Mac User issues Thread

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Sennaspirit
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Mac User issues Thread

Post by Sennaspirit » Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:00 pm

Hello all,
I just downloaded the SMR for Mac as seen on Steam. As is the case with many of the other users here, I'm having issues with many (not all) of the Mod Maps working. While the extensive checklist of things to do to mitigate/resolve these issues, they are almost all in context of running Windows on a PC. While there may only be small differences I would like to see if we can start thread which addresses these issues on Macs.

In the week that I've had the game, I've been able to run the following maps successfully:
CADIZ
BLOCKER_Sam
Europe_Sam

The following maps have been tried multiple times without any success:
ACWR_Sam
America
Four Corners_v3
Green Mars, version_1_01
Hurricane
India_V_1_0
Maryland
Monarchy_V_2_00
Nafta_Phase_1_V_3.00-bobby

I cannot seem to see any rhyme or reason behind this hit or miss issue. I'm going to keep trying of course but would appreciate if any anyone running Macs might chime in and discuss any particular issues related to our systems.

In any event, the maps and the scenarios they offer are terrific and I hope to get these issues resolved.

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karsten
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by karsten » Mon Dec 03, 2012 8:37 pm

Some of the older SAM maps still have .fpk files, which may not unpack correctly - have you checked for those :( Let us know! :D

Sennaspirit
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by Sennaspirit » Mon Dec 03, 2012 9:56 pm

Well, it's not clear if that's the issue because at least one of the maps that worked didn't have an .fpk file at all, and others that didn't work had one of more.

But, since you raised the point, how do you know if the .fpk has unpacked inproperly, and is it a case of just re-extracting it?

Since the last posting, I've successfully launched:

Australia, but there are no scenario victory conditions (.fpk was there)
Africa Challenge - works perfectly (.fpk was there)
AZCanyons2 - works perfectly (.fpk was there)


*And thanks for the response Karsten...I appreciate the help.

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karsten
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by karsten » Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:26 pm

I would be helpful if you
  • extract a map .fpk beforehand from one of the troublesome maps,
  • then delete the .fpk and add the expanded files to the map folder (ideally in a subfolder called "assets")
  • and then try to start the map.
:D

snoopy55
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by snoopy55 » Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:50 pm

Looking at 3 of the 9 in your first list, 1 contains FPKs and 2 do not, so that places FPKs as not causing the problem.

This kinda makes me want to go buy a cheap MAC and a MAC version and see if I can figure it out........

I have to figure that the MAC version is using FPKs, XMLs and KFM/NIF/KF.

I directed you to the other forum which has no maps containing FPKs (Warll is planning on replacing all the ones on this forum with those), but I still do not think that is the problem.

I'm guessing that in the conversion they made some change that is messing up the use of these custom maps.

Try this, load only maps with no custom content and see if they all run. Post a list of any that do crash.

I'm guessing that there is something in the PC-to-MAC conversion that was done wrong, an XML line or file name. Finding one without custom content that works and one that does not, the two can be compared and the conflicting line(s) found, which you would have to correct in the maps as you download them. It should be as easy as adding the content from the non-working one to the working one until it crashes. The editing would have to be done on a PC since that is where the problem seems to come from.

Let's hope it is something that simple.
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

laloha
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by laloha » Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:55 am

First, want to allert all that the Mac version is picky about the video card and some other hardware issues prevail. A cheap Mac might not fit the bill acually it seems. Review the minimum requirements, thoroughly, before purchasing. I would love to have their top shelf model. One of our Daughters and family have a terrific desktop model.

My operating system is Windows 7 ultimate so not apples and apples. The topic FPK had my attention though.

Now regards to the fpk files. I just went into the Devon map and it has the FPK file. The map did load but was prompt to crash without notice. Upon reading this thread, I tried to unpack the fpk. I used the PakBuild utility and sent all the files off to a new folder. Removed the fpk from the userMaps folder. Made a folder called Warehouse and placed all the open files there. Then placed that warehouse folder into the CustomAssets folder.

