The save manager creates several different scriptable objects when installed in a project. These all do different things which I’m going to go over on this page and what all their options mean.
Editor & Runtime Settings
As of release, this is the first asset to have two different settings assets. One for editor only settings such as tab positions & colours while the other is for runtime settings to do with the assets actual functionality. By default you can’t edit either of these directly on the assets and only the runtime settings can be edited via the settings provider window in Project Settings > Carter Games > Save Manager. Both of these assets are shown with the icon shown to the right:
Runtime Settings
There are a few settings that are not exposed to you the user in the settings provider, these are either automated settings or settings that if edited can cause errors that are very hard to fix. These being the save paths & the save data reference. The save paths do have some logic to allow for some customization but changing them can cause a load of edge cases, too many for me to fix in the initial release (2.0.0).
| Setting | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Encryption Option | EncryptionOption (Enum) | Sets the encryption setting that is used for the save. The options are: Disabled Doesn’t use encryption, the save will be in plain text, handy for debugging but not recommended for your release builds. Enabled (AES) Uses AES encryption on the save file when saving & loading the game. The key is in a separate asset stored in the project. It’ll deter your common player from editing the save, but this will not work for those who are determined or have the skills to decompile your game as the key itself is pretty available for those will the skills. Best used for single player games, for multiplayer you may have to look elsewhere sadly. |
| Auto Load | bool | Should the save auto load on starting up? |
| Auto Save | bool | Should the game auto save when exiting, note this won’t apply changes that have not been sent to save objects beforehand. |
| Pretty Save Formatting? | bool | Sets if the JSON is formatted in a more readable format in the save. Note: this only works in the disabled mode, when encryption is in use it doesn’t use this setting for your save. |
| Show Save Keys | bool | Toggles the visibility of the save keys for each save value in the save editor. Off by default to give the editor a cleaner look. |
| Show Log Messages | bool | Defines if the asset throws any log messages to aid with potential issues. Disable this if you want a cleaner console. |
Editor Settings
The editor settings cannot be edited directly by you the user, but it will hold some basic settings for the editor windows to function properly.
Save Data
The save data asset stores the a collection of every save object instance in your project. This should update for you when you make new asset, however if it doesn’t you can update it manually via the “Manually Update” button on the save data editor.
Encryption Key Asset
The encryption key asset stores the key used to save you game data. You can regenerate a new key by pressing the button in the inspector. Note: doing this will mean old saves will not decrypt. So this should only be done when in development.
Save Profiles
The save profiles asset just stores a reference to all the profiles you have made and will update based on changes to the profiles in the editor window for the asset.
