Make an option in the installation to be portable

[Itzik Arzoni]

In the installation to the game should be an option to install without distributing files to any folder other then the game's folder itself.

The game itself, when directed to take the config files from the local folder, will not use any outside folder.

My suggestion is to make a config file near program folder that will hold the value of where the data files are, and all the game's code will know to read this value (maybe store it in a globally accessible variable).

[historic_bruno]

I think generally there is some aversion to "complicating" the installer, so it's not likely this gets added anytime soon, but what would be the purpose of this option?

[Erik Johansson]

So that one can run the game from e.g. an external hard drive that you move from computer to computer and still have all your saved games etc wherever you go.

[Jonathan Waller]

It would be possible to have a separate portable zip to download which people can just extract and use. It must never create any files outside of the directory it is run from, which I thin would need some changes to be made to the game.

[historic_bruno]

Replying to quantumstate:

It would be possible to have a separate portable zip to download which people can just extract and use. It must never create any files outside of the directory it is run from, which I thin would need some changes to be made to the game.

Sounds like more work for maintaining and packaging releases :( Though it's not uncommon to offer two downloads of a particular application, one a portable zip archive and the other a Windows installer. Basically it would be like what SVN users have, except that runtime data (logs, screenshots, etc.) would go in new directories relative to the executable rather than %appdata%. Maybe this option can be added when paths get overhauled, they need updating for OS X and Windows anyway.

[Itzik Arzoni]

By the way, instead of making a different ZIP package (witch is more work) this can be done by an installer option. I've seen this before. But for this you'll need an external way of directing the game to the correct path. This way it's a one time effort, instead of every release effort.

[historic_bruno]

Just an FYI, the engine can already handle a portable install using the -writableRoot option (confirmed to work). So it's just a question of whether we want to extend the installer or if we even want an official portable package at all.