CTD - Oasis Custom Battle

[fallen851]

I can't play the Oasis custom battlemap, I get a CTD everytime I try. Doesn't matter what faction or units.

I am not using the custom battle roster.

Could someone else fire it up and see it if works?

If it does work for someone should I reinstall? Thanks.

[fallen851]

Actually, both the Oasis and Marmarkie Cliffs don't work (spelling was butchered... sorry).

It CTD's without any error by the way.

[fallen851]

Arg, could someone please do a custom battle and scroll down to the end of the list and try out the Oasis battle map and see if it works?

It CTD's for me.

Thanks.

[Oleo]

On both Oasis and Marmarike I get a ctd on 1/6-ish of the loading bar.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Very strange, as it works for me. I have a 0.81a build with nothing else done to it that I know of in my EB files (in this respect) than anyone else would have. The only thing I can think of is that I may have something in my base RTW folders that is allowing it to work for me.

This is really frustrating, as I have submitted the whole 'oasis package' two or three times and it's been a while since I've worked on it and I will have to basically "relearn" this because someone didn't put it in the build when they were supposed to or they overwrote it with something wrong. GRRRRR.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Are you guys running 0.81 or 0.81a?

[fallen851]

Doh!

That stinks, my version of EB is totally virgin as well, 0.81a. I tried it with and without the new fixed EDB text, not that it matters (I was not purposely trying to fix it using that fix).

Does this affect the campaign? If so is there a way to remove that tileset or whatever it is called and replace it with a working one? I'm started a campaign with the Saba to check load times (I have no idea what people are complaining about, my computer is 4 years old and it does great...) and I'd like to continue it, but I'm afriad that one of the nearby maps may be an Oasis. Perhaps this is what plagues some Saba campaigns.

I tried messing around with the vegetation with no success...

What could effect it in the base RTW folders, or what do you have in there?

I noticed that the EB models are all copied into the C:\Games\Rome - Total War\Data\models_vegetation folder as well as being in the C:\Games\Rome - Total War\EB\Data\models_vegetation folder too...

Finally, I noticed the descr_vegetation text, it never uses the eb_palm_X.cas models that seem to be used in 0.80 and subsequently aren't included in 0.81 or 0.81a. Was there a switch over?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Advice here is don't touch the vegetation unless you're very familiar with it.

Ok, can you check to see if these files exist in your EB build?

First:
EB/Data/settlement_plans/oasis.txt
EB/Data/settlement_plans/overlays/overlay_oasis_test.cas
EB/Data/settlement_plans/overlays/textures/oasis_overlay_test.tga.dds
EB/Data/settlement_plans/underlay_oasis_test.cas
EB/Data/models_building/oasis_lake.cas
EB/Data/models_building/palm_tree_v1.cas
EB/Data/models_building/palm_tree_v2.cas
EB/Data/models_building/palm_tree_v3.cas
EB/Data/models_building/info/info_oasis_lake.cas
EB/Data/models_building/textures/##palm_tree_new.tga.dds
EB/Data/models_building/textures/oasis_lake.tga.dds
EB/Data/models_building/textures/oasis_overlay_text.tga.dds

If those are there, I have one more set to check.

[Dol Guldur]

Hmm...no CTD here on those 2 single-player custom battle locations

I have 81a (0.8.1a as it is displayed)

I downloaded .8 then copied .81 over it and then the temp team build (EBv81a3) over that and then finally the new edb file into the build (EBv81a_NEW_edb) as per the instructions.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I have 0.81 installed directly onto a 1.5 build and then 0.81a installed on top of that, and that's all. It works for me too DG. Hmmm. Does map.rwm reference anything else, like descr settlement plans or anything?

[Oleo]

Ok, can you check to see if these files exist in your EB build?

I have them all, btw: underlay file is in the underlay folder, minor detail.

I am running a 0.81a build (0.81 + 0.81a) with one added folder (+contents) and one added file for BI compatibility.

Eh, I just remember I made some adaptations to the map to see some casse europe invasion, although it shouldn't matter as its half way across the world, I ll stay out of this one now as I clearly no longer have a clean build.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

So far three EB members have checked this, and all three show the oasis working perfectly.

I've wasted an hour and a half going back through old threads and looking at how this was set up and thinking what could be wrong...

[fallen851]

All of those files are there...

I used the installer for 0.81a. I downloaded it again, and redid the installation, same result, CTD on those two maps.

I will try installing 0.81 first, then the hotfix...

What was the other set of files I should check?

Could this possibly have anything to do with my ingame video settings?

[Tellos Athenaios]

Fallen: don't use the separate installs, the 0.81a full is more reliable. Graphics at full, without any AA, and at a large unit scale I don't get the CTD. Since this particular CTD seems to be terrain/ vegetation related (there was this very nasty one we thought to have fixed by simply overwriting the Vanilla files, and having them in a separate EB\ folder); I'd suggest you try to fiddle around with different settings for terrain detail.

Settings are AFAIK the key to this one... (We did some internal testing with it, and some of us had the CTD (on relatively low settings) whilst others had not (on relatively high settings).) Hope this helps.

