[Ephetat]

Hello everyone, i have just joined here. i have been following this project for sometime, but i've only recently gotten a hold of Freespace 2 for this computer (i had played the game some three-four years previously) and therefore was able to try the SCP. i am impressed with the enhancements, and it feels like i'm discovering the experience again from the beginning.

But i have a rather discouraging problem. My game crashes to the desktop during the mission loading sequence after I either restart the game or add something to the folders (like the Hi-res textures of Lightspeed.)

I have used the debugger version of WMCoolman's (i hope i got the name right) 20050423 release and got the following problems;

1)

[this has been fixed with karajorma's low-res cruiser texture fix in the stickied post]

Warning: Couldn't fix up turret indices in spline path

Model: cruiser01.pof
Path: $path02
Vertex: 1
Turret model id:13

This probably means the turret was not specified in ships.tbl
File:e:\cvs\fs2_open\code\ship\ship.cpp
Line: 7240

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006c1357()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006c4d20()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006c5b24()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006ca360()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006cb532()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 008730b8()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006931b5()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a027d()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0084f96d()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0069ecdc()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0084ff8c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a2386()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a257c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00ac9617()
    kernel32.dll 77e814c7()
------------------------------------------------------------------

2)

Warning: Couldn't open texture 'Shornetd'
referenced by model 'New_Qutrob.pof'

File:e:\cvs\fs2_open\code\model\modelread.cpp
Line: 2677

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 008373df()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00839932()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0083078e()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a6468()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0069308f()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006932b2()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a027d()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0084f96d()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0069ecdc()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0084ff8c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a2386()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006a257c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00ac9617()
    kernel32.dll 77e814c7()
------------------------------------------------------------------

3)

Warning: Null vec3d in vec3d normalize.
Trace out of vecmat.cpp and find offending code.

File:e:\cvs\fs2_open\code\math\vecmat.cpp
Line: 771

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 006fb44b()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00735bf2()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736087()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073629c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073626a()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073629c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073629c()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073626a()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 0073626a()
    fs2_open_C20050423_d.exe 00736063()
------------------------------------------------------------------

the game then crashes to the desktop during the loading of "exp05.ani"

do you have any idea as to what causes this crash?

i'm really feeling clueless about the reasons of this. i used to work around this problem by creating a new pilot. even that doesn't work now.

thank you for any help you might give.

oh, and my system specs:

AMD athlon64 3000+
1GB DDR-Ram (dual channel)
Geforce 6600 GT 128 MB PCI-e vid card
SB Audigy 2 sound card
Seagate 120GB harddisk
WinXP SP1

[Kie99]

Looks like you've got something wrong with your MediaVPs.  I would recommend redownloading them, but wait for a coder to come in, I wouldn't want you to have to download all those files if I'm wrong.  Have you reported it to Mantis?

[Ephetat]

i've thought of submitting it to mantis, but seeing the already high amount of reported bugs there anyway, i thought the developers had enough on their plates as is.

and i might be the only person getting this anyhow so i thought that i would get more "specialized" help by posting in the forums.

[Flipside]

I've had the VecMatt.cpp problem a couple of times in Fred, but never found a solid way of reproducing it, and it never affected the game, so I assumed it was my system. This was strengthened by the fact it didn't happen after a reformat, but then, I was using a newer version of Fred after the format.

[MetalDestroyer]

Hum i've got a similar problem, but it desappear when i delete the cache directory in the data directory.
and then, i didn't meet another crash. But i didn't try with the last built, i'm using the 20050318

[Ephetat]

that didn't help. i'll try to reinstall everything now and see if that changes anything...

[Ephetat]

nope, it still crashes. this time it crashed while i was advancing in the campaign. i hadn't even restarted the gane or anything.

anyone else has any ideas?

[Dark RevenantX]

That is EXACTLY what I got when I was new to SCP.  Just make sure you have the latest stuff.

[Ephetat]

well, i'm pretty sure that i do have the latest versions of everything. i downloaded the mv packs from the site and tried out various recent builds from this forum...

simply put: i run the game once. it works. i restart the game, now it crashes. then i create a new pilot, it works again. another restart and it's messed up once more...

[Trivial Psychic]

Are you using D3D or OGL?

[Ephetat]

it's D3D...

[Grug]

Fix for 3)
I had the exp05 problem too.

I found the problem was a wrongly sized image file being used by one of the weapons I was making.

If you've got any custom maps / effects, make sure they are all the right size. (256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, 256x512 etc) ie have to be the correct multiples.

As for 2) I had a similar problem also. I'm not entirely sure on how I fixed it. I think it might of been a table correction. Check to make sure you have the Shornet texture somewhere in the maps folder. (within vp's too)

Oh btw:

[Ephetat]

why thank you

i'm now using an older build by bobboau (3-12-05) and just the ls_neb.vp as an extra. no crashes so far... i'm thinking that the problems may have been caused by me doing something wrong after extracting the glowmaps and shinemaps into the data folders, because it seems the zpack vps already have them...

[Ephetat]

ok, another problem, this time an eyecandy one. heh...sorry for being trouble...

anyway, for some reason, the "retail" skyboxes/backgrounds don't show up during the "official" campaign missions anymore. it's black where they are supposed be. i have a feeling that ls_neb.vp might have something to do with it, but it didn't use to do this before.

i have all the zpack .vps and ls_neb.vp active, and no problems there, those - magnificent - backgrounds do show up during the related campaigns (fall of epsilon pegasi, derelict etc.)

but something happened to the retail backgrounds and they don't show up anymore, though the high definition planets are there.

what am I overlooking?

[StratComm]

Does ls_neb replace the stock nebulas or just add to them?  IIRC there's one version out there that takes the regular nebulas out of the game, which would cause the error you're describing.

[Ephetat]

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/new365/ls_neb.exe -- this is the link i got it from. the old site of the SCP, i believe... i ran across the link in the Fall of Epsilon Pegasi thread in the campaigns forum if i'm not mistaken.

about the adding/replacing issue, i'm afraid i don't know that for certain. the package had the corresponding .vp file, which i unzipped to the fs2 folder. i think they are replaced, though, as it makes no difference whether ls_neb.vp is "active" or not.

i also have the adv_effects.vp in the fs2 directory but that's also inactive.

[Trivial Psychic]

The nebulae in that pack are completely different than the standard set.  They don't have the same names and require a new table file (which should be included), however by default its incompatible with retail missions.  In order to make use of them, those missions must have their backgrounds changed in FRED.  There was a move to edit all FS2 missions to use them, but it was never completed.  Lightspeed did make some new nebulae that are designed to replace the originals and require no mission changes to work.  They should be included in the effects VP.

[StratComm]

Aren't the ones in the effects VP both the new "retail" set and the full background set?  Because IIRC I get both, I just don't remember if I have a special stars.tbl to define them all.

[Ephetat]

i see...well, is there a way to restore those backgrounds to the campaign? or should I reinstall again?

[StratComm]

EDIT: Oops, double post.  See next.