The map has been doing well though has crashed when placing a depot upon the first town that was reached. I went out to check the Options and graphics. Reduced the trees from high to med, and the texture quality from high to med. Doing both at the same time is a no no I know but did it anyway. My shaders was set to med so left alone. AA was set at none and shaders were off as well.

The map has proceeded without failure so far though not been at long as yet. Going beyond 5 towns and all my money so far, it seems good to go. Will prod this thread as I move forward.

Have had great fun with the AZ_Canyon_V02_Sam with the FPK aboard with no problems.

Is there a prefered utility to open and purge the, fpk, files BTW?

Thanks, and good luck, Sennaspirit,

Larry

Devon is crashing with regularity now. Have to save constantly to progress with any success going forward. Sad as it's quite appealing.

snoopy55
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by snoopy55 » Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:53 am

First, Devon crashing. I do not pretend to know what the reason is that it is crashing for you. FPKs do not cause a map to crash, unless the FPK has an error in it. (more on that later) That being said, if the FPK is the problem, it would always have been the problem. You cannot tell me that a map that has run fine since at least May of 2010 (see Map Database Comments) would suddenly develop FPK problems. Every time you play the game you are loading FPKs as that is what the game stores it's data in.

You could test out the map by ignoring the VCs and running each Good one at a time until you have tested all of them. Then you would have to run every Engine as that could also be the problem. Better yet, you could download this SAM copy of the map and see if it runs OK:
Devon_SAM.7z
(1.29 MiB) Downloaded 814 times
(well tested by the way)

The thing with FPKs was the creating of them. Sometimes the PakBuild would mess up one of the files it packed and make it a couple of million bytes in size. This put me into the habit of unpacking the FPK after I packed it to see that it packed correctly.

Now there is a problem with this game that caused me trouble til I got frustrated and played a game of Solitaire. Then the map I was messing with ran fine. Until I restarted it to many times and it crashed a lot. Back to the Solitaire. Back to the working map. This game chooses NOT to let go of memory when it crashes or you shut it down. And when you start it back up, it ignores the memory it had used before and grabs another load. Sometimes for some unknown reason it will drop the memory tho. But the best way to release the memory is to simply start up another program, like Solitaire, and shut it down then go back to the game.

You also need at least 4Gb of memory on your system to start with. Sennaspirit, what do you have for memory?
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

Sennaspirit
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by Sennaspirit » Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:46 pm

Karsten, Larry, Snoop...thanks very much for the dialog on this, nice to have some support.

First let me give you my system specs. I'm running a brand new system (1 month old) and here are the system specs.

iMac
2.5 ghz Intel core i5 (processor)
4 gb 1333 mhz ddr3 (mem)
AMD Radeo HD 6750 512 mb (graphics)
OS X 10.8.2 (OS)

I will definitely do that testing you mentioned Kartsen and Snoopy, perhaps this coming weekend.

Last night I successfully ran:

BC Gold SAM - had .fpk and worked fine.
Uganda - no .fpk works fine
Last edited by Sennaspirit on Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

laloha
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by laloha » Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:34 pm

Just a few words to clear up my issue. I have a dual boot system here with XPx32bit and Win7x64bit Ultimate. This might be a problem getting the right Video Card driver. Has not been an issue till now however.

My driver is for the XP 32 so my Win7 is possibly failing it duties because of this. My numerous crashes were with the game on the Win7. Copied the game to the WinXP and the crashes were far less frequent. Thus it is my belief that my video card and driver is more than likely my problem. Not sure there is a driver to sartisfy both ends of the spectrum.

Thought I might be of help regards to, fpk, but to no avail with this thread. Snoopy satisfies me, that it is not an issue.

Did finish Devon. A pretty Map and was a lot of fun, disregarding the crashes. Will run it again in it's entirity in WinXP next time as maybe all the Railroad maps while using this compurter. Have 8 GB memory along with the 3GB Enabler.


Thanks, and hope all goes well for you, Sennaspirit! A nice system BTW.

