A petition to all pnd (game/emu) devs

[ZXDunny]

I thought about adding this capability to PandaBAS - have the executable and the support files in one place, and user-created content in another, but amalgamate them at runtime so that the user seems a seemless environment.

Then I realised how much work that would be. It's not practical and I can't do it.

D.

 

[WizardStan]

Hmmm... actually, it is possible to union mount multiple directories. PND first, "data" directory second, appdata directory third. Reads come from any of the three, writes go out to the appdata directory, and it all looks for all ways like the exact same single directory it always has. You could modify pnd_run.sh to take a new parameter (-pd for permanent data or something?) and libPND to look for a second directory in either the PXML or overlay. Probably overlay, it wouldn't be practical for it to exist in the PXML.

At least in theory it is possible, I'm not going to say for certain that the particular unionFS that is running on the Pandora can union more than 2 directories, but it should be able to.

 

[freamon]

...

/mnt/utmp/pndname is a mount point. It's an overlay, combining the PND file and the directory specified by the "-d" option. You can change the -d to any other directory and the mount point will remain /mnt/utmp/pndname so the application will continue working just fine. There is absolutely no need to change any source code, change pnd_run and it will take care of the rest.

Ooops, sorry for spreading bad info.

Hmmm... actually, it is possible to union mount multiple directories. PND first, "data" directory second, appdata directory third. Reads come from any of the three, writes go out to the appdata directory, and it all looks for all ways like the exact same single directory it always has.

Yeah, I just tried mounting a PND with the -d option, and writes still went to same pandora/appdata directory as always, unfortunately.

 

[thatgui]

For example Quake2, being able to put the "baseq2" folder wherever you wanted, not just in the appdata directory? So saves would still be able to go to the appdata directory but "data" could be on a different card?

exactly

Yeah, that would frequently require changes to the binary, sometimes easy, sometimes not easy. There's probably a few which simply need a slight change to their respective run script.

Best thing you can do, rather than just shotgunning a request and hoping someone listens, is to actually find offending applications that you think should be changed and contact the authors. Worst that'll happen is they tell you it's not practical and they can't do it.

As said, I thought this request more in the style of "hey while you are already at it, why not give it a try" instead "you there stop doing it wrong, start doing it right, now back into your cellar and start working".

 

[Neelix]

...

/mnt/utmp/pndname is a mount point. It's an overlay, combining the PND file and the directory specified by the "-d" option. You can change the -d to any other directory and the mount point will remain /mnt/utmp/pndname so the application will continue working just fine. There is absolutely no need to change any source code, change pnd_run and it will take care of the rest.

Ooops, sorry for spreading bad info.

Hmmm... actually, it is possible to union mount multiple directories. PND first, "data" directory second, appdata directory third. Reads come from any of the three, writes go out to the appdata directory, and it all looks for all ways like the exact same single directory it always has.

Yeah, I just tried mounting a PND with the -d option, and writes still went to same pandora/appdata directory as always, unfortunately.

The -b option is the one that specifies that.

- Neelix