Hacking Wood R4 Pokemon Platinum save size

Stropdasje

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I noticed on first use Wood R4 makes a Pokemon Platinum save file with size 512 kB. I thought this should be 1 MB? Or does Wood R4 automatically increase the size when it is needed? Save type for the game is set to unknown/auto (default). Or does "auto" choose the wrong size? I do not hope I have to know and set these sizes for each game, this would be impractical and a source for problems if it is forgotten on first use.
 

yusuo

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its not a myth, i used platinum on a 512kb save file and after a while it corrupted after using a 1mb file its been fine, ss and hg needs a 1mb file as well so its not a myth
 

TM2-Megatron

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yusuo said:
its not a myth, i used platinum on a 512kb save file and after a while it corrupted after using a 1mb file its been fine, ss and hg needs a 1mb file as well so its not a myth

It is
lecture.gif
. Dunno about your particular cart, but I'm talking about the raw save data as it actually exists on the original cartridges.

I've personally dumped dozens of saves from my Diamond, Platinum, and SoulSilver cartridges using various methods (Rudolph's slot-2 NDS Backup Tool, the NDS Adapter and NDS Adapter Plus), and each and every save has been 512kB. And these function perfectly on my CycloDS and aren't corrupt or missing anything.
 

GTRagnarok

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I just switched from YSMenu to Wood R4 today (wish I had known about it and switched sooner). Anyway, since it uses .nds.sav files, I just added .nds to all my save files which are all 512kB BTW. It seems to work no problem except for Pokemon SoulSilver. It says it's corrupted when I start it on Wood R4 :[

Any way to convert it or something?
 

Stropdasje

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I always thought that Pokemon Platinum initially works with 512 kB saves but later on in the game needs more space and crosses the 512 kB boundary and switches to two blocks of 512 kB, which is a 1 MB save. Initially the 512 kB save works fine. But if at the point where more than 512 kB needs to be saved and the save file on the SD card is only 512 KB then writing outside the allocated space takes place, corrupting the FAT file system on the SD card making the card unreadable. Do you say that is a hoax?
 

Miser

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Stropdasje said:
I always thought that Pokemon Platinum initially works with 512 kB saves but later on in the game needs more space and crosses the 512 kB boundary and switches to two blocks of 512 kB, which is a 1 MB save. Initially the 512 kB save works fine. But if at the point where more than 512 kB needs to be saved and the save file on the SD card is only 512 KB then writing outside the allocated space takes place, corrupting the FAT file system on the SD card making the card unreadable. Do you say that is a hoax?
This is not true.
I'm pretty sure that 1MB save is used to save in two slots, so that if one save gets corrupted it loads the previous one. 512kB saves have always worked fine for me.
 

TM2-Megatron

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Miser said:
Stropdasje said:
I always thought that Pokemon Platinum initially works with 512 kB saves but later on in the game needs more space and crosses the 512 kB boundary and switches to two blocks of 512 kB, which is a 1 MB save. Initially the 512 kB save works fine. But if at the point where more than 512 kB needs to be saved and the save file on the SD card is only 512 KB then writing outside the allocated space takes place, corrupting the FAT file system on the SD card making the card unreadable. Do you say that is a hoax?
This is not true.
I'm pretty sure that 1MB save is used to save in two slots, so that if one save gets corrupted it loads the previous one. 512kB saves have always worked fine for me.

Everything I've ever read indicates that the 512kB accounts for both the save, and backup. Every method I've ever used to read the save directly from the real cartridges has reported a 4Mbit save area. 4Mbit = 512kB.

This is supported by Pokesav, which has modes for both 512kB (the whole thing), and 256kB (without a backup) save editing. You can also look it up on the DS-Scene release list.... Diamond/Pearl, Platinum, and HeartGold/SoulSilver are all listed with the "Flash 4Mbit" save type.

End of story.
 

Stropdasje

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Another reason to abandon YSMenu and go for Wood R4. YSMenu needs 1 MB save files to prevent corruption of the SD card data with those games and that way wasting 50% of space when it is not needed at all.

