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Rebel
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Post by Rebel »

Eh, sounds fairly odd. I'd go with removing all versions and re-
install fresh. Something's screwy somewhere, though I'm fairly
certain that the level files themselves are quite sound as many
hours of play have been recorded on both WinMe and XP plats.
Can think of any reason why Win95 or 98 would give any trou-
ble either. My current drive is pretty screwed up, at least in as
far as playing Tres is concerned as I can't relaunch the game af-
ter exiting unless I restart my machine. That started happening
months ago, don't know if it's spyware, a changed dll or well, I
have no idea. :?
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Post by machf »

Well, I tried them both under Windows 98 earlier, and they exhibit the exact same behaviour: my old install crashes when I attempt to load a savegame, and the new one gives the fatal error at the end of the level. Weird. Trespasser itself works fine.
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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Post by Rebel »

Well, I'm at a loss, I can't duplicate your woes. I saved the game
at about 20 different locations and everyone loaded up without a
problem (although I had to do computer restarts due to the trou-
bles I mentioned earlier with my comp).

Honestly, don't know what's going on there....
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machf
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Post by machf »

Never mind, the old installation must have become corrupted somehow (I remember I moved it from the folder where I originally installed it to its current location, when I needed to make space).

Anyway, I have a backup of the pre-last-patch install, so I'm just deleting the old install... it's only 3 additional savegames (and BTW, when they start loading, the top bar is almost fully to the right, while when loading a savegame on the new install, the top bar starts from the left and increases progressively). I've also noticed that when I copy those savegames to the new install, on the load menu, the palette for those savegames appears distorted... no, wait, it's showing the map on the left! I guess that's the reason, after all... those savegames were made with the map enabled, and currently it isn't...

Yep, I just tried loading another savegame, enabling the MAP cheat, and then loading those savegames, and they load without problems. So it seems it isn't a good idea to save with the map enabled...
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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Post by TrikeUatra »

machf wrote: (and BTW, when they start loading, the top bar is almost fully to the right, while when loading a savegame on the new install, the top bar starts from the left and increases progressively)
That's something I found when looking at the Menu ddf's for the various engines' Menus. One (I don't remember which, or what patches I had possibly applied) had a start value of 99, which is basically a bar that starts off full :? Simple cause... but I've no idea why it would have been changed, though :P
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machf
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Post by machf »

Well, apparently, even if I make a fresh install, I can't use old savegames if they were made while the game ws installed in a different folder. The savegames themselves are saving info about the folder. This also applies to Trespasser.
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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Post by Big Red »

Yep, I just tried loading another savegame, enabling the MAP cheat, and then loading those savegames, and they load without problems. So it seems it isn't a good idea to save with the map enabled...
Hmmm... but that doesn't make any sense! Are you sure they don't work if you haven't previously enabled MAP? All the cheat actually does upon being entered is toggle map display itself; it does not affect in any way if or how a map is loaded.

In fact, I wrote the MAP code so that you could use it with savegames (the bitmap names are stored in the SAVEDMAP.xxx files), mainly for the fact that they could be swapped in-game, so why this would happen is mystifying

If you are getting errors and it's obvious they're MAP-related (or even in any other case), it could be useful to keep your error.log files; in some cases I can track down errors with it.

;-----------------------------

Here's a tip: If the code address (or any of the two other addresses) of the error.log gives an address similar to and just above 0x01500000, it's about 90% certain that it's an ATX error.
Trespasser ATX modification web site:
http://atx.trescom.org/
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Post by machf »

It seems it's not related to the map, but rather, in order to be able to load a savegame from a different folder, you should either start a new game or load a savegame made in the current folder first, and then from inside the level load the other savegame...
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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Post by Big Red »

That's very odd nonetheless, though it might make sense if the first save game you load is from the exact same level as the second one. If you load a game within a level that was already loaded, the game won't bother reloading the GRF or other level files, to save load time (that's what the "Disable Fast Restart" option changes). Theoretically, it only needs the SCN data, and it's in the savegame itself. So even if the paths in the second one don't point to valid level files, they'll already have been loaded and the game won't even look for them.
Trespasser ATX modification web site:
http://atx.trescom.org/
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machf
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Post by machf »

Sure, that's what I meant, starting the same level or loading a 'proper' savegame of that level first, that way it won't have problems with the scene files...
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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machf
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Post by machf »

Rebel wrote: Well, it appears that you are correct, sir. Although, with a quick
look I couldn't detect what the problem might be, though it does
indeed crash before tc~river finishes it loadup. I applied a third,
private patch (a forerunner to the released patch and one I did
up for just myself n' Remdul) and that one appears to work, river
loaded, no fatal errors. Unfortunately though, I can't recall what
differences exist between those two patches --
I've noticed that such crashes tend to occur as a side effect of some dinosaur having more than 200 triangles attached to one of their bones (so it's not just that the triangles vanish or get horribly deformed in-game). So, it may be a good idea to take alook at the ones inside the level...

And if Remdul reads this, it might be a good idea to include in the next verion of TPDC a 'counter' that displays how many triangles are attached to the currently selected bone while editing, issuing a warning when the limit is exceeded.
Visit The Carnivores Saga - a forum devoted to modding Action Forms' Carnivores, Carnivores 2 and Carnivores: Ice Age games
Tres WIP: updated T-Script Reference and File Formats documents
Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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