Software that captures PC game savestates?

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Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

I know its probably impossible and fraught with lots of programming
difficulties, but I was wondering if there might be software out there
which works similiarly to the 'savestate' feature found in many
emulation programs? This would be great for titles that don't have
save features or severly crippled ones such as the one I'm playing
now.

I'm ready to tear my head off after playing through some of the levels
in Hitman Code 47 for the 10th time!! :-O
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Virtual PC\Vmware but they don't support D3D (I've heard the latest
beta of Vmware does, haven't tried it yet). Dunno if Hitman has a
software mode or not but I doubt it would play very well.....

So answer to your question at least for Hitman. No. Not untill D3D is
supported under emulation.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Blabbus Blabbibicus <blabbus@talk.com> once tried to test me with:

> I know its probably impossible and fraught with lots of programming
> difficulties, but I was wondering if there might be software out there
> which works similiarly to the 'savestate' feature found in many
> emulation programs? This would be great for titles that don't have
> save features or severly crippled ones such as the one I'm playing
> now.
>
> I'm ready to tear my head off after playing through some of the levels
> in Hitman Code 47 for the 10th time!! :-O

It's not really possible to do this except in the cases of emulation. In
emulation, the real OS is devoting a fixed amount of memory to emulate the
memory of the device that it's emulating. But in the case of a program
running under the "real" OS, you'd have to save ALL of the memory ALL of
the time, so lets say you have a 1gb RAM, and you want to save state, you'd
have to save 1gb to disc when you do save state. But that's only part of
the problem. Because you'd also have to save the state of the temporary
files that the program has open, since those can change while the game is
running. Not only that, but by saving the state, you're actually CHANGING
the state, since you're doing this in the same memory space using the same
cpu that the game is running under. In an emulated mode, the state of the
emulated cpu can be saved, since it's really just software.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Thus spake Knight37 <knight37m@email.com>, 23 Apr 2005 03:25:44 GMT, Anno
Domini:

>Blabbus Blabbibicus <blabbus@talk.com> once tried to test me with:
>
>> I know its probably impossible and fraught with lots of programming
>> difficulties, but I was wondering if there might be software out there
>> which works similiarly to the 'savestate' feature found in many
>> emulation programs? This would be great for titles that don't have
>> save features or severly crippled ones such as the one I'm playing
>> now.
>>
>> I'm ready to tear my head off after playing through some of the levels
>> in Hitman Code 47 for the 10th time!! :-O
>
>It's not really possible to do this except in the cases of emulation. In
>emulation, the real OS is devoting a fixed amount of memory to emulate the
>memory of the device that it's emulating. But in the case of a program
>running under the "real" OS, you'd have to save ALL of the memory ALL of
>the time, so lets say you have a 1gb RAM, and you want to save state, you'd
>have to save 1gb to disc when you do save state. But that's only part of
>the problem. Because you'd also have to save the state of the temporary
>files that the program has open, since those can change while the game is
>running. Not only that, but by saving the state, you're actually CHANGING
>the state, since you're doing this in the same memory space using the same
>cpu that the game is running under. In an emulated mode, the state of the
>emulated cpu can be saved, since it's really just software.

You forgot the win swap file AND the registers, stacks & God knows what else
Intel stick in there these days...

--
A killfile is a friend for life.

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On 22 Apr 2005 18:36:15 -0700, "DosFreak" <d0sfreak@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Virtual PC\Vmware but they don't support D3D (I've heard the latest
>beta of Vmware does, haven't tried it yet). Dunno if Hitman has a
>software mode or not but I doubt it would play very well.....
>
>So answer to your question at least for Hitman. No. Not untill D3D is
>supported under emulation.

I forgot about VMWare and Virtual PC. Even with the fastest computer,
running another OS via emulation on top of running a resource
intensive app like a game probably wouldn't work too well. If it were
a game a bit older, maybe.

