old school- GRAW 2 editor question

[chrisj1968]

I just recently got a new GRAW2 DVD never opened and when I start working in the editor, I can't find the foliage (trees, bushes and the like) anyone know how to access this feeature in GRAW2's editor?

 

I know its an old game but, as Ghost recon goes, I don't want to go back to the 2001/02 game and GRAW2 and GRAW both still appeal to me.

 

But I can't seem to find the trees in the props layer. if anyone knows where it is, that would be great.

 

thanks,

 

-Chrisj1968

[chrisj1968]

ok better yet, GRAW2 has a folder in my username\local folder. GRAW was designed for win2000/XP. 

 

is Win 8.1 any different in where it places stuff in the username\local folder

[Max Norris]

is Win 8.1 any different in where it places stuff in the username\local folder

Can't comment on this game specifically, never played it so can't help you with that -- but yes, the physical locations changed with Vista, streamlined it, got rid of the inane "Documents and Settings", split between \Users and \ProgramData. There are junctions in place for badly written programs that look for these by name instead of using the environment variables so they theoretically will still look at the right directories. Some old games (namely 2K and earlier) were bad with security too, there's a few oldies that'll require admin rights to run properly. Have one or two that want to save in the same directory the program is for example (brilliant) so I have them in a user directory instead so they won't need admin access.

AppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data

Vista and above - \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming

CommonAppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data

Vista and above - \ProgramData

LocalAppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data

Vista and above - \Users\<user name>\AppData\Local

[chrisj1968]

thanks, I find that it "should" be under users\appdata\local. however out of curiosity, checked locallow and roaming and nadda.

 

Game is supposed to put a work folder somewhere in the games home folder. 

 

Grin has long since went under and ghsotrecon.net isn't as busy as it used to be.

[chrisj1968]

Can't comment on this game specifically, never played it so can't help you with that -- but yes, the physical locations changed with Vista, streamlined it, got rid of the inane "Documents and Settings", split between \Users and \ProgramData. There are junctions in place for badly written programs that look for these by name instead of using the environment variables so they theoretically will still look at the right directories. Some old games (namely 2K and earlier) were bad with security too, there's a few oldies that'll require admin rights to run properly. Have one or two that want to save in the same directory the program is for example (brilliant) so I have them in a user directory instead so they won't need admin access.

AppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data

Vista and above - \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming

CommonAppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data

Vista and above - \ProgramData

LocalAppData, old versions - \Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data

Vista and above - \Users\<user name>\AppData\Local

 

ok, GRAW 1, which I still play and is needed for using the editor, to create custom levels for the game, GRAW seems to disregard this somehow. I used the editor, placed an item on the editor, a road, saved it as per the requirements and it is nowhere to be found. really strange. my thinking is, somehow the developers GRIN, who were from sweden and made the game, designed it for win2000/XP respectively.

 

I think its sequel GRAW2 was designed for Vista in mind since Vista was the OS when it released. it does fine on my Win 8.1 laptop here. I have a map I made and someone will create the mission.xml file so it can be played.

 

the fly through of the map is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfHfn4nlS0k

[Max Norris]

Could use something like Process Explorer or Process Hacker, keep an eye on the disk activity log, it tells you which files are being read or written to.. should be able to easily pick out where it's saving to. Another option, if it's available, is Sandboxie or similar, run the editor in an empty sandbox and save, should be really obvious where it's saving to as that'll be more or less the only directory stored in the sandbox.

[chrisj1968]

sandboxie... I totally forgot about that! lemme give it a go and get back to you.

 

Added after testing:

 

Nope. I think its an issue with the game vs the OS. I mean the game was released in 2006. Windows was different then and when the installation.

 

I did find GRAW itself under user\my name\local\virtual store\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. So there is something for the game there. Its just that the editor doesn't save maps being worked on inside the GRAW folder there

 

should be custom_levels\levels\my_levels. something like that. I think that I'm boned. It just won't go. the new question is, will Windows 10 change yet again? then GRAW2 might stop working.

 

I'm just going to probably leave it as it is. unless, Toshiba will have the ability to downgrade this laptop to Windows 7 and I'll be back in business. The question is, "is it worth all the trouble?"

[Max Norris]

Nope. I think its an issue with the game vs the OS. I mean the game was released in 2006. Windows was different then and when the installation.

Shouldn't matter -- if you're indeed running the program in the sandbox and it saves anything, you'll see it inside the sandbox directories. May not be where you expected it, (check both sandbox\drive\.. and the user directories) but it has to be somewhere. Even if it's some random directory they pulled out of their butt it'll get saved into the sandbox. Use your file manager un-sanboxed so you're not seeing the virtual file system, just the actual data that got saved, no point making it harder for no reason. Even registry changes get saved there, you can mount those hives via whatever registry editor you use and look them over.

As far as 10 goes, I doubt they'll change those particular environment variables again, really isn't needed. The change from pre-Vista I get, those directories were just crazy (who wants to type that out on a regular basis?) but it's pretty sane now.