Savestates Freezing

[Former user]

Original [issue 276](https://code.google.com/p/genplus-gx/issues/detail?id=276) created by [e-mail] on 2012-09-20T08:37:28.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1.Load any Genesis title 2.make a savestate 3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead? game should save

What version of the emulator are you using (official, SVN revision,...)?current release v 1.7.0 wii

Please provide any additional information below (Emulator settings, Console setting,...) this one is really annoying and it happens sparaditily i have had this happen on tta busters hidden treasure and batman and robin as of recent this didnt happen on the last version of Genesis plus and whats its doing is saving but then if freezes up and im forced to hard reset the wii

[Former user]

Comment # 1 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-20T09:29:44.000Z:

I don't understand what sparaditily means, do you mean sometime it works and sometime it doesn' ? That it only happens in some game ? Is the state file saved on the device before it freezes ? What menu settings are you using ?

i don't see anything in the state saving code that could lock the system Try to use another device and see if it fixes it.

[Former user]

Comment # 2 originally posted by [e-mail] on 2012-09-20T10:40:33.000Z:

sorry bout that missed the "C" in spelling lack of sleep, yes it sometimes freezes while doing a save state i havent gone through my entire libary of games to see which ones do it or not and im using as far as i know the standard settings i dont mess arround with them other then to get it to progressive for the tv set the only other seting that i changed was the vsync off to stop the sound static as mentioned in another link. and yes it does it sometimes but other times it wont do it for hours and sometimes right when i power the system and emulator up i am getting the states without a pic then after having to hard reset the system i can go back in and retrive the save.

[Former user]

Comment # 3 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-20T12:50:42.000Z:

I don't think it is related to what game you were playing, state saving code is common to all games for a similar system. Seems more like a random hang during the menu handling.

So ok, what you say is that state file is saved on device (and can be loaded correctly later) but not the png file, right ? When does the freezing exactly occurs ? While the message box "saving state" is still displayed ? When it is shifted out of the screen ? When menu layer is disappearing to display game screen ? When returned to game ?

Also, does changing the save slot makes any difference ?

[Former user]

Comment # 4 originally posted by vaguerant on 2012-09-20T13:54:52.000Z:

Also, I know this is a stupid catch-all solution, but try running a chkdsk on your SD card. It could be a corruption issue on your end rather than anything genplus-gx-related.

And he meant "sporadically".

[Former user]

Comment # 5 originally posted by [e-mail] on 2012-09-20T14:03:29.000Z:

i know that the card is good fresh disc check before i started this thread and its a 16 GB if that makes a difference, also ekeeke your question yes its hanging when im saving the state right when the pop up for saving state what i get is the pop up then the clock icon if you will at that point its freezing up and like i said before i can recover the save after hard rebooting the wii

[Former user]

Comment # 6 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-20T17:58:29.000Z:

i still think it's a problem with your sdcard, try deleting all state files ( including png snapshot) or ( better ) reformat it all the code is doing is writing then closing a file using standard io, if you say it works once then when you attempt to save again it freezes even if you don't do anything else but exiting/entering menu then it's very likely an hardware issue (software is pretty much deterministic here so either it works or it doesn't but there isn't any randomness occuring)

also, the fact you can load the state right after rebooting could simply mean you had a previously saved state file on SD, could you try to reproduce the issue without any state file in the /state directory and see if a file got created despite it crashed. this could help figuring where in the code it exactly crashes.

[Former user]

Comment # 8 originally posted by [e-mail] on 2012-09-20T19:12:20.000Z:

i just had it freeze again as i tried to save state here is the file from that state and this is after doing what you asked of me hope that this helps you out somewhat

[Former user]

Comment # 9 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-20T19:12:34.000Z:

also verify you are using the last version of HBC, could be the old "ios reload" bug striking again

[Former user]

Comment # 10 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-20T19:23:40.000Z:

it does not help much since, if you REALLY confirm that the /saves directory was EMPTY when the crash occur, i.e you did NOT attempt to save multiple times in order to reproduce the crash and you confirm the message box is STILL displayed when it freezes, THEN it means the crash occurs right after closing the file and i am sure it's either a sdcard issue or a random crash unrelated to state saving but caused by using an older version of HBC... nothong i can do or fix on my side, i would suggest backing up your files and reformatting your sdcard

[Former user]

Comment # 13 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-22T18:13:18.000Z:

issue \#277 has been merged into this issue.

