Issue with RetroArch handling save files / save states for compressed games when launched via Playnite

[TsengFayt]

Noticed an issue with how RetroArch handles save files / save states for specific cores and image formats, if compressed, when launching RA via Playnite.

Issue

If RetroArch is launched via Playnite, save files / save states that were created in RetroArch when RA is launched directly are not recognized if the game files are compressed (i.e. zip, 7z, etc.). Additionally, save files / states created while running RA launched via Playnite are recognized only when running via Playnite and not by RA when launched directly.

Findings

This may be due to the way RA handles compressed folders. When RA is launched directly, it appears to unzip the contents of the game before launching the game and then rezipping them afterwards. When launched via Playnite, it behaves differently. Below is a direct example.

Example

You have a legal backup of Fire Emblem for Game Boy Advance (GBA) in a folder called Fire Emblem (GBA).zip and inside that folder is a file called Fire Emblem (USA).gba. When launching RetroArch directly it will create save files with the string Fire Emblem (USA).srm (if save file compression is enabled in RA) and Fire Emblem (USA).sav because that is the file name of the .gba file. If you launch the game through Playnite however, it will create save files with the string Fire Emblem (GBA).srm and Fire Emblem (GBA).sav because that is the file name of the .zip folder that the .gba file is inside of. The same thing occurs with save states using the extension .state.

Solution

This can be resolved by simply naming the rom itself with the exact same file name as the zip folder it is saved in (i.e. Fire Emblem (GBA).gba saved inside a zip folder called Fire Emblem (GBA).zip) as the difference in naming is what causes the underlying issue. Else, you could simply unzip all of your roms, however you lose compression and thus increase the overall file size of your library.

Alternatively, there may be an argument that fixes this discrepancy, however after discussing it with the admin on the official Playnite Discord, this may not be an option. The proposed alternate solution might also be to have Playnite unzip the rom prior to launch, but this is untested and may not be feasible for all cores / configurations of RA.

[darklinkpower]

I don't understand, why are you reporting this issue (And maybe you might have confused this repo with the Playnite repo ?) here and not to RetroArch developers if it's an issue in the emulator? This issue you describe is not specific or caused by Playnite per se, it happens when launching compressed games via command line, from whatever place like Playnite, CMD, Powershell, LaunchBox, etc..

The proposed alternate solution might also be to have Playnite unzip the rom prior to launch, but this is untested and may not be feasible for all cores / configurations of RA.

I don't agree with this proposed solution. This would be nothing but a workaround to an issue in the emulator. It's not like it will happen frequently but it shouldn't be Playnite's responsibility to implement workarounds to bugs/issues in emulators. This behavior looks like an oversight/bug in how RetroArch handles launching games differently when using its user interface and command line and cases like this is explained in the troubleshooting Playnite documentation here. You also have to add that implementing workarounds will introduce additional complexity to Playnite itself and something more to develop and maintain.

Like I mentioned the best idea is to report this issue to RetroArch developers if you haven't already done it so they can fix it when they can.

[JosefNemec]

This was discussed on Discord. We just need to create troubleshooting entry for this, that's all.