[El Bandano]

I just finished the mission High Noon (where you blow up the big evil alien ship (Sathanas)), but when I try to load the briefing for the next mission (Return to Babel), the game crashes. Until now everything worked fine, no crashes, no problems with cut-scenes.. I tried creating a new profile but it always crashes at the same mission.

The error is just the standard Windows error: "FreeSpace has encountered a problem .. .. Please tell Microsoft about this problem .."
When I dig through the extra info I find something like:
Module 1: the FS2 exe
Module 2: ntdll.dll
Module 3: kernel32.dll
..

I'm running it on Windows XP SP2,
Intel Core 2 Duo,
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS,
2 GB RAM.

Can someone help me please? I'd really like to finish this game.

[General Battuta]

Darn it, you just got into the good part of the game, too.

I have no idea, personally, but if it's a problem with the game itself we can almost certainly fix it. I'm sure that others can help.

[Cobra]

Yeah, the "tell Microsoft" deal is a load of bull****.

Try a reinstall? That's all I can think of at the moment (don't forget to back up your pilot files! ).

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Run the debug exe and post the fs2_open log from the data directory.

[Cobra]

Ehh, just to point it out, using a debug build doesn't seem to give me a cause for a fatal error.

[General Battuta]

Maybe he's just got a bad file? Someone could email him a functional version of the relevant VP? Or am I being naive?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Ehh, just to point it out, using a debug build doesn't seem to give me a cause for a fatal error.

Sometimes it does.  Other times you can make an educated guess based on the last thing in the log file. 

[Jeff Vader]

We can already make an educated guess.

Module 1: the FS2 exe
Module 2: ntdll.dll
Module 3: kernel32.dll

Since this is a "hand-written" error report, I can't be certain but it is possible that you, dear El Bandano, are playing the retail FS2. The recommendation is to switch to FSO (FreeSpace Open) which does not only add new features and improve functionality, but shall also provide you with some magnificent graphical glory.

[karajorma]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.0.html

Download and point at your FS2 folder. It will take a while to download though. But I suppose you can go to the techroom and replay FS2 while you're waiting.

[El Bandano]

It always amazes me how much help you can get for a free program, especially compared to the trouble for getting help for something you payed for. Thanks!

I'm using open FS2, not the retail.

I'm attaching the fs2_open.log.
I also found an errorlog.txt, it says something like this:

FS2 caused an Access Violation in module FS2.exe at 001b:00445635.
Exception handler called in Freespace 2 Main Thread.
Error occurred at 3/7/2008 11:59:58.
C:\Games\Freespace2\FS2.exe, run by filip.
2 processor(s), type 586.
2048 MBytes physical memory.
Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.

followed by the registers and the stack.

Sorry about the handwritten error report. Microsoft, in all it's wisdom, decided to give me a huge report, including what looks like the complete contents of my RAM, but it doesn't allow me to to select or copy it.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Jeff Vader]

FS2 caused an Access Violation in module FS2.exe at 001b:00445635.

That error report indicates that even if you have FSO builds and the Launcher, you are still using the retail executable (FS2.exe). FSO builds are typically fs2_open_3_6_---.exe, like fs2_open_3_6_9.exe, for example.

The easiest way is to use Launcher.exe (not FS2.exe and not freespace2.exe), since the FSO Launcher should be pointed at one FSO build or another.

Edit: Just inspected your fs2_open.log.

1. You have a 3.6.10 build. Good.
2. You seem to have the 3.6.8 Zeta MediaVPs. Good.
3. The MediaVPs are in the \freespace\ folder. Bad. Move every file starting with mv_ or mp-710_ to \freespace\mediavps\ and use the Launcher to select that folder as your mod.

[El Bandano]

The MediaVPs were in both \freespace2\ and \freespace2\mediavps\. I deleted the ones in the root and selected the other folder as mod but I'm still having the same problem.

[karajorma]

Run debug again and post the new log for us.

[El Bandano]

A new log

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Zacam]

Here is what I immediately notice as different between what you post and what I get:

  OpenGL Vendor     : NVIDIA Corporation
  OpenGL Renderer   : GeForce 8800 GT/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW! <- Ignore the 3DNow as I have an AMD processor.
  OpenGL Version    : 2.1.2

only one "compiling shader" line, if you are running 3.6.9 why is there one there? Was there a shader file in 3.6.8Z? Cause I don't remember seeing one. And 3.6.9 does not like running the 3.6.10 XT shader packages.

  Using GLSL for model rendering.
  Shader Version: 1.20 NVIDIA via Cg compiler <- This line is completely missing
... OpenGL init is complete!

To top off, lots of warnings in there, but that might be normal with the 3.6.8Z VP's.

What video card driver version are you using?

[El Bandano]

I was using 163.71. I updated it to 169.21 but that didn't change much.

I'm running 3.6.10. I tried to run 3.6.9 but now it gives this error:

Warning: Couldn't open paticle texture 'Yellow_glow'
referenced by weapon 'Standard Flak'

File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.final\code\Weapon\Weapons.cpp
Line: 3180
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this executable]

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    parse_weaponstbl()    parse_modular_table()    weapon_init()    game_init()    game_main()    WinMain()    WinMainCRTStartup()    kernel32.dll 7c816fd7()
------------------------------------------------------------------

Which is strange because it did worked yesterday..

The log I'm attaching is from 3.6.10 with my new driver.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Cobra]

Looks like you're missing a vp.

[El Bandano]

Could be. I downloaded and reinstalled the entire game and now it works fine.

[Jeff Vader]

Good to hear. It always makes me sad when a person has such a troublesome time trying to get FSO to work. But then again, this is yet another proof of the fact that it is always possible to get it working.

[El Bandano]

It was worth the trouble :).

Thanks to those who created this game and everyone who helped me!