Exactly "when" is it dumping? What were you doing when it dumped? Try it again using the entrenchment developer.exe (its in your sins folder), and see if it give an error messege before it dumps. Are you running Entrenchment version 1.041?
Do you have under 2 gigs of ram? if so it may be the 2 gig bug that is SINS fault. Lower your settings to all low, and uncheck the box's in your effects. Check your task manager to see how much ram your machine is using. Try to keep it under what your machine has. If you have over 2 gigs and running windows XP sins will still pull a random dump if you use more than 2 gigs of ram. I know i am experiencing this myself.
Did you install the mod correctly? I updated the readme with new instructions. Make sure there are not duplicate SoA 2 folders (one inside the other).
Do you have other mods enabled? if so disable all other mods before enabling soa2. This will definetly make the game dump. SoA 2 is NOT compatible with any other mods.
I tested the mod thrice over on my end, and the only error is the one harpo reported when he updated the mod to 1.041. Its not a game crasher. I dont know what else to think of. If it doesnt run for you wait till 0.3e.2. we will have all the 1.041 kinks ironed out by then.
Is this version is combatible with the latest patch or do i have to use a converter first?
edit spelling: i must have been drunk
I installed the latest version. Will try again.
Is anyone up for a game tomorrow?
It is compatible with Entrenchment v1.041. It was already converted using Harpos tools.
Minidumped after playing for about 10 minutes
I'd just built 10 or so constituion class ships and then it minidumped, with a stuttering voice saying "Requistite research must be conducttttttttttttttttttttttttttted first"
hehe
I have confirmed the presence of the 2 gig ram dump bug on my end. I played 3 games in dev exe with the fixed version of our developer mod. All on max settings. It will run fine for 10 minutes to 1/2 hour then ill get error messeges like planetvolcanic-cl.dds not found does it exist? etc. etc. all of them texture missing errors. Some mod. some vanilla, then blammo dump. I checked my task manager, and was using around 2.35 gigs of ram each time. I am running 32 bit Windows XP. My laptop has 4 gigs of ram, and a dual core 2 gig cpu. The video chip can use up to 1.5 gigs of system ram. So i know it is well within the specs. (xp 32 bit only sees 3.5 gigs of ram). I didnt have issues like that running on 64 bit Vista. Though Vista is a POS operating system that i refuse to re-install.
Anyone with a 32 bit OS needs to test vanilla sins itself (no mods running), and jack up your settings to max. Look at your task managers, and watch the ram usage. IF you dump during the vanila game then that will confirm what i was afraid of, and it is SINS fault. Not the mods fault.
I made this mod trying to duplicate the limitations of sins in the models, and textures, and to not go over those limits. Every model is ether at the poly/texture limit, or below. with only 1 or 2 exceptions. If you can run sins on your machine you "should" be able to run the mod with no issues.
I need to know if vanilla sins dumps when you use more than 2 gigs of ram to run it on a 32 bit system. It does for me. I need to know if i am not the only one. If so we need to send bug reports to ironclad ASAP, because the old 2 gig ram limit bug is coming back to haunt us.
Needless to say if the 2 gig bug is confirmed by others will have to re-think how we do our models and textures.
"Testing" that involves playing Sins? Alright, I'll get right on it!
Just tried playing the mod. Set up a 6-player random-medium map, played into it a bit (roughly 5-10 minutes maybe), had my trusty ambassador go try to take a planet. All settings were on highest minus other effects, only the skyboxes (i think) were checked. I noticed my ambassador was doing the "run away" trick where they don't turn around to attack yet are chased by enemy ships. I hit the alt-key to see if they had run past the edge of the ravity well yet, and had a repetetive phaser sound byte going while the scene froze. MiniDump!
I have 3 gigs of ram atm.
EDIT: vanilla sins works fine, as well as SoGE and Distant Stars for mods i can use.
I forgot to add. What OS are you using? XP 32bit? Vista 32 bit, or win-7 32 bit?
64 bit OS's dont seem to have this issue, because they can see more than 3 gigs of ram. When i was running Vista 64 bit i never had any out of memory problems, and sins never dumped on me. So dont bother testing on a 64 bit system. Only on 32 bit systems. With NO mods active. All settings maxed. We need to see if anything like this happens on vanilla games on other systems.
If there is no 2 gig bug, Then i am at a total loss as to why this is happening.
I already resigned to the fact that sooner or later i am going to have to re-build the mod from scratch again. There are too many files leftover from older versions of sins. Sure they may have been converted to 1.041. The question is how reliable is the conversion? Is it better to convert older files, or replace the data on a fresh 1.041 file with the mod data (slow, and tedious process)? What if the converter missed something important that 1.041 needs? Not saying Harpo's converter is flawed. These things happen. Right now i dont trust the mod in its present state, because it is a conversion. Not a new construction. Many people are reporting dump issues, and i am dumping myself with the dev copy.
If it were just the mod dumping on me i would have already trashed the dev copy, and started over again from scratch using 1.041 files as the foundation. My logic in this is becuase the 1.03 convertdata doesnt work on 1.04 files... Why?
