Crash research

[Nyerguds 100]

That's... plain freaky. Which Windows is that exactly?

 

Anyway, it's quite irrelevant to the original savegames discussion, since that was about the game potentially reusing stuff from savegames it overwrites. Which just plain doesn't happen.

[Kamikave 0]

Nah I just tried it. Windows clones the files system as needed in %SystemDrive%\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore , and then tries to silently merge the files here when called.

Just for the record, I don't have any folder named VirtualStore in AppData, and if Windows did such a thing, I would have noticed. But like Nyerguds said, I don't know any Windows that would do that (at least not an official version lol), and it is irrelevant to the topic anyway ^^

 

But speaking of this, the game hasn't crash since last time. I try not to save every five minutes to limit the risks lol

 

As for the terrain object limit, do you think it has something to do with the maps being limited in size as well ? I mean, maybe the game can't handle larger map than 1400x(I forgot) because of that terrain object limit or something...

[Sonarpulse 1]

It happens in Vista (which i just tried and succeeded to get the bug in), and 7 to, according to the internet. In both cases it requires/is-enabled-with UAC.

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...9d-e1de4b8be16d

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927387/en-us

 

It is off topic but could very well give somebody else playing TD, or any game where the saves are stored in %Program files%\??? grief in the future.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Sonarpulse

[KevinLancaster 1]

I have Windows 7 64-bit and I've seen Windows do that with other programs, but not yet with C&C95. I think it only tries to do that if you don't run a program in compatibility mode/with administrator rights that needs it enabled/them to work properly.

[Chimas 7]

Anyway, if you remove everything after "264=" under the [Terrain] header it works.

Could you stress test that when you got some time, solo?

 

It's frustrating, I was about to discover that by my own.

If lack of thoroughness is a sign of stupidity, I'm defintely becoming dumber.

 

I took off all OVERLAY objects leaving just the header and it crashed. When I was about to that with TERRAIN objects, I'd probably got distracted and when I came back I thought I've done that and actually didn't. It's a shame, cause I've done similar thing before with that SCG mission BETRAYAL, where apparently more than 40 triggers would crash the game.

Maybe it is because I do these things late at night, when I'm starting to get tired.

 

Another IRONY: although the excess of terrain objects, it's a commando mission and no enemy (at least in the beggining) is HIDDEN IN THE WOODS!! ahahahah

Why some many trees then?!?!

I'll certainly change that whenever i could edit the map. At least a bunch of troops will be set to AREA GUARD, in these FPS crap days that we are living (IMO).

 

This is what I did.

In 3 rounds I took off 6 objects: 1 time in the top of the list, then middle, then bottom - it all crashed.

When you take out 7, it works. So 300 "spartans" seems to be enough for TD, so far ...

 

To leave it playable I'll take some trees of the top of the list (the higher number positions in the bottom of the map, where the mission starts).

I'll choose it in the weekend.

 

Btw, I haven't been able to open the map in XCC; probably desert remains outside the borders of the visible map; that happens a lot, especially since ccmap never shows those outer borders for editing. I'll check it out when I get home. Can't test it here though; easiest way to see that is by using Mix Manager to view the map, and I can't run that on this 64-bit Windows. Not without installing DOSBox anyway.

 

Ahn, this map in particular is TEMPERATE, but anyway, If you'd come to any idea for XCC, I'd be glad, because an average of 3 missions per pack I can't map edit at all.

I already gave up on CCMap.

Thanks for the help.

[Nyerguds 100]

Ahn, this map in particular is TEMPERATE, but anyway, If you'd come to any idea for XCC, I'd be glad, because an average of 3 missions per pack I can't map edit at all.

The fact it is temperate is why it crashes. A lot of old missions were made by copying some other mission, clearing its map contents and then adding their own stuff. If the original was Desert, but they changed it to Temperate, then there could still be some Desert-only tiles outside the playable game area borders (since ccmap only shows the playable area in its editor).

 

@Sonarpulse: I'd never install any game in Program Files.

[Chimas 7]

The fact it is temperate is why it crashes. ...

 

Ok, now I got it.

btw, look what we've missed (or I have):

see section 6 - reinforcements

 

I went there to see the limit of teamtypes.

This is the list so far:

Terrain = 300

Trigger = 40

Teamtype = 40

 

Just a curiosity, not a need at all, do you know if these capacities can be broken and extended?

Just to understand if the game is this way due to the time it was developed.

