KA2: Empire at War 1.2 beta

posted on March 12th, 2013, 6:57 am

I just tried playing KA2:EaW through an Instant Action game, try playing as the Federation against the ISO well the game crashed the moment I clicked on one of the starting Federation Research Station. I did get a Bug Report and that is why I am posting this.

I have the CutDown version of the STA2_Classic Mod like you have said to do and yet the game crashed. I followed all of your directions exactly.

Attachments

exceptArmada2_KA2_EaW.txt

exceptArmada2_KA2_EaW

(26.43 KiB) Downloaded 380 times

posted on March 12th, 2013, 12:33 pm

I assume you mean "ISC"

Is the bug repeatable? I.e does it do it every time you start an instant action game and click the research station?

posted on March 12th, 2013, 5:35 pm

Haven't tried it again yet, went to bed after. Only tried it to just see if Instant Action would start. Will try it again sometime today.

posted on March 13th, 2013, 6:59 am

Same two races as before.

It doesn't matter what I click on, this time I clicked on one of the 4 Liberty-class starships and the game crashed. No menus for the ships popped up or anything. The game just crashed right after clicking on the ship.

it does the same thing clicking on any of the pre-set starting units, I ran a test for each unit by restarting the mod each time:
starbase = crash
Research Station = crash
Liberty-class starship = crash
Oberth-class starship = crash

Also found something else, when the game started, the Federation starbase had black all over. It fixed itself right after I went back to the game after pasting my screenshot of it to Paint and saving. I got a screenshot for both before and after.

Does this look normal for KA2 EaW The Qo'noS System Map 1

Does this look normal for KA2 EaW The Qo'noS System Map 1.jpg (250.54 KiB) Viewed 1238 times

Does this look normal for KA2 EaW The Qo'noS System Map Pic. 2 (starbase color-texture changed)

Does this look normal for KA2 EaW The Qo'noS System Map Pic. 2 (starbase color-texture changed).jpg (274.61 KiB) Viewed 1238 times

Also, here is a new bug report for when the game crashed the first time well testing the Liberty-class starship as my choosen unit to click on.

exceptArmada2_KA2_EaW.txt

exceptArmada2_KA2_EaW (crash report when clicking on the Liberty-class starship)

(27.9 KiB) Downloaded 370 times

posted on March 13th, 2013, 8:22 am

From your report, you only have an Intel integrated graphics card. Those things really aren't suited to 3d gaming. I would hazard a guess that the texture issues you are experiencing (black textures etc) are caused by this.

As for the "colour changes" you noted, that's part of the map. Notice the Liberty Class Tenders are similar hued. On other maps you might have a bluish or greenish hue. All intentional

As for the crashes, sorry I am clueless as to the cause. It all works fine here and I haven't received any other reports of this nature. If some others here who play KA2 could check and see if they can reproduce this at all, we might have a start.

So far, it's either a problem with your graphics card not being able to handle it, or it's an issue with your install. Does regular FleetOps and/or the STA2 Classic mod work with no issues?

posted on March 13th, 2013, 9:09 am

From your report, you only have an Intel integrated graphics card. Those things really aren't suited to 3d gaming. I would hazard a guess that the texture issues you are experiencing (black textures etc) are caused by this.

i'm guessing he has a processor with hd 2000 integrated graphics. i've played gta iv on one of those (a desktop one). i've played fleetops (and recorded it with fraps) on an even older intel integrated chip.

i'm guessing if his graphics are responsible it's more down to configuration than a lack of oomph.

posted on March 15th, 2013, 7:13 am

First I want to say that my Intel Intergrated Graphics Card/Processor is not the problem and hasn't ever been. I'm able to lay many different games on my laptop and some if which with heavy graphics, the only game that actually lags is FleetOps itself that's why I go for mods in the Mods Directory over FleetOps usually (the only downside to this is if the mod uses FleetOps over being a mod through the STA2_Classic Mod, like Adm. Zaxxon's Star Wars mod actually lags as well.).

