Running on two machines

[DaveG]

Two quick and related questions, and from trawling the forum, I *think* I know the answer!

Firstly, can I install Oolite on my more powerful desktop (currently on lappy) by simply copy/pasting the entire oolite folder. I appreciate I won't have the uninstall info recorded in the registry, but thats fine by me. I'd like to the use the desktop when the missus is out (it has a 42" wide screen tv as a monitor!) and the lappy when the missus is home and watching TV.

Which leads to my second question - sync'ing the saved games. Using my house cloud network, if I sync the saved game folder between laptop and desktop, is this the only set of files that get updated each time I play?

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers

Dave

[Commander McLane]

I think you should be fine with that.

The first time when you run Oolite on your desktop it may look a little different, because you haven't copied your laptop's GNUstepdefaults, so things like window size will be back to the defaults. But you can easily adjust once Oolite is running.

From then on, indeed the only thing that needs synchronizing is your save-game(s). And of course your OXPs. Whenever you install a new one (or upgrade an old one) you have to do it on both machines.

By the way: it is entirely possible to run Oolite from a flash drive, for instance a USB stick. Some people on the boards are actually doing that. This way you'd have only one installation that you can run on any machine where you plug the stick in.

[DaveG]

thanks commander! exactly what i hoped to hear! I understand about the OXPs, not a problem... Incidentally, whats the best way of finding out about updates? I'm assuming its not automatic, and I should just keep an eye on the boards!

As for USB, I thought about this, but I assumed things would run quicker with an install to HDD. Happy to be proved wrong though!

[JazHaz]

As for USB, I thought about this, but I assumed things would run quicker with an install to HDD. Happy to be proved wrong though!

I'm pretty sure that Oolite doesn't access the harddrive after the initial load. Unlike most other games.

[Norby]

whats the best way of finding out about updates?

1. In Expansion Pack you must scroll down after the sticky topics.
2. In  OXP List you must click on the "Updated" column title two times to see the fresh updates.
3. The Recent Changes page show any changes in the wiki if you are a serious follower.

I'm assuming its not automatic

I will welcome if somebody implement an OXP chooser into the menu like in OpenTTD (other favourite game of my sons).

[cim]

As for USB, I thought about this, but I assumed things would run quicker with an install to HDD. Happy to be proved wrong though!

I'm pretty sure that Oolite doesn't access the harddrive after the initial load. Unlike most other games.

That really depends how many and which OXPs you have installed. You may well not have enough RAM to keep every texture in the game in memory at once. (There are other disk accesses as well, here and there, but texture loading is probably the only one where access speed matters)

[DaveG]

well, an update - it works perfectly! I've gone for the HDD install, and I can definitely say it is faster to load and play, however that may be down to the graphics card as much as anything else! And I do have quite a few OXPs... probably 80-90!

Anyway, sync'ing my saved game across an internal dropbox-style setup works great - it is almost instant! In fact, I have the whole folder sync'd, so I only have to update the OXPs in one place. Love it! Oolite in 5.1 surround sound (sort of) when the wife isn't in!

cheers all - have a cooled beer on me!

Dave