Author Topic: TD2 and TD3 battling over the preferences-file and other transition questions  (Read 1919 times)

rakrul

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So I've been running TD2 for ages and recently upgraded to TD3 and installed it this weekend.
I've installed Win7 64-bit on C-drive, and TD2 on D-drive. TD2 works perfectly.

TD3 automatically located the previous tournaments in C:/documents/td2 (etc) folder so that's fine. I changed a lot of the preferences, under the preferences tab, I added some profiles under Stats tab, but couldn't figure out how to limit the points to top 10 (so only top 10 tournaments are counted), so I tried opening TD2 while in TD3. That didn't work (TD2 didn't open) so I quit TD3 and TD2 popped up a warning box that it couldn't load the preference file so my preferences in TD2 were gone. (I still have the TD2 backup, so that isn't a problem.) So I close TD2 and go back to TD3 and my preferences are reset back to default. I make a few changes, close TD3 and start it up again. The changes I made are there. I close TD3 again and open TD2 and it show the warning again - that it cannot load the preferences file. I close TD2 and open TD3 and the changes I previously verified are gone again.

It looks to me as both programs are using the same preferences file and keep overwriting each other? Either way;
1) How do I keep different preferences for each program?
2) How do I make TD3 stats only count top 10 tournaments? (I'm using points, not score)
3) When uninstalling TD2, should I move my saves from documents/td2 to somewhere else or is it already in TD3 database?

Thanks again for some awesome programs!

Corey Cooper

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1) How do I keep different preferences for each program?

The two versions weren't really designed to be installed and used independently on the same PC.  The original idea was to upgrade from version 2 to version 3, just like all of the previous upgrades.  So, like all of the previous upgrades, version 3 uses the same "Data Store" (the same folder for storing tournaments, templates, database, etc), and the same preferences file.  Version 3 understands the formats of all files that version 2 saves.  The issue occurs when you try to go back from version 3 to version 2, because some of those formats have changed in version 3, and version 2 won't understand them.  The preferences file is written every time the program runs (I believe).  Once version 3 writes it, version 2 won't understand it anymore.  If version 2 cannot understand the preferences file, it will overwrite the existing preferences file with a new one, with all of the preferences set to their default values.  Hence the behavior you've described.

During the development process for version 3, I realized people would want to be able to download and try out version 3 (since it requires a new license), and may not want to ultimately upgrade.  This is a big reason for the strong recommendation to backup your data before upgrading.  If you decide to go back to version 2, you'll have to either lose your preferences or restore from backup.  Same goes with any tournaments or templates you load into version 3 and then save, because they'll be saved in the new format and version 2 will no longer understand them.  I got so many emails from people who did NOT follow the recommendation and who "lost" their player database (well, I usually ended up manually editing it and restoring it for them), that I released an updated version 2 that understood the database format of version 3.

The workaround is to tell TD version 3 that you want to store your preferences files in a different location.  Take a look at section 39 in the user manual (Help tab in the Settings window).  The second section under there describes how to override those file locations.  This will allow version 2 to use the default location, and version 3 to use a different location.

2) How do I make TD3 stats only count top 10 tournaments? (I'm using points, not score)

Create an Overall Score formula:

sum(top(10, points))

3) When uninstalling TD2, should I move my saves from documents/td2 to somewhere else or is it already in TD3 database?

If you plan to continue using version 2 AND version 3, it might make sense to keep them separate.  Otherwise, if you happen to load into version 3 a tournament you intend to use with version 2, and save it, version 2 will no longer understand it.

I guess the real question is, why continue to use version 2 if you have version 3?

rakrul

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Thanks again Corey.

I guess I skimmed the instructions too quickly as I thought I was supposed to install TD3 instead of upgrading from TD2.
I don't intend to keep TD2 anymore, but I had all my settings in there, a game on friday and I don't have time to fiddle with TD3 to get it the way TD2 was. Unless there's a way to convert a TD2 preference file to TD3? It didn't do that by default at least. It's such a long time since I played around with the settings in TD2 so I don't remember anything any more and like to jump between the two to copy settings. :)

After friday's game I'll start playing around with TD3 and uninstall TD2.

Corey Cooper

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I guess I skimmed the instructions too quickly as I thought I was supposed to install TD3 instead of upgrading from TD2.

Technically this is correct.  Installing version 3 installs alongside of version 2.  That means if you have version 2 and then install version 3, you'll now have both versions installed.  It does this instead of overwriting version 2 with version 3.  And this is done so current users of version 2 can evaluate version 3 without upgrading, in case they decide to stick with version 2.

I don't intend to keep TD2 anymore, but I had all my settings in there, a game on friday and I don't have time to fiddle with TD3 to get it the way TD2 was. Unless there's a way to convert a TD2 preference file to TD3? It didn't do that by default at least. It's such a long time since I played around with the settings in TD2 so I don't remember anything any more and like to jump between the two to copy settings. :)

After friday's game I'll start playing around with TD3 and uninstall TD2.

The preferences file is converted automatically.  As I said previously, and as your experience bore out, version 3 can read anything saved by version 2, including its preferences file.  That's why when you launched version 3, there wasn't any error.  But version 2 cannot read some of the files (including the preferences file) saved by version 3.  That's why you saw the error reading the preferences file when you launched version 2 after having tried version 3.

The correct steps should be:

1) Backup your Tournament Director data (http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/faq.html#faq32)
2) Install version 3 if you haven't already.  Run it.
3) Uninstall version 2.

There's really nothing else to do.  When you run version 3, it should be just like upgrading any other version.  It will use the same preferences file and the same data store (so the same database, saved tournaments, templates, etc).  There shouldn't be anything you have to do.

rakrul

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2) How do I make TD3 stats only count top 10 tournaments? (I'm using points, not score)
Create an Overall Score formula:

sum(top(10, points))
This doesn't seem to work. In TD2 (which I've finally uninstalled) it showed zero. In TD3 it shows the same as points (meaning it doesn't count only the top 10 tournament points). I get the same result if I try sum(points) so I'm guessing the format is wrong?

Corey Cooper

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You are absolutely correct.  No sure what I was smoking when I wrote that.  :)

points is a simple variable, holding a single value (which would be the sum of the players points across all tournaments picked up by the profile).  The top() function finds the highest N values given to it.  You don't want to give it the sum of points of all tournaments (a single value).  Instead you need to pass to it the variable listPoints, which is a list variable, holding each of the values of points that the player earned in each tournament picked up by the profile.  So the formula should be:

sum(top(10, listPoints))

Thanks for catching the mistake!