Hi all, Coming soon with the core update of Home to 1.75 all your Home saves for your Settings, Avatar and Personal space layouts will be getting transferred from being saved locally on your PS3 to being remotely saved on the Sony Home Servers. This move comes with a number of benefits along with a number of disadvantages. So just what will be getting moved and what will be the benefits & disadvantages of this move, below I'll try my best to outline them, but feel free to post in reply if i miss anything. Whats being moved? All your Home saves under 'Saved Data Utility (PS3)' this covers your Home Preferences, Avatar Saves and Apartment Furniture Layouts. It's not been confirmed yet if your Home Script settings will also be moved. What are the benefits?Moving from one PS3 to another will be seamless, all you need to do is load into Home with your PSN ID and all your preferences, avatar saves and apartment layouts will all be there waiting for you.You will no longer need to make your own personal backup's of the saves, so if your HDD or PS3 fails your data will not be lost.The moving of the saves to be saved on the server side, should if done right improve performance, because the file Home is looking for will be loaded direct from the Home server, so cuts out the need to check via your internet for the files on your PS3. For a e.g. Your in your personal space and you invite a guest to your apartment, that guests PS3 needs to access your PS3 via the internet to load the save file for that apartment layout, If the file is on the Home server it will be loaded direct from the server and in doing so cutting out a big part of the save transfer.This some will say is a benefit more for Sony, but it also benefits Home users, but if the saves are moved to be on Sony servers, this stops people being able to access the files and edit them with 3rd party software to gain access to stuff they don't rightfully own and also blocks a number of other things done via the editing of the files.Opens up the hope that Home could be moved to PS Vita & PS4, with all your data ready for you soon that you login on the new system.If the script file is also moved (not been confirmed) this opens up cross-play, that means you could progress in a Home game on PS3 and then if away, Load Home up on say a PS Vita or another PS3 and pick up the game where you left off. What are the disadvantages?In less added into the core update, users will no longer be able to have a number of backup saves that they can use to fast and easy swap the layout of a personal space. Users will now have to redone a full layout every-time they wish to swap layout.Users will be limited to the total number of wardrobe save slots, no more using backup's to get more saves.Users can no longer access the saves, so if a saves gets an corrupt save file, you can no longer just remove the save and add your backup. But you will likely need to contact Sony support to help you with this.If the Sony server fails to connect with the saves server/database, you will load into Home like a newbie with no avatar saves, preferences or apartment layouts, would 'could' lead to you then by mistake entering a space, editing a setting and so on and copying over your save files on the Sony server if Home then reconnects with it why in Home (One can hope there is checks in place to stop this). Please note this is my own personal views and i have tired to cover every benefit and disadvantage i can, but please feel free to say your own or to discuss the ones i have listed above.
If Sony are up to the job then it is a great move... That's a little bit ambigous, but hopefully Sony will see this. Sony know that we watch them & that they must make good choices & be able to make adjustments if they make poor choices. I have faith in sony to do this. Sony are not without issues regarding their servers! Let them do this now, let them make a PS4, with Home still accessible via PS3. If they do the job now, they can get practised & they will be better... more future proof. If they don't do it now, if they suddenly do it in 3 or 4 years, with no practice, then they'll inevitably make mistakes, better they make any "mistakes" early on & they can form better contingency plans. They must make this move, already the amount of data is getting uncontrolable for our humble PS3's! & there's no point in flogging a dead horse!!! ie-don't kill the PS3 with too much work. Oh yeah, I'm in UK, but I would say any influence Sony can have to get better internet connection for users, if Sony are good revenue for our country, then it would benefit us to have better internet connection, so if Sony could just let our government know to give us better internet... suggest the internet providers reduce the cost of internet & allow growth in this area. They rely on each other.
Very well written hun. I am disappointed that they didn't incorporate the ability to save additional layouts for personal spaces. One would have thought that might be a priority with Blueprint which requires multiple saves in order to be useful. I personally don't have multiple saves for apartment so that isn't going to affect me. They'd certainly sell more furniture is that were possible. I do worry though about the possibility of a corrupt server file and what Sony would do to fix that if it were to happen.
