Zoom Crash Starts at Chapter 3

[Gniarf]

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

When I considered playing this game, I read a couple of reviews, which said that the graphics were dated and didn’t look great. That didn’t deter me because I believe that game developers have the right to choose whatever graphics style they want. Video games are an art form. And if the designers choose an older style instead of cell-shading or hyper-realism, there’s nothing wrong with that. It would be like saying that Impressionism is dated because it’s Old School. Maybe it is, but that doesn’t invalidate Impressionism. NecroVisioN looks just right to me. I still like Undying and Painkiller. I like Impressionism, too.

[Frenetically presses the esc key] Forgive me I should never have said that in the first place.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Is the SMLE rifle available later in this level?

Dunno.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Or, is one of the other variations of the GEW98 (with Grenade or with Sight) available later in this level?

The grenade version is 100m away...maybe a bit more (no I'm not mistaking with the drum-fed smg), sniper version is quite further, but still in this level.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I played further into Chapter 3 to see if the crash was associated only with the starting location. Nope. Zooming the GEW continues to crash the game.

Undersrood.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I’m not really a programmer

Too bad.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Downloaded and unzipped the XeNTaX Tool Pack.

Me I just had a 92kb executable+2 dlls.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Its ReadMe told me I should install MultiEx Commander to be sure I’d have all the appropriate DLLs. So, I did that. Painfull still produced the same run-time error. MultiEx Commander itself wouldn’t launch. Said I was missing a file, MSINET.OCX, which is not true. However, it’s in one of my 64-bit Windows folders, which might explain why the software couldn’t find it (it’s not 64-bit software).

I didn't install multiex commander, and painfull works, and I'm running win7x64 (but it used to work under xp64 aswell).

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Additionally, within a minute of installing Commander, Norton AV reported two viruses on my machine: “Suspicious.MH69.A” and “Trojan Horse”.

Feel free to ignore this:the Best.AV.Ever is a brain, other AV are just bullets you shoot in your feet.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Plus Commander was trying to set up an open Internet connection for some reason. I uninstalled all of the XeNTaX applications and deleted the files from my computer. I don’t trust those people.

Odd indeed, perhaps commander was checking if a newer version was available, but you don't need that soft anyway. Xentax is, from my personal experience, trustworthy but I wasn't aware he'd made a pack (then again, I didn't check recently).

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

In both cases, the latest number in the file was 1470.

I'll investigate that. But for now, why am I not surprised to see lots of "FOV"s and "zoom" around line 1470 in CWeapon?

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Another option that I considered, had I been able to edit the PAK files… I assume that each level contains data that determines its startup weapons load-in. I might have been able to change the Chapter 3 opening rifle from the GEW to the SMLE and still have a rifle—it just wouldn’t be the game’s default rifle for Chapter 3. Semi-cheating; but at this point, I could enjoy the game and still sleep at night.

1-No ned to edit the pak files, just extract their content and edit it, no need to repack.
2-in \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\Level_0 3_The_Hill.lua, put:

function o:OnApply(first)
	Game.CachedWeapons = {
						
						-- "Colt1911_LH",					
						"SMLE",
						"Luger",
						"Luger_LH",
						"MG8015",
						"mp18",
						
						"PlayerShowel",
						
						"player_geballte",
						"PlayerDynamite",
						"PlayerLamp",
				    }

        Game.PlayerEnabledWeapons = 
			{
                         "Colt1911", "Gew98", "PlayerGrenade", "QuickThrow", "Shotgun", "PlayerBayonet",
            }

	Game.CachedVoiceovers = {
"L03_Voice6843",
"L03_Voice6860","L03_Voice6861","L03_Voice6862","L03_Voice6863","L03_Voice6864","L03_Voice6865","L03_Voice6866", "L03_Voice6867","L03_Voice6868","L03_Voice6869","L03_Voice6870","L03_Voice6871","L03_Voice6872",
"L03_Voice6814","L03_Voice6815","L03_Voice6816","L03_Voice6817","L03_Voice6818","L03_Voice6819","L03_Voice6820","L03_Voice6821","L03_Voice6822","L03_Voice6823","L03_Voice6824","L03_Voice6825","L03_Voice6826","L03_Voice6827","L03_Voice6828","L03_Voice6829","L03_Voice6830","L03_Voice6831","L03_Voice6832"
        }
end

