[Help] Saving a world, Can't seem to save a world Options

[Maxwell]

I know I posted a question about a saves earlier, but now I can't even save a world. I am trying to track down the bug but can't seem to. At first I thought it was a certain mesh but once I hit enter then clicked save it worked fine.

Now when I create a whole world it won't save for me. This has happened in both opengl and direct 3d9

If anybody could assist me that would be great.

[joshpurple]

Hmmm... I haven't hit that bug yet, but I have noticed that if you have a DWARF scene file, and you have imported new meshes or materials, and then take those items out of the DWARF folders & try to re-open the file (that was saved with the new objects used in scene), DWARF will hit a glitch looking for those objects.

Did you take any objects out of, or add any objects, to the DWARF folders; 'Meshes' or 'Materials' ? If so, when I put those items back in the respective folders, the DWARF scene worked fine.

-probably not the answer or info you needed.. *blush*

[njpaul]

I have noticed that if you have a DWARF scene file, and you have imported new meshes or materials, and then take those items out of the DWARF folders & try to re-open the file (that was saved with the new objects used in scene), DWARF will hit a glitch looking for those objects.

Thats a good one to report on the bug tracker. We should have a way to gracefully fail loading meshes/materials, etc.

[Maxwell]

I have done nothing with the meshes or anything I just open up dwarf_clean.dwarf and then it exits on me then comes of with an error message.

I will see if I can track the bug down later tonight.

[joshpurple]

Thanks Njpaul, I'll put that in the bug tracker.

Hmm... Maxwell, this might not sound like the most fun answer, BUT...
Maybe (you don't have to do this), try uninstalling DWARF, and then re-install it? (make sure to save any of your DWARF scenes in a separate folder, -zipped, just so they don't get deleted ).

If you want, post up, or send me, the scene you are having the problem with, and I'll see what happens when I try working with it. Thanks!

[Maxwell]

Ok, JP, I reinstalled Dwarf and then made a simple area. Maybe I am putting to much on at once. Well here is the screen shots.

The scene




Error screenshot

[Jerky]

That error only happens when you press save?

[joshpurple]

Thanks for doing that Maxwell, sorry it didn't help ( no fun.. ). That looks like a common 'Microsoft' error window, -what is in the report file? Does it generate an error report?

It might be too much for your graphics driver? (Great looking scene though!)

See if you can take the light out of your scene, if not, try deleting all of your objects in the scene -except for the hut. I'm just curious if it's caused by the light (and shadows being cast by it. You might have a ton of shadows being generated, -giving the video a hard to handle).

Thanks for posting that up, let me know what happens, and feel free to zip your DWARF scene & email me at: JPURPLE@mn.rr.com . I'll check your scene out, & see what happens when I mess with it. Thanks Maxwell!

[Maxwell]

Jerky it happens nine times out of time everytime I hit save

Another thing that happens is it does save a file it but does not save any meshes on it. Even the lights are gone. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card, not that I know how this is affecting the saves. It plobally has to do with my graphics card. Here are some screens hope they help.

Heres the screen of my last viable save:


Heres a screen of the scene I was trying to save:


Heres a screen of the error report:



Heres also the error signiture screen:



Edit: Oh yea and no extra lights were added to this. Just the lights that come with dwarf_clean.

[Jerky]

Im noticing 1 thing that may be linked. All your logos in the screenshots are messed up. That would point to either a corrupted file, bad drivers or a bad gfx card. What gfx card do you have, and what drivers?

You could also try redownloading DWARF if you know you have a good card and drivers.

[Maxwell]

My gfx card is RADEON 9700 Pro. For drivers I am updateing them now.

[njpaul]

Digging around a bit I found out that 0xc0000005 is the error code for "Access is denied", which could indicate a pointer error. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....nfbalogfile.asp.
Can you list the exact detailed steps to reproduce the error?

