From 346ead8bb27b77b5cfd2e4af22fb551fcfd7b2e1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: James Groom Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2023 16:32:56 +1000 Subject: [PATCH] Created WIP Manual: Recovering corrupted movies (markdown) --- WIP-Manual:-Recovering-corrupted-movies.md | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+) create mode 100644 WIP-Manual:-Recovering-corrupted-movies.md diff --git a/WIP-Manual:-Recovering-corrupted-movies.md b/WIP-Manual:-Recovering-corrupted-movies.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0216d35 --- /dev/null +++ b/WIP-Manual:-Recovering-corrupted-movies.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +> **IMPORTANT**: These wiki pages are a **draft of the end-user manual for EmuHawk**. +> The manual will not live here forever; once it's finished, each new release will include a copy in the download. +> +> This page was **written for release 2.9.1** and will not reflect more recent changes. +> The information also may not be accurate to older versions. +> Unless specified, all functions are available on every supported OS. + +If you're reading this, the worst has happened: +EmuHawk/TAStudio isn't able to open your movie anymore, and you didn't [have backups enabled](#TODO). + +The cause (and solution) is that `.bk2` and `.tasproj` movies are actually `.zip` (Deflate) archives. +You can use standard tools to read and edit them. +- On GNU+Linux: + If `ark`/`file-roller` is unable to open an archive, + you can pass `-F` to `zip` (Info-ZIP) to attempt recovery (pass twice to "try harder"). For example: + ```sh + zip -FF corrupt.bk2 --out recovered.bk2 + ``` +- On Windows: + [7-Zip](https://7-zip.org) may recover files upon opening a corrupt archive. You should make a backup first. + Extracting the contents and creating a new archive should result in a movie that can be loaded. + Don't forget to change the file extension afterwards. + +If your `.tasproj` is definitely readable but still does not load in TAStudio, then close EmuHawk, open up the archive, +and delete the file called `GreenZone` (not `GreenZoneSettings.txt`, though that should be safe to delete too). + +> Note: This does not apply to `.bk2` movies as they do not contain a `GreenZone` file. +> +> The `GreenZone` is the cache of savestates that let TAStudio instantly jump near any frame you seek to. +> For unknown reasons, it often gets corrupted, and this accounts for most cases of unreadable movies. +> +> The rest of a `.tasproj`'s contents are described in [the TAStudio project spec](#TODO). + +If the movie still won't load, you may be able to manually recover your inputs from the archive. +The files `Input Log.txt`, `SyncSettings.json`, and `Header.txt` together should be enough to recreate the movie. +- Quick method: + Open `Input Log.txt` and copy the inputs (the part between `[Input]` and `[/Input]`), + then open TAStudio and paste them in. +- Thorough method: + Start a movie recording and immediately save and close it. + Open the new movie in 7-Zip/Ark/etc. and replace its copies of `Input Log.txt`, `SyncSettings.json`, and `Header.txt` + with the ones from the corrupted movie. + Once it's saved, re-open it in EmuHawk. + +> The 3 files mentioned here, along with the rest of a `.bk2`'s contents, are described in [the BizHawk Movie v2 spec](#TODO). \ No newline at end of file