Circle of Eight Modpack v7 / v7 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by UncleBuck, Dec 2, 2011.

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  1. CrimsonVirus

    CrimsonVirus Member

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Hello everyone,

    It's been a while since I last logged in this forum and since I decided to give ToEE another spin with the latest Co8 version (my last one being before the addition of the new areas :O) I wanted to offer some feedback.
    I also encountered the CTD right before the intro movie (2-3 seconds after the initial loading screen) and I've been trying to solve this problem (w/o using the obvious ''disable intro'' option) because I don't remember having this kind of issue before... and because it disturbs my OCD :p.

    Anyway, as Sirchet mentioned, I also DIDN'T get the crash at my first boot of the game, but after that, the crash got quite persistent, almost 90% of the subsequent tries ended up in an identical crash. After a PC restart it gets reset again, with a first successful boot and the rest failing. I tried everything suggested in the forums (run as admin, disable visual themes, disable scaling etc) and the problem persisted in the same manner.

    BUT, I managed to find a small detail that reduced the number of crashes (having at least 5-6 successful boots in a row after a PC restart) keeping only the Disable Scaling from the suggested solutions. When I start the TFE-X launcher, I don't CLICK at the ''Play'' button, I press Enter (after pressing TAB once to select it) to press it.

    Now here's where I am getting at: when the game begun after CLICKING the Play button and managed to boot the intro cinematic, I couldn't just skip it by pressing Esc, I had to click once THEN press Esc. When I press Enter on the Play button, the intro cinematic can be skipped just by pressing Esc, plus, I get to see the intro more times without crashing. It seems to me that CLICKING at the Play button, causes something of an ''alt-tabbing'' of sorts, hence (probably) the crashes. Pressing Enter at Play button also resolved the occasional mouse hangs at the Main Menu even with the Disable Intro option enabled.

    Sorry for the wall text, but if you can reproduce that and figure something out of it, I would be glad!
     
    CrimsonVirus, Aug 21, 2013
    #1321
  2. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    @Hellblazer Actually there is. But it is very hard to find though, anyway it's in here at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddmm/?source=navbar It's original purpose is to lock two monitors screen but it can lock also a screen app (which is your original purpose).

    How to config:

    If you're using ToEE Win mode 800x600 then, and at a primary resolution of 1024x768, run DDMM.exe

    <☑> "Activate mouse management"
    <☒> "Allow border crossing after delay"
    <☑> "Allow border crossing when Ctrl key is pressed"
    <☒> "Automatic Control"
    <☑> "Use preview"

    Screen 1: <115> <915> <78> <679>

    NOTE: My desktop is fixed to 1024x768, so the positioning may vary or differ. (Adjust it.)

    Now cursor is locked on the screen, but still it is not playable, the bottom edge of the screen is not movable by cursor then we must remedy it with another alternative http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30525996 click the first link and download it. Unzip <WindowedBorderlessGaming_1.1.1.2.zip>, run the program then right-click it's icon on the taskbar, (ToEE application is running here - OK?) add window or "F3" ToEE game. After you added it on the program, a pop-up config will appear put the settings as follows

    Pos X: 115
    Pos Y: 77
    Resolution: 800x600

    NOTE: Again my desktop is fixed to 1024x768, so the positioning may vary or differ. (Adjust it.)

    The borders will disappear and the bottom part of the screen is now functional and movable.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2013
    Zoltec, Aug 21, 2013
    #1322
  3. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    @Agetian DDMM is an open-source program, you might want to integrate some of its core functions, or you might also want to know more about DxWnd by ghotik it is also open source the "Window Borderless Gaming" is only a derivative ver. work of the original DxWnd.

    The feature you will need to pack as one in TFE-X is : mouse screen lock and unbordered window, along with Ajitae's "Window mode" option in TFE-X.

    I noticed that when you set the resolution "Window Borderless Gaming" with Ajitae's dll hack, the screen is expandable up to 1024x768 but retains the 800x600 clarity which is intentionally selected, not tested with other(reso) but I'm sure it will work, though I don't know if it will work on Linux since, all of these mentioned apps are Win applications maybe you can port those using bash. :D
     
    Zoltec, Aug 21, 2013
    #1323
  4. twisty

    twisty Morose Marauder

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    I finally managed to get to Hickory Branch -- here's how:

    After being told about HB by the female sergeant on a random encounter every attempt at trying to travel to HB via the map would result in a crash. I tried rebooting, changing resolutions, all without success.

    The workaround that enabled me to go to HB was to use the console command. I got the location from the walkthrough but that has not been updated and I ended up at the Orc Caves instead. I was able to travel from there to HB via the map without any issue.
     
    twisty, Aug 21, 2013
    #1324
  5. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    @ Zoltec: Thanks for the information, I'll look into that program and see if its functionality can be integrated into the front-end. More likely though, an option can be added into the front-end to launch the game via a DxWnd wrapper. Integrating fully into TFE-X might be more problematic as it's unlikely to be a cross-platform solution and will require a major restructure of the code and a change in the way TFE-X works (for instance, it'll have to keep working while the game is running vs. shutting down as it currently does). Anyhow, all the options will eventually be evaluated, I appreciate the info! :)

    For those of you experiencing various crashes on video playback / game startup, can you please try the following? I did some tests yesterday and I was able to remedy the crashes this way, which indicates we might be actually dealing with some access permission-related funkiness.
    1. (unless you're in the middle of a playthrough and if you can do it) Uninstall your old game completely.
    2. Install the game into a new location (if it was installed to C:\Games\ToEE before, install it into C:\Games\ToEE-new or C:\Games\ToEE1 or something like that). Do NOT install to Program Files!
    3. Install the Co8 modpack v7.9.0 into a folder OTHER than the game (e.g. to C:\Games\ToEE-co8-7.9.0), then *manually copy or move all the files* from that folder into the ToEE folder.
    4. (optional but highly recommended) Update TFE-X to the latest stable release.
    5. As normal, run TFE-X and install it, then activate the modpack, then try to play the game and see if you still experience crashes.

