I'm sorry for posting tech help requests all the time

[CIaagent11]

I am really sorry for having to post tech help requests all the time.
But for the past two weeks I have been trying nothing but to get IJ to run.
I like it very much, it just wont run right.

I've had quite a history of errors.
When I first got IJ, there were the crashes caused by the dreaded quotes files.
But I found out on this forum that I had to delete those.
After that there were flickering white triangles on the campaign map.
After installing CA strat map models from the IJ/options folder, that was solved.
But after that the game always crashed in the midst of battles.
I figured out on my own that it probably was the crack, I was using, so I bought a original copy of the game. And it worked.
Then I had ctd's in all defence battles. But not when attacking, only in defence. Nobody could understand it.
But after redownloading and reinstalling the ctd's were gone.
I played for a while. But in all battles there are flickering, almost psychedelic graphical errors..
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=178583
I could keep playing with them, it just was really annoying.
I posted about that, and wanted to make a video of the errors, so I installed fraps.
Which was a big mistake. Because for some reason RTW considered fraps a mounting software,
and wouldnt start anymore, even after uninstalling fraps.
So I had to format my whole system. Took forever.

THE NEW THING is that after reinstalling my whole system, rome, BI, BI 1.6, IJ and the IJ patch
the game crashes in most battles. Just in the middle of them.
Exactly in the same way as back when I was playing with the crack,
but now I'm only using original CD's!
I reinstalled, still crashes, reinstalled again, still crashes in battles, reinstalled yet again, crashes in battles.

So sorry for posting tech help requests all the time.
I really have no idea why it wouldnt work this time.
I did none of the beginners mistakes. I installed in a clean folder and I didn't forget the BI patch 1.6.

[julianus heraclius]

Do you have Windows XP or Windows Vista running on your machine?

[CIaagent11]

XP.
Funny thing is that it worked before.

[julianus heraclius]

I know this sounds stupid and obvious, but it does sound like an install problem.

[CIaagent11]

Hmm...
But what would it be?
I did every step in the installing process like always.
Like this: RTW, BI, BI 1.6, IJ, IJ 2.01a.
I reinstalled the whole thing like five times today, always with the same result.

Or do you mean it's a problem with my windows/drivers/system?
Then I don't know why the game always crashes a minute or two into every battle.

[PSEUDO ROMANUS]

Did you delete every single trace of the RTW folder after you uninstalled it? Because if not, then you might have your answer.

[CIaagent11]

Yes, and I also install into different folders every time.
So yes, that should be fine.

Edit: The CTD always happens when I scroll close to the enemy.
I can deploy my army, and efter clicking 'start battle' it crashes when I come closer to the other army.
It feels very much as if this thing and the twitchy graphical errors are related.
That would mean it's about officer textures/sprites. I know very little about that.

[julianus heraclius]

Yes, and I also install into different folders every time.
So yes, that should be fine.

Edit: The CTD always happens when I scroll close to the enemy.
I can deploy my army, and efter clicking 'start battle' it crashes when I come closer to the other army.
It feels very much as if this thing and the twitchy graphical errors are related.
That would mean it's about officer textures/sprites. I know very little about that.

Is it when you scroll or when a particular unit comes close. I have found that some CTD's are caused when the edu entry for a unit doesn't match the mdb file. For example, if a unit entry in the dmb lists it having an archer skeleton but the edu does'nt list it, the when the unit fires on the enemy, it will cause a CTD.

It could be this. If it is I would need to know the factions that are in the battle and better still the units involved.

Cheers

[CIaagent11]

It is when a particular unit comes close.
For example the general of that frankish army hidden in roman terretory in the main campaign.
But also pretty much every custom battle I tryed.
But it worked before.
When I reinstall RTW, shouldn't all the files be the same as before, when there were no problems?

I will now try in some custom battles, if the game always crashes or only some factions.

No problem in a custom battle between the armenians and the sassanids.
In a custom battle between the franks and the saxons it crashes at once.
The same with the visigoths and picts.

It seems to be a barbarian thing. Could that be?
Or always if the enemy general is infantry.

As for that edu entry mismatch, shouldnt everybody get ctd's then?
It's really pretty often. Almost every battle.
Strange thing is that I had a crash against the saxons in my roman campaign
and when I reloaded and re-played exactly the same battle, it didn't crash.

[julianus heraclius]

But it worked before.
When I reinstall RTW, shouldn't all the files be the same as before, when there were no problems?

Yes, that is true.

I will now try in some custom battles, if the game always crashes or only some factions.

One of the best ways is to select every unit of a faction for a custom battle and see whether there is a CTD. You then narrow this down to only the particular factions that cause the CTD. Then you eliminate the various units for these particular factions until you narrow it down to the offending unit.

In a custom battle between the franks and the saxons it crashes at once.
The same with the visigoths and picts.

It seems to be a barbarian thing. Could that be?
Or always if the enemy general is infantry.

:hmmm:Hmm, does sound like it's the barbarians.

As for that edu entry mismatch, shouldnt everybody get ctd's then?
It's really pretty often. Almost every battle.
Strange thing is that I had a crash against the saxons in my roman campaign
and when I reloaded and re-played exactly the same battle, it didn't crash.

[/QUOTE]

Your right, it should be for everybody and I am unaware of anybody else having the same problem.

