[UPDATED] v1.4 Testers needed!

NOTE:

NOTE: It is absolutely vital that you follow all of these steps very closely. If you are unsure of something, then do not do it. These steps are vital in ensuring that if the unlikely event occurs and your data is wiped, that you will still be able to recover your progress.

Step #1: Back up your data

Step #2: Disable Steam Cloud (if you have it enabled)

Step #3: Select the "smap" build

Step #4: Restart Steam

Step #5: Update your game

Step #6: Test!

Restoring your old data

Hello everyone!v1.4 is here! ... err, kinda.In v1.4 we hope to address some of the issues regarding the start up crashes, as well as some more performance optimizations.Firstly: Those running Windows Vista or Windows 7 may notice that their aero theme will be disabled when you open KOF. This is to increase the games performance. If you do not wish this to happen, use the "-a" launch option.The start up crashes seem to be due to issues with the save files. This means we had to do a bit of work regarding saving and loading game progress.We're quite confident that we have everything working, but there is the worst case scenario that a players progress may be wiped. We have run a bunch of tests, and we've had no issues with any of them.However, better to be safe than sorry! So before we set v1.4 live, we would like the helpful people of our community to test it! If you follow our instructions below, you will be able to test and provide feedback without any risk to your local data or your online data.Please read this ENTIRE post before beginning the test. This is so that you can eliminate any possibility of losing your saved data!Your save data should be in your Steam folder. Locate your save data, and back it up.The path to your save data is commonly in the format of:{Install drive}/Program Files (x86)/steam/userdata/{your ID}/222940/remote/kofxiiiThose who are on 32-bit PCs may have steam installed in the "Program Files" folder (as there would be no "Program Files (x86)" folder).So for example, my save data is located at:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\{MY ID}\222940\remote\kofxiii"If you have multiple Steam users on the same PC, there will be multiple folders in "userdata" folder. Determining which is yours can be tricky - but if you wish to be safe, just back it all up!In your Steam library, right-click on KOFXIII SE, click properties, then select the "Updates tab". In the lower half of this window, there will be a "Steam Cloud" section. Uncheck the check box here.In the same window as the previous step, select the "Betas" tab. Here you will see a dropdown box, select "smap".You might find that you will immediately start downloading an update for KOF. This is fine. If it doesn't download an update, that's also fine, we'll give it another chance to do so soon.Restart Steam to ensure that all your settings will take effect.If your game downloaded an update before, great! If not, it should download the update upon restarting Steam.You can, and should, double check that your game has updated. You can do this by navigating to your KOFXIII local files in Steam, and looking for a file called "release-v1-4.txt" (it should be in the same directory as your "kofxiii.exe" file). If it is there, then you have updated!Ok, everything is ready. You have your old save data backed up, steam cloud disabled, and the new version ready to go. Launch KOF from the steam client.You should, for the most part, notice no difference. But please check the following:- Check if your controller mappings look ok- Check if your settings are ok (graphics, sound, system etc.)- Check your local player data (Time attack score, high score, survival, play time etc.)- There is no reason to check your online data - that will not be affected as that data is stored on the serversOnce you check all of that. Please do the following:- Go to the options menu and alter one of your input mappings. Then go and change another setting (I like to just adjust the volume of something in the Sound Options). Quit the Options menu. Your game should save.- Next, start a Versus match against the AI. Finish the match, then return to the main menu. Your game should save.- Also check that your replays still appear in the Replay menu.- Close KOF and wait for 10 seconds. Now re-open it and check all of your options, input and player data to see if everything still looks ok.Done! Report your findings in the comments below.Lastly, we do NOT recommend you play on "smap". Save Data saved while using the "smap" build, will not work with the default (current) build, so make sure you restore your backed up data if/when you go back to using the default build by following these steps:- close KOF- take your backed up data and restore it.- Switch your Beta build back to the default one.- Turn Steam cloud back on (if it was on before).- THEN MOST IMPORTANTLY: Restart Steam.(Obviously, restoring your old data will mean you will lose your progress)Thanks for the help!Jace