Zoom Crash Starts at Chapter 3

[Chancellor23]

Have really been enjoying this game. Completed through Chapter 2, including first three Challenge Rooms. Have encountered a problem at the beginning of Chapter 3: If I right-click the mouse (zoom weapon view), the game crashes, displaying a bunch of script errors. This has not happened before in this game.

Have searched these forums. Purchased the Aspyr version and updated, using Aspyr's Patch v1.2. Have tried Ztorm's widescreen FOV Lscripts fix, which was supposed to fix this issue. Nothing has worked. Right-clicking to zoom the rifle sight worked perfectly until Chapter 3. Now, the game simply crashes.

Has anybody else experienced this? Does anyone know of a fix for this problem? It seems odd that the problem didn't surface until Chapter 3.

[Gniarf]

1-No I have not experienced this issue.
2-If you want to be of use and/or want anyone to help, please specify which script errors you get. I understand it's a paint in the you_know_what to copy all those, but there is a file, script_error.log, located in the same directory as the main.exe which contains the error messages. Please post the latest/most relevant error.

[Chancellor23]

Hello Gniarf. Thank you for responding. You're right, I should have provided more specific information. Have accumulated additional data. So, here goes...

The Problem: Starting with Chapter 3, when I press the right mouse button to zoom the rifle sight, NVN crashes.

Let's start with my system specs:
Dell XPS 730x
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit, Service Pack 2
CPU: Intel Core i7-940 2.93 GHz
RAM: 6GB
Video: nVidia GeForce GTX 285 (2 GPUs, SLI)
Audio: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

My NVN video settings are High, with a screen resolution of 1920x1200. Have changed only one key binding: Moved the Special attack from the Q key to the F key because I accidentally kept throwing away my melee weapon when grabbing for the WASD keys (not good in the Challenge Rooms). No other changes, except when I modified the config.ini files to enable widescreen FOV during my third install of the game. Did not apply the widescreen FOV fix to my fourth install.

History:
1) Installed Aspyr retail copy of NVN. Created new profile. Played through Chapter 2, including the first three Challenge Rooms. Rifle zoom crashed NVN at start of Chapter 3.

2) Reinstalled NVN and applied Aspyr 1.2 patch. Created new profile and played through to Chapter 3, where the rifle zoom crashed NVN again.

3) Reinstalled NVN; applied Aspyr 1.2 patch; applied Ztorm's widescreen FOV patch (including the LScripts CWeapon.lua file patch). Created new profile and played through to Chapter 3, where the rifle zoom crashed NVN again.

4) Reinstalled again and applied the Aspyr 1.2 patch. Created new profile and played through to Chapter 3. Same rifle zoom crash problem. Now holding, pending a solution. I really need the rifle zoom in Chapter 3.

It seems odd that this problem doesn't occur until Chapter 3. Also, I have no problem in Chapter 3 when I press the right mouse button to zoom the other weapons: pistol, luger, shotgun--only the rifle. This rifle is the one with which you start Chapter 3: brown stock with a bayonet attached. It's one wheel click up from the Winchester shotgun.

When the game crashes, I get an error screen with three buttons: Abort, Retry, Ignore. No matter which button I push, the game closes and returns me to my desktop.

I tried to find the script_error.log. It wasn't in the application program folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Bin. Instead, I found it in my user NVN folder, where my profiles are stored; specifically in this folder: C:\Users\Paul\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Bin.

Here's the latest error message. In fact, all of the error messages are exactly the same, except for the date- and time-stamps of the crashes.
./Data/LScripts/Classes/Types/Vector.lua:53:Set
./Data/LScripts/Classes/CPlayer.lua:1880:Tick
./Data/LScripts/Main/GObjects.lua:216:?
[C]:-1:foreachi
./Data/LScripts/Main/GObjects.lua:222:Tick
./Data/LScripts/Main/Game.lua:695:Tick
./Data/LScripts/Main/Game.lua:2131:Game_Tick

I've really enjoyed this game so far (I still play Painkiller). But no way I'm going to spend the next 10 chapters with the rifle zoom crashing the game. That would simply be not fun. I'd rather leave with fond memories of what I was able to enjoy playing. I just don't understand why everything works perfectly until Chapter 3.