[Maxwell]

sure I will try

[joshpurple]

Thanks for keeping at it Maxwell! I appreciate it.

[Cobra]

If my mind does serve me right I also had erratic crashing when I was creating the massive scenes used for the video and initial screenshots.

I didn't get a Microsoft error message however, it just crashed to desktop upon hitting save.

Exactly as Maxwell describes, it either was completely devoid of objects, or some stayed but the lights were always borked. I remember putting up a bug report on the old tool.

Afraid i don't have much more info that that- perhaps we could be experiencing the same issue?

Specs are following;

AMD 4000+ San Diego
nVidia 6800GT
2048 Patriot PC3200 ram
Asus AN8 mobo.

What are the rest of your specs maxwell? Perhaps it's a motherboard conflict or similar?

[Alter demise]

For what its worth, my first download of DWARF gave me all kinds of strange problems... when I downloaded and installed again its works fine.

[Maxwell]

Yea I downloaded it again it still messed up for me, but I still love it. As for Cobra all of my specs are different.

1024 RD Ram (someone said the company in IRC)
Dimension 8200 mobo
P4 2.6 ghz

[joshpurple]

Just re-read items here, and let me know if I'm understanding what's happening with your DWARF correctly, thanks !

You've uninstalled and re-installed the latest version of DWARF. You are using the most recent drivers for your graphics card (and you are Windows XP), and you have NET 2.0 in and working allowing full access for it (some Anti Spyware / Virus programs can be set to 'deny access' to anything that is trying to save/open/run, etc. files or folders on your system ).

You might have Windows Defender 'blocking access' to DWARF saving files, or you might need to add DWARF to the list of 'allowed programs' to your Anti-Virus/Spyware programs?

Currently my DWARF is working & saving, but I will still hit a good number of freezes or crashes. BUT, at this stage of development, it actually has been working very well for me.

The 'buggy zones' for me are:

Very heavy or complex scenes.
Any 'once bad' scene can = always a bad scene.*
Altering files and folders from the default install of DWARF.
Some buttons are not 'click friendly' yet.

Those are the ones that come to mind.
*If you have a scene that crashes, you have a number of choices to make;

Was that scene creation for fun, how 'attached' to it are you?
If you were just messing around and testing stuff, then I'd recommend not using that scene again. Call it a 'bad' scene and don't use it again. I don't mean in anyway for that to sound harsh, -just a reflection of what might be your best time-saving approach.

Do you want to Fix that scene, use it as a 'bug hunt' adventure ?
If you want to track bugs, or find out what the bug might be, -cool. But, that can be very frustrating if your goal is to actually create worlds/scenes.

Do you want to attempt to Save a 'best attempt at scene recovery?' This can also be frustrating... But, if the saved scene opens, then try deleting the last item you added to it, and save to a new scene name. If it crashes, try again, but delete the last two items that were added to the scene, attempt save. Rinse repeat... Otherwise, put it into the 'bad scenes' graveyard.

--------------------

An idea/note for scene saving (what I've done); Although this is not the fastest way of world building, it is a way to 'track' your scenes & find 'buggy items.' Each time you change the scene state (add an object, a new light, once every 5 minutes, etc.), create an incremental save ( 'myscene001.dwarf, myscene002.dwarf,' etc. ). The more often you do this the better. BUT, you might hit a bug on the number of saves. If you notice that you can save a scene only 8 times, and then it crashes -note that you will have to try and only save your scenes 7 times. I will browse to a separate folder, outside of the DWARF folder, to save scenes. I do this so I don't save what might be a 'bad' scene inside of my DWARF folder (install). Before I start DWARF, I'll go to my outside saved scenes, select the scene I want to open in DWARF, then copy /paste it into the :

C:\Program Files\Project Wish\Dwarf Alpha\maps folder.

(This keeps the DWARF install 'clean,' with most of the default install left unchanged).

O.k., that just a start Let me know how it works/goes, THANKS Maxwell!