EDIT: Teleklos, could you check whether the proper low end version also exists in the Vanilla build? (After EB has been installed on top of it.) If it's not it might just have slipped past Bovi's general terrain CTD fix.

[Dol Guldur]

EB Desert Oasis

No crashes on any settings for AA (none low med high), or any settings for Veg detail (highest med lowest) or any settings on Grass detail (none low med high) or any settings on terrain (med highest). Permutations not tested. Tested on 1024X768X16 res.


Version Status: I downloaded .8 then copied .81 over it and then the temp team build (EBv81a3) over that and then finally the new edb file into the build (EBv81a_NEW_edb) as per the instructions.

[Oleo]

I've wasted an hour and a half going back through old threads and looking at how this was set up and thinking what could be wrong...

And I've just spent the same amount of time to try and get it to work, without any luck.

1280x1024 low settings, 1280x1024 med settings, 1280x1024 high settings on a fresh 0.81a build all ctds.

[Dol Guldur]

Tested on 1280*1024 (16 and 32 bit) and still no ctd.

I tested this with the game-generated map.rwm as well as the EBv81a3 map.rwm (dated 4th March 2007), size 7278 both

[fallen851]

This is odd... I normally run at 1024x768 16 bit color, high terrain settings, medium on vegetation, and it no matter what I do to the settings, it CTD's.

Wasn't there a problem with the Nvidia video cards and vegetation at one point or something? I seem to remember TA saying he had one of those video cards and it giving him problems. I have an ATI card, (9000 Radeon Mobility, 64mb) if it matters.

Also, does the EB installer come with the sprites for the vegetation? Due to memory limitations my video card will not write its own sprites. I have two sprite files for cbpalms_forest_0 (a DDS and TGA) and cb_dense_forest_0 (a DDS and TGA). I have no sprite files for the semi-arid trees. Does the Oasis used the cb or sa palms? Also is there a reason those have 0's on the end?

If I remember correctly though, sprites don't cause CTD's with units, so they probably don't with trees...

Thanks.

[Dol Guldur]

I'm not sure - the only problem I have had with a freeze and/or CTD connected with loading battles in regard to vegetation was when I lacked some of the generated .vege files. You should have 43 of them in your eb data / vegetation folder.

But if it's specific to your pc then maybe it is connected to the video card settings / EB staff will I'm sure be able to help you better than myself as I'm no techie.

[fallen851]

What is in your data/vegetation/sprites folder? Just four files.

Maybe if Oleo shares his video card too we can if it is related to that...

Some of the maps with palm trees work fine for me, like all the others except those two, maybe I can use the palms from the other maps on those maps. Any tips for doing this? Do those two maps use the cb or sa palms? I found TA's and Duke John's tutorials...

[Tellos Athenaios]

Just 4 files, indeed.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Caius only made high resolution versions of those palm models by the way. But when I switch to low vegetation, I don't get a crash, I just get the same thing on those particular palms.

That problem with nvidia cards is just on the strat map - these GeForce particular cards can't render at all the 3d trees on the strat map, so it uses sprites, but it has nothing to do with this problem that I'm aware of.

[fallen851]

Which set of palms is used on those two maps, the palm_X.cas or the palm_tree_vY.cas (x being 1-6, y being 1-3)?

[Oleo]

I just tried it out on an old 0.81 install I have and it works fine over there. Could it be related to a bad 0.81a patch. My filesize is:

EB081a-hotfix.exe: 7,27 MB (7.629.336 bytes)


My system specs: amd athlon 3700+ @ 4000+ speeds, 2gig ddr400, 2x 250 GB Maxtor Sata, ati x1900xt 512 MB.

[fallen851]

That is great news, I'll try another reinstall, this time using the patch on 0.81 build.

By the way, you guys have such fast computers, 1024x768 is the highest resolution I can run RTW on it doesn't list anything higher... I have a 2.4ghz Pentium 4, 1024 ram, an ATI Radeon 9000, and a 40 gig hard drive, my laptop is now 4 years old. Still it runs EB great!

[Dol Guldur]

I have 43 *.vege files in my eb/data/vegetation folder (and two subfolders). This is what you have, right?

There should not be any need for any in the vanilla data folder (for players) - though I see some patches have them..hmmm

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I really really hate vegetation files. I just thought I'd mention that. Especially in a mod folder build. Boy I really really hate those.

[Dol Guldur]

We all know you love them really.

[Oleo]

That is great news, I'll try another reinstall, this time using the patch on 0.81 build.

What I meant is that on 0.81 it works, but when I apply my 0.81a patch it doesnt work anymore.

[Kull]

What I meant is that on 0.81 it works, but when I apply my 0.81a patch it doesnt work anymore.

The oasis wasn't present in v.81 (per TA), so at his behest we made the following change in v.81a (and this is the ONLY change that had anything to do with the oasis):

descr_settlement_plan.txt

Here are the proper entries for these two plans:

	plan oasis				oasis.txt

	plan oasis2_with_trees			oasis.txt

The old ones don't have "oasis.txt" at the ends - they have other things. The ones here are the right ones. This is a hotfix fix - and works as I just tried it out.