Catastrophic crash

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:01 am

I unrolled the new code and data zip files at the root, privater.
When I ran it, I got:

vegastrike: weapon_xml.cpp:248:
void BeamXML::beginElement(void*,const XML_Char*,const XML_Char*):
Assertion 'level1==-1' failed
Herevsinstall.sh: line21: 5345 Aborted ./vegastrike
Bash...

And my screen resolution did not come back, and I had no mouse...

Tried several times, having to re-login each time, just using the keyboard.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:06 am

Which reminds me of another fix the engine needs: Defaulting to the last save file on bootup is not a good idea. Why? Suppose data files and code have changed, and my last savefile uses some item that doesn't exist anymore. Then I can't start the game anymore!!!

When the game starts, it should present the name of the last savefile in a dropdown box, or something along the lines, but which one can change, before going ahead and loading it.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:16 am

Update: I renamed my save and serialized_xml folders, and tried starting it again, and I get the exact same crash, so it's not a savefile incompatibility.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:30 am

http://spiritplumber.dynip.com/weapon_list.xml

My bad, there was a parsing error left over from when I added the torpedos.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:00 am

That fixed it, thanks! You're a genius!

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:49 am

What I notice, now that it works, is that framerate has come down considerably since the previous version. Both at bases and in space. When I move the mouse at a base, for example, the cursor flashes maybe twice per second as it moves. Same thing in space, when I'm moving the mouse to re-point the ship.
I tried re-running --setup and the settings had not changed, so I tried changing the level of detail, and between vertex arrays, compiled vertex arrays and display lists, and nothing seems to help. I'm in Linux, FC2.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:03 am

Another catastrophic crash:
As soon as I was jumping to Pandar's Star for the first time. Looks like a little pebble was missing...

Code: Select all

cannot find naval_base
cannot find naval_base
cannot find talon.blank
cannot find galaxy.blank
cannot find talon.blank
cannot find talon.blank
cannot find galaxy.blank
exceptions.StopIteration
WARNING: no var named jump_key_delay in section general using default: .125
yzwUnit file sun not found
Assertion failed unit_generic.cpp:711 Unit sun not found
Warning: Cannot locate sun
Unit file .stable not found
Assertion failed unit_generic.cpp:711 Unit .stable not found
Warning: Cannot locate .stable
Unit file .neutral.stable not found
Assertion failed unit_generic.cpp:711 Unit .neutral.stable not found
Warning: Cannot locate .neutral.stable
Unit file invisible not found
Assertion failed unit_generic.cpp:711 Unit invisible not found
Warning: Cannot locate invisible
yzwUnable to spawn converter
Unable to spawn converter
Cannot Open Mesh File smallroid.obj

[TERMINATING MUSIC SERVER]
bash-2.05b$

Post by **MamiyaOtaru** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:58 pm

chuck_starchaser wrote:Which reminds me of another fix the engine needs: Defaulting to the last save file on bootup is not a good idea. Why? Suppose data files and code have changed, and my last savefile uses some item that doesn't exist anymore. Then I can't start the game anymore!!!

If you are going around frequently changing data files, it's a small matter to remove your savegames too. If enough data has changed that that using them would cause problems, they are pretty useless anyway. (replace 'remove' with 'move elsewhere' if you plan to revert the data at some point)

Some choice of savegames on startup (as in the original) would be nice, but things are viable as is for the moment.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:06 pm

I didn't mean to convey a sense of urgency. I'm just reporting bugs or issues as I encounter them; otherwise I forget.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:08 pm

What I usually do is remove anything auogenerated from the ./privateer100 directory after each round of changes, I have a little batch file that does that then starts the game. Which is why there are two tarsus.begin entries in the units.csv right now, one is the real one and the other is whatever unit i'm testing at the moment. Primitive but it works

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:19 pm

Yeah, no, first thing I did was to rename the savegame and serialized_xml folders, and created new folders, and copied NewGame.whatever there, but that wasn't the problem; it was a missing mesh, and Hellcat advised me to throw an executable called mesher into the bin folder, which I had to compile from the cvs trunk. So it was quite a ride, but it works now; thanks to everyone for their patient help.

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:24 pm

Which mesh is missing?

Post by **hellcatv** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:40 pm

Unable to spawn converter
Cannot Open Mesh File smallroid.obj

you should make sure to convert all .obj files to bfxm before including them in a public release--making sure everyone has a mesher that's working and up to date is a bit of a hassle since we forgot to include it in the linux build.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:12 am

Another catastrophic crash. This is with a re-install of remake, and the march22 code and data rars, under Linux, Fedora Core 2:
I was, as per my bounty mission, fighting a kilrathi insys carrier in new detroit. I'm not sure whether it was about to explode because the HUD had no images, --either for the carrier, or for the ships coming out of it. Strangely, all the ships coming out seemed to come out in a good, friendly mood, so I was able to keep hitting the carrier from a safe distance with my lasers. Then suddenly the image froze, no response to mouse or keyboard; I waited a long time, maybe 5 minutes, and finally pressed reset.

Post by **hellcatv** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:09 am

I don't think there's an easy way for the game to freeze infinitely ...
usually if it dies you're stuck in X with a frozen mouse cursor (then you can go ahead and fire it up again... and quit normally to get the mouse cursor back)

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:48 am

It did, though, freeze; and the only reason I waited for so many minutes was that every 15 seconds or so I'd see the hard drive led coming on for a couple of seconds. But it never came back. I tried ctrl-alt-del, ESC, ALT-TAB, ALT-Fx, but it didn't seem to be even listening to the keyboard, so finally I resetted.

Hellcat, on another topic, I think Spirit could use your help changing the display of space bubbles from alpha blending to additive blending. They become invisible against a bright background. I think the original bubbles had the same problem, and the vegastrike jump-points maybe also, I'm not sure.

Post by **hellcatv** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:58 am

see if you ever get it in windowed mode

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:45 am

Darn! I should have saved that mission. I'm half way across the galaxy from Perry now. What I do remember is it was a mission against a cat carrier; my suspicion is that it tried to blow up but that the 3D meshes for the fragments were missing. Could that cause a crash?

spiritplumber · Post by **spiritplumber** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:07 pm

No, but the kat carrier DOES spawn an unholy amount of fragments.