Maps and Errors

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:17 pm

Was'nt sure where to post this because of problems with different maps.

For me:
Alaska works fine.
Germany Deluxe works fine.

I tried the middle east a while back but it crashed every time.
BC Beta crashed on Nov 1938 5 times.
In BC beta, I also got the strange alpabet characters on a scrollover of a city name.

I don't know anything about how new maps are put together.
If the person MAKING THEM has tender and loco mods, do they come into play in their maps, or do they only come into play if I have them installed.
(Hope you understand what I mean by this.)

What would the reason be for a map crashing on a certain date?

Is there something in BC beta that takes place on Nov 1938?
Is there something in Alaska that takes place on Feb 1939?
Could Programming guy have a mod that does something on feb 1939, that I don't have?

I know it's a step backwards, but the only thing I can see, is to get rid of all the mods, and go back to generic industries and locos, until it is sorted out.
If it's a problem with the editor itself, then I don't know what to suggest.

Would be nice to hear from one of the Fraxis guys as to their thoughts.

Pete

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:07 pm

You have a point there. I plan on dumping and reloading my railroads. Then I'll check out the different maps and go from there. I'll try to give results as I go along. I uploaded my map after outlining Wisconsin and putting in cities. The time I would have spent with all the rest would have been a real waste of time.

Kenster · Post by **Kenster** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:44 am

- Pete
It seems most of us have been having troubles at one time or another with many of the custom maps.. A few of us have been working (scratching our heads) on what is causing the crashes. As snoopy said he is going to do some more testing, and I have been doing a bunch of testing the past several days with the XML files. I was trying to come up with a set of fool proof stock/vanilla XMLs to work better with the in-game Terrain Editor.. ,but testing takes a ton of time esp. when my test maps crash for no apparent reason one time and run fine the next.

My guess is there is still a bug in the game that hopefully gets straightened out in the next patch.

Once we come up with a good set of files we will try to put together a tut on the basics of map making using the Terrain Editor, editing XML files, & using an XML editor/reader.

Ken

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:29 am

I had a thought while driving today, why do the English drive on the wrong side of the road?

...no what a munute, that wasn't right

Oh ya, how much playing around with files does loading that Xmas map do? I have seen alot more problems since that was added. Also, changes in existing files for new maps. I know some people have to add things to certain files, but couldn't the needed parts of those files be copied, then added to and refered to in the RRT_Scenario xml?

chuffinheck · Post by **chuffinheck** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:37 am

We don't we drive on the right side of the road or is it the left side of the road.

If you drive down the middle fast enough everyone gets out of the way anyway

zzbusch · Post by **zzbusch** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:53 am

Kenster wrote:- Pete

Once we come up with a good set of files we will try to put together a tut on the basics of map making using the Terrain Editor, editing XML files, & using an XML editor/reader.

Ken

I think, after I made my Florida map, that editing the XML's is crucial to keeping crashes to a minimum. I think that if people are going to use the in game editor, that the editor produced XML should be kept as unedited as possible. I found if I edited the XML to much I would crash the map.

PaF-Daddy · Post by **PaF-Daddy** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:01 pm

As i said several times the generated xmlÂ´s from the Terrain editor are useless. Its better to create new one cause the editor xmlÂ´s are "unsafe" and produce CTDÂ´s and other failures

Kenster · Post by **Kenster** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:27 pm

zzbusch wrote: I think, after I made my Florida map, that editing the XML's is crucial to keeping crashes to a minimum. I think that if people are going to use the in game editor, that the editor produced XML should be kept as unedited as possible. I found if I edited the XML to much I would crash the map.

I'm not sure if some of the Terrain Editor code is all that good or if when we edit the generated code we get conflicts..
I'm fairly new to editing SMR code so I'm still in the learning curve. I've been doing a bit of testing this past week..

That smiley sums up how my eyes feel after a night of looking at a bazillion XML files

One thing I do know is the Terrain editor doesn't give many Industry options

Ken

d53642 · Post by **d53642** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:34 pm

It really has nothing to do with if the xmls are game made or modified and cleaned up by a user. XML code is read by opening and closing commands weather its all on one line and cleaned to look pretty on multiple lines.

Your case has no bias by saying non-edited Terrain Maker xmls work better than those hand made. Look at all the retail xmls, those are not editor made.

I haven't scanned my system for spyware in about 6 months, could that be my problem maybe. Could it be that no one has the exact same system setup, probably. Does the game still have CTD bugs on my system definitely. Its easy for me to say one thing is causing a crash, its easy for me to say its only the game causing the crash, when you look over the forums and see that some never get crashes you have to wonder if its just the game causing it and not something in my own system setup.

Daryl

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:22 pm

Paf-Daddy - Since your map is working so well, and you wrote the code, would you mind either setting up a set of master xml's or allow me to using your map files? Let me know what you think. I'll try them out on a map of my own before putting them on the forum and/or the Wiki.

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:35 am

This is interesting because I modified one of the multiplayer maps and put in two towns, a city, an oil well and coal mine but whenever the train stops to get some coal it CTDs.

I will have to play around with the Master XMLs and see if that makes a difference.

BTW, the last program I would choose to work with text files is Wordpad. I use UltraEdit as it's a great editor for anything textual. It does color coding of many types of files, HTML, XML, PHP, Java, etc. and has column mode which in and of itself is worth getting it for. It also has macro capabilities and powerful search and replace features. Oh yeah, it has hex editing mode too.

DF

Jancsika · Post by **Jancsika** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:44 am

I have tried some experiment. Whenever the game crashed, after reloading, I have deleted the last train and waited until the next AutoSave and launched a new train. This worked most of the time. If not I just went to build elsewhere abandoning that station.
I have a suspicion that the train XML has some bug in it. But that is beyond my knowledge

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:25 am

Jancsika - what Map are you talking about?

Jancsika · Post by **Jancsika** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:45 pm

Snoopy55
Generally all costum created maps, but maps created mostly with the Firaxis graphic editor. I have tried at least several dozen different maps, some downloaded from the WEB.
I am trying a new experiment, using the original Firaxis maps and the original XML files, moving them over to the â€

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:28 pm

If it works or is better, zip the 'before' and 'after' files and make note in a Readme which folders you worked on and post it. I and/or someone else can look it over.

Smr Simple!

Maps and Errors

Maps and Errors

Trains and crashes

Crashes