Can Unreal Saved Games from previous versions be used in later patched versions? \ VOGONS

Can Unreal Saved Games from previous versions be used in later patched versions?

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First post, by janskjaer

Posted on 2018-06-18, 09:00

janskjaer Offline

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Posts: 152
Joined: 2005-03-29, 20:26
Location: Tokyo/Nagasaki, Japan

I've installed the retail version of Unreal (v205) onto my Windows 95 machine (see sig below) and have progressed through some levels, making saves along the way.

After installing patch 226f, I am no longer able to see the saved game entries correctly within the game.
Unreal sees the saves, but does not name them correctly. This is because somewhere along the way in the patch history, some of the Unreal.ini configuration was separated off into a separate .ini file called User.ini.
This new User.ini file contains, obviously, all data related to the current user playing the game.
Unreal.ini retains configuration specific to the system, drivers, world and the engine.

So I found the following section in 205 Unreal.ini:

1[UnrealI.UnrealSlotMenu]
2SlotNames[0]=Vortex Rikers 21:33 May 22
3SlotNames[1]=NyLeve's Falls 22:22 May 22
4SlotNames[2]=Rrajigar Mine  21:30 May 23
5SlotNames[3]=Depths of Rrajigar 21:31 May 24
6SlotNames[4]=Sacred Passage 22:00 May 25
7SlotNames[5]=..Empty..
8SlotNames[6]=..Empty..
9SlotNames[7]=..Empty..
10SlotNames[8]=..Empty..

and I used the above to replace the following in 226f User.ini:

1[UnrealShare.UnrealSlotMenu]
2SlotNames[9]=Saved game
3SlotNames[0]=Saved game
4SlotNames[1]=Saved game
5SlotNames[2]=Saved game
6SlotNames[3]=Saved game
7SlotNames[4]=Saved game

These saved games from version 205 can be opened in version 226f but once I proceed to the transition area between the end of the current level and the beginning of the next, Unreal crashes and an error occurs:
The error as displayed in the Windows GUI:

Included is parts of the unreal.log. The following is where the save game is loaded from the main menu:

1ScriptLog: Console entering Menuing
2ScriptLog: Console leaving Menuing
3Log: SetClientTravel: ?load=4 0
4Log: URL: Adding default option Name=janskjaer
5Log: URL: Adding default option Class=UnrealI.FemaleOne
6Log: Browse: Index.unr?load=4?Name=janskjaer?Class=UnrealI.FemaleOne
7Log: LoadMap: ..\Save\Save4.usa?Name=janskjaer?Class=UnrealI.FemaleOne?load
8DevAudio: Galaxy SetViewport: WindowsViewport0
9Log: Loading: Package Save4
10Log: Loading: Package Ancient
11Log: Loading: Package Mine
12Log: Loading: Package HubEffects
13Log: Loading: Package SKYBox
14Log: Loading: Package shaneDAY
15Log: Loading: Package GreatFire
16Log: Loading: Package Activates
17Log: Loading: Package dusk
18Log: Loading: Package Ambmodern
19Log: Loading: Package shanesky
20Log: Loading: Package GenTerra
21Log: Loading: Package Male1Skins
22Log: Loading: Package Render
23Init: Shut down moving brush tracker for Level Unreal.MyLevel
24Warning: Property Score of Class UnrealShare.MaleThree not found
25Warning: Skipping 4 bytes of type 4
26Warning: Property OldMessage of Class UnrealShare.Translator not found
27Warning: Skipping 70 bytes of type 7
28Warning: Property OlderMessage of Class UnrealShare.Translator not found
29Warning: Skipping 70 bytes of type 7
30Log: Flushed Glide TMU 0
31Log: Flushed Glide TMU 1
32Log: Collecting garbage
33Log: Purging garbage
34Log: Unloading: Package Unreal
35Log: Unloading: Package NALIFX
36Log: Unloading: Package GenIn
37Log: Unloading: Package flyby
38DevMusic: Unregister music: Music flyby.flyby
39Log: Spawning new actor for Viewport WindowsViewport0
40ScriptLog: Login: janskjaer
41ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.ChangeTeam:0010) Accessed None
42ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.ChangeTeam:0018) Attempt to assigned variable through None
43ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.Login:046B) Accessed None
44ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.Login:0519) Accessed None
45ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.Login:0521) Attempt to assigned variable through None
46Log: Possessed PlayerPawn: MaleThree Save4.MaleThree0
47ScriptWarning: SinglePlayer Save4.SinglePlayer0 (Function Engine.GameInfo.AcceptInventory:0031) Accessed None
48ScriptLog: All inventory from  is accepted
49Init: Initialized moving brush tracker for Level Save4.MyLevel
50DevAudio: Galaxy SetViewport: WindowsViewport0
51Log: Flushed Glide TMU 0
52Log: Flushed Glide TMU 1
53DevMusic: Load music: Music dusk.dusk

The following is the log activity recorded when the player moves to the area where the next level is loaded:

1Log: SetClientTravel: Chizra#Chizraentry?peer 1
2Critical: ClientTravel
3Critical: UGameEngine::Tick
4Critical: UpdateWorld
5Critical: MainLoop
6Exit: Executing UObject::StaticShutdownAfterError
7Exit: UGalaxyAudioSubsystem::ShutdownAfterError
8Exit: Executing UWindowsClient::ShutdownAfterError
9Exit: UGlideRenderDevice::ShutdownAfterError
10Exit: appExit
11Uninitialized: Name subsystem shut down
12Uninitialized: Log file closed, 05/26/18 21:54:46

Ironically, this error can still be found today in the UE4 SDK developer tools when building your own games if a saved game is corrupt or missing.
Has anyone been able to successfully use Unreal saves from previous versions and then use the same saves once the game has been patched to a later version?
If anyone also knows a workaround to the error occurring above, I'd really appreciate it.

DELL Dimension XPS M200s
:Intel P1 MMX 200MHz
:64MB EDO
:DOS 6.22/Win95b
:Matrox Millenium II + m3D (PowerVR PCX2)
Chaintech 7VJL Apogee
:AMD AthlonXP 2700+
:512MB DDR
:Win98SE/2000 SP4
:3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP

Reply 1 of 3, by F2bnp

Posted on 2018-06-18, 09:16

F2bnp Offline

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Yeah, you probably can't do that, they must have changed things significantly between patches.

You could just load into the map you were in and include the all the weapons you had. That should work sufficiently, no?

Reply 2 of 3, by leileilol

Posted on 2018-06-18, 10:23

leileilol Offline

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Posts: 12420
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

Sometimes. I did load some initial release saves in later ones fine, though editor sprites reveal themselves in places and I think one of the later versions would just disable input completely.

long live PCem

Reply 3 of 3, by janskjaer

Posted on 2018-06-18, 20:11

janskjaer Offline

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Rank: Member
Posts: 152
Joined: 2005-03-29, 20:26
Location: Tokyo/Nagasaki, Japan

F2bnp wrote:
Yeah, you probably can't do that, they must have changed things significantly between patches.

You could just load into the map you were in and include the all the weapons you had. That should work sufficiently, no?

It was the same thing I'd already thought about as a last resort.

Realistically, I can't see how there is a way it is achievable as many improvements that would have been made between the two versions, potentially improving the save/load functionality at the same time as deprecating some of the original function calls the save files may be looking for.

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