Larry

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karsten
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by karsten » Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:54 pm

When I ran Devon (the copy available on our map database) yesterday, it crashed to desktop within 20 minutes. I then unpacked the .fpk and restarted today, and it ran without a blip to finish all victory conditions (check out that massive Plymouth conglomeration in the screenshot!). :D

I also note that there are three towns called "The nameless town" in the Devon map. SMR seems to take that in its stride, but it could also be a source of complications. :mrgreen:
Attachments
Plymouth Conglomeration.jpg

laloha
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by laloha » Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:37 pm

Karsten,

Love the Plymouth pic.

Actually I hope I can run this map again as it is a beautiful map, and provides lots of interest. Fun to build the small out of the way towns, in the woods, into metros.

Reviewing your Post, Karsten, I realize the comment about some "NO NAME TOWNS" or such. I did not find this and wonder where these towns exist as alltowns I see have names.
Maybe I am not understanding what or where you are seeing this.

Will try the unpack again as I might not have got it right, though it did run.

Thanks for the post, as appreciate your top shelf input,

Larry

JRMacSMR
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by JRMacSMR » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:52 am

All,
Problems with Maps using Mac.

I already made some comments in the MAP database what to do about crashing maps and how to solve it.

I have also noticed that on some maps like Italy the goods are incorrect it shows elves eggnog dolls etc while in the RRT_Goods they do not exist . I changed the goods file name to RRT_Goods_Italy.xml and changed the corresponding line in RRT_Scenario_Italy.xml. Now the Goods information is correct.

Another way is to open up the RRT_Goods.xml and saving it again makes the information correct also no changes have been made to the file.

So what appears to be happening is that by opening and saving file the time stamp of the file change.
Original
-rwxr-xr-x 1 staff 27621 Nov 28 2007 RRT_Goods.xml
After saving
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 staff 27621 Jan 27 10:58 RRT_Goods.xml
I also did a file check
MD5 (RRT_Goods.xml) = a2b57bdf34d75d75e8339ad9efec6ce1 and no changes are made to the file

For most files in the map it will have an added Map name like RRT_Cities_Italia.xml but for goods and some other files it will have the standard name e.g RRT_Goods.xml. The application decides on the latest time stamp on which file to load.
Another example is the Uganda map from Karsten.
We see here 3 file names without Uganda added to it.
RRT_Goods.xml
RRT_Loadscreens.xml
RRT_Tunnels.xml

Although the map loads OK in the goods there are elves etc Also missing is the Loadscreen just the standard splash is shown and the cost of tunnels are the standard cost for Tunnels. By opening and saving these 3 files it will show the correct goods, Splashscreen and expensive tunnel cost.

MacUsers should check for common file names and open and save the file with "TextEdit" for the map to work as intended by the map creator

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karsten
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by karsten » Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:27 pm

Brilliant!!! :shock:

I think you have hit the nail on the head, and us seasoned PC players did not realize the "obvious":

All PC mods automatically have a newer timestamp relative to the system files, so they automatically take precedence over the system files.

With the Mac version, its just the opposite, the system files are newer than the mod files, so the system files get precedence over the mod files, which will lead to crashes if sufficiently different.

So, once we (Warll?) change the timestamp on the XML files of the maps mod database, everything should work fine. Cool! 8)

snoopy55
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by snoopy55 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:46 pm

JRMacSMR - is this just on custom maps or on the original also.

Might want to get a message to the company who built the MAC version and let them know, maybe they will work up a patch.
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

JRMacSMR
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Re: Mac User issues Thread

Post by JRMacSMR » Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:18 pm

snoopy55 wrote:JRMacSMR - is this just on custom maps or on the original also.
snoopy 55,
Excellent question!

I did have crashes with the original maps when I have a custom map in the UserMaps folder. I just deleted the map.
I checked now with a Custom map and an old time stamp Original map loads fine, however when I change the timestamp of RRT_Goods (Custom map) the original map crash

So it looks like you cannot have a Custom Map with a new timestamp for common named file.

JR

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