Saving project woes

[crofty616]

Hi There, I've just started my first project using RPG Maker VX Ace, and for the most part everything is going great.

However two times I have lost large amounts of work, and I dont understand how, which obviously makes me question if its worth continuing with.

I have my project saved onto a USB memory stick, which i move between three different computers.

For easy of explaining, lets say theres PC1, PC2 and PC3.

So far its gone like this.

Start project on PC1 saving to the USB stick.

Bring USB stick home, continue working on PC2.

Take USB stick back to PC1, open project and it is the same as when i left, everything done at home is lost.

Redo the lost progress, bring USB stick to PC3, continue working.

Take USB stick back to PC1, all progress since i left PC1 is lost again.

Every time i play test this should be saving shouldnt it? (as thats what it says).

And I regularly click the save project icon while working. How has this happened?

Any help would be greatly apprciated as obviously I'm not feeling too great right now.

Thanks

Edit: My game project's last modified time is the last time i used it on PC1, even though ive playtested it and saved it about 100 times since.

 

[Andar]

no, you've opened the wrong project in those times - I assume you're using the steam version?


The Steam Version CANNOT open a project by doubleclicking on a project file. If you try that, the editor will start but it WILL NOT load the project you doubleclicked. Instead it will open the last project edited on that computer and ignore the data on your USB stick.


Start the program in any way you want, completely ignore the project it has then opened and go to the file menu and use the command "open project" to load the data from the USB drive.

 

[crofty616]

Hi Andar,

Thanks for the quick reply. You're correct that im using the steam version, however I have also tried closing the project, and then reopeneing it using the open project option as you suggest, sadly this still gives me the same result .

 

[crofty616]

Worth adding is that it looks like maps I have made are still saved onto the memory stick, but down show up in the project...

 

[EternalShadow]

No, don't close the project before reopening.


Open Ace, then just click 'open' from there, and navigate to the actual project via that menu.

 

[crofty616]

Hi Hotfirelegend.

I've tried that aswell with no success. The project file on the memorystick just doesnt seem to be updated at all after leaving the first PC. Things were obviously being saved to the USB stick as it has the new maps in the data folder, but the project seems to have been left as it was...

 

[EternalShadow]

Ok, go to the pc which has the updated stuff.


Make sure the new file is opened.


Compress it.


Save it as [project] V2 (make sure there isn't already a compressed project by the same name in where you're compressing it to)


Save this compression on the stick


Go to the other pc


Decompress


Open RM (doesn't matter what is opened)


THEN click 'open'


then navigate to the thing you just decompressed

 

[DarkstarMatryx]

crofty616, I just went through a similar occurrence last night with steam and the evils of it's cloud saving.  My saving grace was that I was making regular manual back-ups of the project folder and only using one computer but it still tried to reset my project to an earlier point.  I had to disable cloud saving but before that I had to do a number of steps to clear out steams old save of my project.  I found the steps on the steam discussion boards.  I'd find the link for you if I wasn't at work at the moment.

 

[crofty616]

Hi Both,

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to access the computer it was last up to date on tonight, so hopefully I will be able to follow hotfire's steps.

I was also using the cloud saving which I have now disabled. I think I might join you in taking manual backups of the project folder. That said ill also have to keep an eye that its actually updating the project file in the first place, which seems to be the problem here...

 

[Andar]

I was also using the cloud saving which I have now disabled.

I think that was probably the cause - if you're using cloud saving, you need to save and load your project with "Manage Projects" without ever using a USB stick - and steam cloud can be slow sometimes, if you shutdown before the update is complete then of course part of the data will be lost.
The other reason would also have to do with incomplete files - if you copy data between different folders, you need all files and not just part of them - for example, a new map needs not only its own mapfile, but also updated info in the maplist-file for the editor to know that the new map exists. Just copying a new mapfile will NOT allow the editor to load that map...

 

[crofty616]

After checking the PC where I was last working I still havent had any joy, it looks like it somehow synced up, so Ive lost the work that I had done.

The only saving grace is that I managed to import the new maps that I had made back into the project by moving them to a different folder, adding a new blank map to the project, and then pasting them back in overwriting the new map file.

I've still lost a couple of hours work on one of my main maps, but at least it isnt as bad as losing everything I did that day.

Guess ill just have to watch the last modified time of my project file like a hawk from now on though...

 

[whitesphere]

I'm not a fan of the "Save to Steam Cloud" feature.  I've seen the "Steam Cloud Save" make the brilliant decision that the Steam cloud version is newer than the one I'm using --- and overwrite it.  It sounds like that's what it's doing.

To turn off the "Save to Steam Cloud" feature, look under "Manage Projects" from the File menu.  Select your current project and then click the "Delete from Cloud" button.  This leaves your local copy intact and stops RPG Maker from trying to synchronize the project with Steam.  This also allows RPG Maker to start much more quickly since it doesn't have to do a Steam update of each project.

I've had the best luck following this process for transferring a project between PCs:

1. Save Project and shut down RPG Maker VX Ace completely (for maximum safety, though it's probably unnecessary)

2. Make a ZIP file of the entire project folder (it's in the Documents\RPGVXAce\Project Name folder)

3. Upload said ZIP file to my favorite cloud storage (Dropbox for me, but there are a ton like Google Drive, Skydrive, etc)

And to load the project on a different PC:

1. Remove the entire local contents of that directory

2. Extract the ZIP file from cloud storage and put its contents into the same directory, so everything is in the same directory location it was on the first PC.

3. Start RPG Maker VX Ace

This works well for me.

If I were using a USB Stick, I'd copy the ZIP file to that instead.