Crashes, aaarrrgghhh

beardedwonder · Post by **beardedwonder** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:10 am

I've recently discovered this forum and am glad that some people are extending the life of the game with some great maps.

I had a couple of crashes with the normal maps but not too many. I have done a clean install of SMR, patched it, installed SMR:I, patched it.

My PC:
Core2Duo 2GHz,
2GB DDR2 RAM,
ATI Radeon X1950Pro (latest Omega drivers)
nforce 650i mobo
2 SATA HDDs,
4GB Swap file.
Windows XP SP2 (up-to-date)
NOD32 set to not scan SMR folders (game and 'my documents')

SMR setup:
1280x960 windowed
No AA, Med Texture,
Clouds: disabled, Trees: off,
Shadow: Off, Shader: low.
Audio muted, Auto save: off.

I started having problems when i was playing 'The American Transcontinental Railroad' (great map). Eventually got through it but took a long time to complete because of the crashes.

I started a game on 'Africa Diamonds' but it now crashes within a few years of starting, no matter what city i start in. I have enabled logging but i'm not really sure what i should be looking for. Could it be this?

[85761.359] DBG: RANDOMEVENT: 4947

Lowell · Post by **Lowell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:16 am

The dreaded random Event...

That is what is causing your crashes. Try a different map, or go to the thread about that map and post a comment...there might be a fix. Or remove the events in the list.

beardedwonder · Post by **beardedwonder** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:04 am

Ah, so that error code doesn't really mean anything?! How helpful

Oh well, i'll try some other maps and see if i get the same error. It's very frustrating, my computer plays Crysis on mostly Medium settings but can't do SMR

.

Thank you for your help

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:14 am

Yes, the log does have meaning, but what Lowell meant is that it's
a Random event that makes your games crash.
Since it's Random and among a large list of other events we haven't
been able to determine which one it is.

A crude method of eliminating those crashes is by de-activating your RRT_Events.xml file.
Simply rename it to RRT_Events.xml.old and the game won't spot it anymore.
Be aware though, that this completely changes the way you play certain scenario's
since none of the random effects will be activated anymore.

Good luck!

Tijer · Post by **Tijer** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:28 pm

Although I am not sure, the missing audio files could be tied to the random event crashes. check the Audio log to see what it says. We still have 3 files that we do not know what they are tied to.

Lowell · Post by **Lowell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:31 pm

nope...before SMRI there was no random event crashes.Those sound links have been dead from the first offering of the game. Before any updates...that goes way back. The trouble is someone needs to read through all the default events in Program Files 2K Games...etc. and find the typo that is crashing the update. I made a new map called mud skippers. When I made the new files I too started to have random event crashes, I pulled the whole list. It stopped. If I make a new one in my clean game files that don't have the SMRI Update there is no crashes.

So it has to do with the SMRI update. Start a new scenario map inside SMRI. Leave most everything default. Go into your new map and watch what happens...crash...Random event. Now make a new one in a clean game file with no SMRI...you'll see.

You can force Events to pop up quickly if you advance the odds of them poping up. Move the figure from 20% to 90...it will trigger right away and often.

Now I don't remember the SMRI update loading any new events. However there could be a map in the bunch that has a global events list inside that the game is pulling on new maps. When you make a new scenario the game fills in the list. I will see if I can find time to do a test on each one and see what is causing this.

I've made sevaral maps, mud skippers was the first one for me to see this first hand as all my other maps were made in clean game files.

lednard · Post by **lednard** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:35 pm

Very interesting. I posted earlier in the CTD thread and upon reading this thread I did remember that my CTDs greatly increased with the installation of SMRI 1.1.

Reading the log files on crashes also showed it to be random events. Reloading a few saves back sometimes I could make it past the spot that crashed when a new random event would occur in the exact same place.

I will watch this thread in earnest hoping for a solution and if one is found I look forward to a reinstall.

Thanx to the community.

karsten · Post by **karsten** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:02 pm

Just replace the events file in your scenario with the simple one that is included in the Rift3 scenario. You need to rename the file and reference it in your scenario XML file. That stops all random event crashes.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:45 pm

OK, give me the name of two or three maps that are crashing because of random events. Yes, I know I tried to go this route before and got an answer of 'All', but just make me happy and give me a few map names. If I get a CTD, I'll start removing Events until I find it.