The thing with corrupt save files is that in the big image its a very rare thing and a lot the time the file is corrupt due to the user's PS3, HDD or internet. The files being saved on the Home servers if done right removes them risks and tech even if your PS3 was to crash why saving it should keep on saving without the need for your PS3 because the process should be run on the Home servers, so once your PS3 gives the command to save the process should full be taken over by the servers.
Heres my thing. I heard from GW/Cade that he could login to GW account on his Personal PS3 which all of his files are moved to the Home server (if i can remember correctly.) that mean....I could login to my account to another PS3 (glad im getting my new PS3. still in Miami in a moment.) and everything will be saved on my Home Server. I'm not sure if that also effects to my regional account (and my test account) i think its saved once per PSN account. Can anyone confirm this (from what i heard from the forums. because i just got banned from there) BTW I'm looking more at 1.75's moar features that may be useful for u guys.
Yes, no matter what PS3 you use all your saves for that PSN account will be loaded right up from the server, so no more having to remake your av or layouts when you move to a new PS3 or use a other one.
I hope so. I know I've never heard of a club layout being corrupt although there are a lot fewer clubs than apartments. I'm not particularly disturbed with the move to server side saves. It makes my job easier when it comes to using both my machines.
If it's done right and works right, it should really help speed up a number of things on Home because it will be cutting out data transfer via internet and moving them to loading locally from within the server, problem is that many mistakes have happened before that some have lost trust within Sony to do it right and error free.
I'm wondering what is going on with club layouts and the fact furniture has gone missing. I've heard – rumor side – that clubs will be upgraded with this core and that setting them to default was necessary. Wish they'd go ahead and post the full patch notes already so we know what is coming. Obviously rumors are just that until something official is posted.
The problem with clubs as happened before a long time ago, diff things get saved on diff parts of the network of servers, so it could be that the club side part is down, and that's why your layouts not there and new ones don't save.
I wouldn't be as concerned about all of this if I had any confidence in Sony to pull it off without creating a bunch of new problems. They tend to leave a lot of bases uncovered and forget all about QA. All I can say is....be prepared for some .
I think that's one the main problems most are feeling when it comes to this update Hopper, a lack of trust in Sony getting the job done right, but now would be a good time to show they can get it done right.
I await the core update with much trepidation. We know little for fact. Last week, Sony posted on the EU forums that the core update was coming this week. All they told us was that our personal space save files are being moved to their servers. When pressed for details, all they will say is it will help "performance". By not telling us the "patch notes" or details, Sony has created a storm of speculation. Speculation generates angry responses and unhappy customers. No one likes to be left in the dark. Especially customers who have spent their hard earned money keeping the service going. So I will not speculate here. I'll just post my concerns and facts. Let's look at Sonys track record. For over a year, we have endured a flood of errors. Few can say they have stayed connected for an entire evening to Playstation Home without getting disconnected from it. "D" errors and "F" errors. If they didn't get disconnected, they froze in wardrobe or doing other things. Spaces sometimes do not load without having to go back to Harbor Studio first. Since the infamous one month outtage, we have had a string of long "maintenance updates". It has become a joke that whenever Sony does an update, expect things to break. A joke based on fact. These problems are slow to be fixed or have never been fixed. So if users have little faith in Sonys ability to make this update actually work, it's small wonder as to why. To add to this, we just endured an outtage that was supposed to take 12 hours and lasted two days, after many re-posts of the expected end time. This can only mean that unexpected problems surfaced and they had no choice but to deal with them. Again, can't speculate as to what that might have been because Sony will never be forthcoming with that information. However, this recent outtage, once again, broke something. The clubs. You have to ask yourself, if this was a PS Store update (as it was officially explained), then why did the clubs break? It is ineteresting to note here, that AFTER user complaints about the clubs not working properly, Sony posted a quick note saying that the clubs were reset and put back to their original (read empty) condition. What they did