TAStudio Arcade Naomi Cannon Spike Can Exceed "Gaps Buffer - Size" Causing Crash

[ShinobiWannabe]

Summary

Using TAStudio with Arcade Naomi game Cannon Spike eventually results in a fatal error being thrown. CasualPokePlayer narrowed it down to the savestate exceeding the Gaps Buffer - Size. Increasing that setting mitigates this issue. Assuming that once the savestates grow large enough the issue will occur again.

Discord discussion link
https://discord.com/channels/280806848909541376/280813077853765632/1231050515685707826

Error screenshot

Mitigation Setting

Bizhawk 2.9.1 MameHawk

cspike xml.zip
BK file. needs more branches to error.
Cannon Spike + Gun Spike 3 interesting.zip

Full Name: Cannon Spike / Gun Spike
Short Name: cspike
Resolution: 640x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Framerate: 61.70259 (1073741820 / 17401893)

There are known problems with this system
Imperfectly emulated features: graphics, sound
THIS SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK
The emulation for this system is not yet complete
There is nothing you can do to fix this problem except wait for the developers to improve the emulation.

CRC:7c9fea46 SHA:f77c07ae65dfed18c1c4c632c8945be21d02ddaf - 315-6188.ic31
CRC:7a50fab9 SHA:ef79f448e0bf735d1264ad4f051d24178822110f - boot_rom_64b8.ic606
CRC:309a196a SHA:409b50371feb648f10efd6b7ac420bf08d9a3b5a - develop.ic27
CRC:de7cfdb0 SHA:da16800edc4d49f70481c124d487f544c2fa8ce7 - develop110.ic27
^CRC:d3d57af8 SHA:0eb72c2a20ad8b86d442b77760eab5e89521d469 - epr-21336a.ic27 (BAD DUMP)
CRC:9dad3495 SHA:5fb66f9a2b68d120f059c72758e65d34f461044a - epr-21576.ic27
CRC:cedfe439 SHA:f27798bf3d890863ef0c1d9dcb4e7782249dca27 - epr-21576a.ic27
CRC:755a6e07 SHA:7e8b8ccfc063144d89668e7224dcd8a36c54f3b3 - epr-21576b.ic27
^CRC:4599ad13 SHA:7e730e9452a792d76f210c33a955d385538682c7 - epr-21576c.ic27 (BAD DUMP)
CRC:3b2afa7b SHA:d007e1d321c198a38c5baff86eb2ab84385d150a - epr-21576d.ic27
CRC:08c0add7 SHA:e7c1a7673cb2ccb21748ef44105e46d1bad7266d - epr-21576e.ic27
CRC:d2a1c6bf SHA:6d27d71aec4dfba98f66316ae74a1426d567698a - epr-21576g.ic27
CRC:d4895685 SHA:91424d481ff99a8d3f4c45cea6d3f0eada049a6d - epr-21576h.ic27
CRC:cce01f1f SHA:cca17119ad13e3a4ef7cb6902a37b65d6a844aee - epr-21576h_multi.ic27
CRC:969dc491 SHA:581d1eae328b87b67508a7586ffc60cee256f70f - epr-21577a.ic27
CRC:60ddcbbe SHA:58b15096d269d6df617ca1810b66b47deb184958 - epr-21577d.ic27
CRC:cf36e97b SHA:b085305982e7572e58b03a9d35f17ae319c3bbc6 - epr-21577e.ic27
CRC:25f64af7 SHA:99f9e6cc0642319bd2da492611220540add573e8 - epr-21577g.ic27
CRC:fdf17452 SHA:5f3e4b677f0046ce690a4f096b0481e5dd8bb6e6 - epr-21577h.ic27
CRC:6c9aad83 SHA:555918de76d8dbee2a97d8a95297ef694b3e803f - epr-21578a.ic27
CRC:dfd5f42a SHA:614a0db4743a5e5a206190d6786ade24325afbfd - epr-21578d.ic27
CRC:087f09a3 SHA:0418eb2cf9766f0b1b874a4e92528779e22c0a4a - epr-21578e.ic27
CRC:628a27fd SHA:dae7add616b1a2478f00608823e88c3b82a0e78f - epr-21578f.ic27
CRC:55413214 SHA:bd2748365a9fc1821c9369aa7155d7c41c4df43e - epr-21578g.ic27
CRC:7b452946 SHA:8e9f153bbada24b37066dc45b64a7bf0d4f26a9b - epr-21578h.ic27
CRC:71f9c918 SHA:d15af8b947f41eea7c203b565cd403e3f37a2017 - epr-21579.ic27
CRC:33513691 SHA:b1d8c7c516e1471a788fcf7a02a794ad2f05aeeb - epr-21579d.ic27
CRC:a15c54b5 SHA:5c7872244d3d648e4c04751f120d0e9d47239921 - epr-23210.ic22
CRC:fea29cbb SHA:4099f1747aafa07db34f6e072cd9bfaa83bae10e - main_eeprom.bin
CRC:ce8d3edf SHA:1df5bb4eb440c221b8f1e5f019b02accc235fc28 - mpr-23198.ic1
CRC:0979392a SHA:7dc433da6f3e47a721a2e86720a65d9752248e92 - mpr-23199.ic2
CRC:e4b2db33 SHA:063bc3789f68be5fcefeeec9e1c8268feb84b7eb - mpr-23200.ic3
CRC:c55ca0fa SHA:e6fde606b9ed4fd195da304a7b57e8b7797e368f - mpr-23201.ic4
CRC:983bb21c SHA:a30f9b09370cceadf11defc85b5acd3e578477e0 - mpr-23202.ic5
CRC:f61b8d96 SHA:a3522963b1e13b809818ffe5a209dd4ce087ec38 - mpr-23203.ic6
CRC:03593ecd SHA:5ef3ccbfb7b1cc85ad352b13d70eefcad2b209f6 - mpr-23204.ic7
CRC:e8c9349b SHA:310f02c5dad84e84362f0f674afa405f7d72f8ce - mpr-23205.ic8
CRC:8089d80f SHA:821f5f24616920bf0ed4c86597c27f6a3c39b8e6 - mpr-23206.ic9
CRC:39f692a1 SHA:14bc86b48a995378b4dd3609d38b90cddf2d7483 - mpr-23207.ic10
CRC:b9494f4b SHA:2f35b25edf5210a82d4b67e639eeae11440d065a - mpr-23208.ic11
CRC:560188c0 SHA:77f14c9a031c6e5414ffa854d20c40115361d715 - mpr-23209.ic12s
000e2010 - rom_board:segam2crypt:key
CRC:3ea24b6a SHA:3a730ebcf56e0060fef6b1b02eb2eb7cfb7e61dc - x76f100_eeprom.bin
CRC:58e17c23 SHA:19330f906accf1b859f56bbcedc2edff73747599 - zukinver0930.ic25