Tijer · Post by **Tijer** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:11 pm

I am not looking to start removing and messing with stuff. I believe that this has been an ongoing problem since day one, and no body followed the bouncing ball. I created a file to fill the the void created by the missing file. As we find out where the other three files cause problems we will deal with that. The buy out files that are missing would only cause a problem when the player buys out a competitor. The good version would be the only one to cause a problem since the game continues. The Buyout bad does not matter since the game ends anyway. As for the AngelBand file, I believe that file to be non-specific since that is picked from a pool. One less in the pool means nothing.

Unzip and place the following file in the program side Assets folder along with the FPKs.

The truth of the matter is we have no idea as to how long this has been a problem the fact that SMRI may or may not have enhanced the problem is unknown and should not be speculated upon because It would of cropped up anyway do to the larger data with each added map.

karsten · Post by **karsten** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:46 am

an answer of 'All', but just make me happy and give me a few map names

Well, "all" would not be correct, because I know that at least the maps I have been involved with (Scrooge, Liverpool, Arizona and Utah) have tailor-made event files, and as long as these are not removed, they will not have any event-related crashes.
Conversely, all the maps without their own events file are at risk. If they have few standard goods, the crash is likely to come early, if they have most standard goods (ie those referenced in the generic events file) the crash will likely come late. Since the events are random, it is even possible that a map will survive a test from finish to end, simply because the troublesome event or events are not triggered.
There is a good reason why all the Firaxis scenarios have their own tailor-made event files.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:38 am

First, I am not asking someone else to edit thier files, I will
Second, I don't want to hear which maps are not going CTD, I want to know which ones ARE.
Also, why is it that this problem is just now being addressed? SMRI did not put all events in every map. It was written the same way as the Installers for those maps, and those Installers were written just as the original maps were done, except they were stripped to use GLOBALS. Why has it taken 8 months for this problem to come up?

And, just like before, I can't seem to get a reply of which maps have crashed..... It cannot be repaired until we know what the problem is.

If someone is so sure it is the Events files not matching what is in the maps, then they and others should be writting the needed files and uploadeing them along with the corrected Secnario file for each map.

Tijer · Post by **Tijer** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:35 pm

The problem is with default files. This does not occur when the audio files are selected and formated to work a specific time. In the original scenarios the audio files are formated, we know this because Snoopy checked them. In the user maps created, unless the audio files are formated the defaults will cause a crash or a freeze. Now the music has been found to replace some of the missing files. Two files the buyout good and buyout bad are still in need of replacements, and those should be completed soon.

On the topic of why this has taken over a year to find and correct, we can thank Fireaxis for that. They had to have gotten the feedback from MS on the crashes, but instead of correcting the XML they decided to blow it off as a problem caused by user created content. This only goes to show how much they cared past collecting the money for the game sale. Let us not beat ourselves up when the problem was caused by Fireaxis and Sid. Direct the anger where it belongs. Not at the people who are attempting to remedy the situation, but the ones that caused the problem. Thank you for your concern in this matter and remember the wonderful work done by Sid and the Fireaxis group the the next time you go to buy a game.

Lowell · Post by **Lowell** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:00 pm

I read several articles where RRT3 wanted to get the next railroad game assignment. Some how 2K Games was buying out Fraxis and Sid was awarded the game project from 2K and all the guys at RRT3 were super pissed. They wanted to make RRT3 even better, and the way the trains and goods are shipped and the economy were much more in detail. The graphics are better in this new version, but I think there was a power play going on plus company's buying each other out etc. Hence a good product that wasn't given the attention it needed. Must have been too much office politics to complete a good project.

Sad...as a studying artist, I always go back and make things as perfect as I can. This isn't the only game project to have these problems.

So far we have a busted decorations file system and missing audio. Plus no standard format in which to build all maps file systems the same. Maybe they could take lessons from Valve...now there is a tight SDK. Nobody has troubles in Half-Life and if you are missing materials or something the game will fill it in with a default. But that is a different world from this game.