Save files are corrupted

[FlorettaV]

No, the 8MB is the primary problem because you can hit it just by playing an unmodified game, and it will most likely kick in at the worst time possible (endgame).

No. The 8MB isn't the primary problem. Not in my opinion atleast. The problem is that savegames retain data that should've been purged. Bloating. Savegames are filled with air. That's why 8MB's can be reached. If there were no bloating, then I've got a hard time believing you'd actually hit the 8MB limit.

A full playthrough with no more icons on the map results (currently, with bloating) in a 6.5ish MB save file. You'd need to to craft *and hold* about 7200 on top of your normal gear to fill the save file. It's possible, but in my opinion you'd be trying.

I'm curious as to how much bloating there is in a save file that pretty much completed everything in the game without actually crafting stuff. Maybe it saves about 500KB, maybe it's 2MB. We can't really tell. But it'd save space, so you'd need probably around 10K grenades in your inventory to get this done. I welcome the person that sits behind their computer with the patience to craft 10k items and explains to me it's not to break the game. It'd take you more than 3 consecutive hours for something that doesn't add anything.


I think CDPR should increase the save file limit, but in my opinion it's not the primary issue.

 

[BornK1ll]

154 hours in game here, PC... a lot of itens crafted, a lot of things on inventary - more then 60k... no one file corrupted... all entire save folder (each): 4 mb.

Just a tip: dont use mods...at finish the update fix wave (Febuary).

Good that is working for you and if all your saves are allegedly not surpassing 4MB then also great... but it does not mean that everyone else has to be using something like glitches or mods for this to not be an issue.

There are many other people here clearly claiming otherwise - myself included and I haven't event played more that 100h and my save is already close to 5.5MB... and haven't even finished a story

My safe may not be broken at this point but it getting closer and closer, and I play like any other "normal" player... no mods, no glitches (didn't even have time or interest to check them as was happily playing almost without any serious bugs).

So once again, the fact it allegedly doesn't affect you, doesn't mean it is a made up issue or caused by "hacking, glitching and other shenanigans"

But I think I know why there is such way of thinking, though - because the easiest way to reproduce this problem is by crafting the living cr*p of the game, so a lot of people think it does not affect them because the don't craft or hoard gear.... but you may not even be aware that your save game may be a time bomb waiting to... get corrupted

 

[BitterHalt]

My 200h Wicher 3 safe is only 3.50mb and i have weight mod with tons of items in my inventory

 

[IskrasFemme]

Good that is working for you and if all your saves are allegedly not surpassing 4MB then also great... but it does not mean that everyone else has to be using something like glitches or mods for this to not be an issue.

There are many other people here clearly claiming otherwise - myself included and I haven't event played more that 100h and my save is already close to 5.5MB... and haven't even finished a story

My safe may not be broken at this point but it getting closer and closer, and I play like any other "normal" player... no mods, no glitches (didn't even have time or interest to check them as was happily playing almost without any serious bugs).

So once again, the fact it allegedly doesn't affect you, doesn't mean it is a made up issue or caused by "hacking, glitching and other shenanigans"

But I think I know why there is such way of thinking, though - because the easiest way to reproduce this problem is by crafting the living cr*p of the game, so a lot of people think it does not affect them because the don't craft or hoard gear.... but you may not even be aware that your save game may be a time bomb waiting to... get corrupted

Interpretation is part of the text and the responsibility of the reader. I didn't say that A or B used something, I just suggested to avoid it. I also don't see mods as 'sins' ...

Do not confuse what I write.

 

[pagefault404]

If I understand it right, and others are free to correct me on this matter as I don't want to spread misinformation, if the game writes a savegame over 8mb, the data gets corrupted. But there's also the (possible) flaw of unused item IDs not being purged and reused (Witcher 3 has this problem, but it's realy difficult to encounter). Savegames have natural bloat, but crafting can accelerate this issue. However, playing long enough can cause the same thing.

So it doesn't get corrupted per se, the game just can't write more than 8192KB to file, so when you try to save a game state in memory that's greater in size than 8192KB, the game is allowed to write to file, but, it takes all of the data past 8192KB and destroys it, including the marker that tells the game where the end of the file is, so when you try and load the save, the game can't determine where the end of the file is, so it tells you that your save is corrupt.

