Posted: 7/13/2006 9:29 PM
Post subject: Using modified button press files instead of savestates
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gbagcn
Joined: 5/30/2005
Posts: 98
The problem with savestates is they only capture one frame and have no memory of what happened during the game before they were created. Button press files however have the memory of what all of the frames in the game were like. What if you somehow managed to modify a button press file so that when you loaded it it automatically fast forwarded through all of the button presses until it got to the last one. Once it reached the last one emulation would be automatically paused. Would loading a button press file like this really be any different than loading a savestate. The only thing I am worried about is that fast forwarding process taking a while and possible desynchs. I am not sure how much of a problem either of these things would be.
Posted: 7/13/2006 9:43 PM
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cheetah_7071
Former player
Joined: 5/29/2006
Posts: 200
Savestates for some of the rerecording emulators (VBA at least, not sure what else) contain not only the savestate but also the entire movie up to that point, if yousaved it while recording a movie.
Posted: 7/13/2006 9:53 PM
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Rising_Tempest
Player (166)
Joined: 4/27/2006
Posts: 304
Location: Eastern Canada
Not quite... the state contains all the RAM of the game at that point, basically any random values the game stores to keep track of thing's positions, AI behaviours and whatnot. It's essentially the same thing though.
Posted: 7/13/2006 10:00 PM
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JXQ
Experienced player (750)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
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FCEU, SNES9x, GENs and VBA all have this "bulletproof" feature in their latest versions.
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Posted: 7/16/2006 7:37 PM
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Truncated
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (969)
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>The problem with savestates is they only capture one frame and have no memory of what happened during the game before they were created. Like people already said, most emulators now save a copy of the movie up to the point of the savestate. >Would loading a button press file like this really be any different than loading a savestate. The only thing I am worried about is that fast forwarding process taking a while and possible desynchs. I am not sure how much of a problem either of these things would be. No, it wouldn't (be any different). But fast-forwarded emulation is not fast enough yet to make this a feasible method. Otherwise it would be nice to go a frame backwards sometimes, as well as other things that would be possible. You could autosave savestates every X seconds of course and fastforward emulation via the movie file inbetween them. But noone has implemented this in a rerecording emulator, but I remember someone doing it in his/her (who am I kidding with this) own NES emulator and posting about it here. Find the thread if you're interested.