Bacon Mod

[Sabranan]

Ok, I've just been running with the Bacon Mod and using the tool Overlord suggested on the largest possible galaxy settings in sandbox mode, full automation (also suppressing all pop-up boxes so it actually runs) and just letting it run fully zoomed out in 4x speed for 2 hours, autosaving every 5 minutes. Bit of a stress test for it.

The save games are now about 30MB, but no crashes so far which is great!

Still probably a good idea to release a new executable that patches the memory allocation for that thread, assuming it hasn't caused any problems it certainly can't hurt.

[Clogs]

No idea why I spent the last 20 mins reading this entire thread. Awesome mod doe

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Sabranan

Ok, I've just been running with the Bacon Mod and using the tool Overlord suggested on the largest possible galaxy settings in sandbox mode, full automation (also suppressing all pop-up boxes so it actually runs) and just letting it run fully zoomed out in 4x speed for 2 hours, autosaving every 5 minutes. Bit of a stress test for it.

The save games are now about 30MB, but no crashes so far which is great!

Still probably a good idea to release a new executable that patches the memory allocation for that thread, assuming it hasn't caused any problems it certainly can't hurt.

That is fantastic news. I've been doing a similar stress test with the new 32MB save thread and my results are less impressive. Note I have not been using Overlord's tool since I wanted a pure apples to apples comparison. I have not received any crashes during save ( I'm using manual save only) but there are occasional (3 so far) memory related crashes. They are not in the Distant Worlds core code but in various Microsoft library functions that the game calls. This may be just typical to the memory problems any 32-bit program has.
I plan one more day of testing. I will switch to using the tool Overlord mentioned. I will definitely release a new version because I found a bug in the manually assigned cargo missions. If you had cargo from another empire at the source it would consider that car in its calculations of which cargo to transport. It wouldn't actually pick up another empire's cargo but it would prevent the proper cargo from b eing selected. That is now fixed and it will only consider cargo types from your empire.

[Kull]

I've been doing some research on LAA issues for another game, and decided to run a test with DW to see which hexes are modified. I used the linked tool and created a modified DW file, and then opened the original and the modified one with a hex editor. Using the "file compare" feature, it showed NO DIFFERENCE between the two. Interestingly, DW launches using the "autorun.exe" file, and that one DOES show a difference when modified.

So I'm curious - which files are you guys changing? Is it just me who is not seeing any physical hex difference between the before and after DW.exe files?

[RogerBacon]

Version 1.1 released.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8umu1o16gdbdr ... e.zip?dl=0

1.1 Fixed a bug in manual cargo missions. Fixed an out of memory error when saving. Used utility “Large Adress Aware” (https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/thre ... re.112556/) to enable exe to access more of the first 4GB of system memory.

[Beyondfubar]

Hey I love the idea of this mod! Sub light forced makes having engines on ships make sense.. sadly I can't figure out why but attempting to use (just) the exe + main folder Txt results in eventual crashes for the other mods I hold dear. Any chance I'm doing this wrong?

for background I am not using your fighter/bomber bay changes (yet!) but rather just the base addons. I am using various mods posted here, Starfall I tried for the first time and assumed that was the issue so I went back to Beyond and found the same out of bounds array issues, particularly when pulling up the ship order screen, but also if I attempt to edit (adding) independant race items.

The first few times if not trapped in a loop of JIT errors, I can continue but after a bit for no real reason I just get a CTD. None of the error screens show a call to a bacon method... but I've never had them before.

If only the CTD didn't happen I love the mod enough to attempt to beat an infinite loop!

[Franky007]

Great work, especially for the Freighter. [:D]
Now i will need to redesign my ships with more engine...

A small request if possible:
I never use the mini-map (lower right).
Would it be possible while using the 'T' key:
add a mode where the mini-map is not displayed but everything else is displayed.
This would increase the visible area.

thanks.

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Beyondfubar

Hey I love the idea of this mod! Sub light forced makes having engines on ships make sense.. sadly I can't figure out why but attempting to use (just) the exe + main folder Txt results in eventual crashes for the other mods I hold dear. Any chance I'm doing this wrong?

for background I am not using your fighter/bomber bay changes (yet!) but rather just the base addons. I am using various mods posted here, Starfall I tried for the first time and assumed that was the issue so I went back to Beyond and found the same out of bounds array issues, particularly when pulling up the ship order screen, but also if I attempt to edit (adding) independant race items.