The data is there. If there was a working save editor, you could open the file and see that the information would be there, so it's not a classic case of corruption where the data is unreadable. The game just doesn't know what to do with a save file that's got that cut off data and no end of file marker. Which is why just adding an end of file marker won't fix the save because it's impossible to know what data the game discarded when the memory was dumped to file.

At this point, the itemID issue is a suspicion that's rooted in the issue being around since The Witcher 3, and the save file bloat being agitated by excessive crafting. Over time we've discovered that there's more going on with the bloat than just itemIDs though, so while the itemID issue can be a contributing factor, I personally don't believe it's the primary culprit. Which if you read my past posts, I used to believe that, but, things have changed.

You more or less understand it right, and, I hope this clears the issue up for you.

A warning. All of this is hypothetical. Nobody here has access to either the source code for the REDengine 4 nor do we have access to the developer tools for the engine either. So everything here is just a working hypothesis and should be treated as such. The information found in this post is anecdotal, conjecture, and based on testing from a small dataset of players and save files.

 

[FlorettaV]

So it doesn't get corrupted per se, the game just can't write more than 8192KB to file, so when you try to save a game state in memory that's greater in size than 8192KB, the game is allowed to write to file, but, it takes all of the data past 8192KB and destroys it, including the marker that tells the game where the end of the file is, so when you try and load the save, the game can't determine where the end of the file is, so it tells you that your save is corrupt.

The data is there. If there was a working save editor, you could open the file and see that the information would be there, so it's not a classic case of corruption where the data is unreadable. The game just doesn't know what to do with a save file that's got that cut off data and no end of file marker. Which is why just adding an end of file marker won't fix the save because it's impossible to know what data the game discarded when the memory was dumped to file.

At this point, the itemID issue is a suspicion that's rooted in the issue being around since The Witcher 3, and the save file bloat being agitated by excessive crafting. Over time we've discovered that there's more going on with the bloat than just itemIDs though, so while the itemID issue can be a contributing factor, I personally don't believe it's the primary culprit. Which if you read my past posts, I used to believe that, but, things have changed.

You more or less understand it right, and, I hope this clears the issue up for you.

A warning. All of this is hypothetical. Nobody here has access to either the source code for the REDengine 4 nor do we have access to the developer tools for the engine either. So everything here is just a working hypothesis and should be treated as such. The information found in this post is anecdotal, conjecture, and based on testing from a small dataset of players and save files.

I've been fidgetting with my save files, including save files that I wilfully brought to the point of no return. I think you can safely call the files corrupt. How corrupt depends on how much you're over the limit.

As you said; The buffer simply stops at 8MB and drops everything that's coming after. If that is simply ENOD you could probably restore it by adding the end manually, but you need to realise that it's waaay more likely that your save file is bigger than just missing ENOD. It does save important data at the end of normal save files. So if parts of that went missing, there'd be no completely succesful restore. You'd miss progress pointers, influence you had on the world, etc. Missing stuff like that and creating discrepancies would most likely create a very weird save.

If you want to restore a save file to fully work and miss no data; I'd argue you can't restore save files.

 

[Midnight_Nova]

So it doesn't get corrupted per se, the game just can't write more than 8192KB to file, so when you try to save a game state in memory that's greater in size than 8192KB, the game is allowed to write to file, but, it takes all of the data past 8192KB and destroys it, including the marker that tells the game where the end of the file is, so when you try and load the save, the game can't determine where the end of the file is, so it tells you that your save is corrupt.

The data is there. If there was a working save editor, you could open the file and see that the information would be there, so it's not a classic case of corruption where the data is unreadable. The game just doesn't know what to do with a save file that's got that cut off data and no end of file marker. Which is why just adding an end of file marker won't fix the save because it's impossible to know what data the game discarded when the memory was dumped to file.

At this point, the itemID issue is a suspicion that's rooted in the issue being around since The Witcher 3, and the save file bloat being agitated by excessive crafting. Over time we've discovered that there's more going on with the bloat than just itemIDs though, so while the itemID issue can be a contributing factor, I personally don't believe it's the primary culprit. Which if you read my past posts, I used to believe that, but, things have changed.

