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Break "Manifests and Game Folders" into two articles. 

Also, substantially re-work each of them.
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Tim Allen 2017-08-18 15:18:15 +10:00
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commit d0b90d0b5c
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docs/concepts/game-folders.md
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What is a game folder?
----------------------
TODO
A game folder
is higan's way of grouping all
the information and resources required
to properly emulate a particular game.
Other emulators group resources related to a game
by requiring that every file has the base name
but different file extensions.
For example,
if another emulator loaded the game `dkc3.sfc`
it might store the save data in `dkc3.srm`:
```text
+- Super Famicom
|
+- dkc3.sfc
|
+- dkc3.srm
```
higan would create a game folder named `dkc3.sfc`,
and inside it store the game data as `program.rom`
and the save data as `save.ram`:
```text
+- Super Famicom
|
+- dkc3.sfc
|
+- program.rom
|
+- save.ram
```
Why game folders?
-----------------
A game is more than just
the raw data originally encased in a game's ROM chip.
If a game allows you to save your progress,
that information needs to be stored somewhere.
If you use an emulator's [save states](#save-states),
those save states need to be stored somewhere.
If you use Game Genie or Pro Action Replay codes,
information about what codes exist,
what codes are enabled,
and what they do
needs to be stored somewhere.
The traditional files-with-different-extensions system
works well enough when a game only requires
a small number of files,
because a file extension doesn't offer
much room for description.
Also,
since file extensions traditionally describe
the format of the file in question,
it also means a game can't use
two or more files in the same format.
On the technical side,
a physical game cartridge contains a circuit board
that makes the game data available to the console,
and different games used circuit boards that work differently.
That circuit-layout information needs to be stored somewhere.
Some games included custom processors
to do calculations the base console could not do quickly enough
(like the SuperFX chip used in _StarFox_ for the Super Famicom)
and information about extra chips needs to be stored somewhere.
Some of those custom processors require extra data to work
that's not part of the main game data
(like the DSP chip used in Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom)
and that data needs to be stored somewhere too.
Compared to other emulators,
higan tends to use a larger number of files per game.
For example,
higan's low-level emulation of Super Famicom co-processors
often requires [separate firmware files][firmware].
higan's [MSU-1 support][msu1]
requires up to 99 audio tracks per game,
and higan supports up to 133 save-states per game.
Therefore,
higan suffers from the limitations of name-based-grouping
more than most.
higan keeps all this game-related information together
in a single place:
a game folder in the higan library.
higan's game folders allow all a game's resources
to be given unique, descriptive filenames,
and to use the file-extension
that's most appropriate for that file.
They also allow emulator-specific data
like save-states and the cheat database
to be kept separate from the game's actual data,
by putting it in a sub-folder.
[msu1]: ../guides/import.md#msu-1-games
[firmware]: ../guides/import.md#games-with-co-processor-firmware
For a more detailed motivation for game folders,
see [Game Paks on the higan website][gp]
see [Game Paks on the higan website][gp].
[gp]: https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/game-paks
What is a manifest?
-------------------
TODO
The most important file in a game folder is `manifest.bml`,
which describes how all the other files should be wired together
to create a runnable game cartridge.
However,
the manifest format has occasionally changed
as new emulation details were uncovered
that could not be represented in the old format.
Therefore,
icarus [defaults](#the-icarus-settings-dialog)
to not writing out manifests when it imports games,
and higan [defaults](#the-configuration-dialog)
to ignoring manifests that are present.
Instead,
when higan loads a game,
it will ask icarus to generate a temporary manifest in the latest format,
based on the files present in the game folder
and how they are likely to go together.
You can view this temporary manifest
in [the Manifest Viewer](#the-manifest-viewer).
What's in a game folder?
------------------------
As mentioned [above](#why-game-folders),
As mentioned [above](#what-is-a-game-folder),
a game folder collects all the information relevant
to emulating a particular game.
Not all of the following files
are relevant to every emulated console,
or to every game on a given console,
but they may be relevantunder particular circumstances.
but they may be present under particular circumstances.
All the files directly in the game folder
are expected to be useful
@ -97,7 +109,7 @@ to all emulators that support them:
from the cartridge's ROM chips.
- `ines.rom`:
While other consoles typically include enough hints
in `program.rom` for icarus to generate a manifest,
in `program.rom` for icarus to guess a working manifest,
the Famicom does not.
Famicom games not stored in game folders
typically include an "iNES header" to store that information,
@ -117,25 +129,20 @@ to all emulators that support them:
Games that include a calendar or real-time clock
will create this file.
- `*.data.rom`, `*.program.rom`:
Files named like this are usually
[co-processor firmware](#importing-and-playing-games-with-co-processor-firmware).
Files named like this are usually [co-processor firmware][firmware].
- `msu1.rom`:
Holds streamable data for
[the MSU-1](#importing-and-playing-MSU-1-games).
Holds streamable data for [the MSU-1][msu1].
- `track-*.pcm`:
Holds streamable audio for
[the MSU-1](#importing-and-playing-MSU-1-games).
Holds streamable audio for [the MSU-1][msu1].
Files that are only useful to higan specifically
are placed in a `higan` subdirectory:
- `cheats.bml`:
All information present in
[the Cheat Editor](#the-cheat-editor)
[the Cheat Editor](../interface/higan-tools.md#the-cheat-editor)
is stored here.
- `states/quick/slot-*.bst`:
All the save states made to
[Quick state slots](#quick-states).
All [Quick States](save-states.md#quick-states) are stored here.
- `states/managed/slot-*.bst`:
All the save states made with
[the State Manager](#the-state-manager).
All [Manager States](save-states.md#manager-states) are stored here.

