Store installed state separately from the wine prefix

[imLinguin]

Right now we rely on Wine prefix to persist the state of what games are currently installed.
It's a sort of habit that was left over from the fact Maxima's primary platform is Windows

What needs to be done:

• Store installed games in a TOML file or equivelent
• Mirror the state to the prefix that's being used
• Consider letting users specify separate prefix per game and/or proton version to be used

[wannkunstbeikor]

I brought that up some time ago, but I think someone was against it. Forgot the reason tho ...

[p0358]

I brought that up some time ago, but I think someone was against it. Forgot the reason tho ...

If I was to guess, it was probably a Windows assumption, where it would make sense to have Maxima as a drop-in alternative for EA App, which itself uses registry like that to identify the games. So that you could easily switch between those two with both installed, being able to install or update games on both. But that doesn't really work on Linux...

In fact it's probably still a thing to consider. Should Windows version maintain looking at just registry? Or should a TOML file be the primary source of truth, but auto-discover new games from registry to auto-add to it (and either auto-remove missing ones, or warn that game files are gone, or just consider it not installed but maybe don't forget the path in case it's a drive being temporarily unmounted/unplugged...)

[wannkunstbeikor]

Iirc EA Desktop also has a file where it stores some info about the installed games, they also encrypt it for some reason ...

Maybe issue #40 is related, do u know if there are regkeys for those games on windows?

[BellezaEmporium]

Iirc EA Desktop also has a file where it stores some info about the installed games, they also encrypt it for some reason ...

Maybe issue #40 is related, do u know if there are regkeys for those games on windows?

You're most certainly referencing the "IS" file, which is the Install Store. It has the install informations, but not something that the API doesn't have (see installCheckOverride or executeCheckOverride in https://github.com/ArmchairDevelopers/Maxima/blob/master/maxima-lib/src/core/graphql/getLegacyCatalogDefs.gql)

[sjp761]

I brought that up some time ago, but I think someone was against it. Forgot the reason tho ...

If I was to guess, it was probably a Windows assumption, where it would make sense to have Maxima as a drop-in alternative for EA App, which itself uses registry like that to identify the games. So that you could easily switch between those two with both installed, being able to install or update games on both. But that doesn't really work on Linux...

In fact it's probably still a thing to consider. Should Windows version maintain looking at just registry? Or should a TOML file be the primary source of truth, but auto-discover new games from registry to auto-add to it (and either auto-remove missing ones, or warn that game files are gone, or just consider it not installed but maybe don't forget the path in case it's a drive being temporarily unmounted/unplugged...)

This is basically what Linguin said when I asked him. Started to work on the separate prefix feature and it is definitely a huge undertaking. The program queries the wine prefix a lot, both for game specific and generic info. IDK also how to handle the windows version as well

Can we also open a development channel in the kyber discord? Could make it easier to ask questions and communicate with the devs