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Related page: [Bizhawk/SavestateFormat]
Excerpt from a Conversation on Sep 29, 2013

<natt>	i haven't identified the source of the problem in the code yet, but what i'm seeing going on is%%%
<natt>	i made a movie, starts from savestate, then saved a backup of it%%%
<natt>	then i recorded more onto it per that user's directions, saved that, and am comparing the two%%%
<natt>	the second one%%%
<natt>	has two copies of the original savestate embedded in the movie file%%%
<natt>	and both copies are slightly mangled%%%
<adelikat>	that makes sense%%%
<adelikat>	the problem is the loading of the movie%%%
<adelikat>	it looks for headers it recognizes, and keywords, and input log%%%
<adelikat>	anything it doesn't recognize it just stuffs into "comments"%%%
<natt>	yeah, you've got it%%%
<adelikat>	when saving it dumps comments in there, and I"m guessing also does some logic to save a savestate in there too%%%
<natt>	yup%%%
<natt>	the mangling is because one particular line in the savestate for an NES starts with the letters "PAL"%%%
<natt>	so that gets eaten away as the header "PAL" line%%%
<adelikat>	yeah, that loading code isn't very smart%%%
<adelikat>	once upon a time, that's all it needed to do%%%
<adelikat>	but there was no pal, and whatever logic to save the state didn't exist%%%
<adelikat>	I literally cheated and just stuffed everything in as comments ^_^%%%
<natt>	other cores could conceivably have problems with other header values if they have a line in the savestate that coincidentally matches%%%
<adelikat>	yeah, ideally there is some notion of "hey we are in the savestate section, don't load this stuff as header info"%%%
<natt>	but since the savestate section adheres to no global rules about formatting or marking%%%
<natt>	well, i kind of like the ideas that i put together for the binary movie savestates%%%
<adelikat>	oh, you mean lsnes style?%%%
<natt>	i think it is lsnes style, isn't it%%%
<adelikat>	yeah, I like that too%%%
<natt>	right, so the current bizhawk, when you are recording a movie and the core is using binary savestates%%%
<adelikat>	it does simplify problems when a movie file is an archive of files%%%
<natt>	the savestates it creates are actually zip files%%%
<natt>	looking at one now, there are 4 lumps%%%
<natt>	"BizState 1.0", empty file, marks the format%%%
<natt>	"Core" is whatever the core wants to put in as a binary state%%%
<natt>	"Framebuffer" is a binary dump of the framebuffer, if so selected in user config to dump framebuffer to savestates%%%
<natt>	"Input Log" is the input log%%%
<natt>	as a text file, taken from the movie stuff%%%
<adelikat>	nice%%%
<adelikat>	movie files could be done simarly%%%
<adelikat>	"BizMovieState 1.0"%%%
<adelikat>	Savestate%%%
<adelikat>	InputLog%%%
<adelikat>	header%%%
<adelikat>	subtitles%%%
<natt>	honestly, looking at this, i doubt movies starting from savestates have ever been anywhere close to bulletproof%%%
<adelikat>	no, but they worked, enough%%%
<adelikat>	when there was only 3 cores to worry about ^^%%%
<natt>	i'll believe that, but i think it was a delicate arrangement doomed to break when someone sneezed%%%
<adelikat>	yup.%%%
<adelikat>	1.5.0 was the tipping point for a lot of things%%%
<adelikat>	old solutions just didn't scale to this size%%%
<adelikat>	I think the real rolution is a lsnes style movie format, and to break all backwards compatibility%%%
<adelikat>	and after that, come up with some old format importer in the importer section%%%
<natt>	well, i'm willing to move forward with it, but i do think we should proceed slowly and carefully and thoughtfully%%%
<natt>	one thought i'm having is about repeated code%%%
<natt>	these new movies will be very similar to savestates in many ways%%%
<natt>	do we want to try to combine it all into one fatso code path?%%%
<natt>	to expand on the old "a savestate is a movie is a savestate" concept%%%
<adelikat>	yeah, that sounds reasonable%%%
<adelikat>	and I like the concept that it is both%%%
<natt>	the 1.0 reality is "a movie is almost a savestate is almost a movie"%%%
<natt>	so then it's one format with just possibly a different marker and different lumps%%%
<natt>	inputlog lump doesn't exist in non movie savestates%%%
<natt>	header lump doesn't exist in non movie savestates%%%
<natt>	framebuffer lump and core lump might not exist in movie%%%
<natt>	this would also be a chance to add "starts from SRAM" movies.  i know you don't like them, and i'm not advocating for them really, just saying; if we do them, now is the time%%%
<adelikat>	well, my statement is actually "a movie savestate and a movie are the same file"%%%
<adelikat>	or at least work as both files%%%
<adelikat>	nah, I don't know what I"m saying%%%
<adelikat>	maybe we can throw in sram with an off switch?%%%
<adelikat>	so it is a matter of politics to not support them%%%
<natt>	although i do kinda like sram starts... it gives you some anchoring possibilities without the can of worms that is savestates%%%
<adelikat>	starting from sram is just as "dirty" in terms of possible hackery%%%
<adelikat>	and sram is basically a subset of savestate is it not?%%%
<adelikat>	anything contained in that sram is also contained in a savestate%%%
<adelikat>	but if this is an archive of files, it is trivial to do both%%%
<adelikat>	look for a savestate file in there, else look for a sram file%%%
<natt>	agree with just as dirty in terms of hackery%%%
<natt>	yes, sram is a subset of savestate (on all of the stuff we work with, anyway; could see that as being not true when you have mountable and removable memcards)%%%
<natt>	my thought was about ease of support across versions%%%
<natt>	the sram file format is usually rather simple%%%
<adelikat>	so my point is that it is no cleaner, and you can do everything with savestates that you can with sram%%%
<adelikat>	oh, that's a good point!%%%