You more or less understand it right, and, I hope this clears the issue up for you.

A warning. All of this is hypothetical. Nobody here has access to either the source code for the REDengine 4 nor do we have access to the developer tools for the engine either. So everything here is just a working hypothesis and should be treated as such. The information found in this post is anecdotal, conjecture, and based on testing from a small dataset of players and save files.

Appreciate the clarification!

 

[chriscshunter]

Anyone had succes in getting a refund on steam?
If so, how? Can´t play since 1 week...

If your Steam Version of the Game's Save File is Damaged Ask for a Refund

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPurchase After you click on the game, make sure you use "I have a question about this purchase" and not the "I would like a refund" button or it will automatically deny. In the notes ask for a refund and include a screenshot of your save file...

forums.cdprojektred.com

Follow those directions at the link, otherwise if you do a refund ticket it is an automated system with no real response.

I finally got a response from 'Zach' that since I have more than 2 hours they will deny my refund. I refreshed with a new comment that their refund policy should not apply to a game where it literally destroyed my entire playthrough time. I will keep this ticket open until I get a refund. This is complete bullshit.

I wish I had only 2 hours wasted. Honestly the people here need to stop trying to figure out every little detail of the problem. This isn't our problem to solve. There are many of us that its already too late. We need people to request refunds and someone needs to get through.

 

[Shockwave]

I've been fidgetting with my save files, including save files that I wilfully brought to the point of no return. I think you can safely call the files corrupt. How corrupt depends on how much you're over the limit.

Can you try to load those corrupted save game files in pixelrick's tool and see if it's loaded correctly/if you have any data structures missing compared to normal saves?

 

[angrybear35]

I'm about 30% there of the main quests, save the influence thing sits at 75%.

My save files are over 4mb in size, with about 70 hours of gameplay, still quite a few side quests and odds and ends left that i cant see yet.

I do craft but i dont really upgrade mats.
I dont use mods, let me be clear on that, no mods or any weird alterations that are not normal, so no massive duping save 1 little item by accident.

I think the bloating comes from not deleting lines of code that are supposed to represent clothing and such.
The game creates a unique line of code for any item you pick up, it has to do this to keep things apart.
As you all know there are many similar items but with better stats etc.

However i get the sense that when i delete older same items (like the same jacket but one is white the other is legendary) it doesnt delete the code that goes along with what i deleted and keeps it all in the save file as if its still matters.
Instead of deleting an older code to make room for a new code should you, again, pick up the same sort of item.

 

[dracul24]

Hey, just sign up to comment on this topic. I've stopped playing altogether, my save is already 5,49 mb and I don't want to go around with this on the back of my head for the remaining gameplay. I've barely crafted anything (although I've disassembled A LOT to make space), I didn't sell almost anything, for the most part I just hold on the components, just in case I wanted to go craft something later. I've completed almost all map's NPCD, tarot cards, gigs, etc, the only thing left for me to do are the main/side quest like judy and panam storylines. But the storyline adds a lot to the save game size, after a quest with takemura the file size increased 1mb, so I guess is pretty safe to say that the game will corrupt if I try to do a 100% playthrough.
It is a shame, because I've enjoy this game a lot till this point.

 

[Ravashack]

No. The 8MB isn't the primary problem. Not in my opinion atleast. The problem is that savegames retain data that should've been purged. Bloating. Savegames are filled with air. That's why 8MB's can be reached. If there were no bloating, then I've got a hard time believing you'd actually hit the 8MB limit.

A full playthrough with no more icons on the map results (currently, with bloating) in a 6.5ish MB save file. You'd need to to craft *and hold* about 7200 on top of your normal gear to fill the save file. It's possible, but in my opinion you'd be trying.

I'm curious as to how much bloating there is in a save file that pretty much completed everything in the game without actually crafting stuff. Maybe it saves about 500KB, maybe it's 2MB. We can't really tell. But it'd save space, so you'd need probably around 10K grenades in your inventory to get this done. I welcome the person that sits behind their computer with the patience to craft 10k items and explains to me it's not to break the game. It'd take you more than 3 consecutive hours for something that doesn't add anything.


