Add Option to Use Filename Based Naming for Per Game VMUs [Libretro] [Feature Request]

[Awakened0]

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Platform / OS / Hardware:
Windows 11, Libretro Core

Flycast version:
8b35fb8

Until recently, when using either the "VMU A1" or "All VMU's" Per Game VMU options Flycast would create a save file using the filename of the ROM with .A1.bin after it.

Example: Sonic Adventure (USA) (En,Ja,Fr,De,Es) (Rev A).A1.bin

Now it will still load old saves with that naming scheme, but will rename it to something different. I'm not sure where it gets this, maybe it's a serial? For Sonic Adventure, it becomes:

Example: MK-51000.A1.bin

With this naming scheme it's much harder to figure out which save file goes with each game.

[Alextended]

I asked about it here and it seems like it was intentional change.
#1806
I do prefer the old way to manage the files easier manually/know which saves to rename for games that detect other game/disc saves and just to keep consistency with how pretty much every other emulator core is set to handle things in RetroArch etc...

[Awakened0]

Yeah it'd be nice to have an option to use either game ID or filename naming schemes. I would argue filename should be the default to be in line with other cores, like you mentioned.

[flyinghead]

I agree that this naming convention is less convenient for users. But this change is intentional and the goal is to have multi-disk games (such as Shenmue and others) share the same VMU files.
The ID used is the game ID stored in the boot sector of the disk, that uniquely identifies each Dreamcast game.

[Awakened0]

Well, if you create a .m3u file with the filenames for all the discs of a game in it and load that, the per game VMU file should match the .m3u filename and use that file for all discs.

But I don't mind if game ID naming is the default if it makes it easier for most folk to play multi disc games. I'd just like an option to use filenames again if it's not too much trouble.

I'm the type who likes to delete any save files left over after removing a game from my collection. I have to look up a database of Dreamcast game ID's every time I need to do that with the current naming scheme.