SaveState / Memory Card psx!

RetroArch Sony consoles
#1

hello,

First of , iam shocked and appalled about this :flushed:

Because you see…

To my surprise i discovered that the savestate feature in retroArch overwrites the save files on the psx memory card !!!

Meaning , i have lost like 4 hours gameplay using savestate between memory cards saves ingame !!!

Fortunately i discovered this at the start of an new game , not at the END GAME fortunately…

The 1 million answer to my question i like to know is…

What setting is causing this in RetroArch ?? Or is this an major pita BUG :astonished:?

Again… SHOCKED AND APPALLED :flushed:

yours truly sincere. TD

#2

This is not a bug, it’s working as intended. Savestates are a snapshot of the virtual console at that point in time, and part of that console is the attached memory, and some games/consoles can freak out if that memory doesn’t make sense in the context of the current moment (e.g., if a state is loaded and the resulting SRAM state doesn’t match)

There is a setting in settings >saving to block SRAM overwrites when loading states, but it only works for libretro saves (that is, ones with the *.srm extension) and not mcr or other core-managed saves, and it can cause problems with some games/consoles that expect the SRAM to be in a certain state or that store additional information there (pretty common among NES games, for example)

2 Likes
#3

That doesn’t sound good … not good at all !! I mean… if i accidently press a load state from the beginning of the game, JUST LOADING will overwrite the *.mcr file too?

I mean, just by “loading” (not saving/writing) an state can erase my whole 200 hours+ .mcr game save !!! That it?

Oh DEAR… THAT right up THERE ↑ … NOT GOOD… not good at all :face_with_thermometer:

I have long feared, that my sins would return to visit me ↑ :open_mouth:

I hope, they fix this… cause, it doesn’t make sense that loading is the same as writing / saving !!!

cheers, TD

#4

Again, there’s nothing to fix. This is working as intended.

However, if you accidentally load a state, you can always undo the state-load from the menu, and that will return everything to the pre-state-loaded values.

#5

… *.mcr states included ?

I mean, just loading an saved stated can overwrite the saves on memory card ?!? I mean , since when is reading the same as writing ?

As long you don’t save anything, why O why does it change anything at all?

YOu lost me there !

#6

hmm… well thats weird…

I have tried to reproduce this behaviour, by loading the state again to see if it would affect my lastest game saves on the *.mcr file…

And it didn’t erase or changed any save file on my memory card this time !?? Also, after using an save state position and save the progress in game, didn’t alter anything about the files on the regular psx memory card file…

Maybe something happend while is wos continuously changing shaders config yesterday…

I had to change many settings to find an good mix of settings to fix bad scanlines on my hdtv.
Therefor i used and loaded save states all the time from that same game iam completing !!!

so… atm its not happening anymore… but before i use states again, i will make sure to put an nice backup from my memcards stored somewhere safe :point_up::smiley:

EDIT:// Come to think of it … i HAVE disabled Save File →compression← in RA…(for faster load/save times) Could that have changed anything bad to my .mcr files !!!

cheers, TD

#7

Just to follow up. Since I have been doing a lot of looking into save file/save state crashes, I have to say it is a little confusing. I’ve learned we have a “save” file and a “state” file; what’s weird is when we use save states they show in up in the “save” file as a sort of overwrite. Yet, when we go to load the in-game save file it’s what it should be.

Lately, to avoid my game crashing and erasing my in-game save, I’ve only been making in-game saves like every 5 hours or so of gametime. And only when I’m about to quit; then on my next session I load that in-game save and then proceed to only use save/load states for another 5-10 hours of gametime. So far so good, no crashes yet.

I wish I knew exactly why this method is working, cuz at this point I’m only taking guesses. It doesn’t happen on snes9x or mGBA thank god. I think it has something to do with the nature of psx’s external memory card system.

Anyway, thanx for being there for us hunterk.

#8

That sounds safe enough to me. The only thing I would suggest would be to make a backup of your in-game/srm save file after your sessions, since savestates can cause problems with them. It’s not 100% necessary, but if you’re playing a long game, with a lot of time invested, it could save you from a frustrating mishap.