I think CDPR should increase the save file limit, but in my opinion it's not the primary issue.

OK, I can get behind that logic with those kinds of numbers.

 

[BornK1ll]

Interpretation is part of the text and the responsibility of the reader. I didn't say that A or B used something, I just suggested to avoid it. I also don't see mods as 'sins' ...

Do not confuse what I write.

yea... I'll just let you read your message again from perspective of a person that is not in your head... anyway I am not going to dig into it as this is not the subject of this thread, if you felt offended.... well then it's your interpretation.

However, if your saves are indeed around 4MB with that much gameplay then perhaps the culprit may be a quest or activity that others did or did differently than you which is causing bloating loop out of the estimated proportions.

Just guessing... after all this game is not in a pristine technical state.

 

[OctoberFNRaven]

No. The 8MB isn't the primary problem. Not in my opinion atleast. The problem is that savegames retain data that should've been purged. Bloating. Savegames are filled with air.

As a wise woman once said, "Por que no los dos?"

Because, yeah, bloated saves are bad, but so is arbitrary save space limit.

 

[pagefault404]

I've been fidgetting with my save files, including save files that I wilfully brought to the point of no return. I think you can safely call the files corrupt. How corrupt depends on how much you're over the limit.

As you said; The buffer simply stops at 8MB and drops everything that's coming after. If that is simply ENOD you could probably restore it by adding the end manually, but you need to realise that it's waaay more likely that your save file is bigger than just missing ENOD. It does save important data at the end of normal save files. So if parts of that went missing, there'd be no completely succesful restore. You'd miss progress pointers, influence you had on the world, etc. Missing stuff like that and creating discrepancies would most likely create a very weird save.

If you want to restore a save file to fully work and miss no data; I'd argue you can't restore save files.

I 100% agree that there's no way to recover a borked save. Something else I think I remember reading in this post, is the game not only truncates data when it saves, but it also truncates data when it loads as well. So if you made a change to the save file to fix it, when it loaded the save, it would cut off any data in excess of 8192KB I might be remembering that wrong, but, I swear I saw it in an earlier post. Something about someone adding like 4KB of data to the save and the game cutting it off when it loaded the file.

When I think of corruption, I think of unreadable data. Like on an HDD for example. To me, missing data is a more nuanced issue than corruption, where corruption could be applied in a more generic sense. By definition, the files ARE corrupt, because the program cannot read them because of the issue with lost data. However if you were to load the save in a working save editor, I believe the data would be there, and 100% readable, with the exception of any partial data from the cut off. That particular data? Yes that's corrupt because it's partial, and now unreadable. Everything else, not so much.

So when I say it's not corrupt, I don't mean to imply that it's a salvageable save game. I simply mean that the data in the save is there and readable with the exception of the possibly partial data from the 8192KB cut off. That data is 100% corrupt because there's no way for us to reconstruct it.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[IskrasFemme]

Hey, just sign up to comment on this topic. I've stopped playing altogether, my save is already 5,49 mb and I don't want to go around with this on the back of my head for the remaining gameplay. I've barely crafted anything (although I've disassembled A LOT to make space), I didn't sell almost anything, for the most part I just hold on the components, just in case I wanted to go craft something later. I've completed almost all map's NPCD, tarot cards, gigs, etc, the only thing left for me to do are the main/side quest like judy and panam storylines. But the storyline adds a lot to the save game size, after a quest with takemura the file size increased 1mb, so I guess is pretty safe to say that the game will corrupt if I try to do a 100% playthrough.
It is a shame, because I've enjoy this game a lot till this point.

So far, there is around ZERO confirmation whether this eventual problem is real or not ... isolated cases do not determine the experience of the majority. The fact is that, on the PC, the game has not had any problems with Save Files.

And problems exist when they arise, many here are commenting on such an 'about the eminence to arise', without even having had any problems about.

Avoid misinformation, avoid believing everything you read ... especially when what you read does not match facts or does not correspond to facts.