[Former user]

Comment # 14 originally posted by [e-mail] on 2012-09-22T20:14:34.000Z:

i did as you had sugested i emptied the card formatted it and as for hbc its the current one state side and the wii is current with there system files the system is less then 2 years old also the card isnt that old i really think there is something here but i will live with it for now and hope that when the next update comes out that there isnt the same bug imo. also if you really want to know when i tried to recreate the issue i started the game up played for a bit then went to save and it froze on me and the file i sent here was what was in the folder so idk whats up with it its up to you.

[Former user]

Comment # 15 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-22T21:38:54.000Z:

issue \#277 has been merged into this issue.

[Former user]

Comment # 16 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-22T21:41:17.000Z:

you do not understand, i have no idea what to "fix" as it works on my side and for other people, also a freeze does not give any indication of the cause, so the next update will very unlikely change anything for you

you can still try with the dol posted here and see if it makes any difference : http://code.google.com/p/genplus-gx/issues/detail?id=196\#c75

[Former user]

Comment # 17 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-22T21:42:56.000Z:

also you said it did not happen with last version but have you tried with the last version in current state ?

[Former user]

Comment # 18 originally posted by [e-mail] on 2012-09-22T23:50:45.000Z:

ok i tried to remake the issue back on the last update v 1.6.0 and i can't get it to happen and i tried on your newer dol that you have up and no matter what i can't replicate the issue but when i try again on the current version 1.7.0 i get the savestate freeze. i have no idea whats going on with it

[Former user]

Comment # 19 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T10:35:11.000Z:

i cant get the beta to work when i try to start my game the TV Turns black and i have to turn off my Wii with holding the Power Button for a few seconds. It cant be a Hardware Problem, ive tried it with a 4th SD Card now.. same thing happend. And no other emulator have this issue. Are u sayin that i have to live with that?

[Former user]

Comment # 20 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T10:44:54.000Z:

can't you still go back to menu when it turns black ? what kind of video cable/TV are you using ? seems like you are using the wrong video mode, change it to interlaced or progressive in emulator video settings before launching game; the beta works fine and was tested by other people.

I only say it is hardware incompatibility, not necessary hardware problem but more i can only test with what I own and only fix what can be fixed, state saving always worked fine for me and i have no idea what is causing the issue for you or the other guy, so yes, you will have to live with it because i am personally not going to lose my sleep over this;-)

out of curiosity, do you use any background music file or anything special ?

[Former user]

Comment # 21 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T10:54:22.000Z:

Now that I think about it, i changed something in current working version that was causing saved state PNG image to be sometime corrupted with part of the GUI. Maybe this is what cause the problem for you and explain why it doesn't happen in latest beta or 1.6.0.

No idea why it would freeze the emulator on your setup only though...

[Former user]

Comment # 22 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T11:03:55.000Z:

i cant go back to menu when it turns black. i cant even power off the Wii with the Wiimote. he Videomode im using is Progressive. Tried interlaced also. Somethiorng is changed in the Beta that does not work for me. I am using a Sharp LCD TV with Componente Cable. Like i said everything else works fine.

I\`m sorry i dont want u to loose your sleep over this :) and of course you can only test with what u own. But you are the one who wrote that Emulator so If u dont know, who else? :) May it be possible to get a Original 1.7 Version with nothing changed but the PNG Bug u talked about?