Hitman uses OpenGl also.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 18:37:31 +1000, Nostromo
<nostromo@spamfree.net.au> wrote:

>Thus spake Knight37 <knight37m@email.com>, 23 Apr 2005 03:25:44 GMT, Anno
>Domini:
>
>>Blabbus Blabbibicus <blabbus@talk.com> once tried to test me with:
>>
>>> I know its probably impossible and fraught with lots of programming
>>> difficulties, but I was wondering if there might be software out there
>>> which works similiarly to the 'savestate' feature found in many
>>> emulation programs? This would be great for titles that don't have
>>> save features or severly crippled ones such as the one I'm playing
>>> now.
>>>
>>> I'm ready to tear my head off after playing through some of the levels
>>> in Hitman Code 47 for the 10th time!! :-O
>>
>>It's not really possible to do this except in the cases of emulation. In
>>emulation, the real OS is devoting a fixed amount of memory to emulate the
>>memory of the device that it's emulating. But in the case of a program
>>running under the "real" OS, you'd have to save ALL of the memory ALL of
>>the time, so lets say you have a 1gb RAM, and you want to save state, you'd
>>have to save 1gb to disc when you do save state. But that's only part of
>>the problem. Because you'd also have to save the state of the temporary
>>files that the program has open, since those can change while the game is
>>running. Not only that, but by saving the state, you're actually CHANGING
>>the state, since you're doing this in the same memory space using the same
>>cpu that the game is running under. In an emulated mode, the state of the
>>emulated cpu can be saved, since it's really just software.
>
>You forgot the win swap file AND the registers, stacks & God knows what else
>Intel stick in there these days...

Gosh, well that kinda bums that idea into the ground. :-( It still
seems as though it'd be possible via some sort of software registers.
Windows already pretty much does this when it goes into Hibernation
mode doesn't it? Granted I haven't tried going into Hibernation mode
while something as resource intensive as a game is running. Hmm...

I don't think you'd have to save *all* of the contents of the main
swap file would you?
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> once tried to test me with:

>>cpu that the game is running under. In an emulated mode, the state of
>>the emulated cpu can be saved, since it's really just software.
>
> You forgot the win swap file AND the registers, stacks & God knows
> what else Intel stick in there these days...
>

I was including registers in the CPU, and stacks in the memory. But you're
right, the swap file is memory too, and as such, would have to be saved to
save the true state. And a thing I forgot is the state of the VPU, those
are essentially secondary processors nowadays and you'd have to save the
state of the video card's processor to save true state.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

stePH wrote:
> I sure could have used something like that when I was playing MAGIC CARPET.

Now that you talk about it, anyone found a method or a web site with
instructions on how to make this game and the sequel run without hungs?
This bastards crash in every computer I tried in the last years, if fact
I *never* played them without issues in any computer.

Cheers.
Gus.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

In article <o82k61p0h216njp179vg79ivpulfk1gik3@4ax.com>,
Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> wrote:
> You forgot the win swap file AND the registers, stacks & God knows what else
> Intel stick in there these days...

Technically, the swap file is already saved, and doesn't need to be
saved twice. You just need to make a copy, or halt execution in
such a way that the swap file doesn't change.

Although saving the entire system state is probably impossible without
OS and BIOS support to halt-and-save, it might be possible to save the
state of an application and the system APIs that it is using. All of
these things are presumably running in the user context, so the
logged-in user should have low-level access to all of them.

But it's never been done, as far as I know.

Rick R.
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 20:09:54 -0300, Matamanolos <nomail@nomail.com>
wrote:

>stePH wrote:
>> I sure could have used something like that when I was playing MAGIC CARPET.
>
>Now that you talk about it, anyone found a method or a web site with
>instructions on how to make this game and the sequel run without hungs?
>This bastards crash in every computer I tried in the last years, if fact
>I *never* played them without issues in any computer.

I haven't tried it personally, but it's considered "supported" in
DOSBox
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1
 
Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Blabbus Blabbibicus wrote:
>
> I know its probably impossible and fraught with lots of programming
> difficulties, but I was wondering if there might be software out there
> which works similiarly to the 'savestate' feature found in many
> emulation programs? This would be great for titles that don't have
> save features or severly crippled ones such as the one I'm playing
> now.
>
> I'm ready to tear my head off after playing through some of the levels
> in Hitman Code 47 for the 10th time!! :-O

Well, you can hibernate Windows & clone the hard disk, resume, get
killed by a colombian drug lord, re-image the disk than resume again.
 
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