[Nyerguds 100]

I honestly have no idea. I haven't figured out why these limits are there, or where they are enforced. If I find them it's probably not hard to expand them though, unless this is like the 100-units bug again (meaning, local memory storage inside a function, which is a giant mess to expand)

 

As for reinforcing, yeah, I know that. I've experimented with it myself in missions. Never released anything that used it though.

[Heavylobster 0]

Instruction: 004ad351

Referenced address: 00000005

 

This happened to me when playing the "113 - New Offensive" mission on Nod from Solo's mission pack. It happens just as my commando enters a turret to blow it up (screenshot of the situation attached) It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I managed to reproduce it twice with my testing. Though one time it happened just as the turret blew up and the explosion animation was playing, but the other times it was just as the commando entered.

 

Pc details:

Windows 7 64 bit, CPU is Celeron P4500 (dual core @ 1.87 GHz), 3 GB of ram, GPU is Intel HD Graphics.

Edited August 4, 2011 by Heavylobster

[Nyerguds 100]

It seems related to teamtypes, but I have no idea exactly how. Either way, this would suggest it's an error in the mission scripting. Solo, can you take a closer look at that mission's teams, and see if you can find any oddities in it?

[Heavylobster 0]

Just had the same error again on the same mission, this time I hadn't yet done anything with the turret and was just moving my tanks onward, in case it helps

[Nyerguds 100]

Yeah, it probably happens when the AI produces (or tries to produce) a certain team, so it's 100% dependent on the AI's actions, not on the player.

 

But as I said, it's a mission error; not really interesting for my crash research, since that focuses on collecting and fixing actual game bugs.

[Heavylobster 0]

Another one.

 

Instruction: 00498f6b

Referenced address: 000a8df3

 

This happened to me when playing the GDI Airbase campaign from Solo's pack. As it's a campaign I don't know the exact mission name but I can say that it's SCG160ED.

As for how it happened, I was simply moving the camera to my base after taking a look at Nod's, at which point it simply crashed.

 

Pc details:

Windows 7 64 bit, CPU is Celeron P4500 (dual core @ 1.87 GHz), 3 GB of ram, GPU is Intel HD Graphics.

 

[Nyerguds 100]

I know the GDI Airbase campaign all too well... and the fact it's "ED" means you were on mission 4

 

It looks like your crash happens in the function to reinforce teams, more specifically in the section to handle reinforcements brought in by a transport helicopter.

 

 

Did you happen to be destroying their base at that time? One of the triggers seems to reinforce a team of Nod bazookas for every power plant you destroy in the enemy base.

These chinooks land straight in the back of your own base (straight north-east from where the mammoths are at the start). If you blocked that space (might be unintentional, simply by building buildings there), reinforcements tend to stay away, waiting until the spot is available, and I know the game can crash if too many such reinforcements get stuck.

[Heavylobster 0]

I don't know if I blocked anything (I certainly didn't on purpose)

And no, I wasn't attacking at the time. I guess it'd be possible that there was an airstrike going on, but I wasn't paying attention to such at the time so I don't really know..

[Nyerguds 100]

Hm, no, I don't think it's airstrike related... this really seems like chinook reinforcement stuff.

[Heavylobster 0]

I meant that an airstrike could've been destroying power plants at the time

Edit: And the destruction triggering those chinooks which then crash the game.

[Chimas 7]

Hi HeavyLobster!

Good to see you around!

 

This is my suggestion for this situation, but it's not guaranteed that it will work. I've seen it working, but not always.

 

This is the line Nyerguds suggested that might be the problem:

chp3=badguy,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,2,e3:5,tran:1,3,move:15,unload:15,area guard:50,0,0

 

One way to avoid crashes due to the lack of landing site (waypoint) is to have optional waypoints, by adding and/or creating new waypoints.

I didn't see the map of SCG160, but I'll give an hipotethical example:

 

WP 13 is 238 and BADGUY is coming from SOUTH. So if you create an alternative WP 9 at 450, for example, just caring that this spot is a free area in the beggining (at least), then, during the game the chinooks will have an alternative land zone for the blocked one.

 

This would be the commands:

[Teamtypes]

chp3=badguy,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,2,e3:5,tran:1,4,move:9,move:15,unload:15,area guard:50,0,0

 

[Waypoints]

9=450

 

One thing I can tell. I've seen the AI postpone landings for around 12 Chinooks at once without crasing.I mean, they arrived and aborted landing, one by one, and flied off the map.

Suddenly they came back altogether and landed wherever they could. So your AI should be pretty busy to crash a game because of 3 or 4 chinooks.

 

Another thing that it's not related is to change chp2 teamtype - the last parameter "100" to "99".

But this is less likely to create problems.

