Savegame

ZDoom's savegame files are contained with PNG files since v2.0 Beta 13. The game snapshot is the image itself, and the game data is contained in various custom ancillary chunks: huBs, ptIc, snAp, viSt, pcLs and raNd. Since build^r666, the SVN revision number is used to mark the savegame (earlier, an arbitrary number was used).

Autosaves

By default, ZDoom automatically creates savegames whenever the player enters a new level. This is needed for playing through hubs correctly, as a normal respawn (also known as "pistol start", or "wand start" in Heretic) would potentially break the ongoing game by resetting all levels in the hub. The number of autosave slots is commanded by the autosavecount console variable, and whether autosaves are performed is decided by the disableautosave variable. Both can be changed from the miscellaneous options menu.

Backward compatibility

ZDoom features some measure of backward compatibility in loading savegames, but sometimes the addition of new features or architectural changes in subsystems force a compatibility break.

• 2.1.0^r204: up from ^r34
• 2.1.1^r226: up from ^r34
• 2.1.2^r257: up from ^r250
• 2.1.3^r265: up from ^r250
• 2.1.4^r273: up from ^r250
• 2.1.5^r321: up from ^r289
• 2.1.6^r346: up from ^r289
• 2.1.7^r524: up from ^r289
• 2.2.0^r748: up from ^r714
• 2.3.0^r1455: up from ^r1452
• 2.3.1^r1480: up from ^r1452
• 2.4.0^r2075: up from ^r1848
• 2.4.1^r2126: up from ^r1848
• 2.5.0^r2508: up from ^r1848

Revisions which broke backward compatibility

Build^r3030 broke compatibility with older saves, so savegames created by ZDoom 2.5.0 are no longer compatible with the SVN builds past this revision number. The MINSAVEVER constant was increased in the following revisions:

^r4, ^r30, ^r250, ^r289, ^r437, ^r506, ^r666, ^r667, ^r714, ^r796, ^r810, ^r817, ^r825, ^r832, ^r836, ^r837, ^r853, ^r855, ^r880, ^r887, ^r889, ^r894, ^r924, ^r932, ^r954, ^r964, ^r992, ^r1001, ^r1020, ^r1027, ^r1028, ^r1033, ^r1034, ^r1036, ^r1044, ^r1055, ^r1060, ^r1061, ^r1065, ^r1076, ^r1107, ^r1114, ^r1129, ^r1179, ^r1181, ^r1190, ^r1209, ^r1215, ^r1253, ^r1271, ^r1304, ^r1397, ^r1448, ^r1452, ^r1507, ^r1583, ^r1587, ^r1599, ^r1619, ^r1636, ^r1643, ^r1823, ^r1848, ^r3030, ^r3085, ^r3100, ^{r3427 (restored in r3435)}