Question: How do you find SH4 Install and Saved Game folders?
 

As the title indicates, I need to have the ability to locate the folder where the game is installed and the folder where it saves games. My mod accesses these folders from a separate program and I would like to have it find them automatically rather than requiring the user to enter the information. I assume that the required information is in the Windows registry and I have found some entries that would work, but I'm not certain that they are the proper ones to use. Do any of you experienced modders out there know what part off the registry I should use to find these folders?

As SH4 patched up doesn't require a registry entry, you may search in vain.
Many use multiple installations. Take a copy of SH4 install, rename folder and you're good to go = no entry for those "copies"...

And the same group most probably use MultiSH, so you can't even be sure what the save folder is named anymore! :D
At present I use 3 save folders: SH4, TMO and IXD...


The same group will probably also pester you for making your mod being able to keep track of/seperate their installs/data...


:D

Fortunately I already have an options file in the mod where the user can manually enter the Install path and the Saved Game path. I was hoping to make the whole thing automatic but it sounds like that may not be possible without spending a lot of time learning how different people set up their systems.

A GUI would be better and maybe added later but I guess the options file will have to do for now. Its not really that difficult, I currently use it to switch between my game folders and some test folders.

Well.. if you make people install it into their respectable SH4 directory (maybe in a sub folder there ?) you would already have solved part of the problem. Unless that is not possible for some reason of course.
The location of the save game folder seems to be saves in FileManager.dll
(http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...022#post455022)
Though I have no idea how you would filter it out there.. maybe someone else knows ?

The mod doesn't need to be installed - it uses the Python scripting language. Python needs to be installed separately but the mod folder can go anywhere you want to put it. I'd rather not loose that flexibility if possible.

Thanks for the info about FileManager.dll. I didn't even know that it existed.