Why is Uncharted creating Shaders inside \ProgramData folder?

[Adam Beckett]

I just do not understand game developers, sometimes.

They are supposed to be the most sophisticated bunch among us, programmers. Yet, again and again, I see things, that make me scratch my bolding head.

The (hidden) 'Program Data' folder inside Windows would be not my first choice, nor second, nor third, to store locally compiled shaders.

For all the flaws which come with Microsoft Windows, extensive documentation is not one of them. Nor is their 'requirements' section or their 'best practice' part, where they tell developers where to 'put stuff' in Windows. Example:

All application data that must be shared among users on the computer should be stored within ProgramData

All application data exclusive to a specific user and not to be shared with other users of the computer must be stored in Users\<username>\AppData

So, who is the Windows user going to share the Uncharted PC install path with? Especially, since - if there is more than one user per machine - that other user, will have to have their own files and folders anyway and will probably STILL trigger a new shader compilation on start?

(local) %APPDATA% would be a better place. But - way more appropriate - the f4&@$ game root folder, where actual UNCHARTED is?!

What's wrong with that place? Where the rest of the actual game is? Instead having 4GB of Shader files hidden somewhere on C:\ ?!

Who is making these decisions? Is that a corporate thing?

Again ... gamedevs. Even more astonishing - my breed - programmers. What is this folly?

I still keep my 'Book of Grudges' closed for decades now, going through zombie files and folders on my drives after 'uninstalling' a game. There are still plenty of 'leftovers' developers keep creating in the weirdest places (some on C:\ ... others in C:\Windows\ (not joking!) and a lot of developers LOVE to store their user game files in \APPDATA\local low\ or roaming ... even though, they have no business being there, if anyone of those devs would follow Microsoft's documentation. Granted, nobody reads those, I guess.

Video games on user hard drives, are like a 'free-for-all' Easter egg hide-and-seek hunt?

Bad Robots!