The first few times if not trapped in a loop of JIT errors, I can continue but after a bit for no real reason I just get a CTD. None of the error screens show a call to a bacon method... but I've never had them before.

If only the CTD didn't happen I love the mod enough to attempt to beat an infinite loop!

Hi. The next time it happens copy and paste the entire error message and PM it to me. I'll try and see what the issue is. Does your computer have more than 4 GB of memory? To fix a save game bug I made the exe LAA (Large Address Aware) with the assumption that everyone has more than 4 GB of memory these days. Still, it doesn't sound like a memory issue if there is an array out of bounds error.

When you say "I went back to Beyond" you mean Beyond Extended Universe tm.asp?m=3657646 ?

If you could, try to play without any other mod (I know, its painful to go back to vanilla or semi-vanilla with my mod) and see if you still get the crashes.
If no crashes, we may have to dissect the other mod bit by bit and find out where the interaction is that is causing the error. With no reference to a Bacon method in the error output its going to be difficult. I'll look at the other mod and see if anything jumps out.

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Francoy

Great work, especially for the Freighter. [:D]
Now i will need to redesign my ships with more engine...

A small request if possible:
I never use the mini-map (lower right).
Would it be possible while using the 'T' key:
add a mode where the mini-map is not displayed but everything else is displayed.
This would increase the visible area.

thanks.

Hi. Glad you are liking it. Unfortunately UI changes are a little beyond my abilities -- hence the standard MessageBoxes for all of the info screens I added. If the minimap was all one element it might be doable but I'm pretty sure each of those little buttons is separate.

[Beyondfubar]

I'll try out vanilla, I have 16gb of ram and have been running with the LAA ever since I realised I didn't have to crash hard every 30 minutes (awesome) I did try it with Beyond Extended Universe and with Starfall (Corrected version)

Let me get out the vanilla game and give it a go, thanks for the help thus far your star gravity well idea is so insanely gold I miss it without even having tried it. Also to add to that, it does play and seems to work as intended before giving me a straight appcrash error. Typically this is after a few attempts at a 'details, continue, quit' error storm.

[Beyondfubar]

In case I'm just using the wrong mods.. is there an Bacon-Tested, Mod approved list?

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Beyondfubar

I'll try out vanilla, I have 16gb of ram and have been running with the LAA ever since I realised I didn't have to crash hard every 30 minutes (awesome) I did try it with Beyond Extended Universe and with Starfall (Corrected version)

Let me get out the vanilla game and give it a go, thanks for the help thus far your star gravity well idea is so insanely gold I miss it without even having tried it. Also to add to that, it does play and seems to work as intended before giving me a straight appcrash error. Typically this is after a few attempts at a 'details, continue, quit' error storm.

One more thought I had. Have you added more ships to a family such as "destroyer1", "destroyer2", etc? If you change the total number of ships, saved games may crash with an index out of bounds error. You can swap out images but if you ADD or REMOVE ship images (i.e. total number changes) you can get these kind of errors.

I ran the Beyond mod yesterday for about two hours on 4x speed and didn't get a crash but it was mostly automated and I didn't click a lot of things. I'll try to test some more tomorrow if I have time.

[Beyondfubar]

Opening the design screen seems to get me the errors, should I try and merge your fighter changes?

Edit: Ok I'm stumped, If I don't use my custom settings on universe generation Beyond gives no errors.. But my old 'Set the universe up how you like it' setting give me issues.

Edit Edit: Trying starfall now without the customization settings

Ok so Starfall (Corrected) won't work. Get the loop of errors issue. Beyond seems to work and I like that mod just fine small prices to pay. will give it a shake down and make sure.

Any chance you would know what corrective fix I should apply to get Starfall up and running? That thing is great with some minor tweaks

[Beyondfubar]

So just a thought, what does your mod do if no ships have warp drives/Warp drives are not unlocked? I seem to run into issues if I set the development to pre warp for Beyond.

Ok Starfall works, but does NOT play nice with your shadow removal. Tested and works flawlessly if removed

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Beyondfubar

Opening the design screen seems to get me the errors, should I try and merge your fighter changes?

