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Author Topic: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta  (Read 8828 times)
Jugger
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CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« on: March 16, 2014, 12:06:23 pm »
Hello,

first of all I have to thank the developers very much for this great work!
I played SC2 when it was released in 1992 for the PC, later the remake UQM 0.6 and 0.7, now this awesome HD mod since the Alpha version and also the Project 6014.

But with the beta of the UQM HD mod I sadly have to report a new issue. And yes, I've read the technical FAQ and searched quite a while in this forum and the web, if it was already reported elsewhere. I won't report it at the Bugzilla database yet, because I'm not sure, if it really is a bug within the program itself or an issue in combination with my german Windows version.

So here we go:
Crash to desktop when saving the game in late stages of the storyline, regardless if the cheatMode is activated or not. First of all I thought, it would have something to do with the in-game date, but I could figure out, that it is not. Playing the game starting from an earlier save and then moving beyond the assumed date (02-17-2159), just wasting time by travelling around without executing any actions from the plot, the crash won't occur. So it must have something to do with a certain action or event within the plot, I think. Which one it might be is rather time-consuming to find out, because the game has to be saved before any even smallest action until the crash happens.

The debugger reports a "heap corruption" and that the heap buffer is too small. When clicking on "retry", Windows reports an APPCRASH in the library MSVCR100D.dll.
See also the pictures:
Crash to desktop
Debug error
Debug console
Windows error: 
(click to show/hide)

Possibly those save games will help a little:
starcon2.37 - still ok when saving
starcon2.42 - crash when saving

Maybe, the developers can determine that issue faster than I can do, otherwise I would have to play the game in that annoying step by step manner, until it will crash when saving.

This issue doesn't apply to the UQM HD Alpha, but only the beta version.

I wonder why this issue wasn't reported yet, maybe it applies only to the german version of Windows 7 64-Bit?

OS: German Windows 7 64-Bit SP1
PC: self build, AMD platform with FX-4300 CPU, Zotac GeForce GTX 650 Ti Amp!, 16 GB RAM.
Installed components (.NET framework, VC++):
(click to show/hide)


PS: Hopefully my english will be clear enough to understand, I haven't had a lot of practice with it the last time. If something's unclear, don't hesitate to ask.
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- Norbert
My Darkstar One mod project Versteckte Cluster (German).
Jugger
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2014, 07:41:44 am »
More than 3 months later now and no answer!  Angry

But I might have found the issue. It occurred the first time after I contacted the Ilwrath with the Burvix Caster to let them attack the Thraddash and collected some minerals at Alpha Tauri. When saving the game afterwards it crashes. If no minerals are collected there, it may be possible to collect them in other star systems or not. But you may be sure that the issue will occur somewhen later.

Another issue is that the cheat mode doesn't work, the game ends when the Sa-Matra is destroyed, there is no open end as promised.

Since there seems to be no support here and even no response, the Beta will be deleted from my PC, it's too buggy.  Sad
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- Norbert
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2014, 06:52:53 am »
where is everyone...?
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superbutcherx
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2014, 08:36:45 pm »
Hi, Jugger!
UQM-HD main programmer here.

Sorry for the long wait. I have been focusing on writing a novel and been completely away from UQM-HD business for almost a year. The novel is pretty much finished now and due to be published next January, so we've been ramping things up again on the UQM-HD front!

That indeed is an annoying bug with the savegames you've encountered. Luckily I've found and fixed the cause and with our next release it will be fixed.

You see, the original UQM code reserves only 10kB of memory space for constructing a savegame file. That is plenty for the original, but since HD version also keeps track of mineral amounts left on the planets' surfaces, the memory can run out if one has landed on many planets.

This is just the kind of bug that is hard to track down when playtesting... I've bumped the amount of memory reserved to 30kB per savefile, that should do it!

(click to show/hide)
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Jugger
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2014, 01:35:46 pm »
Hi superbutcherx!