function o:OnPlay(first)     
if first then
        Player.Ammo = 
        {
            Bayonet			= 1,
            Grenades		= 3,
            Mk1				= 0,
            Dynamite		= 0,
            Lamp			= 0,
            Colt			= 48,
            Luger			= 0,  -- theoretically not used at all (Luger has common ammo with Colt)
            SMLE			= 0,
            Gew98           = 30,
            Gew98Granades	= 0,
            SMLEGranades	= 0,            
            Shotgun			= 10,
            Mp18			= 0,
            MiniGun			= 0,
            Geballte		= 0,
			VampGun			= 0,
			VampGunRL		= 0,
			VampGunShotgun	= 0,
			VampGunFlamer	= 0,		    
        }
        Player.Health = 100
		
        self:StartWithWeapon("Gew98") 
        
        PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(1, false)		-- podloga na koncu levela
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(2, false)		-- podloga na koncu levela
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(3, false)		-- drzwi
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(4, false)		-- bunkier
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(6, false)		-- bariera w okopach
    	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(7, false)		-- murek za trollem

	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(10, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(11, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(12, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(13, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(14, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(15, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(16, false)		-- koncowka
	PHYSICS.ActiveMeshGroupEnable(17, false)		-- koncowka
end
    
end

[Chancellor23]

Ok. I think I understand this a little better. After I read the following, I decided to revisit the extraction process.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

Me I just had a 92kb executable+2 dlls.

I didn't install multiex commander, and painfull works, and I'm running win7x64 (but it used to work under xp64 aswell).

Odd indeed, perhaps commander was checking if a newer version was available, but you don't need that soft anyway. Xentax is, from my personal experience, trustworthy but I wasn't aware he'd made a pack (then again, I didn't check recently).

Norton reported viruses after I installed MultiEx Commander—not the XeNTaX Tool Pack. So, I decided to give the Tool Pack another try. The Painfull module came with a 92 KB executable, 2 DLLs—what you have—plus a ReadMe.txt file. Originally, I set Compatibility Mode to XP Service Pack 2, which didn’t work. Then I also ran the app as an administrator. It launched successfully.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

1-No ned to edit the pak files, just extract their content and edit it, no need to repack.
2-in \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\Level_0 3_The_Hill.lua, put:

I extracted the contents of Levels.pak and have access to Level_03_The_Hill.lua. I have some questions about this process: Do I have to extract all of the files in Levels.pak and put them into \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\ (and delete the levels.pak file)? Or can I extract only Level_03_The_Hill.lua and put it into \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\?

I did the latter, with your modification. That didn’t change anything. I still started the Chapter 3 with the Gew98 (and the crash). So, I took a closer look at Level_03_The_Hill.lua.

The Game.CachedWeapons table contains the weapons that will be available during the level. I see you replaced the Gew98 with the SMLE. Instead of replacing the Gew98 (it may be necessary later in the level), I added the SMLE to the cache. The Game.PlayerEnabledWeapons table contains your available startup weapons. “SMLE” needs to replace “Gew98” in that table. The self:StartWithWeapon object needs to change from “Gew98” to “SMLE”. Finally, the Player.Ammo table contains your startup ammo. The Gew98 starts with 30 rounds; the SMLE starts with 0. I don’t know at this point, if I need to swap the ammo to the SMLE or if the SMLE shares the Gew98 ammo, like the Luger shares the Colt ammo.

These modifications still didn’t work. I started the level again with the Gew98 (and the crash).

The fact that the SMLE was not cached for Chapter 3 implies that it doesn’t appear in this level. It appears in the Chapter 1 Lua file, but not in the Chapter 2 Lua file, which makes sense because the SMLE appeared in Chapter 1 and the Gew98 appeared in Chapter 2. Given the SMLE is not cached for Chapter 3, I wondered what else might be missing or require changing; so I looked for more cache data. Let’s look at Level_03_The_Hill.cache.