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What is a manifest?
-------------------
If a [game folder](game-folders.md) is
the emulation equivalent of
a physical game cartridge,
a manifest is like
the circuit board inside the cartridge:
it controls how all the other parts of the cartridge
talk to one another and to the console itself.
If you load a game into higan,
you can look at the game's manifest
by opening [the Tools menu](../interface/higan.md#the-tools-menu)
and choosing [Manifest Viewer](../interface/higan-tools.md#the-manifest-viewer).
Why manifests?
--------------
Any given console might support
hundreds or thousands of different games,
but the vast majority of those games
use one of a few different circuit boards.
For most consoles,
the raw game data provides enough clues
to guess a circuit board configuration
that will get the game running,
but relying on heuristics often leads to problems:
- Inventing heuristics
that correctly guess the configuration
for a particular game is very difficult.
- If you change the rules,
you really need to re-test
the console's entire game library
to check you haven't broken anything.
- Some games accidentally do the wrong thing.
- The Mega Drive game *Warrior of Rome II*
follows the rule for a European game running at 50fps,
when it's really an American game designed for 60fps.
- Some games deliberately do the wrong thing.
- The Game Boy Advance game *Top Gun - Combat Zones*
follows the rule for
(several kinds of)
save-game storage.
If it detects any save-game storage,
it assumes it's running in an emulator
and disables all the main menu options.
- Heuristics are difficult to reason about.
- If a homebrew developer
takes a game that almost does what they want
and changes it slightly,
it can result in the emulator
doing something completely different
because it now matches
some completely different game.
- Heuristics can make sensible configurations impossible.
- If a homebrew developer wants
a particular hardware configuration
that no official games happened to use,
it may not be possible
to trigger it heuristically.
- It's not hardware accurate.
- The original console did not use heuristics
to guess a hardware configuration,
it just used the actual configuration
of the actual hardware.
Manifests provide a way to *tell* the emulator
what hardware configuration to use,
avoiding all these problems entirely.
Where do manifests come from?
-----------------------------
Ideally,
everybody who extracts the data from a game cartridge would
(at the same time)
record the board configuration in a manifest file.
Unfortunately,
manifests were invented long after cartridge extracting,
so there are a lot of previously extracted games
with no manifest attached.
If a game doesn't come with a manifest,
it may be possible to look up the correct manifest.
The
[SNES Preservation Project](https://preservation.byuu.org/)
intends to re-dump every Super Famicom game
and record its board configuration at the same time.
Given a game's data,
you can take the SHA256 fingerprint
and look it up in the Project's database
to find the correct manifest to use.
Unfortunately,
this doesn't help for any other console.
Even for the Super Famicom,
there will always be games
too rare to acquire for re-dumping,
and homebrew that was never on a cartridge to begin with.
For these games,
heuristics will always be needed as a fallback,
but at least if the heuristics are wrong
the can be overridden.
Manifests can be found inside
[game folders](game-folders.md),
but usually aren't.
Occasionally,
a newly-dumped game will turn out to have
a configuration that can't be expressed
in the existing manifest file format,
and a new format must be designed.
If manifests were always written inside game folders,
games with old-format manifests
would break when played in emulators that supported the new format.
Therefore,
icarus [defaults](#the-icarus-settings-dialog)
to not writing out manifests when it imports games,
and higan [defaults](#the-configuration-dialog)
to ignoring manifests that are present.
Instead,
when higan loads a game,
it will ask icarus to generate a temporary manifest in the latest format,
based on the files present in the game folder
and how they are likely to go together.

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mkdocs.yml
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@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ pages:
- Using video shaders: guides/shaders.md
- Choosing drivers: guides/drivers.md
- Concepts:
- Manifests and Game Folders: concepts/game-folders.md
- Game Folders: concepts/game-folders.md
- Game Manifests: concepts/manifests.md
- The Game Library: concepts/game-library.md
- Save States: concepts/save-states.md
- Frequently Asked Questions: faq.md