NOT address was WHY the clubs would not save NEW furniture layouts or why they had other problems. Now we are faced with yet another issue. The core update. If the club problem isn't fixed FIRST, and they apply the core update as scheduled, should we expect a serious set of new problems? Will Sony postpone the new core update until the recent problems are fixed first? IF the new core update helps to stop hackers, I'm all for it. However, don't punish me, a user who abides by the rules and invests a lot in Home, by taking away my ability to change furniture layouts by swapping files. IF the new update includes the ability to save and select multiple space layouts, then problem solved. Again, we have no idea because we were never given the details. Lastly, while it may be a rare occurrance that files parked on Sonys servers become corrupted, I don't feel good about that. If a file was to become corrupted, good luck getting Sony to fix it in a timely manner. You could lose the ability to use a space you paid for for a long time and you can't fix it. Again, if Sony allowed for this possible problem and included a feature to deal with it, we just do not know. I do know I do not trust Sony's ability to deal with these problems properly and in a timely manner, based on their track record. I'm very concerned, but just like all of us, I have no choice but to wait until it happens and pray it isn't a nightmare.
Just out of interest, can we measure Sony's performance against any other companies? I don't personally use any other company, but believe other platforms have virtual worlds. Are issues with trust. are issues arriving from virtual worlds because virtual worlds are fairly new concepts, therefore, like I know from the early days of computing (Show my age :0) that sometimes games were shipped & they were broken/incomplete, so do we have to wait an amount of time for 3dvirtual worlds to bed in. & let's remember that facebook has only recently become widely accepted & popular (& soon to die a death we can only hope) & that is only script software dealing largely with text. Playstation home is growing 3dvirtual environment and becoming more & more complex all the time, & I know personally that we the consumers are asking for more from the service. I worry that our poor sweet PS3's just can't handle what is expected of them. Trust is very difficult. I trust Sony more than I trust other companies.
It's going to be an adventure. Hopefully it won't be a horror story. I am worried about the changes and hope they go smoothly. Corrupted files are my biggest worry. The fact that saves are to the server can be a good thing if they work correctly especially for those of us with multiple PS3's. On the other hand to have made server side apartment saves part of the core and to not have provided for alternate layout saves at the same time is seriously short sighted on the part of the core development team. We have been asking for multiple saves for quite some time. It's not a new concept. They are not providing additional capability for which many are continually demanding but instead are limiting what many are able to do with their machine based script files.
not looking forward to this. But not going to make a big fuss. There are pros and cons that were well articulated here already. There's just one thing I would add. If your server data gets corrupt in Japan, it won't be easy for most users to get tech support in japanese to fix it. And like I've mentioned before, I had my server data corrupted before back in 2008 when my ps3 froze receiving a reward. And my account always froze on Home start up for a year or so.
Well one can hope if certain files in fact do get corrupted there will be a prompt that says the file needs to be deleted. We do get that now with certain files stored on our hard drives. Obviously that would reset everything to default but that would be a lot better than not being able to log in at all. I have all my character settings files backed up on my flickr. I've taken pics of the settings. I can always restore those if need be. Apartments on the other hand would all have to be redone. It appears we don't really have a choice and this is going to happen regardless. We can only hope that things go well and that they've thought this through. I know... many of us worry that they haven't and it's not a feeling that isn't well founded given past experiences.
Glasswalls already said that it did not. I asked him myself and his response suggested that they had never even thought of the feature in the past. They must spend a lot of time reading the monthly suggestion threads because I'd wager it has been requested a few times before. The fact is, I do not trust Sony one bit to transfer the files successfully, implement the changes without people losing data or have effective back-up protocols in place to correct their own errors. Good luck getting Customer Service to help you restore a ruined Home apartment file or find a lost item. They wouldn't even know what the hell you're talking about. Removing the ability to back up our own data is a terrible idea.