Let me know if you need more data. And thanks for anything you can do to help.

[Gniarf]

1-Just to make sure: you NEVER edited config.ini by hand before the 3rd install, right?
2-Could you post you lscript.pak please? If you chose to upload it on a public filehoster, please do not use rapidshare.
3-Do you have several lscripts.pak? For example one in c:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\data and one in VirtualStore\...\NecroVisioN\Data? Does the game crash/not launch when you delete one of them? Or both?
4-The rifle you get at level 3 is the Gewehr 98. Did you use it in the previous 2 levels? If not you can use the "nvnweapons" cheat code to get it at 1st level, saving you the trouble of playing through the 2 first levels.
5-Just out of curiosity, replace your lscript.pak with this one. It's my lscript.pak v1.2. Normally it shouldn't change anything, but just in case....

[Chancellor23]

Sorry for the delay. It has taken a little while to research and test all of these items. But here’s what I’ve found. To be clear, I started this process with another clean install: Aspyr retail box and Aspyr 1.2 Patch, Video Options = Ultra High, 1920x1200 resolution, Key Binding Q changed to F. No other changes.

Something I didn’t mention before: I’m running the DX10 version of NVN.

Also, when I was running some of the tests you prescribed below, specifically the “nvnweapons” cheat code tests, I noticed that there were several rifles based on the same physical unit (the GEW 98). The version of the rifle that is causing the game to crash in Chapter 3 is the version with the bayonet attached—not the version with the purple scope attached and not the version with that weird-round-thing-that-I-don’t-know-what-it-does on the end of it. The latter two versions of the GEW 98 worked fine in all tests.

1-Just to make sure: you NEVER edited config.ini by hand before the 3rd install, right?

Correct. Any changes I made during Installs 1, 2, and 4 were accomplished only through the in-game Options screens.

2-Could you post you lscript.pak please? If you chose to upload it on a public filehoster, please do not use rapidshare.

I have attached my lscript.pak file to this posting. This is the version installed by the Aspyr 1.2 Patch. For what it’s worth, I opened both of our lscripts.pak files in MS Word and ran a comparison at the character level. Word reported that there were no differences between the contents of our two PAK files.

3-Do you have several lscripts.pak? For example one in c:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\data and one in VirtualStore\...\NecroVisioN\Data?

I have only one lscripts.pak file on my computer. It’s located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspyr\NecroVisioN\Data.

4-The rifle you get at level 3 is the Gewehr 98. Did you use it in the previous 2 levels? If not you can use the "nvnweapons" cheat code to get it at 1st level, saving you the trouble of playing through the 2 first levels.

I tested Chapters 1, 2, and 3 using the “nvnweapons” cheat code. I tested the Right Mouse button on all weapons. In Chapters 1 and 2, the Right Mouse button worked successfully for all weapons, including the GEW 98 with bayonet. However, when I tested all weapons in Chapter 3, the Right Mouse button worked successfully for all weapons—except the GEW 98 with bayonet. Using the Right Mouse button with the GEW still crashes the game.

5-Just out of curiosity, replace your lscript.pak with this one. It's my lscript.pak v1.2. Normally it shouldn't change anything, but just in case....

I swapped in your lscript.pak file and ran the same tests that I ran in #4 above—and got the same results. All weapons responded successfully to the Right Mouse button in Chapters 1 and 2, including the GEW 98 with bayonet. In Chapter 3, all of the weapons responded successfully to the Right Mouse button—except for the GEW 98 with bayonet, which crashed the game.

[Gniarf]

What son of a crap in the holy nine hells is that #$%@ bug???