So all the YSMenu advocates, who are so happy with the existence of savlib.dat and praise the update advantage of it, are in fact mislead. Savlib.dat is only there to cover up a YSMenu/DSTT kernel bug that corrupts the SD card data... Nice to know, thanks for the insight.
 

injected11

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Stropdasje said:
So all the YSMenu advocates, who are so happy with the existence of savlib.dat and praise the update advantage of it, are in fact mislead. Savlib.dat is only there to cover up a YSMenu/DSTT kernel bug that corrupts the SD card data... Nice to know, thanks for the insight.
It only corrupts if the savlib's listed size and the actual sav's size differ. If you edit the savlib to make it use 512, it will load them just fine. You misunderstanding something does not make it a bug.
 

Stropdasje

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The question is, why would savlib.dat list 1 MB in the first place? I researched this a little more and it looks like both the following is true:

1) The ROM needs only 512 kB save space
2) When running on an R4 with 1.18 or YSMenu then 1 MB is written (at least corruption takes place when the .sav file has only space for 512 kB reserved)

Proof:

Issue 1 has been said a few times now by al least 2 people here that looked at the files and 512 kB is also used by all the save hacking tools and is also confirmed by gamelists and other messages on the Internet.

Issue 2 has come up on many forums, where the data on the SD card became corrupted when using the game with an R4 and either the 1.18 kernel or YSMenu. Somebody took the trouble to create a savlib.dat file which would not have been needed when all games needed a fixed save size. There must be a reason to do that. When you Google for Pokemon Platunum and R4 then there are numerous references that on the R4 1 MB is needed (including http://wiki.scorpei.com/index.php/R4_compatibility_list). If it is not the game that demands this size then this must be some issue that occurs on R4's (and not on other types of cards, like the Acekard R.P.G.).

So I think both are facts. The last message says it is not a bug but me not understanding something. But why on earth did somebody program a 1 MB save space in savlib.dat if not to avoid some kind of problem? And if the problem is within the R4 itself (the firmware), why does it affect 1.18 and YSMenu but not Wood R4?

Could it be that it is not in Wood R4 since it was not needed in Wood R.P.G. since the Acekard R.P.G. does not have this save issue? As established by fact 2 it is a R4 specific issue. That's the whole problem I try to raise, if the game is played on the R4 with Wood R4, will this problem occur and corrupt the FAT filesystem or will it not occur?
 

injected11

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Stop assuming things.

The savlib makes a 1024 because people have been bickering back and forth about this issue for ages, and using a 1024 save eliminates any possiblity of the file being too small. What I've read is the bigger file is needed to record battles with the VS Recorder, as well as the backup save. The bigger file works period, so I don't understand why everyone makes this such a huge deal.

Using a save file with a different size than the size listed in the savlib will corrupt the save, period. It's not an R4 bug. If you don't want it to corrupt, open up your savlib and change platinum yourself, or try loading a sav of the size it asks for. It's not hard.
 

Porobu

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Chase san Said:
Chase-san said:
Why, platinum save is 512 kb, like every other 4th generation Pokemon game.

PLEASE DO NOT ARGUE. I made a save editor I think I know what I speak of. Everything else that produces a 1mb save is wrong. Yes wrong. No I don't care their wrong.

I don't care if they are an super computer hacker/astro physicist/high programmer/god and graduated summa cum laude from MIT, Harvard and Caltech simultaneously, claim to work for Gamefreak or Nintendo, and hold the highest security clearance in every country. If they say it has a 1mb save, they are wrong, I don't care.

(this bugs me you may have noticed.)
 

Stropdasje

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Okay, okay. My assumption that nobody in his/her right mind would go to the trouble to create a special file (savelib.dat) just to fix a non existing save file problem was obviously wrong. Sorry I got confused, I didn't expect this to be the case.

I think only one action remains: fix savlib.dat (or start using Wood R4).

Thanks for the responses and the enlightenment. I hope in the future people would use their skills to fix real problems instead of fixing non existing problems and create confusion. I think I can understand Chase's frustration.
 

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