 

[FlorettaV]

I 100% agree that there's no way to recover a borked save. Something else I think I remember reading in this post, is the game not only truncates data when it saves, but it also truncates data when it loads as well. So if you made a change to the save file to fix it, when it loaded the save, it would cut off any data in excess of 8192KB I might be remembering that wrong, but, I swear I saw it in an earlier post. Something about someone adding like 4KB of data to the save and the game cutting it off when it loaded the file.

When I think of corruption, I think of unreadable data. Like on an HDD for example. To me, missing data is a more nuanced issue than corruption, where corruption could be applied in a more generic sense. By definition, the files ARE corrupt, because the program cannot read them because of the issue with lost data. However if you were to load the save in a working save editor, I believe the data would be there, and 100% readable, with the exception of any partial data from the cut off. That particular data? Yes that's corrupt because it's partial, and now unreadable. Everything else, not so much.

So when I say it's not corrupt, I don't mean to imply that it's a salvageable save game. I simply mean that the data in the save is there and readable with the exception of the possibly partial data from the 8192KB cut off. That data is 100% corrupt because there's no way for us to reconstruct it.

Sorry for the confusion.

Aaah right! Gotcha! We're on the same line again then. Yes, you can still read the files

And I didn't know about the loading. That's good to know, thanks.

 

[HAKIMODO]

The file can be corrupted in 2 ways:
- logical (structure)
- physical (can't be read - hardware issue)

so use term "corrupted" isn't bad in this case.

 

[IAmMrSoda]

Some interesting console save info, maybe it helps:

Xbox User. To start he said he has 2 manual saves for a 13.5mb total(originally it was 5 saves for 50MB). There are no autosaves or anything else. Just these 2 manual saves. 1 save for two separate characters. But this has resulted in some weird results for console. I'll explain more after the details. So:


Save File details:

Size: Either ~6.75MB or 12.2MB*

Level 20, Street Cred 21

18 hours, 36 minutes playtime.

At last main mission. Few side missions, gigs, NCPD done.

Map fully explored/traveled to.

No crafting, just upgrading.

No duping glitches performed.

When loading up game only gets a black screen for 5 seconds then game loads.

* So that 12.2MB size may actually be correct. As said I'll explain. There were two ways I had to determine the size of this save. Either I average it or I create a 2nd character and reach the same point he has for his 2nd character(he had just beat rescuing Sandra with Jackie, so very early game) and see how much more MB is added to my Xbox's save data then take tgat added MB and subtract it from his 13.5MB to get his save's size. Now. For reference my first character is at 5MB. So I created a 2nd character and reached that same point. I checked my save data. It showed 6.3MB. A 1.3MB gain. So I then deleted that save and the rechecked. Back to 5MB like before. A 1.3MB loss. So that save is 1.3MB. I took that 1.3MB and subtracted thar from his 13.5MB full size and we land at 12.2MB apparently.

The guy was very straightforward and answered every question. Songs seems genuine and reliable. But this result is... perplexing.

Either consoles truly do not have this issue, the 12.59MB size on PS4/5 is more accurate for the console wall, or there was user error on his part(which I truly doubt as he was checking as we spoke).

EDIT: For record I'm going to br double checking with him. While these results could be real... That 12.2MB is vastly different from mine. And I have done far more than him. Even using the dupe glitch on the painting to have 6 to speed up money. So something has to be wrong on his side.

EDIT#2: The user has agreed to provide video proof. Will post when I get video.

 

[binn05]

Just finished a 90 hr completionist run on my first playthrough, was lucky I found this news at the last minute as my save file was 5.85 mb.

I did a test as I have a crafting build with 18 technical and legendary perk, just went to Vs apartment and made a whole bunch of components and ammo. And walla, save file bloated to 6mb within a few minutes of non stop crafting. So yeah, definitely a problem.

I have tons of loot and finished every single quest in the game including NCPD dispatches, so it seems isolated to just crafting at least from my end.

I love this game and I never encountered any game breakers until now, still going to play it just a shame have to avoid crafting for now.

Why no one is paying attention to this post?
It answer one of the question we have been asking since the beginning of the thread (I read all the posts).
It is possible, without crafting, to do all the missions without corrupting the save.
The problem is that if you do not craft, you are cutting around 20% of gaming playstyles (since we have 5 attributes).