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Video Options = Ultra High, 1920x1200 resolution, Key Binding Q changed to F. No other changes. DX10 version of NVN.

Out of curiosity try playing in 1024x768 DX9.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

that weird-round-thing-that-I-don’t-know-what-it-does on the end of it.

It's called a grenade, and what it does is to go boom when you touch it.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I tested Chapters 1, 2, and 3 using the “nvnweapons” cheat code. I tested the Right Mouse button on all weapons. In Chapters 1 and 2, the Right Mouse button worked successfully for all weapons, including the GEW 98 with bayonet. However, when I tested all weapons in Chapter 3, the Right Mouse button worked successfully for all weapons—except the GEW 98 with bayonet. Using the Right Mouse button with the GEW still crashes the game.

Re-read 1st line of this post.

test1: I'm starting to wonder if it is not a bug in the copy-protection system.Try replacing your necrovision.exe with the one given below (I never thought .zip compression could do that well).

test2: Put the attached Gew98.CWeapon in your NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts\Templates\Weapons directory.

test3: (I don't believe in this one) put cutscene_madman.CAction in NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\CAction

test4: put an empty (0 kb) file in NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts and name it Loader.lua. If the game does NOT crash at startup, tests 2&3 are voided and the files should be placed under the other necrovision directory.

What is the size of your levels.pak? Mine is 7 646 505 bytes (and a bit more "on disk").

Sorry to drown you under a flurry of tests, but I cannot reproduce your bug on my computer.Attachment 1786

[Chancellor23]

I agree. This problem makes no sense to me. Why does it affect only one specific function of one specific weapon beginning with one specific chapter? It’s like this weapon has data that is stored outside of its definition file. Or its zoom data conflicts with the Chapter 3 data. Or something. I assume that the rendering engine doesn’t change from chapter to chapter. I don’t know the programming language(s); so, the error message is mysterious to me. Just guessing, but it looks like a lot of variable assignments (“set”) or counters (“tick”). Except for the “[C]…” line, which looks like a looping statement (“foreachi”).

I assume that the code is executed sequentially. So, why are there seven lines in the error message? Were they all on the same stack? Which line is causing the crash? In what order is this code executing (top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top)?

Note: After each test below, I reversed the changes that I made to my installation so that I’d start each test with the same files and settings.

Note: Instead of Left Mouse button, Right Mouse button, and Middle Mouse button, I’m going to start calling them Mouse1, Mouse2, and Mouse3, respectively. It’s faster.

Note: When I say that a weapon worked successfully, I mean that the test did not crash the game. Not all weapons have Mouse2 functionality, for example, the GEW98 with Grenade.

Note: Have modified my testing here. Unless stated otherwise, I am testing the Mouse2 functionality on only the GEW 98 with Bayonet to save time because the other weapons have tested successfully in all the other tests.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

Out of curiosity try playing in 1024x768 DX9.

Done. No change. The GEW 98 zooms correctly in Chapters 1 and 2, but using Mouse2 in Chapter 3 crashes the game. Same error message as before. Boy, this game sure looks scruffy with these video settings.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

It's called a grenade, and what it does is to go boom when you touch it.

Cool. Thanks. I didn’t test Mouse1 or Mouse3 before—just Mouse2.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

test1: I'm starting to wonder if it is not a bug in the copy-protection system. Try replacing your necrovision.exe with the one given below (I never thought .zip compression could do that well).

Done. Same problem and same error code. Mouse2 works correctly in Chapters 1 and 2, but crashes the game in Chapter 3. I did receive a “security warning” at game launch, but the game played correctly.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

test2: Put the attached Gew98.CWeapon in your NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts\Templates\Weapons directory.

Note: For this test, I tested Mouse2 for all three versions of the GEW98 because I didn’t know if they were all variations based on the template you provided. I also tested Mouse1 and Mouse3 for all three variations because “Gew98.CWeapon” contains behavior definitions for the weapon, for example, “zoom” and “melee.” I had to create the folder path you provided because I have no \lscripts folder in my \Necrovision\Data folder—this is a base retail install, patched to Version 1.2.

