Smr Simple!

Gang -
In my (yet to be fruitful) endeavors I've encountered 3 'types' of CTD (not counting the CTD's once you've acutally started a scenario)

1- the scenario starts to load then CTD (without any intervention)

2- the scenario starts to load...and load.... and load.... when you finally hit 'enter' - CTD

3 - the scenario starts to load and eventually bombs out with the "Runtime C+++ error" message -- CTD

Has anyone figured out what causes each type of CTD - if one could say - "ah, the Runtime error, that means I've not added my new Industry to the Custom XML list...." - that type of info would go a long way in trouble shooting the problem...
thanks,
-willie g

willie g wrote:Gang -
In my (yet to be fruitful) endeavors I've encountered 3 'types' of CTD (not counting the CTD's once you've acutally started a scenario)

Most if not all of the CTDs are related to a resource loading issue.

A couple examples I have found so far are:

1) invalid XML file
2) FPK file in a subdir of CustomAssets
3) missing reference in GLOBAL xml files

Mike

willie g wrote:
1- the scenario starts to load then CTD (without any intervention)

Quick CTDs are caused by XML problems.
Referencing an XML file in RRT_Scenario_User_map.xml that doesn't exist.
A bad character or bad format in XML.

willie g wrote: 2- the scenario starts to load...and load.... and load.... when you finally hit 'enter' - CTD

This may be caused by a missing resource file (.nif, .kfm, .kf, .tga, .dds) that is referenced in the XML or in a model's .kfm file somewhere. Keep in mind these resource files are often buried in FPKs, so just make sure the necessary FPK is available.

willie g wrote: 3 - the scenario starts to load and eventually bombs out with the "Runtime C+++ error" message -- CTD

I have seen this error when a Good, Industry, or Depot is missing from the global XML file that my map's XML file references.

Of course there may be more causes to these CTDs, but these have been my experiences.

Based on the suggestions in this thread (the causes of CTDs) I will write up a program which validates the maps contain all required mods. This includes FPKs and GLOBAL XMLs. I will also include a new macro which can be executed as part of a post-install validation step for the installers.

Mike

atani wrote:Based on the suggestions in this thread (the causes of CTDs) I will write up a program which validates the maps contain all required mods. This includes FPKs and GLOBAL XMLs. I will also include a new macro which can be executed as part of a post-install validation step for the installers.

Mike

Great idea. I had thought of doing this myself, but don't have the time with all the new mods I'm trying to put together.

choobacca wrote: Great idea. I had thought of doing this myself, but don't have the time with all the new mods I'm trying to put together.

I actually have most of it already written up with the new installer version 0.06. This contains an FPK parser (currently limited to just getting the TOC for the FPK, but adding file data support is easy enough.)

Mike

Just discovered another CTD scenario based on my post regarding "buildstuff"....

I (stupidly) changed "buildstuff" to "ownstuff" without also changing "buildlist" to "ownlist".

The result was a CTD when I clicked on the "Single Player" button on the main menu screen of the game - never had that dramatic a smack upside the head before...
-willie g