CTD problem

[Kull]

Would it be the EB script? Unless you are the attacker, you can't reload the script if you save at the battle screen (load, exit screen and restart the script); thus, if you reload, no script.

At least that is all that I can think of.

The script - at least when looked at as "loaded or not loaded" - has no effect. I ran an 80 game test this weekend, and 70% of "first battles" CTD. On reload, half the time I'd start the script, the other half I just forgot. No difference. No CTD on the second time around.

[Tyfus]

I have this exact problem in the current build of EB. While playing campaigns I will regularly get a CTD while loading the battle. I've delt with it simply by saving before every battle. It doesn't seem to care if it is a siege or pitched battle because mine CTD's equally for both. I personally thought it had something to do with the script since usually when I reloaded I forgot to start it before the battle and it worked fine. But I confess to having zero modding skills so it could be anything I guess. I would think about things that weren't changed between mods maybe? Obviously it is the same problem in both builds.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

did you have that spritepack rcross? Or were you playing with just 0.74 and nothing else?

[Kugutsu]

Does it happen in subsequent battles (ie: if you CTD, reload, fight that battle, then go back to the campaign and start another battle, will it CTD again), or is it only the first battle that will do it?

Could it be something to do with the campaign rather than the battle? Im assuming somehow the campaign gets sort of turned down during battles to free up memory etc, and perhaps thats not happening properly.

I dont really know how these things work, just trying to offer other possibilities. The fact that it works fine when you reload seems to rule out unit/trait/general problems, or problems with the battle system itself.

[Cheexsta]

Have you guys tried running Filemon to see what files are being referenced at the point of the crash?

[Watchman]

Filemon ? Is that a Pokémon critter ?

It's nigh certainly not an issue with the assorted text files anyway, as -show_err doesn't say anything and those would then turn up about all the time.

did you have that spritepack rcross? Or were you playing with just 0.74 and nothing else?

Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure it's only started in my case after I put in the spritepack as well as some other stuff like the stratmap resources (plus the grass mod thingy). But I'll readily admit I don't have the foggiest how the sprites could be at fault so incoherently, and the new resource graphics would seem a tad far-fetched for a cause. You'd think that if there was some trouble with them it would turn up in some fashion in the stratmap itself, not when trying to load up to battlemap...

And then there's the thing it doesn't CTD all the time, just when loading battles after the first of the game session.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Does the grass mod thingy have any randomness to it? Weather affect it somehow or does it alter skies? Even then though, we are almost at 100% of reload battles working it seems.

[Lusted]

I had a similar problem with TE 5.0, i don't know what the hell i did but suddenly battles featuring greek culture cities with stone walls would result in a ctd sometimes when loading. I changed nothing related to them, so i was stumped. Unfortuantely i never found out what caused it, i think the game jusat got annoyed with all the changes i made.

[Cheexsta]

did you have that spritepack rcross? Or were you playing with just 0.74 and nothing else?

Thinking about it, the spritepack did cause me troubles, where some battles that had units with incorrect sprites would CTD on their first load, but work just fine on their second - generating new sprites and implementing them fixed the problem for me. Perhaps there is a faulty sprite somewhere?

Filemon ? Is that a Pokémon critter ?

No, it's a program that monitors what files any particular program is referencing at any one time. I found it extremely useful in converting RTR to the 1.5 patch in that it helped me analyse the problem where a CTD had no error. Maybe it can help locate the problem.

Filemon link.

[Lusted]

I used to have problems with sprites in TE as well come to think of it, but that came from using a modified RTw 1.3 dmb in 1.5, to solve it i just copied all the text from it into a unmodded 1.5 dmb replacing all the text in it. The coding on the 2 files is slightly different i believe.

[Watchman]

A faulty sprite or similar should cause a CTD in every battle where the sprite or whatever is in use, shouldn't it ? And at least the ones I keep having seem to be entirely indifferent to the exact composition of armies, terrain and weather involved - the only common factor would seem to be that they are after the very first battle of a session.

Army size may be an issue at least in part though. I remember having fought a small series of minor battles with bandits without trouble, then *BAM!* all of sudden a CTD. The longer the game has been running the greater the risk seems to become, which is why I've been assuming it's some sort of "memory overflow" issue. Although whether memory-hogging other programs are running at the same time doesn't seem to affect the CTD rate, merely overall game and loading speed.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Rise of Persia had a similar CTD when loading battles. You could play one maybe two battles, but on the second or third you would get a CTD. You could then load a game and play another battle or two without problem. They fixed the sprites in a patch and it went away. Since you seem convinced it isn't the sprites, it could be some other new graphics?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We're not convinced it isn't sprites.

Any idea about what the ROP issue with sprites was exactly? Were they not present? Wrong format? Some other issue?

[Cheexsta]

A faulty sprite or similar should cause a CTD in every battle where the sprite or whatever is in use, shouldn't it ? And at least the ones I keep having seem to be entirely indifferent to the exact composition of armies, terrain and weather involved - the only common factor would seem to be that they are after the very first battle of a session.

Actually, I find that faulty sprites cause a CTD the first time the battle is loaded, but then the battle loads properly when the savegame is reloaded. When the battle is running, the faulty sprites are shown by a sort of 'sparkly' whiteness/clearness at a distance.

So if that effect occurs, then it's more than likely a faulty sprite. But it seems Lusted's solution is on the right track...

[Lusted]

I made the change you suggested and then ran the same campaign that was generating CTDs in 70% of the "First Battles". After 24 turns and 10 battles, there were exactly zero CTDs, so the fix looks promising. Still looking for others on the team to report similar success. Thanks for sharing, man!

No problem guys, im glad i could help. It's a little known problem that should really be more well known so that mod teams know what to do when it happens. And im glad i've helped make EB 0.8 more bug free!