Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

HighOctane · 2008-05-30 00:11:30

I have copied this from the comments page in hopes of getting some more attention to the issue.

Of all the DS emulators I have tried, this is one of 2 that works, and is the only one that works remotely well.

However I have an issue. It starts BEAUTIFULLY then slows down until the sound is slow the game is sluggish and borderline crashes.

More Importantly, I am having trouble with saving states. Anytime I try to save a state OR load a state, the game will lock up and either must be harshly ended through task manager or crashes my computer to the point where I have to press my computer's reset button.

I have found if you turn the sound off these issues disappear. (actually I pick the wrong sound device on purpose in the Config -> Sound Settings -> Sound Core settings to do so. I switch from Direct Sound Interface to WAV Write Sound Interface and this turns the sound off.)

The games I am playing are the Phoenix Wright games (1, 2, and 3) and I am Running Windows XP. I don't want to be too specific about system specs, but I can run WoW at near full settings without it slowing my machine, I should hope it has more power than a DS. It is important I be able to save states because quite frankly I don't think you can save the game at the appropriate points in those games using the in game option when running an emulator. If you can, please tell me, and I will stop worrying about save states.

If my comment seems needlessly long and detailed, that is because I am in tech support and get irritated when people put in 4 words and expect me to figure out their problem and how to fix it.

New Note: At first I seemed to be able to save when I selected a certain type of save state, but I currently have to experiment a bit with that. It really seems to struggle either way when I have the sound on.

Now I checked up on what sort of saves are used, and according to the site they are EEPROM 64kbit for the first game, EEPROM 512kbit for the second and third games. I tried having those selected when I ran the game. I was able to save and load during the opening cut scene in the second case, but during the actual game, when music was playing and I was talking to Maya, it froze the game when I tried to save it.

It APPEARS to have issues when it comes to looping music I think, since the cut scene music is pretty much a set run whereas the in game music loops until you click "Move forward".

EDIT: I got my Sound settings reversed. WAV Write Sound produces no sound, Direct Sound does.

*****UPDATE: For logging purposes only, Skip to summary if you aren't a DeSmuME programmer*****

I am about done doing your dirty work.
My keyboard already has suffered massive damage to its spacebar due to a gametap game that seemed to refuse to react to the spacebar at a particularly critical time. (Another story for another day)

I have had to force Exit the game (alt f4) at least a dozen times and had to do somewhere between 4 and 6 hard boots when trying to test out different things with this game because when trying a save state my computer actually caused the program to freeze when I was LUCKY and would leave my computer unresponsive to CTRL ALT DELETE when I wasn't. Oddly enough I could still move through the alt tab menu, but anything I landed on was unresponsive.

Okay a couple hard boots and some futzing around later, I feel that the problem might be an inherent oversight in not only the save and load states, but the system in general. By default when something is loaded, it begins executing the game. This probably isn't the best tactic.

I also noticed that if I paused the execution, then loaded a save state, then went to the emulation menu I notice that it acts as if the game was still caused (Pause is greyed out and execute is black).

Upon a quick experiment, I tried this: I opened the game and began running it. I found from there I could load a state without a problem. Then I let the game run a little while. Then I paused the execution. Then I loaded the state again. Up to this point I had no issue. THEN I tried pausing the game again, and it froze up.

This crashing seems random. Sometimes a load will go successfully,other times it will not. Sometimes a pause will cause the game to crash, sometimes it will not. I cannot get the program to follow a pattern.
*****End Log*****

*****SUMMARY*****
Issue with random crashing when saving and loading states and when pausing the execution of the game. The longer the program is running within the game, the more likely these crashes, no way to reproduce them in any pattern.

*****End Summary*****

Now I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but I would think the best tactic concerning save state would be to, BY DEFAULT when saving the program should pause the execution then save the state, then when loading a save state have it loaded in the pause state and wait for the user to manually start it again.

Last edited by HighOctane (2008-05-30 01:16:43)

shash · 2008-05-30 07:24:15

Save states are highly problematic due to issues to long to explain now, try to resort to regular saves, as they should work.

HighOctane · 2008-06-03 22:41:09

Well this is the first emulator that successfully saved as normal saves.

Well hopefully my comments helped in some way. Sorry if I sounded a bit frustrated.

Last edited by HighOctane (2008-06-03 22:42:33)

HighOctane · 2008-06-14 08:24:09

The in game saves work beautifully for the second and third games but the first game fails. Tried every type and it always failed.

lurker · 2008-06-18 09:22:42

Extremely weird. Saving works for the first two Ace Attorney games set at "Autodetect" for save type, yet it doesn't really work for "Trials and Tribulations" (this is saving through the actual device by the Start button and selecting). It saves at EEPROM 512kbit fine, HOWEVER, after closing and opening the emulator, it does not detect a saved file.

I'm going to try saving through the means of "File" -> "Save State", but I try to avoid the method because sometimes the music screws up and I can't remember the game freezes or not.

Never had a game freeze on me before in the middle of nowhere though. I hope there would be a solution soon!

#1 2008-05-30 00:11:30

Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

#2 2008-05-30 07:24:15

Re: Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

#3 2008-06-03 22:41:09

Re: Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

#4 2008-06-14 08:24:09

Re: Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

#5 2008-06-18 09:22:42

Re: Phoenix Wright games slow and save states not working.

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