Network data directory

[valkroth]

Hello,

Two quick questions - First I want to make sure I can have an install of FGU onto my Windows Desktop and at the same time on my Mac Laptop. I only would run one at a time.

If that's not against TOS or licensing, I'm wondering if there is any reason not to utilize a single shared network data directory when going between my laptop and desktop pc. My laptop is a Mac, and my desktop is a Windows PC.

My concern is that I might screw up campaigns or installs going between the Mac version and Windows version.

I apologize if this has been covered already, I've looked through the forums and didn't see anything regarding the network data install. Thanks for the info in advance!

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, you can install on both and no don't have a shared data directory. That will inevitably cause you issues and you could lose a lot of data.

[valkroth]

Thanks! And thanks for all the great videos!

[damned]

Ive seen people point the data directory to a network path - but dont open on both devices at the same time.
Also no matter what make sure you backup your campaigns to another location/device periodically.

[Trenloe]

And don't use an active always on cloud sync/backup solution for your FG data. Manually copy/backup data when FG isn't running.

[fieldson]

For what it's worth, I have used iCloud for my data directories without notable issue since I loaded FGU. I can run FGU on a couple of different Macs without paying attention anymore to where the files are kept. I never have more than one instance running though, and this may be why I don't see sync issues (or I may just be Lucky)

[LordEntrails]

For what it's worth, I have used iCloud for my data directories without notable issue since I loaded FGU. I can run FGU on a couple of different Macs without paying attention anymore to where the files are kept. I never have more than one instance running though, and this may be why I don't see sync issues (or I may just be Lucky)
You have been lucky.

I'm not aware of anything special that would prevent iCloud from causing an issue like Google Drive & One Cloud are known to have done in multiple instances. Admittedly I don't know much about the technical aspects of iCloud, but not sure why it would be different than other such providers.

Make regular backups because it is highly likely that at some point in the future you will have data corruption due to doing this. Its up to you to decide if the convenience of a shared location is worth the potential data loss.

[Trenloe]

Yep, just because an individual has been lucky so far and not noticeably experienced any issue with active sync doesn’t mean that particular combination is OK. We’ve seen many instances of active cloud sync/backup software causing data loss. Very strong recommendation - don’t do it.

[Weissrolf]

Clouddrives:

These use a normal local folder to loading/writing files. Little to no conflict potential there. While you are playing on a single computer the cloud service also does no writes to said local folder, only FG does writes. The cloud service does reads in order to upload any file-changes immediately.

The worst conflict potential lies in software/server bugs of the cloud service. These can happen, of course, but then we are not talking "normal operation". Still any additional layer of complexity adds more risk. Cloud sync providers usually offer versioning for files being synced. So if a file is broken or deleted you usually can go back to an earlier version. Having local backups is good practice in any case and any backup that creates a full image of your local drive also includes the cloud folders.

That being said, I use Onedrive for both FGC (months) and FGU (weeks) and (luckily) experienced no issues. Even when I connect a laptop PC session to a desktop GM session concurrently for small tests it works. The latter is an edge case I only do for testing, so in practice only one computer ever syncs the Onedrive files at the same time.

Local network share:

I did not test all files, but at least for the Console logs FGU does not lock the file for exclusive access (LockFileEx, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_locking). This means that while FGU is running a third party application can open the same file for writing and mess with it.

For a network share this means that you have to watch out to not have two instances write files concurrently, at least for those files where it can cause issues. Network shares often offer snapshots on top of normal backups, though, so in the end the files are rather more protected than less.

That being said: You can run several instances of FGU on the same computer, even running one as GM while concurrently accessing it as PC from a second instance. In practice this does not seem to cause any issues with files being written by concurrent instances.

Your network share might be able to lock files to only one instance even when FG does not.

Another safety-measure would be to use synchronizing services like Windows' (Pro) Offline Files or any third party software. This way versioning would be handled by the synchronization software, more or less automated that is.

[Trenloe]

As previously mentioned - there have been plenty of FG support cases of GMs losing valuable campaign data because they used active backup/sync applications on their FG data. And, as also previously mentioned, despite some lucky users not noticing any issues (not having issues and not noticing issues are not the same) there are still plenty who do have issues. So I repeat what I said before - very strong recommendation - don’t do it. If you insist on doing so, then please take the step of only having the backup/sync software active when FG is not running and live FG data isn't being accessed. If you think you know better, or want to take the chance, then use such technology on your live FG data at your own risk.

[Weissrolf]

Of course. With (new) technology one always has to weight the risks against the advantages. Cloud service/software has also matured over the past few years, though. Good to get feedback (positive or negative) on such technologies from others users who use them in practice.

Does FG apply any file locking mechanisms to protect its files from being overwritten by outside forces when (in theory) it needs exclusive write access to a file?