How to Create / Edit a Game Profile - Contents -
- What is a Game Profile?
- Step 1. Selecting / Editing the 'File Executable' path
- Step 1a. Adding / Editing a Game Profile 'Avatar (Character) Image'
- Step 2. Adding/Editing the 'Files and Folders' save slot paths
- Step 3. When should gameDentity™ save data from the set 'Files and Folders' save slot paths
- Step 4. Saving / Cancelling changes made to Game Profiles
- Step 5. Closing the Game Profile Editor
This is the Game Profile Editor Window
What is a Game Profile? To execute (start) game(s) and allow the true power of gameDentity™ to flow (saving game saves & settings to the current User Profile), a game profile must exist. If no Backup File or Folder paths are setup/found, the game will run as normal in most cases.
Loads of Game Profiles are/will be provided with gameDentity™, in which case, most of time all you'll need to do is Step 1 (select the Game Executable, save the Game Profile and Play!). Like User Profiles, you can create as many Game Profiles as your hard drive can handle!
Step 1
Selecting / Editing the 'File Executable' path
For gameDentity to do anything of interest with your game you must select the game's file executable, there are 2 ways of achieving this...
A. Selecting your File in the File Executable selection dialog window (the button with '...').
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OR B. Typing the path of your Executable File.
(If your game's file executable does not end in '.exe' (unlikely) select the 'All Files' option via the 'Files of type' drop menu of the selection dialog window.)
Step 1a (Optional, but recommended!)
Adding / Editing a Game Profile 'Avatar (Character) Image'
Here you have the option to add some personality (and make game selection more fun & easy!) to your Game Profile by adding a Preview (Box / Title) image. You can do this by...
A. Selecting your image in the Game Preview image selection dialog window (the button with '...').
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OR B. Typing the path of your image file.
(PNG image format is recommended for it's high quality/low file size attributes ;)). Game Preview Image file size should 238 * 75 or less)
Step 2
Adding/Editing the 'Files and Folders' save slot paths
If your creating a new Game Profile, this is an important step! There are 3 available slots that aid the different ways gameDentity™ can deal with the how a game saves it's 'game saves and settings data' depending on where & how it saves that data on the hard drive. Phew!
Files Slot: Use this slot to point to a particular File, such as a data file, settings/config file or hi-score file. It all depends on the game and what data you want seperate/unique for each user.
Folders / My Documents Folder Slot: In most cases the 'Folder / My Documents Folder' slot will do the job of creating an effective game saves and settings function. Simply select a folder that contains the data you want to be unique for each gamer.
For example, In the 'Worms Blast' game's case the 'data' folder within the 'Worms Blast' installed directory is the folder used to save hi-score, game progress and all other game data.
or in the 'Syberia' game's case 'Syberia Saves' which resides in the 'My documents' folder.
You can use a combination of one, some, all or none of these File & Folder slots. Again, you have 2 options in how you select your files and/or folders...
A. Selecting your File/Folder in the selection dialog window (the button with '...').
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OR B. Typing the path and/or filename of your folder/file.
(remember, the bigger the file/folder, the longer the copy/transfer process! 30MBs should be about a good average although most game save folders are much smaller then this, in any case, even at greater sizes, the process should still work fine!)
Step 3
When should gameDentity™ save data from the set 'Files and Folders' save slot paths
You have a choice of 3 options from this drop menu, the default is to 'Save automaticially when the game is exited'. Alternatively (as shown above) you can choose to 'Save when user is ready' (the latter is necessary for games such as 'Worms Blast' where the starting executable is a launcher file instead of the main executable, or in the case of 'Deus Ex: Invisible War' where the executables seem to close, open and change during start up, loading and saving processes.)
The final option is to 'Close gameDentity & Save when re-opened', this option is only neccesary for slower/older computers or when speed is of the upper-most importance! (remember, if you use the last option, it's best pratice to assure you are the next person (or that someone in the know/someone you trust or perhaps both!) to boot-up (start) gameDentity so that it can be given permission (Clicking 'Yes' in this case) to do it's thing with the last gameDentit'ed' data.)
Step 4 (Don't forget this!)
Saving / Cancelling changes made to Game Profiles
If you want to save changes made to your Game Profile, simply press the 'Save' button,
a dialog will come up allowing you save the Game Profile with the current set 'Title' as your save name or you can input something else. Unlike User Profiles, it's recommended that you change the default input with the games correct title if its not already set. (for example, when picking the 'Launcher.exe' of the Worms Blast game, the 'Title' is set to 'Launcher', so it's important that you make sure the Game Profile is saved as 'Worms Blast' instead of 'Launcher' which means nothing to other users!)
When your done, press 'ok' to save or 'cancel' to go back to the editor to make further changes.
(If your editing a Game Profile, changes are saved but all saved games and settings data is copied to the valid User Profiles. So suppose I edited the 'Deus Ex' Game Profile and saved it as 'Deus Ex 313', all User Profiles that contain 'Deus Ex' save data will also have 'Deus Ex 313' save data, which is identical to the former other then the directory's name. That deserves another Phew!)
Step 5
Closing the Game Profile Editor
If you want to return to the 'Game Profile Window' or cancel the creation of / changes made to a profile simply press the 'Close' button.
Well done, you have now created/edited a Game Profile in 5 (ok, a bit more then the User Profile Editor) or less easy steps!