[Tutorial+Example] Saving and Loading done EASY!

[Foxi4]

Try it out to know for sure. It *should*, but I can only guarantee it works correctly on most contemporary SLOT-1 flashcarts.

[Commodore]

I typed an extremely long PM to a user explaining how to save/load in DSGM 5.12, not even knowing that this topic actually existed. This is why users should really use the Search box if they need help.

Here are some actions I created to make saving and loading easier for users. They use similar code to what Foxi4 presented in his tutorial (please read below), with only minor differences which will not affect the outcome (save_file is called savefile in the actions, as they are quite old).

Load Data.action

Save Data.action

Also, just in case there is any legal actions taken, I promise that I did not rip these off from the tutorial and claimed them as my own. These were old actions from DS Game Maker 4.9 which I imported into DSGM 5 (I used these actions in 4.9 for Sliker DS).

bksonic, when I used your actions in "my SPACE iNVADERS", the music stopped working when I tested it in my Acekard. The music works in the emulator though. Any way to fix this?

[aekara]

the problem is becouse sound it using nitro and save/load use fat

EDIT

here is the solution

in the game setting make sure you have inited both fat and nitro
now when you want to stream an background sound just before you call the "Stream background action" in the palib action put chdir("nitro:/"); and then when you want to save or load just before the save/load code add chdir("fat:/"); on the palib action and do that every time you want to use fat or nitro
P.S You can't use fat and nitro at the same time as far as i know

[Commodore]

OK, I'll try that.

[Foxi4]

Alternatively if you feel lazy you can just stream sounds from FAT and forget about Nitro altogether OR use full paths (fat:/file.extension or nitrofs:/file.extension) instead of chdir.

[Paul]

Is it possible to save multiple variables?

[Commodore]

You can using structures the long way, or you can use arrays. You can save them just like a variable.

[Haloflooder]

When I tried your example on my NDSL TT. The screen just stays white when the TT is booting into the boot menu. When I put the codes in my game, TT loads fine but when I boot my game, the screen just stays black. Is it just my TT not working or is this example too old for DSGM 5.12?

[Foxi4]

The example is just fine, it's likely that whatever menu you're using doesn't understand ARVG protocol. Try launching it using Homebrew Menu from Drunken Coders.

http://devkitpro.org/wiki/Homebrew_Menu

[Haloflooder]

Thanks, that fixed everything

[EgoTrip]

I am having trouble following this, the explanation has been everything but clear and concise.

Say I have some variables called Chocolate, Level, Record1, Record2, and Banana.

Exactly how do I 1: get the game to load these variables when the game starts, ie in a Title screen control object create event.

2: save the variables when they need saving, such as when a level is complete, ie in a Level control object.

Thanks in advance. The quicker this is sorted the quicker I can release the next version of my game. This is the only thing missing in the engine.

[Nobody]

are you asking how to do the actual saving code or how to make the game to where it saves and loads when it needs to?

[EgoTrip]

the code

[Nobody]

all you really need is a copy and paste. First create the struct of everything you want to save, and then change 'save_data" to the name of the struct

[EgoTrip]

If I could follow it I would, but I need a specific example relating to specific variables as put in my previous post. I can get it to work by copying it as it is, but after that, when I attempt to incorporate my own variables it just keeps throwing up error messages.

[Foxi4]

If I could follow it I would, but I need a specific example relating to specific variables as put in my previous post. I can get it to work by copying it as it is, but after that, when I attempt to incorporate my own variables it just keeps throwing up error messages.

Simply add your variables to the attached structure and you're done - there's really nothing mind-boggling here to speak of. All you need to take note of are Types of variables - u8/s8 for unsigned/signed 8-bit, u16/s16 for signed/unsigned 16-bit (INTEGER in DSGM), bool for Boolean, char for single Characters, char name[lenght] for strings.

[Buck_7]

What are the difference bewtween unsigned, and signed???16-bit intger?

[EgoTrip]

Give me an example please, using my variable names, because I cant get the stupid thing to work. I am missing something really obvious here, but for the life of me I just cant see it.

Integers are whole numbers, ie no decimal places. Signed is -127 to 127, unsigned is 0 to 255, 16 bit is -32768 to 32767, and 0 to 65535

[Buck_7]

I don't know if this helps or not, but I had this example...

[Foxi4]

I just realized something - are you testing your code on an emulator and are you sure that you properly initialized FAT? You can't use both FAT and NitroFS at the same time - you have to switch between those two.