Done. In Chapters 1 and 2, the GEW98 with Grenade and the GEW98 with Sight both worked successfully with Mouse1, Mouse2, and Mouse3. In Chapter 3, the GEW98 with Bayonet worked successfully with Mouse1 and Mouse3. In Chapter 3, the GEW98 with Bayonet crashed the game with Mouse2. Same error code as before.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

test3: (I don't believe in this one) put cutscene_madman.CAction in NecroVisioN\Data\levels\Level_03_The_Hill\CAction

Note: I did not have the folder path you provided; so I created it for this test.

Done. No change. The GEW 98 zooms correctly in Chapters 1 and 2, but using Mouse2 in Chapter 3 crashes the game. Same error message as before.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

test4: put an empty (0 kb) file in NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts and name it Loader.lua. If the game does NOT crash at startup, tests 2&3 are voided and the files should be placed under the other necrovision directory.

Note: I used Notepad to create the empty 0 KB file.

The game did not launch. Instead, I received the following Script Error:
[string “Game:OnSwitchToState(2)”]: attempt to index global ‘Game’ (a nil value)

BTW: The \Data folder in my user profiles directory contains only one subfolder: \Maps—which branches down two levels to four folders, all of which are empty. Meaning: There are no data files in my user \Data folder; there are only folders. All data files are in the program installation folder.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

What is the size of your levels.pak? Mine is 7 646 505 bytes (and a bit more "on disk").

Same size as yours: 7,646,505 bytes (7,647,232 bytes on disk).

The only good thing I can say about this bug is that it’s consistent: GEW98 with Bayonet, Mouse2, beginning with Chapter 3.

I suppose I could use the “nvnweapons” cheat code for Chapter 3 and pray that the bug goes away in Chapter 4. But I’m not a Cheat Coder. I wouldn’t experience the game “the way it’s meant to be played.” With or without NVIDIA.

[Gniarf]

I don't have time to think about the issue right now, I'll make another post later today.

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I agree. This problem makes no sense to me. Why does it affect only one specific function of one specific weapon beginning with one specific chapter? It’s like this weapon has data that is stored outside of its definition file.

I keep thinking buffer overflow; and keep hoping it is not. (hence the sentence in my previous post)

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I don’t know the programming language(s);

Lua

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Just guessing, but it looks like a lot of variable assignments (“set”) or counters (“tick”). Except for the “[C]…” line, which looks like a looping statement (“foreachi”).

Set is use to set the x,y,z components of a vector.
Tick is called at periodic short intervals to simulate continuous behavior of all things (weapons, ennemies, bullets, effects...) in the game.
foreachi = for each i (I guess i is for item in a array or integer representing a identifier of a instance of a class (a bit like a pointer)).

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I assume that the code is executed sequentially.

Correct

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

So, why are there seven lines in the error message?

It's the call stack, deepest on the first line. The problem is that this call stack dump is INCOMPLETE !! I mean, the game says:
./Data/LScripts/Classes/Types/Vector.lua:53:Set
./Data/LScripts/Classes/CPlayer.lua:1880:Tick
but at CPlayer:1880 there is a call to Current Weapon's Tick function. And ofc Tick happens to be the n°1 longest and most subfunction calling function. Yippee!

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Boy, this game sure looks scruffy with these video settings.

Boy, I do love my 1024.
Boy, the devs used 1024.
Boy, don't say "scruffy" until you have tried putting Cfg.GraphicsQuality=0 in config.ini. xD

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

Same size as yours: 7,646,505 bytes (7,647,232 bytes on disk).

So I'll assume we have the same

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

The only good thing I can say about this bug is that it’s consistent: GEW98 with Bayonet, Mouse2, beginning with Chapter 3.

Quite unorthodox for a buffer overflow...

