On Save States

Mar 30, 2009 22:26

Knowing absolutely nothing about how video game save states work, I came up with a rudimentary theory ( Read more... )

Leave a comment

Comments 9

beidoll March 31 2009, 03:55:35 UTC
I'm sorry I can't be of any help to you with this...it makes my head spin.
Well, I'll at least help you any way you can think that I can.

I love you. : )
<3

Reply

aethercowboy April 1 2009, 23:34:04 UTC
I do appreciate your help when I can get it. :D

I love you too.

Reply


stobor March 31 2009, 19:44:58 UTC
A lot of the solution depends on your constraints. Do you have megs of disk space, or do you want a 6 digit number that the user can memorize or write down?
your ideas for linear and tiered seem pretty reasonable, here's my comments on free:
With lots of space, it's probably easiest to serialize the objects that represent your inventory or accomplishments (especially for ones like 'get 50 headshots'[how many have you gotten so far] or tracking records like 'number of zombies killed with a single propane tank').

With less space I would imagine simple bitmasks: bit X in a specific byte of the accomplishment string indicates the status of a specific free accomplishment. just test that single bit and you know the status.

with extremely limited space (the codes to metroid come to mind), I have no idea. possibly they limit the number of free accomplishments and basically treat it like a very large tiered system ?

Reply

aethercowboy March 31 2009, 22:36:18 UTC
Oh, wow. I forgot about Metroid. I bet black magic's involved. It may have been some code/hash pointing to a table to tiered accomplishments. Who knows?

I was thinking of a small, portable file that could easily be transferred from one device to another. That is, the linchpin is on the storage, not the processing power to translate it. Kinda like how Spore creature data is transferred: it gives you the building blocks, and the game puts 'em together.

Reply


randomengy April 1 2009, 05:09:16 UTC
Are you looking for a practical solution or the smallest save file possible? Because for a practical solution, exactly how much you need to save and how much storage you have are quite important.

Maybe I'm missing a bit of context here. Do you have a project or something?

Reply

aethercowboy April 1 2009, 23:39:49 UTC
W.R.T. project: Not exactly. Though, it will be a problem I face. I just got thinking about it when I realized that the Wii has half a gig of storage space OOB, and was wondering about optimizations in game saves, and then got thinking about how I think I would do it, but was not able to research the topic, as at the time I was driving from central Houston to Clear Lake (like a 30 minute drive), so I put together some thoughts while driving and later wrote them down here.

But, I am also considering working on a project or two, as I have recently discovered XNA, and all the joys therein.

Don't blame you for lack of context. I probably blog about 1% of my life. Maybe even <.1%, like the NASA portion of the federal budget, or the portion of money that came out of the AIG bailout fund that went towards bonuses.

Reply

randomengy April 2 2009, 00:53:52 UTC
Ahh, alright ( ... )

Reply

aethercowboy April 2 2009, 03:20:01 UTC
Thank you. That was very insightful. Is that what they're having you do at M-soft?

Amber says "Hi", by the way. She says she's sorry she hasn't called you lately.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up