Repro

1. Load Cannon Spike
2. Open TAStudio
3. Make many branches while progressing through game.
4. After making a branch modify the input roll, then save a new branch.
5. Eventually it will throw a fatal exception.

Alternatively Found that if the size is too large you can see more information by attempting to save the change, but keeping old save states. Error with "System.IO.IOException: A single state must not be larger than the buffer"

1. Load Cannon Spike
2. Open TAStudio
3. Open Metadata -> Change the Gaps Buffer Size. To 65mb or 64mb. Keep it low so it still errors.
4. Click OK
5. When prompted to "Keep old states" Click Yes. This will error if the save state is too large.
   

with single save state error.txt

Output
with single save state error.txt

Output

Fatal error: InvalidOperationException
EmuHawk has thrown a fatal exception and is about to close.  A movie has been detected.  Would you like to try to save?  (Note Depending on what caused this error, this may or may not succeed)

Error from Metadata-> Savestate History Settings -> Gaps Buffer Size save with "yes" option to Keep Old States prompt.

Output
with single save state error.txt

Host env.

• BizHawk 2.9.1 on Windows 10 Pro Intel / AMD

[Morilli]

A single savestate being larger than the savestate buffer (64MB) is an issue in itself as this will also limit the amount of total savestates SEVERELY at larger buffer sizes, but this is probably not fixable as we don't have control over the emulated system.

I'd say the most useful thing to do here is make sure that the default or initial settings are reasonable for the system and not proceed otherwise.

[nattthebear]

There are no reasonable defaults that would cover both 50kB savestates and 50MB savestates; could we be more granular on MAME depending on core?