So Ironclad didnt change stats on a few files with the new patch. They changed EVERYTHING. They seem to do this with every major patch. Just as relic did with dawn of war. So the logical assumption is that the mod would have to be rebuilt using the current data from the latest patch in order for it to function error, and dump free. It sucks, but i see no other option but to rebuild the mod due to the amount of people having dump issues. That is of course if its NOT the 2 gig bug.
This is why i need to know if the 2 gig bug exists. The mod is getting rebuilt regardless, but in order for me to know what to do with the models i need to know if we need to restrict the mods ram usage to 2 gigs as well. In other words nerf the models even furthur.
I strongly advise all team members to back up what they got in sync ..SOON, because its getting nuked from orbit.
yea i got Win 7 ulti x32. Strange thing though, is that everything actually improved form when i was using Vista ulti x32 just last week.
Sorry to see so many hiccups in the mod building, stress. With shimmer on hiatus (hopefully not permanently) and the update making things go all haywire. Either way, i know you'll do your best to give the community a top-notch mod, and i say to you:
take all the time that you need.
It just hit me now. What if we are over the hardcoded limits? I didnt think about this, because i thought we were replacing the stock models, and textures as we went along. Removing stock stuff as we replaced it with mod stuff. As it turns out we didnt. We have 3 mod factions loading PLUS the original vanilla factions (required due to what we did not replace yet). Sins apparently loads EVERYTHING. So that is 6 factions loading with all its models, textures, entity's, particles, and effects.. double what the vanilla game uses. PLUS our mod effects, and particles. PLUS our mod sounds, and music. I am having homeworld 1 hardcode limit flashbacks now.
I know the texture limit is 1000 textures, and the mesh limit is 300 (i found this out just recently). I have a feeling we went way over the limit somewhere. We have enough assets in the mod to make a game on its own (minus the programming, and the game engine itself). Something to think about.
Ill need to aquire a list of every hardcode limit in sins then go over all the mod assets to see if we hit it somewhere.
Right now i am in the process of re-building the mod from scratch. I am doing it a little differently than how i originally started this project. Instead of using separate faction entity's, i am modding straight over the vanilla factions, and removing what is not being used. (mesh's textures particles sounds, entitys, etc. etc.). This is probably how i should have done it in the 1st place, but as i said i didnt know about these new mesh, and texture hardcode limits until recently.
Just played a long vanilla Sins game with all settings at max, and it went smooth as butter.
Question: Do the manifests in SoA2 include entities that aren't used in the mod? If it's generated by Harpo's tool, without custom tweaking, then they probably are automatically including them.
If that's something you guys dealt with a long time ago, forgive me. I'm just hoping to help find an easier workaround.
After feeling lazy for a few seconds, I decided to look myself. Voila, here is a sample chunk of the SoA2 entity.manifest file:
entityName "FrigateFederationStarBaseConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseAntiFighter.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseCarrier.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseColony.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseHeavy.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseLight.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseLongRange.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseMineLayer.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseModuleConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseRefineryShip.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseScout.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseSiege.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseTradeShip.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseUtility0.entity"entityName "FrigatePhaseUtility1.entity"entityName "FrigatePirateAntiFighter.entity"entityName "FrigatePirateHeavy.entity"entityName "FrigatePirateMedium.entity"entityName "FrigatePirateScout.entity"entityName "FrigatePirateSiege.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiAntiFighter.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiAntiModule.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiCarrier.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiColony.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiHeavy.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiLight.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiLongRange.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiModuleConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiRefineryShip.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiScout.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiSiege.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiStarBaseConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiTradeShip.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiUtility0.entity"entityName "FrigatePsiUtility1.entity"entityName "FrigateSiegeTurret.entity"entityName "FrigateTechAntiFighter.entity"entityName "FrigateTechAntiModule.entity"entityName "FrigateTechCarrier.entity"entityName "FrigateTechColony.entity"entityName "FrigateTechHeavy.entity"entityName "FrigateTechLight.entity"entityName "FrigateTechLongRange.entity"entityName "FrigateTechModuleConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigateTechRefineryShip.entity"entityName "FrigateTechScout.entity"entityName "FrigateTechSiege.entity"entityName "FrigateTechStarBaseConstructor.entity"entityName "FrigateTechTradeShip.entity"entityName "FrigateTechUtility0.entity"entityName "FrigateTechUtility1.entity"entityName "Frigate_BreenScythe.entity"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think those should be in the manifest if you don't want the game to load them.
Stress, just ran a huge random multi-star map with 9 AIs, vanilla entrenchment, all settings maxed, for 2 and a half hours. I was consistently pulling 2-2.02 gigs of ram and had no crash at all. System is XP 32. I actually expected my game to crash just from how old my pc is lol, something like 7+ years still using almost stock everything.