 

Since it might related to the mission, I'll take a look at the rest of the INI, also.

 

/edit

ok, I've found a real reason for crash, not sure if it is related:

att3=badguy,1,0,0,1,0,15,1,0,0,1,htnk:1,ltnk:6,1,attack units:100,0,0

change to

att3=badguy,1,0,0,1,0,15,1,0,0,2,htnk:1,ltnk:6,1,attack units:99,0,0

 

I'll update the pack. Also, it's my mistake.

My Excel file checker had a wrong formula that was hiding mistakes. I corrected it once, and by accident some days later I've overwrited the right Excel file.

Only noticed it later on SCG180.

[Chimas 7]

Thanks Nyerguds and Heavylobster!

 

I've also found small errors that might crash the game in missions SCG170EA and SCG175EA.

 

SCG160EA.ZIP is updated (INIs+MIXs+ZIPs).

 

I'll highlight it in the SINGLE PLAYER MISSIONS thread.

[Heavylobster 0]

Thanks for the fix

Would you take a look at SCB113EA (I mentioned it in this thread on the last page) as well?

[Chimas 7]

Instruction: 004ad351

Referenced address: 00000005

 

This happened to me when playing the "113 - New Offensive" mission on Nod from Solo's mission pack. It happens just as my commando enters a turret to blow it up (screenshot of the situation attached) It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I managed to reproduce it twice with my testing. Though one time it happened just as the turret blew up and the explosion animation was playing, but the other times it was just as the commando entered.

 

Pc details:

Windows 7 64 bit, CPU is Celeron P4500 (dual core @ 1.87 GHz), 3 GB of ram, GPU is Intel HD Graphics.

 

 

Hi HeavyLobster,

I haven't seen this post, thanks for warning.

 

If you have these lines in your INI file, it is an older one:

- fire=GoodGuy,1,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,1,A10:3,0,0

- fire2=GoodGuy,1,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,1,A10:3,0,0

- reg=GoodGuy1,0,0,1,0,15,1,0,0,4,MTNK:1,E1:2,E2:2,JEEP:1,2,Move:15,Attack Units:50,0,0

 

Fire and Fire2 has an extra ZERO. And reg is missing a comma after "Goodguy", which is crashing the game.

 

I've found this error in July,3rd, and updated the INI+ZIP+MIX.

By some reason I didn't edit the cover of the thread, so you'd probably had come over and thought you already got the RIGHT file.

I gotta be thorough with this digital bureaucracy. I spent more time publishing the changes than making them heheheheh.

Please replace the file and see what happens.

 

Later today I'll take a look if I had edited other MIX files and didn't change the publish date in the thread.

[Nyerguds 100]

By the way... "GDI Airbase #4" had a Temperate-only tile on it that caused XCC to crash when opening it (since the mission is winter). If you got that problem too, simply changing it to Temperate allows you to open it. The offending tile is a tiny thing somewhere behind the northern edge rock ridges on the east side.

 

I think it was outside the visible border, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Chimas 7]

By the way... "GDI Airbase #4" had a Temperate-only tile on it that caused XCC to crash when opening it (since the mission is winter). If you got that problem too, simply changing it to Temperate allows you to open it. The offending tile is a tiny thing somewhere behind the northern edge rock ridges on the east side.

 

I think it was outside the visible border, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

Hmmm, everything seems normal, The strangest thing I've noticed is the ridge+road @ 3441 SE.

I edited and now XCC is opening. If it is something else, let me know.

But, anyway, good to know this trick. I lot of missions were aired without map editing due to these XCC crashes.

 

[Nyerguds 100]

The original WW version of SCG03EA also has this problem... desert tile on temperate map. Impossible to fix with XCC, since it contains theater-sensitive tiles no matter what you view it with. But obviously I fixed that one ages ago

[Kamikave 0]

I don't get it. Since this morning, the game is freezing at the begining of a mission (in less than 5 seconds). No error message, and I did nothing that could trigger that...

The only thing that changed is that I launched red alert using hifi's launcher (though I gave up because the colors were messed up), and I don't see how this could affect C&C.

 

I'm open to suggestions...

 

EDIT: now that I think about it, a few weeks ago, I modified rules.ini file :

NoEgoScreen=Yes

RepeatBriefVid=No

SeparateHelipad=Yes

 

I think that's all. It was working fine until now. Thing is, today I loaded a savegame that was saved before I modified Rules.ini (last GDI mission of the campaign, the game froze after a few seconds). And that's when the freezing started. But why is the game freezing when I launch a brand new mission as well ?

Edited August 20, 2011 by Kamikave