Game data
A local developer build reads legitimately owned Tiberian Sun data from the repository's Run directory.
The repository holds the engine source and build inputs. It holds no maps, movies, audio or other proprietary game assets.
Copy the data from a legitimately owned copy of Tiberian Sun into Run/. Git ignores everything in Run/ except the tracked Run/place_steam_build_here marker.
Keep the data in Run/, not in the CMake build directory. A build writes its output only to build/bin/<configuration>/ and copies nothing into Run/. Build and run shows how to launch a build with Run/ as its data directory.
The game offers Firestorm only when it finds FIRESTRM.INI, either as a loose file or inside PATCH.MIX, PCACHE.MIX, or an EXPAND or ECACHE archive. No other expansion file is checked. Without FIRESTRM.INI only the base game can be played, and with it Firestorm is offered even when other expansion files are missing. RulesExpansion in OPENTS.INI can name a different file.
Keeping the data somewhere else
Section titled “Keeping the data somewhere else”-DATADIR=<path> names the game data directory, which the game reads its data from and never writes to. Without it, the game reads its data from the directory that holds the executable.
-USERDIR=<path> names the user data directory, which receives every file the game writes, including settings, saved games, recordings and downloaded maps. Without it, the game writes these files beside the executable. The exceptions are the debug log, out-of-sync reports and crash reports, which always go into folders beside the executable.
When the game looks for a file, it checks the user data directory first, so a player’s copy is read ahead of a shipped copy with the same name. One copy of the data can therefore serve several players, each with a user data directory that holds their own settings and saves. OPENTS.INI gives the full search order and the files it does not apply to.
Saved games are kept in a Saved Games folder in the user data directory, and screen captures in a Screenshots folder beside it. The game lists and loads saves only from that folder, and never looks in either folder for any other file.
The data can be sorted into folders inside the data directory. Without configuration, the game also searches the INI, MIX and Maps folders there. SearchPaths in OPENTS.INI names a different list and sets the order the folders are searched in.