Your data

Where things are

Everything the studio keeps is in one folder of your own: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProjectIGIStudio (paste it into the Explorer's address bar to open it).

Folder or file	What it holds
missions\custom\	Your missions: each one's plan, name, picture, history and AI designer chats
missions\groups\	Your saved groups, and the designs the AI designer made that you kept
pristine\	The reference copy of the game's levels, made when you connected the game
data\	The level data the map is drawn from, built from your game
backups\	Copies of the game's language files from before the studio first wrote to them, and mission slots you removed from the game
cache\	Things that can always be made again, such as textures and ground height maps
config.json	Your settings: the game folder, the AI designer's model and so on
secrets.json	Your API keys, encrypted for your Windows account

The program's own log is in %APPDATA%\Project IGI Studio\logs\studio.log.

Uninstalling the studio leaves this folder alone, so installing again picks up where you were. To remove everything, delete it by hand.

Your missions belong to you

A mission lives in the studio's folder, not in the game. The game only receives what Apply builds from it: the compiled mission in its slot, and its texts.

But every Apply also writes the whole mission, plan and all, into its slot, so the game carries a copy of everything it was given. That is what lets the studio bring missions back when its own folder is lost (see below).

To keep a mission safe or give it to someone, export it: Mission, Export mission file, or Export all my missions in one file. Import mission file... adds a mission, or a whole pack of them, to your library.

When something goes missing

The game folder is gone (a drive unplugged, the game moved or uninstalled). The studio says so and names the folder, and keeps working: your missions open and edit as before, because the levels are read from the reference copy. Only Apply and starting the game need the game, and Apply says why it can't, having written nothing. Plug the drive back in, or point Settings, Set up the game at the new folder.

The studio's folder is gone (a new computer, a fresh Windows). Install the studio and connect the game again. The setup lists the missions the game is carrying, and Bring them back restores them. A mission already in the studio is never overwritten by the copy in the game.

The reference copy is gone. The next Apply makes it again from the game, checks it, and only then builds.

Checking the original missions

Settings, Game, Checks and setup, Check built-in missions compares the game's fourteen original missions with the reference copy. If one has changed (another tool wrote to it, for example), the studio can put it back, byte for byte. That is the only write to an original mission the studio will ever make, and it can only restore what the game shipped. A deliberate change is recognised and left alone.

The game you connect

The studio writes into the game you connected and nowhere else, and only into:

• its own mission slots, missions\location0\level15 and up, which it created;
• the two language files that hold objective texts and messages, under keys of each mission's own, after backing them up;
• the game's settings, config.qvm, where only the line that says how far the mission list goes is changed, after backing it up, so that the game offers your missions.

It refuses to write into the fourteen original missions, the game's shared folders, or the reference copy.

Don't mix in the old ToolKit

Don't edit a level the studio built with the IGI ToolKit afterwards. The ToolKit rebuilds the level from its own copy and throws away anything changed outside it. The studio has its own compiler and does not need the ToolKit at all.

Your API key

A key typed in Settings is encrypted with Windows' own protection for your account, and stored in secrets.json. It is never written to the settings file, and the studio's page never gets it back: it only shows its last four characters. Requests to the AI provider are made by the studio itself, with your key, straight to the provider you set.

Privacy

The studio has no account and collects nothing. It sends only two things over the network:

• The AI designer's requests, to the AI provider you chose, with your key, only when you use it.
• The update check, which asks GitHub whether a newer version exists and sends nothing about you, your game or your missions. Settings, Updates turns it off.

The code signing policy says the same, in the words the signing service asks for.

Next: troubleshooting.