Problem running Defold programs on school network

Hi, we’re trying to use Defold with some students on our school network however we can not run the programs they create. The problem appears to be that Defold uses the local user appdata folder and the IT team has locked down access to that due to virus risks. The error says “Launching New Local Engine failed. Create process error=1260. This program is blocked by group policy”.

Is there a way to change the settings in Defold so that it uses another folder other than the local appdata folder when you launch a program?

Thanks

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When you do Project->Build the editor will launch a Defold engine process.

The Defold engine is a part of the editor download. When the editor is launched for the first time it unpacks the engine binary to some location on disk so that it can be used when you do Project->Build.

I’m guessing that you are using Windows and that the editor unpacks the engine to some location in the user home folder which your IT team has locked. I don’t think you can change the folder where everything gets unpacked. Could you get the IT team to add an exception for the dmengine.exe engine binary?

This might not be true actually. The resource unpacker is this file:

And it gets the unpack path here:

DEFOLD_UNPACK_PATH_ENV_VAR is set to the string “DEFOLD_UNPACK_PATH”. This seems to indicate that you can set the system environment variable DEFOLD_UNPACK_PATH to a path of your choice where everything is unpacked.

You can also change the config file for the editor and change the vmargs to set the system property defold.unpack.path:

vmargs = -Ddefold.unpack.path=YOUR/PATH, … rest of the vmargs

Thanks, I’ll have a look at this, but do you know where the config file for the editor is?

On macOS it’s a file named config and it is next to the executable inside the Defold.app. I think the config file is next to the exe on Windows.

Thanks, I’ve found that, they are Windows PCs. The vmargs line doesn’t contain “-Ddefold.unpack.path=”
at the moment, do I just add that? If it’s going to use a new local folder we create called Defold would I just enter -Ddefold.unpack.path=c:\defold ?

Yes, it is not set by default.

Yes, I think that should work, but I haven’t tried. And the IT guys haven’t blocked the root of the harddrive?