By the way Myles, I'm not fully sure about all the specs to my laptop,I do know though that its graphics are: "Video Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000".
I just know what games it runs perfectly and what it doesn't. I posted these links before when a mod in my Mods Directiry was causing FleetOps' executable not to launch and at the time I thought it had something to do with my laptop but it didn't.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03138547
http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/HP+-+Compaq-memory/Pavilion+G7/Pavilion+g7-1310us-upgrades.html
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&document=&product=5218698

As for the problem that I have been having with KA2:EaW, I figured it out and for the 15 minutes I've been writing this and watching the X-Files on Netflix through my xBox 360, the game has been running with no problems. I have the same races as before on the Qo'noS System map yet I haven't seen one ISC ship or facility and got a ship scouting and 4 outlying Liberty-class starships at all corners of the map.

Now the reason why the crash occurred hopefully also shows how serious I am after answers for my questions because one of my questions in my thread (//www.fleetops.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12118&start=75) is actually the reason for the crashes well clicking on any of the ships and the stations.

Here is my original questions that I asked:

Also, I have a few other questions regarding the CutDown Folder for SquireJames' KA2:EaW Mod:
(1) How do you make the Parent Mod not show up in the game via the Mods Settings? If its not the mod itself why does it need to show up? It just takes up space that isn't needed.
(2) Can the info file be deleted from a Parent Mod?
(3) What would "hiding" the CutDown folder from the Mods Directory do? Is that something that can be done with a Parent Mod?

Turns out the answer to those questions is:
(1) Still don't know how to do this part, and still don't like having a non-playable Parent Mod showing in the mods selection (I've at least edited its info file to mention that its a CutDown Mod).
(2) Haven't tried this yet.
(3) This is the question that I tried and is why KA2:EaW crasjphed when ever selecting any ship or station. With the CutDown folder (Parent Mod) hidden, the mod didn't show up in the mods selection menu well the game was running so inadvertently this didn't allow it to show in both the game and in the Mods Directory folder. Without being there it caused all the crashes even though it was there but just hidden.

**Note, I will continue experimenting until either someone answers my questions or I just give up on making my mod.**

posted on March 15th, 2013, 11:39 am

By the way Myles, I'm not fully sure about all the specs to my laptop,I do know though that its graphics are: "Video Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000".

that's slightly better than a hd 2000.

posted on April 14th, 2013, 5:39 pm

Hi I just downloaded and installed this mod and while it starts and plays whenever I start a game in the instant action as soon as select a construction ship direct it to build something the game crashes just before I can set the location to build the new structure this seems to happen with every race. Building a research by stations seems unaffected. I'm using the very latest fleet ops version.

posted on April 14th, 2013, 6:03 pm

Walk me through how you installed it. Sounds like that good ol .1 and .2 file issue again.

posted on April 14th, 2013, 6:59 pm

Started with installing Armada 2 then patched armada 2 to 1.1.

Next I installed Fleet ops 3.2.7 and the multimedia pack.

Then I followed the instructions Shril laid out on page 3.

posted on April 14th, 2013, 7:11 pm

So, I take it you dowloaded the required files from ModDb? Could you provide a screenshot of the Cutdown/Textures folder please

posted on April 14th, 2013, 7:24 pm

When I looked in it there were still 8472 textures so I deleted the entire folder and replaced it from scratch looks like when I replaced it before it only added the textures to the excising files. Maybe that was the problem.

posted on April 14th, 2013, 7:42 pm

Yes, see, windows is a bit tricky. When you overwrite a folder, it doesn't overwrite it, it simply merges the two folders. So, to replace a folder, you need to delete the old one then paste the new one

The actual cause of the crash is the fact that the .1 and .2 LOD texture files remain, and for some reason if you alter the default SOD files like I have, they cause problems. The reason the game doesn't immediate crash is because the Starbase is a totally new model, as are the research stations (which is the reason they don't crash, along with the fact they use different names. Rather than FResear.sod, I called them FResearchA, FResearchB etc)

It would be a simple task to go back and rename the SODs, but, the problem there is that the .1 and .2 LOD files can still cause issues when you've changed the larger texture file name (so that FResear.tga is different to Fresear.1 for example). It can cause horribly corrupted textures etc.

The installation is a pain I know, but it's the simplest way I have found to get around the issue without having people have to find and delete the individual files. If I were more knowledgeable with such things, i'd have an automatic installer do it all for you, but alas I am a bit simple in that regard

posted on April 14th, 2013, 9:53 pm

Whatever it's working now, so it's all good. My favorite Era in star trek is TMP because it seems to be the last time the federation was balanced militarily, economically, and technologically with the other powers in the galaxy.