There are a whole bunch of tables here. However, most of them contain no data for the SMLE, which makes sense because the SMLE was not cached for Chapter 3. That could be problem if you tried to use it in Chapter 3. The CacheListModels table contains no SMLE data. I copied that in. Had to place in Position [57] because I don’t know if the position [#] makes a difference. The CacheListSounds table contains some SMLE data, but was missing nine lines of SMLE data, which I added, also at the end of the list, starting at Position [743]. The CacheListItems table contains no SMLE data. However, this table contains weapon clip and shape data (plus other stuff). I inserted data for the SMLE, again at the end, starting in Position [199]. The CacheListAnims table contains no SMLE data. I added that at the end of the table.

My point is: Even though I made the changes I noted above, I don’t know if there’s anything else I need to change to implement the SMLE in Chapter 3. For all I know, there may be other files that require modification. Or not? It says here that Chapter 3 contains 2,292 files in 16 folders. Big odds, there. Plus, a lot of the tables in the .Cache file use numbered vectors. If NVN accesses the data by using those numbers, it might not find the SMLE data that I added to the ends of the tables because the level may not be programmed to generate those numbers.

I copied the revised Level_03_The_Hill.cache file into \NecroVisioN\Data\levels.

No luck. The level still starts with the Gew98.

I peeked ahead, and although the SMLE loads in for Chapter 4, neither rifle appears in the CachedWeapons lists after Chapter 4. So, aiming the Gew98 may not be an issue later in the game. I hope all the other weapons continue to behave properly.

Unless you have another idea, I guess my best bet would be to live with the situation and try real hard to not aim the Gew98 in Chapter 3. If the problem persists in Chapter 4, I’ll move on to something else.

Thanks for all your help.

[Gniarf]

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I extracted the contents of Levels.pak and have access to Level_03_The_Hill.lua. I have some questions about this process: Do I have to extract all of the files in Levels.pak and put them into \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\ (and delete the levels.pak file)? Or can I extract only Level_03_The_Hill.lua and put it into \NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\?

You do NOT need top extract all the files from levels.pak. You can extract only some files (in \NecroVisioN\Data\[pakfile name]\[appropriate subdir]), modify them, keep levels.pak and the game will use the modified files.
Personally I prefer extracting all files and deleting the .pak because:
1-either the game uses my modified files or it crashes
2-no archives to uncompress -> faster loading times.

note: for subtitles.pak, "pakfile name" should be "Movies".

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

The Game.CachedWeapons table contains the weapons that will be available during the level. I see you replaced the Gew98 with the SMLE.

Ugggh! Sorry, I was probably too tired back then and didn't modify the right entry, I should instead have replaced Gew98 by SMLE in the Game.PlayerEnabledWeapons array.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

The self:StartWithWeapon object needs to change from “Gew98” to “SMLE”.

It's not an object but a funtion call, but that's just a detail.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I don’t know at this point, if I need to swap the ammo to the SMLE or if the SMLE shares the Gew98 ammo, like the Luger shares the Colt ammo.

Ammo is shared(as far as I remember).

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

These modifications still didn’t work.

WTF²? The files are probably in the wrong directory or not named properly; it should be NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\Level_03 _The_Hill.lua .Try extracting all the content of levels.pak and renaming the archive to levels.bak; if the game crashs then the files aren't extracted correctly (that dual directory issue again? No wait, we already did the empty loader.lua experiment, so we know the correct subdir).

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

The fact that the SMLE was not cached for Chapter 3 implies that it doesn’t appear in this level. [all and the stuff until the end]

1-You know when you use the nvnweapons code you get all weapons, but not all weapons are cached, yet you can still use them.
2-I once made a mod that removed all forms of caching (AFAIK), it was supposed to reduce loading times. I think it did indeed, but there was some lag each time we brought up a weapon for the first time (because the game had to load the weapon on the fly).

In short: you don't have to bother about caching to use a weapon.

[Chancellor23]

All right. For reference purposes, I’ve attached a copy of my modified Level_03_The_Hill.lua file so you can see if I’ve coded anything incorrectly. My changes:

• Added the SMLE to the Game.CachedWeapons table.
• Substituted the SMLE for the Gew98 in the Game.PlayerEnabledWeapons table.
• Changed the self:StartWithWeapon value to SMLE.

Assuming that the SMLE shares ammo with the Gew98, I did not modify the Player.Ammo table.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

You do NOT need top extract all the files from levels.pak. You can extract only some files (in \NecroVisioN\Data\[pakfile name]\[appropriate subdir]), modify them, keep levels.pak and the game will use the modified files.