Yeah, if you want to. The only changes are adding the BomberBay component and increasing the damage of bombers. Don't make a change to the saved game though. Changing the number of components will definitely give an index out of range error. This is true for all mods.

Edit: Ok I'm stumped, If I don't use my custom settings on universe generation Beyond gives no errors.. But my old 'Set the universe up how you like it' setting give me issues.

That might be worth exploring and finding out which setting is causing the errors.

Edit Edit: Trying starfall now without the customization settings

Ok so Starfall (Corrected) won't work. Get the loop of errors issue. Beyond seems to work and I like that mod just fine small prices to pay. will give it a shake down and make sure.

Any chance you would know what corrective fix I should apply to get Starfall up and running? That thing is great with some minor tweaks

So just a thought, what does your mod do if no ships have warp drives/Warp drives are not unlocked? I seem to run into issues if I set the development to pre warp for Beyond.

I almost always play pre-warp start so the mod has been extensively tested with ships that have no hyperjump. You will still see the blue ring around the star but it will be meaningless for non-hyperjump capable ships.

Ok Starfall works, but does NOT play nice with your shadow removal. Tested and works flawlessly if removed

That's great that Starfall is working. So, removing the drop shadow gave errors? That's really strange because its only a visual effect. If you get any more errors I'd still like to see a stack trace, even though you said there were no Bacon functions in the dump.

[Beyondfubar]

Not sure why but with Beyond I was getting errors when attempting to start pre-warp, same with starfall. Moving to post warp fixed this. Starfall hated the removal of the shadows, it would simply not display a bottom left info panel, then when trying to load a detailed menu it would crash. Thats a shame because I hate how the font is cleverly designed to hide 1's by practically merging it with the dark shadow, playing on 4k exacerbates this 10 fold. I played for ~4 hours last night primarily at 2x speed and completely without crashing!

Edit: I'll turn shadows back off and wait for a crash, initial testing is giving me no errors even though I had to do that just to start the game I'm currently playing (tested with, without no matter what I got a design window exception or something then a hard crash.) Perhaps it's because I have a steam version? No idea.

[Beyondfubar]

Seems to run fine for a bit, then I got that, but with shadows in normal mode I was able to run for hours last night (Am I allowed to change that setting mid game?) This however was the first time I got that error. Previous errors were either claiming display errors (don't remember the exact statements, somehow can't reproduce) or much more often a simple appcrash.

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Beyondfubar


Seems to run fine for a bit, then I got that, but with shadows in normal mode I was able to run for hours last night (Am I allowed to change that setting mid game?) This however was the first time I got that error. Previous errors were either claiming display errors (don't remember the exact statements, somehow can't reproduce) or much more often a simple appcrash.

You can turn the shadow on or off during a game.
One thing I want to say. A lot of my mod's settings are loaded when you hit a key for the first time. It is really important that you get in the habit of hitting a key (any key, even one that doesn't do anything) everytime you load up your game before you click on anything. When I say "load up your game" I mane when the saved game finishes loading and you can click on things, not when the game's title screen loads. The reason for this is that I initialize stuff in the OnKeyboardEvent method so somethings are null before you press a key for the first time. Its far from optimal but its the best I could do. I DO check for null so it won't cause a crash and it is not the cause in this case.

I looked at the crash dump you provided. Here is what is happening:
The AI is selecting an image for a ship design that is being built (or the player is doing the same if you went right to the design menu before pressing a key, which might be the case). In any event, the game is selecting a random image associated with the ship class and family. If you have not added any extra ship images (cruiser1, cruiser2, etc) then it selects a "random" one which will always be the default. In this case it seems there is no image for that family and ship class combination so it is giving an error.
Check the mod and see if one of the families (start with the one you were using) is missing an image for one ship type. Also, as I mentioned before, you can not add or subtract ship images and load a saved game. You can switch them but not change the total number.

[Beyondfubar]

I'll check for that, I typically hit space bar twice when the game loads habit of checking to see if it's paused. I'm playing starfall and there maybe some edits there I'll go check, but I get really odd errors without the shadows, sometimes it works sometimes it gives me a continue error, sometimes it just appcrashes out. Maddening! I'm starting over after failing to apply your fighter bay changes to it though.

[Beyondfubar]

Looks like I have no less than 26 images in the ship folders, but to be on the safe size I'll check them one by one.