[Former user]

Comment # 23 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T11:11:38.000Z:

sorry, i don't make user customized versions, there have been too much work in current version to go back to 1.7.0

Anyway, the beta works fine, try deleting the config.ini file to restore defaults, disable auto-state loading/saving, turn VSYNC OFF, play with settings, etc... there is no reason for those black screen freezing unless you are loading an invalid ROM that screws everything

[Former user]

Comment # 24 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T11:27:46.000Z:

Too bad. The Beta def. dont work for my game. (German Landstalker) ( Landstalker - Die Schätze des Königs Nole) Ive tested another game (Sonic the Hedgehog).. which works perfect. Saving works perfect,too now!!!

but for my game.. Ive deleted the config.ini Ive disabled autosaving Ive turned off vsync and ive changed the System Regio to EUR. The Rom works fine.. to be save ive copied a fresh one over to the sd card. 1.7 Plays it. Beta don\`t.

[Former user]

Comment # 25 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T12:23:12.000Z:

This game works fine for me, what is the exact filename ? Try forcing TV Mode to 60hz instead of 50/60Hz, emulator automatically turns to PAL video mode for PAL specific games like this one.

[Former user]

Comment # 26 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T15:52:02.000Z:

The exact Filename is "Landstalker - Die Schatze von Konig Nolo (Germany).zip" 60HZ is automatically forced on Progessive mode, but ive tried interlace with 60HZ forced,too. Ive found out that there ares problems with PAL specific Games.

Landstalker (US).zip works fine! Landstalker (The Treasures of King Nolo EUROPE).zip dont work.

[Former user]

Comment # 27 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T16:03:57.000Z:

Hmm, yes, I remember now, there was a bug wih PAL games in the uploaded beta, I fixed it some days ago.

Until then, you will need to force VDP mode to NTSC in System settings. This will make the game run in NTSC mode (60hz) with PAL region setting to bypass region lock. There shouldn't be any issues as I don't think that game was optimized for PAL 50hz.

[Former user]

Comment # 28 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T16:11:32.000Z:

yep thank you very much. works for now. any idea when i could get a new version of your great emulator?

[Former user]

Comment # 29 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T17:00:53.000Z:

unfortunately my Savegame doesnt work when VDP Mode is forced to NTSC.. any idea to fix this? or is my savegame incompatible to new beta?

[Former user]

Comment # 30 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T17:11:52.000Z:

State or SRAM ? what do you exactly mean by "doesn't work" ?

1.7.0 state files are incompatible with 1.7.1 (the "beta") because of too many changes in the core

you can normally still use the game internal save feature (SRAM), turn ON auto-saves for SRAM or load SRAM manually

[Former user]

Comment # 31 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T17:17:52.000Z:

State. doesnt work means it shows something like "No valid savegame" or so. But youve explained whats going wrong. got it :) will check it later.

I was always asking myself how a game could automatically save to sram.. Landstalker e.g. can only be saved in churches.. these saves are sram,right? how would an emulator save in chuches automatically?

[Former user]

Comment # 32 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T17:22:31.000Z:

if auto-save is enabled, emulator will save SRAM on exit or when entering the menu, if it has been modified and will load it each time the game is loaded

since the emulator emulates the whole system, including cartridge backup RAM, it knows when SRAM is being accessed during the game

[Former user]

Comment # 33 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T17:27:10.000Z:

so it saves whereever i am? like state? any words on my above question ? (any idea when i could get a new version of your great emulator?)

tell me if im bugging you :)

[Former user]

Comment # 34 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2012-09-23T17:53:36.000Z:

No, I meant the emulator WRITES the SRAM data back to a file on SD as soon as it exits or when entering the main menu. SRAM sata is saved when the game wants to save it.

I suggest you go read about the difference between SRAM and State files, basically the former only save game status and is implemented by the emulated game itself while the latter save the whole emulated hardware status and is handled by the emulator.

Finally, asking when the new version will be out to a developer is generally the best way to piss him off ;-)

But since i'm in a good mood today, the answer will be as usual "it's out when it's ready" or "i don't have any release scheduling plan, this is not a commercial product"

happy ?

[Former user]

Comment # 35 originally posted by Albert.Kissmann on 2012-09-23T17:55:48.000Z:

haha. yep thank you.absolutely :)