of spread out like this, we never had to worry about stuff like this. Now everything is a royal pain in the nuts.

[Interkarma]

You shouldn't have to delete registry key each time, it's usually a very rare issue. Try to work out which setting is triggering. Can be related to Quality Settings or resolution, so try another quality level like Fantastic, a different resolution, etc. Deleting settings.ini will reset all this back to defaults and prompt you to go through setup again.

A separate persistent data path is a very standard practice. It's actually the entire purpose of the AppData folder in Windows.

In regards to DFU, you only need to setup game once. Then you can just unzip the latest version and run without needing to copy over any saves or settings. Only mods need to be copied on each upgrade if using.