    I tried this installation method yesterday (on a Windows 7 64-bit system) and noticed two things in the OS behavior that were quite unusual: the first unusual thing was that TFE-X did not require administrative privileges anymore and was able to run the game despite not running as administrator. The other, more important consequence, was that I was no longer able to reproduce the crashes on video mode switch that a lot of people are having these days. I have no idea if the two are connected, but if they are, it indicates that the crashes are related to something in the access permission system in Windows. If more people are able to resolve the issue this way, we'll think about how this can be fixed or worked around.

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Aug 21, 2013
    #1325
  6. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Hmmp. You have another option for that and that is calling the function natively, using C++ for Windows and some stuff* for Linux. ;)

    Keep this for future references, it might help on the dev. of TFE-X :)

    Java Native Access 1
    Java Native Access 2

    I'm installing v7.9.0 right now, have to test those crashes. Might figure out something along the way.
     
    Zoltec, Aug 21, 2013
    #1326
  7. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    @ Zoltec: Yep, I'm aware of JNI, that's actually what makes the code far less portable than it currently is. If possible, I'd like to avoid writing binary code wrappers for platform-dependent code as that would introduce a whole layer of issues (such as, for instance: Linux users running TFE-X natively will experience problems when JNI tries to launch a Windows .dll; they'll have to use Wine to run TFE-X via the Windows API layer by first installing Java for Windows via Wine. That, in its turn, even if successful, will introduce an extra component into the Wine system, which might bring about any number of crashes and other issues into existence. As an alternative, I'll have to write and maintain two separate TFE-X builds, one of which will utilize DxWnd via JNI and the other won't. The two front-ends will have to maintain mutual compatibility with each other with each development iteration (as far as configuration files and game launch mechanics go etc.), which isn't exactly bug-proof. In other words, it's not as simple as it looks. I promise I will consider the options, though, like I said.

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Aug 21, 2013
    #1327
  8. tom

    tom Established Member

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Two small things

    with ctd on start up - disabling starting movies helped for me ( windows 7 64 bit) 1366 X 768. screen
     
    tom, Aug 21, 2013
    #1328
  9. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Agetian, is it correct to assume you were not able to replicate the ctd issue before you did the re-install to a different directory then copy method?
     
    sirchet, Aug 22, 2013
    #1329
  10. CrimsonVirus

    CrimsonVirus Member

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    I've re-installed the game as Agetian suggested, indeed no administration rights were ever requested during the whole procedure, but the crashes still persist in the same manner. Only the first few boots were without issues before it started crashing again.
    The fact that the first 5-6 boots start without a hitch, seems like a game or system cache is getting full or something, because a system restart resets this state temporarily.
    Just my 2 cents on this matter.
     
    CrimsonVirus, Aug 22, 2013
    #1330
  11. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    @ sirchet: No, it's the other way around - I was able to replicate the issue before the reinstall but can no longer replicate it after the reinstall. :\

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Aug 22, 2013
    #1331
  12. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear before I do another re-install. :)
     
    sirchet, Aug 22, 2013
    #1332
  13. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Hi, you don't need to install ToEE over and over again, seems the root of the problem is in toee.cfg file, you may want to open it and look for "movies_seen=", select the whole row and delete it and replace it with movies_seen=null if the problem is still rooted. You must always replace toee.cfg "movies_seen" contents if you'll ever encounter movies in your gameplay, after you start your toee game. This is not implemented yet in the Frond-End, but Agetian will update it, as soon as the foundings are verified.

    The reason behind this is, the game automatically updates toee.cfg whenever you encounter movies from vignette or etc, those lines generated in toee.cfg corrupts the loading phase of toee.exe leading to CTDs. Co8 modpack and TFE-X application is unrelated to this, thus it is plaguing us for years, and what joy would be in minimising game crash in overall. It might be remedied in the next release of Front-End. :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2013
    Zoltec, Aug 22, 2013
    #1333
  14. scramjetbooster

    scramjetbooster Blasted Nerfherder

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Just curious, what are those numbers?
     
    scramjetbooster, Aug 22, 2013
    #1334
  15. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: 7.9 Known Issues

    Okay, those numbers underlined meant (304,-1)(1027,-1) "it is already seen by the player". And this one (304,-1)(1027,-1) meant of the movie played.

    Let me translate that for you, "introcinematic.bik is already seen by the player"

    introcinematic.bik can be found on movies.mes which has an entry of {304}, movies.mes is located in ToEE directory just search for it.
     
    Zoltec, Aug 22, 2013
    #1335
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