[2.50.2] Default quest folder reset on crash (And quest file pathing issue)

I'm running on win7 if that's relevant.

You can configure what default directory is used when you start browsing for quest, this is a good feature but I have experienced issues with it for some time. By default ZC uses it's own folder as default browsing folder, and for the most part this works fine. However this is only really defined once: when you set-up the program the first time. This makes sense.., but it has some downsides. For example on my current rig the HDD I have ZC on is carried over from the last rig, but it's not using the same virtual disc slot as it did on my last one. Previously it was on the D:\ disk, now it's on the F:\ disk. Since that place obviously don't exist on the D:\ disk anymore, browsing for quests becomes bit of a chore, good thing you can set up a new default quest directory path!

...Except when you can't. Setting it up works fine, closing ZC entirely and starting it up again and, bam, it works just fine. However, the configuration is lost when ZC crashes (or is shut down incorrectly), even if you didn't set it up in the current session. And in my case that means it defaults back to something that doesn't exist on the D:\ disk. Given that I generally just leave programs running (especially ZC since it's rather light weight), this comes up surprisingly often for me. (Either because the ZC crashed for some reason, or the PC got a BSoD, etc).


This can lead to some rather annoying issues, like having to re-set it again, and:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...80/unknown.png

Purple is the file path of the old install folder.
Green is the path from the new quest folder I defined.

This is not a big issue on it's own, setting up the default quest folder path again solves it, but it does seem like weird behaviour to me anyway, to define quest file paths like this instead of the complete thing from root (or whatever it's called on windows). (I guess it might be convenient if you move the quest folder? Regardless, it's a tangent).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lunaria

I'm running on win7 if that's relevant.

You can configure what default directory is used when you start browsing for quest, this is a good feature but I have experienced issues with it for some time. By default ZC uses it's own folder as default browsing folder, and for the most part this works fine. However this is only really defined once: when you set-up the program the first time. This makes sense.., but it has some downsides. For example on my current rig the HDD I have ZC on is carried over from the last rig, but it's not using the same virtual disc slot as it did on my last one. Previously it was on the D:\ disk, now it's on the F:\ disk. Since that place obviously don't exist on the D:\ disk anymore, browsing for quests becomes bit of a chore, good thing you can set up a new default quest directory path!

...Except when you can't. Setting it up works fine, closing ZC entirely and starting it up again and, bam, it works just fine. However, the configuration is lost when ZC crashes (or is shut down incorrectly), even if you didn't set it up in the current session. And in my case that means it defaults back to something that doesn't exist on the D:\ disk. Given that I generally just leave programs running (especially ZC since it's rather light weight), this comes up surprisingly often for me. (Either because the ZC crashed for some reason, or the PC got a BSoD, etc).


This can lead to some rather annoying issues, like having to re-set it again, and:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...80/unknown.png

Purple is the file path of the old install folder.
Green is the path from the new quest folder I defined.

This is not a big issue on it's own, setting up the default quest folder path again solves it, but it does seem like weird behaviour to me anyway, to define quest file paths like this instead of the complete thing from root (or whatever it's called on windows). (I guess it might be convenient if you move the quest folder? Regardless, it's a tangent).

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Hmm.

It would be trivian to add a menu option to save ZQuest settings to ag.cfg at any time, that calls write_allegro_settings() at will. (The identifier might be saver_allegro_settings() or something similar, but you understand what I mean.)

I would like to split up the config files, so that one file is not shared across all three programmes, as the shared resource is responsible for issues related to this as well.

I thought that there was alreaady a ZQuest dialogue to change the quest directory, and I'll verify that. Again, it would be trivian to add that.

In the interim, you can always modify these in ag.cfg. The setting is (IIRC) win_quest_directory. There are separate entries for ZC and for ZQuest, and each has a separate entry for the platform, as I recall; so Mac and Linux paths are probably separate entries.

Anyway, this is not a bug, but more of an oversight. I'll check some things when I start my day proper.

On this matter though, are ou requesting an option for purely relative paths?

@Lunaria , I added the ability to save the ZC and ZQuest configuration 'at-will' from the menus, and started on adding a way to reset the ZQuest file path. The former will be in the next build; and the latter may be, too/.

Sounds nice. Honestly it's up to you and the rest of the devs if you want to change how file pathing works, I just figured I'd throw out the idea in the wind at least since it was tangibly related.

I was mostly just concerned why the path gets reset on crash, since that did seem like a bug.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lunaria

Sounds nice. Honestly it's up to you and the rest of the devs if you want to change how file pathing works, I just figured I'd throw out the idea in the wind at least since it was tangibly related.

I was mostly just concerned why the path gets reset on crash, since that did seem like a bug.

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It isn't precisely a bug. ZQuest writes the path when it exits, so if it crashes before it writes, it cannot update; hence granting the user the ability to manually save the configuration settings at any time.

I just finished splitting up ag.cfg so that ZC-specific and ZQuest-specific entries write to new files (zc.cfg and zquest.cfg), thus preventing a file access clash that seems to be happening for some users. That change may also be helpful, for this specific issue.