That’s what I thought. It was like that in Painkiller. Unfortunately, that’s what I did and it didn’t work.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

WTF²? The files are probably in the wrong directory or not named properly; it should be NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\Level_03 _The_Hill.lua .Try extracting all the content of levels.pak and renaming the archive to levels.bak; if the game crashs then the files aren't extracted correctly (that dual directory issue again? No wait, we already did the empty loader.lua experiment, so we know the correct subdir).

I triple-checked the pathnames and file placements. The game did not crash upon launch; so, I’m sure I got the filenames and pathnames right. This time, however, I simplified the process because NVN doesn’t seem to be using the individual modified files. In C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data, I created a subfolder named “Levels”. I copied all of the extracted files and folders into that directory, which is named C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data\Levels. Then I swapped the modified Level_03_The_Hill.lua into C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data\Levels\Level_03_The_H ill. To be on the safe side, I moved the levels.pak source file out of the C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data folder to a safe place so there would be no confusion when I launched the game.

This did not work. I still got the Gew98 and the crash in Chapter 3.

So, I moved the Levels folder to my user profiles Data folder: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data\Levels. Because I removed the levels.pak file and the Levels folder out of C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data, I thought the game might crash. It didn’t. Chapter 3 loaded successfully. But I still got the Gew98 as my startup weapon and aiming still crashes the game.

Final Verdict: I’m going to uninstall and remove all of the NVN folders from the Programs (x86) folder and my user profiles folder. I’ll check the Windows Registry while I’m at it. Then I’m going to reinstall the game, create a new profile, and play through to Chapter 3. If NVN still crashes, I’m going to try playing through the level without aiming the Gew98. Or give up on the game.

This is not a lucrative career. What I really am not looking forward to replaying is that head-shot Challenge Room. That was really rough. Everything else was easy.

[Chancellor23]

I don't know why, but the file didn't attach. Let's try again.

[Chancellor23]

Ok. Now I have what I finally consider a Major Development. After all this playing around, I cannot uninstall NVN. I've located the InstallShield Installation Information folder for the app. The error message I'm receiving is that the Setup.exe file is missing. That is true, although where it went and how it was deleted I do not know. I will do an extensive system search, though. I usually keep "protected operating system files" hidden. Unless I need to see them—like now.

I'm going to copy the Setup.exe file from the DVD into the appropriate InstallShield Installation Information folder.

Here's a list of the files that I found in the InstallShield Installation Information folder:

• _Setup.dll
• data1.cab
• data1.hdr
• layout.bin
• setup.ilg
• setup.ini

Do I need to copy anything else into the folder besides Setup.exe in order to make the uninstall successful? For example, do I need to copy data2.cab or ISSetup.dll or setup.bat?

Thanks.

[Chancellor23]

I had to run the uninstaller from the DVD. All gone now. Reinstalling to base config + Aspyr Patch 1.2. We'll see how a new profile and playing through Chapter 3 works out before deciding whether or not to continue with this app.

No more modding.

[Gniarf]

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

No more modding.

If you say that there is little I can do for you. I wish you Good luck.

I just wanted to say that I tried your Level_03_The_Hill.lua and upon starting the 3rd level, I had the smle in my hands...

[Chancellor23]

Originally Posted by Gniarf

I wish you Good luck.

Thank you. And thanks for helping me out. It was pretty scary for while when I couldn’t uninstall the game. The Control Panel Programs and Features list told me that the app wasn’t even installed. Finding the correct InstallShield folder was an educational adventure, too. Pure luck that the DVD Setup.exe worked.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

I just wanted to say that I tried your Level_03_The_Hill.lua and upon starting the 3rd level, I had the smle in my hands...

Well, the good news is that I figured out how to change the code successfully. The bad news is that it didn’t work for me. Who knows why? Especially since I extracted the whole Levels.pak file and removed the Levels.pak file from the Data folder. It’s like there’s another, immutable installation hiding somewhere on my system. (There isn’t. I searched.) When I get back to Chapter 3, I’ll probably give the file one more try. I mean, if the file works, maybe I just need to apply it to a new profile. If not, I’ll find a way to make it through. Despite the setbacks, I still like this game. Plus, I learned a little about Lua scripting.

You’re a good guy, Gniarf.