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Game Locations

Use Environments When Possible

Game location concepts are somewhat unnecessary to interact with, since usually the preferred entry point is via Environments

Environments

Sources

Currently, Mutagen locates games via a few sources:

  • Looks in the registry
  • Looks in Steam systems (via GameFinder)

GameLocation API will NOT locate ad-hoc game folders that exist randomly on your system. It must be registered in one of the two above listed sources in order to be located automatically

Adhoc Installations Will Not Be Located

Installations like Wabbajack might have a game folder that is "off the grid". In these situations, your tools need to offer some way for the user to define where their target data folder is, as the system will not be able to locate these unregistered folders automatically.

Wabbajack

Game Folder vs Data Folder

The Game Location API uses "Game" and "Data" folder naming to represent two similar paths:

  • Game folder is the one containing the game's exe itself. This is not where mods go, typically.
  • Data folder is usually within the Game folder: %Game%/Data. This is where mods reside, and as such is the typical folder of interest.

API

Get__Folder

You can query for a Game or Data folder

var dataFolder = GameLocations.Get[Game/Data]Folder(GameRelease.SkyrimSE);

if (GameLocations.TryGet[Game/Data]Folder(GameRelease.SkyrimSE, out var dataFolder))
{
}

GetGameFolders

There is an enumerable option to get all the Game folders from the various sources 

foreach (var location in GameLocations.GetGameFolders(GameRelease.SkyrimSE))
{
}

TryGetGameFolderFromRegistry

You can directly query the Registry, rather than looking at game installation paths. 

if (GameLocations.TryGetGameFolderFromRegistry(GameRelease.SkyrimSE, out var gameFolder))
{
}