Originally Posted by Chancellor23

I suppose I could use the “nvnweapons” cheat code for Chapter 3 and pray that the bug goes away in Chapter 4. But I’m not a Cheat Coder. I wouldn’t experience the game “the way it’s meant to be played.” With or without NVIDIA.

1-haha lol
2-Or you could simply avoid the gew98 and find&use the other rifle (smle). But that would be admitting defeat.

Apparently you seem to have some coding experience, so you can try downloading a tool named "Painfull" by xentax to extract the .pak files. Extract lscripts.pak in data\lscripts and you can strat editting the code with notepad. No need to compile or repack the data. (ie: you can delete lscript.pak once its content is extracted, the game directly reads the extracted content)

[Gniarf]

Put the following CWeapon.lua in NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts\Classes. It will not solve your problem, but it'll log all calls from a CWeapon to CVector:Set into a GniarfLog.txt, which should be in the same directory than script_error.log.

Report the latest (bottom) number.

[Chancellor23]

Thanks for all the info here.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

Boy, I do love my 1024.
Boy, the devs used 1024.
Boy, don't say "scruffy" until you have tried putting Cfg.GraphicsQuality=0 in config.ini. xD

I didn’t mean to insult you. 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.

However, while trying to solve this crash issue, I implemented Ztorm’s FOV fix and had the opportunity to see the game with Ultra High video settings, at 1920x1200 resolution, in 16:10 aspect ratio. Compared to the Standard 1024x768 settings, the game looked terrific. NVN’s visual style may be older, but that doesn’t mean that its rendering can’t be crisp and clean. Thus, my “scruffy” comment.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

2-Or you could simply avoid the gew98 and find&use the other rifle (smle). But that would be admitting defeat.

I’ve considered this, although the GEW98 makes the opening of Chapter 3 much easier. I’m open to a spoiler here. Is the SMLE rifle available later in this level? If so, I could be careful using the GEW98 (no zooming) until I get the other rifle. Or, is one of the other variations of the GEW98 (with Grenade or with Sight) available later in this level? I could switch to one of those because they don’t crash the game.

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.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

Apparently you seem to have some coding experience, so you can try downloading a tool named "Painfull" by xentax to extract the .pak files. Extract lscripts.pak in data\lscripts and you can strat editting the code with notepad. No need to compile or repack the data. (ie: you can delete lscript.pak once its content is extracted, the game directly reads the extracted content)

I’m not really a programmer, although good with logic. Played around with BASIC and 6502 Machine Language in the 1980s, and DOS and Postscript in the 1990s. My only experience with class-based code comprises CSS coding for HTML—and not much of that. Since I don’t know Lua, I looked it up at Wikipedia. Apparently, it’s used to script other languages, often C/C++ (which I also don’t know).

However, I decided to take a look at the LScripts.pak file anyway. Doesn’t look like this is going to happen. Downloaded and unzipped the XeNTaX Tool Pack. Painfull wouldn’t launch (run-time error). 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). Additionally, within a minute of installing Commander, Norton AV reported two viruses on my machine: “Suspicious.MH69.A” and “Trojan Horse”. It stopped them and successfully removed them. Odd, since I scanned both Commander and the XeNTaX Tool Pack before I executed the files. 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.

Originally Posted by Gniarf

Put the following CWeapon.lua in NecroVisioN\Data\lscripts\Classes. It will not solve your problem, but it'll log all calls from a CWeapon to CVector:Set into a GniarfLog.txt, which should be in the same directory than script_error.log.

Report the latest (bottom) number.

Done. Twice. I started Chapter 3 and crashed the game. For comparison purposes, I started Chapter 2, loaded all weapons, scrolled to the GEW98 with Bayonet (Mouse3), zoomed the GEW successfully (Mouse2), and then exited the game. The last action before exiting (or crashing) the game in both cases was pressing Mouse2. In both cases, the latest number in the file was 1470. I thought there might be a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful use of Mouse2. There wasn’t.

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.