Thanks very much for reply and "Happy days and jubilation!", as Fwiffo would say.  Grin

Yes, I supposed so that it could have been a limitation around 10 or 11 KB. And due to the fact, that I don't like to rush through the game, all the exploring and gathering increased the file size beyond this limitation. Glad you've found the cause and I think 30 KB will be enough and to spare for the savegames.

I'm looking forward for the next release.  Smiley


Quote from: superbutcherx on September 24, 2014, 08:36:45 pm
...the cheat mode just prevents the Kohr-Ah death march.

Ah ok, that should give me also enough time to explore all star systems making screenshots of them and all their planets and moons. It'll be only a bit more "dangerous" within the Ur-Quan space then. What I want to design with those screenshots is a huge star map based on HTML for the use with a browser, where you can open a popup by pointing on a star, thus showing the picture of the whole system, where you can click on the planets and moons to show up the associated screenshots with all the orbiter infos. But I think, regrettably all this work will last rather long until it's finished. At least one year, maybe much more. I've already made almost 1,600 screenshots, and that's not even the half of the whole galaxy.

Preview of some unedited pictures; borders and navigation bars etc. still have to be removed.
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My Darkstar One mod project Versteckte Cluster (German).
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2014, 11:16:15 am »
Quote from: Jugger on September 27, 2014, 01:35:46 pm

Quote from: superbutcherx on September 24, 2014, 08:36:45 pm
...the cheat mode just prevents the Kohr-Ah death march.

Ah ok, that should give me also enough time to explore all star systems making screenshots of them and all their planets and moons. It'll be only a bit more "dangerous" within the Ur-Quan space then. What I want to design with those screenshots is a huge star map based on HTML for the use with a browser, where you can open a popup by pointing on a star, thus showing the picture of the whole system, where you can click on the planets and moons to show up the associated screenshots with all the orbiter infos. But I think, regrettably all this work will last rather long until it's finished. At least one year, maybe much more. I've already made almost 1,600 screenshots, and that's not even the half of the whole galaxy.

Preview of some unedited pictures; borders and navigation bars etc. still have to be removed.


That is a commendable effort! A huge one too... BTW are you able / have you tried to compile the game from source code?
You see, if you can, compiling it in debug mode enables cheat keys, most notably F9, which you can use to jump around the galaxy in the starmap without having to travel. Also, you could increase your ship's speed beyond its normal limits in the solar system view by editing some magic numbers in the source Smiley

But then again, setting up the compilation environment and getting the darn thing to compile at all is quite a complex task. It might wind up taking longer than it would benefit  Embarrassed
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2014, 05:09:17 pm »
Quote from: superbutcherx on September 30, 2014, 11:16:15 am
... have you tried to compile the game from source code?
[...]
But then again, setting up the compilation environment and getting the darn thing to compile at all is quite a complex task.

That's the problem, I didn't try it because I don't even have any C++ compiler installed. In fact I hate C (I'm much more familiar with Pascal, which I prefer), otherwise I'd give it a try. Though Javascript looks partially quite similar, it's not the same and (for me) easier. I already created a starmap for my modding project "Darkstar One" for offline usage in a browser, with HTML and embedded Javascript (topic with download is linked in my signature), this one I can use as a template. At least the basic structure and maybe some functions too will be rather similar.
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Re: CTD on saving in UQM HD Beta
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2015, 04:26:38 pm »
Though JavaScript shares the C-style syntax, as a language it has (almost) nothing whatsoever in common with C or even C++. So it's no surprise that you'd be okay with JS but not with C/C++. (Especially not with C.)

Quote from: superbutcherx on September 24, 2014, 08:36:45 pm
This is just the kind of bug that is hard to track down when playtesting... I've bumped the amount of memory reserved to 30kB per savefile, that should do it!
I'm just curious here, would that still be enough if you somehow managed to land on every single planet and moon in the game? Normally, of course, that would be impossible due to the time limit, but since you added that cheat mode... it becomes a real (though still distant) possibility.

Frankly, I don't think increasing the reserved memory is the best solution (I would've done lots of dynamic stuff with new/malloc), but if it works, then whatever. That's really the most important thing.
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