Viewing Issue Advanced Details
ID Category [?] Severity [?] Reproducibility Date Submitted Last Update
07719 DIP/Input Minor Always Jul 31, 2020, 21:51 Oct 1, 2020, 20:47
Tester rcoltrane View Status Public Platform MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To Resolution No change required OS Windows 10 (64-bit)
Status [?] Closed Driver
Version 0.222 Fixed in Version Build 64-bit
Fixed in Git Commit Github Pull Request #
Summary 07719: indytemp: inp playback issue
Description After finishing the game with 1 coin and 3 lives on hard, I tried to playback the gameplay to record a video, but the inp file lost sync at the 1st level and ruined the playback.
Steps To Reproduce Record an .inp file while playing the game and after playing it for some time, quit the game and try to playback it.
Additional Information I've attached my latest .inp file here to be analyzed.
Github Commit
Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems indytemp
Attached Files
? file icon indytemp - 1cc hard 3 lives.inp (387,206 bytes) Jul 31, 2020, 21:51 Uploaded by rcoltrane
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Notes
5
User avatar
No.17884
AJR
Developer
Aug 12, 2020, 19:26
It's possible that desyncing on this game is caused by nonvolatile data being changed. This likely affects numerous other games as well.

Perhaps the INP file format should be changed to include a checksum of NVRAM data taken when recording begins to ensure integrity.
User avatar
No.17885
Tafoid
Administrator
Aug 12, 2020, 20:59
nvram must be clean, in fact, for .inps to work at all correctly.
The leading MAME high score site insists on such usages when recording inputs for submissions.

http://replay.marpirc.net/
f) As of 15 September 2001, the use of nvram files is prohibited, unless otherwise specified in special rules. If a person thinks a certain game fits into that category, he must contact any of the editors so they can discuss the issue. After the discussion all the editors will vote for or against the idea and present a final decision. All games will be discussed on a case by case basis.
You can also download this file to ensure no nvram is used if you use the commandline. (usage: record {gamename}). It should be noted that in some games, having hiscore.dat present can affect playback, as can memory cards (memcard\memcard.*), so it would be wise to remove these before recording.
The same goes for difference files (diff\*.dif), which contain changes made to a CHD (Compressed Hunk of Data - typically a Hard Drive or CD image). If the corresponding file isn't deleted or moved before recording, the INP is likely to be unplaybackable.
It is strongly recommended that you set the nvram_directory option to NUL (or /dev/null for Linux/BSD/OS X users) in mame.ini, or simply add to the commandline -nvram_directory NUL or -nvram_directory /dev/null on Linux/BSD/OS X.

Of course, I always seem to forget when dealing with .inps, but they have a high chance of playback issues when such nvrams are not default/cleared.
User avatar
No.17886
rcoltrane
Tester
Aug 13, 2020, 17:33
In this case I had no NVRAM recorded. I always check if a NVRAM file is present and I delete it before recording (i've learned it from Haze in the past), but in this game I had NVRAM disabled before playing/recording. So I think it's not a NVRAM-related issue.
User avatar
No.18022
rcoltrane
Tester
Oct 1, 2020, 18:24
I did some major cleanup here after updating to latest mame 0.225.

I had a lot of old .ini files that were not being used anymore and so I erased all these .ini files (I'm handling everything through LaunchBox now). I've also erased all my old .inp files too. After that, I did some more tests with nrallyx and ikarijp and, to my surprise, both are recording/playbacking fine now! I did a somewhat long recording in both of them and both playbacks worked fine to the end. And I didn't need to remove the hiscore plugin and/or cheats as you suggested.

So I suppose that the trouble has no relation to the cheat system and/or hiscore plugin, but it may has relation to the old .ini/.inp files I had that were recorded/generated by old mame versions.

With that said you can now close all these .inp bugs I reported here beacuse it seems that the .inp system is working fine.
User avatar
No.18024
Tafoid
Administrator
Oct 1, 2020, 19:53
One of your .ini files appears to have had plugins activated making the -plugin hiscores work where it doesn't work if if plugins is set to 0 or -noplugins is set as high scores would not load or save. In any case, we are going to not suggest either -cheat or -plugin hiscore be active when recording/playing back an .inp file.

I am relieved that the issue seems resolved on your end in any case. I will close the recent reports.