untitled error

t3guy · Developing Poster

One of the changes I made while updating my level has caused an error. When I sync the pdb and try to play it appears as untitles and errors out during loading. Anyone else seen this or know what might cause it? I am in the process of removing things to try and find it.

t3guy · Developing Poster

Finally tracked down the error, but now I'm more lost. The level became unplayable because there were to many entries in the Unit Groups editor. There were over 300. I finally figured out that it adds more every time I Export Mission Pack. But its adding them for buildings which seems to be the problem. I have an area setup and I placed a surveillance center on it. I have a trigger that looks to make sure there is a surveillance center on that area, and if not the computer builds one. But every time I export it adds to the unit groups. And now the level freezes after a few seconds of play, not sure what causes that yet. Any ideas? Thanks.

t3guy · Developing Poster

WARNING WARNING. I just trashed my T3. The level had been freezing requiring soft resets. I had made some small changes, and on the last attempt the level froze, but after a soft reset the device would not move past the palm splash screen. It is totally unresponsive to any input. The screen is on, the palm logo has faded, and I am unable to turn it off. I'll post an update if anything else happens, until then, use as your own discretion.

t3guy · Developing Poster

I had to take my palm apart and pull the battery cable off. Got it working fine again, and decided what the hell, I'll try my level again. I should have know better. Same results. Soft reset to white screen of death. Repeated procedure, deleted my level, and started over. New level works ok so far. Something became so badly corrupted the mission would only play for a couple minutes, then freeze. Never tracked down the bug. Starting over now.

SoLan · Very Active User

I have not had anything as serious as this happen to me, but I have had to resort to the same solution several times - start the level from scratch, that is. It seems like the level somehow gets corrupted when I do a lot of adding and removing stuff. So I have made it a habit to test out stuff in a level first, and then start from scratch and do everything according to a plan. It doesn't always help me avoid problems, but working on a level that I have been "experimenting" on is hopeless.

--SoLan

scottlu · WI Founder

Sorry for the frustration! Please send "crashing" levels to us at contact@spiffcode.com and we'll figure out why it is crashing. Also the behavior about new UnitGroups being added mysteriously is very interesting. If you outline a repro scenario, that would help us track it down.

Thanks again.
Scott

t3guy · Developing Poster

Ok, I still have the unit problem. I place a building on the map for the computer player. Then I create an area the same size, name it for the building, and make a trigger that looks to see if there is a building there owned by any side. If the building is destroyed the computer will attempt to build a new one if there are no obstructions in the area. If the building is taken over, the computer player see that and does not attempt to build a new one. This works fine in my mission, except that every time I export the mission pack it adds some units to the unit groups. Always names them cua##. If I don't delete them they add up and make the mission really large in file size, or just plain crash.

scottlu · WI Founder

We'll see if we can reproduce the problem here. If we can't we may need your .ld file so we can reproduce it. Thanks.

crakerz · Mega-Poster

I just created several Unit Groups in my level, and when I exported the level, a group called "cauu#" is created (the # being a number that increments each time I export.) If I delete the group, the # resets the next time it is created. Multiple exports result in multiple creations of this group.

Further research shows that this "cauu" group may be created as a result of a trigger action, where a replicator is spawned in an area if certain conditions are met. I've noticed that this is not on the normal unit list for groups, as are not any buildings.

I can send a copy of the .ld if you wish.

crakerz · Mega-Poster

Another possible bug: more that one Unit Group window can be opened at a time. I created a group3 on one, and then clicked over to a second open window. Clicking on "new" created another group3 (two group3 in the list appeared) that was different from the first. This could cause a few problems, I'm thinking.

crakerz · Mega-Poster

BTW, I found a "fix" to multiple creations of the cauu group:

A. Use the Spawn Action in the desired trigger to create units that aren't supported by the Unit Group window.

B. Export the level.

C. Open the Unit Group window and note the name given to the group.

D. Change the action in the trigger from Spawn to Create Unit Group, using the name noted in step C.

Subsequent exports won't create new groups as before.

Sure would be nice to have the ability to NAME our own groups.....

chiron · Developing Poster

Just click on the group name and rename it...

/chiron

crakerz · Mega-Poster

Gee, now why didn't *I* think of that? :oops:

Waitaminute, I did! And I tried. And it didn't seem to work. Where, exactly, do you click on the group name to change it? (I know I'm going to feel real stupid) Cuz if you are talking about in the Unit Group Window, it doesn't work there for me.

chiron · Developing Poster

In the Unit Groups window to the left,
click on a groupname, click again, rename

Don't doubleclick.

crakerz · Mega-Poster

Wow. I *told* you I'd feel stupid!

I just need to wait a few beats before I click again....so simple. Thanks, chiron!

(It's the little things that frustrate!)

chiron · Developing Poster

Don't feel stupid !
We are here to help eachother aren't we...
Glad I could help someone else, for a change ;-)

Girt · Established Forum User

Going up a few posts --

You can also have more than one copy of M open at a time.
This could definitely make a mess...

- Girt

Win98SE, Dell Inspiron 5000e notebook: 650Mhz, 256 RAM
Win98SE with NO updates except .NET

scottlu · WI Founder

- The cuaa bug is fixed for the next release.
- Multiple unit group windows bug is fixed
- t3guy, I don't know what your bug is, although I would like to. I would like to see a scenario where after adding and removing units your level becomes unstable as a result.

scottlu · WI Founder

The cuaa bug is fixed in the next release. SoLan, you've mentioned after adding and deleting items the level becomes unusable / unstable. The cuaa fix might resolve this problem too however if not I'd like to track that down. Could you try to reproduce that on this next build?

SoLan · Very Active User

scottlu wrote:

SoLan, you've mentioned after adding and deleting items the level becomes unusable / unstable. The cuaa fix might resolve this problem too however if not I'd like to track that down. Could you try to reproduce that on this next build?

The problem I was having came after adding and deleting lots of items. While I was tinkering with a map, trying things first this way, then that, I would end up with an .ld that did not export and would sometimes crash the editor. I think sometimes the number of out of bounds and blocked area error messages would simply get too much for the editor.

After a while I learned to make just a few changes at the time, saving, exporting and testing often. I haven't seen the problem lately, allthough I still make a fresh map when I have finished the plan for the level.

I will try to reproduce this in the next build. Maybe I can find one of the .ld's that had this problem and test with that.

scottlu · WI Founder

If you can find or create one of these problem .lds, send it my way, I can debug it and reach conclusion that way.

SoLan · Very Active User

scottlu wrote:

If you can find or create one of these problem .lds, send it my way, I can debug it and reach conclusion that way.

I didn't have a backup of the .ld causing the crash, but I have managed to recreate the error. This time, however, I worked my way there step by step, and I was able to isolate the cause of the error. Placing a wall segment out of bounds (outside the green border), results in a System.IndexOutOfRangeException error message. I do not get the usual output error list.

This is the same error message I got with the level that I was having trouble with, and I guess the wall thing might have caused it. I am pretty sure this does not have anything to do with the cuaa bug, as I had not yet used any "create unit" trigger actions at the time.

scottlu · WI Founder

Thanks! Fixed for next release.