Our dev version been nuked then? I already made a backup, so I'm going to try to get this sucker to crash and find a reason for it. The mod, vanilla sins, nothing will crash no matter how hard I push my system, what i do in game, settings I'm running at. I haven't tested everything so I'll get back to you when I've played a lot more.
the mod is not near any hardcode limits last i checked, however the reason why some of you are crashing is because you have your graphics settings set to high for your pc / laptop to handle turn them down !
i am very unsure if there actually is a mesh limit as well stress
Found the problem! Can anyone confirm the fed AI is crashing the mod? I'll extensively test this, but with fed AI everytime crash 2 min or so into the game. No problems so far with romulan or klingon AI. Have also played ridiculously long games playing as all 3 races with only myself on the map without any crash. The mod itself looks stable, very sure it's the fed AI causing all our problems. Also have no errors running the dev version. I'll keep researching this but if anyone can confirm it'll save me some time so I can look at the why instead of the how.
Edit: Just ran another game and crashed it with all graphics at low or off, so I'm guessing that means it isn't the graphics. Yes, I had 1 fed AI against me in that game. Continuing research.
stressbaby the hardcodes you are worried about areenum { MAX_NUM_MESHES = 400 };enum { MAX_NUM_FILE_TEXTURES = 1000 };enum { MAX_NUM_FILE_CUBE_TEXTURES = 10 };
from a post by BLAIR FRASER titled sins limits
harpo
Well, I was playing the federation and had the Klingons as the AI, but it still crashed after 10 or so minutes of play
Thank you Harpo. Yes, we are very damn close to the limits in our current state. Combined with the loading of the vanilla stuff i think its safe to say we went over the edge. Sins loads every texture in the mod folder regardless if it is used or not. It loads every mesh in the mod folder wether it is used or not. same with particles, brushes, sounds, etc etc. We got a lot of CRAP we arent using in the mod folder.
Also we have duplicate vanilla sins stuff in the mod folder They are leftovers from when that stuff was required to be there in order for the mod to run (pre-entrenchment). It does not need to be there now. The game loads what is in the mod folder first. Then it looks in the game for what is not in the mod folder. We only need Modded files in the mod folder.
The mod in its current state is a total disorganized MESS! I couldnt do much about it due to my past RL situation. That changes now. Its getting re-done. end of story.
I am running my new re-build of the mod with ZERO errors. I have half of the fed ships in right now, and functioning in thier intended ROLETYPES. Under a new naming convention that is much more organized than the previous builds. Any mesh, texture, weapon, entity, or sound etc etc we are NOT using is being removed.
There is no more "playerfederation, klingon, or romulan. They are now using the vanilla tech, phase, and psi entitys. This will eliminate about 25 unecessary UI textures, and a dozen brush files. Plus its much easier to eliminate vanilla sins stuff this way. PlayerDominion, and Borg will require new entitys and brushes, but by the time we get to that point the vanilla stuff should be all but gone. The focus on the mod now is to REPLACE. Not add on to whats already there.
I am not adding any weapons or research until all of the mod ships are in for that faction, and the vanilla sins counterparts are removed. The weapons themselves are going to be worked over to replace vanilla sins weapons/particles (with the same names). Mod Researches will replace vanilla researches and so on. For everything we add to the mod, we MUST remove a vanilla sins counterpart component, or make sure it overides a vanilla component. That is the ONLY way to ensure the mod will run on the same specs and machines that vanilla sins can run on.
I am keeping the current build on sync as a backup. I will upload my build once i get it done, and i am sure it WORKS. Then the rest of the crew can continue from there once you see what i am doing, and how i got it set up.
As for the AI crashing i can tell you why it is doing that... because the faction is missing one of its roletypes. We MUST have one of every vanilla sins roletype in the mod, or the AI has a shit fit. which means we need at least one scout, light frig, lrm, siege, anti strikecraft, heavy, colony, utility0, utility1, minelayer, minesweeper, riod capper, battleship, siege cap, colony cap, carrier cap, support cap. They dont necessarily have to act the roletype, but there must be one of each per faction. I know for a fact the feds dont have all of its roletypes. I am fixing that as i type.
To the crew.. Once i get the new foundation done ill upload it so you can see what has changed. It is pretty simple really. there will be a team meeting on saturday. time TBA.
BTW i was wrong about the 2 gig bug. i re-installed sins, and it went away :/
Yay about there being no 2 gig bug, and I will try my hardest for saturday but I work 1800-0015.
I previously removed all the SoA2 data from my userfile in hopes that it would be all combined into one newer file. Does this new download contain all the previous data? I felt that the file size was much bigger then 235ish MB.
you on the mod team ? cuz in my dl there where no romulans and im kinda bored of the federations useslessness and klinks beeing so overpowered
where is the version with the Romulans intergrated into the mod now? I only see ver 3e. Dont we need 4e?
Post a link please.
Thanks!
**facepalm**
Yes, Dragoon is part of the mod team. No, the Romulans are not released yet. No, I am not part of the mod team.
*facepalm*, indeed. Does half of anyone...READ anything on the post, or any of the previous comments? :/
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