[CIaagent11]

I did a lot of testing in custom battles.
There is not a certain unit that is the problem.
As for barbarians, they all seem to crash.
There is no problem with non-barbarian factions.
I can watch at an barbarian army from far away, and I can zoom close as long as the general isn't on the screen.
As soon as the barbarian general comes into the camera view close up, crash.

Do you have a suspition on what might be the problem?
I think it's the officers/generals texture, but I'm not even shure on what that is called.
A skin, a sprite, a texture... In any case, do barbarian generals all use the same?
(I mean that one man, an armys general.)
Is there a way of getting them switched to something that is not crashy?
Maybe the vanilla BI one.

... Now I also get roman generals crashing.
Seems to be pretty random.
Just as in that battle against the saxons, I mentioned earlyer.
Were it first crashed, upon second try it didn't.
But seems to have something to do with generals.

[CIaagent11]

Julianus, please help me.
How do I change those officers?
Or is IJ just unplayable for me?

[Riothamus]

Julianus, please help me.
How do I change those officers?
Or is IJ just unplayable for me?

If you want to rid the officers from the game you need to go to
IJ\data\export_descr_unit and then look for an officer in each of the unit types and delete the line from the unit. Forgive me Julianus if I'm not reading this right


type romano british warlords
dictionary romano_british_warlords ; Warlord
category cavalry
class heavy
voice_type General_1
soldier romano_british_warlords, 10, 0, 1
officer barb_standard
mount generals horse
mount_effect elephant -4, camel -4
attributes sea_faring, general_unit, hide_forest, hardy
formation 1.5, 4, 3, 6, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 20, 17, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, spear, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 11, 13, 6, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 4, flesh
stat_heat 5
stat_ground 0, -2, -4, 2
stat_mental 31, disciplined, trained
stat_charge_dist 50
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 2, 290, 760, 160, 300, 1100
ownership slave, romano_british, empire_west

[CIaagent11]

If you want to rid the officers from the game you need to go to
IJ\data\export_descr_unit and then look for an officer in each of the unit types and delete the line from the unit.

I will try that.
But I think the problem is not the officers, but that one man that any unit gets when it has the armies general.
I think that one for barbarians is twitchy in IJ.
How do I change that unit to a vanilla BI one?

[Riothamus]

I will try that.
But I think the problem is not the officers, but that one man that any unit gets when it has the armies general.
I think that one for barbarians is twitchy in IJ.
How do I change that unit to a vanilla BI one?

Ahh Ok I see...I think those guys are in the IJ\data\models_strat
IJ\data\descr_model_strat
May just need to switch back to orig folder and txt but I'm not completely sure

I'll let IJ help with that. It can get a little complicated with different mods.

[CIaagent11]

Ahh Ok I see...I think those guys are in the IJ\data\models_strat
IJ\data\descr_model_strat
May just need to switch back to orig folder and txt but I'm not completely sure

I'll let IJ help with that. It can get a little complicated with different mods.

Ok. Thank you.
I think those are models for the strategy map.
I meant the general on the battle map.

Like when you have a unit of spearmen of 60 men.
And when they become the general, they get an extra man. The general.
Where is the model of that guy? I think that one is buggy.
Because it's always when I scoll across that guy, it crashes.

[julianus heraclius]

In your descr_model_battle.txt file replace under their respective headings the barbarian generals details with the following:

skeleton fs_dagger
skeleton_horse fs_hc_swordsman
skeleton_elephant fs_forest_elephant_rider
skeleton_chariot fs_chariot_sword
skeleton_camel fs_hc_swordsman
skeleton_scorpion_cart fs_carriage_ballistae_crew
indiv_range 40
texture sassanids, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_sassanid.tga
texture slave, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_slave.tga
texture alemanni, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_alemanni.tga
texture celts, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_celts.tga
texture ostrogoths, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_ostrogoths.tga
texture goths, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_goths.tga
texture sarmatians, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_sarmatians.tga
texture franks, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_franks.tga
texture slavs, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_slavs.tga
texture vandals, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_vandals.tga
texture saxons, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_saxons.tga
texture merc, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_merc.tga
texture lombardi, bi/data/models_unit/textures/BI_officer_general_lombard.tga
model_flexi bi/data/models_unit/BI_officer_general_saxons_lod1.CAS, 15
model_flexi bi/data/models_unit/BI_officer_general_saxons_lod2.CAS, 30
model_flexi bi/data/models_unit/BI_officer_general_saxons_lod3.CAS, 40
model_flexi bi/data/models_unit/BI_officer_general_saxons_lod4.CAS, max
model_sprite 60.0, bi/data/sprites/saxon_general_sprite.spr
model_tri 400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

These are taken from the BI Vanilla mod. PLEASE ensure that you save the original IJ file before altering it.

This would be copied and pasted under the particular barbarian generals name, for example:

type german_warlord ; east german general

or

type franks_warlord ; a frankish general

or

type sarmatian_warlord ; a frankish general

Try this for one barbarian general and if it works, apply to the others that are giving you grief.

Let me know how you go.

Cheers

[CIaagent11]

Thank you so much for your patient help Julianus!
I have now switched the frankish general to the vanilla BI one.
It does not crash when zooming close to him anymore, but a little later, when looking around his army.
All in all there are still pretty random crashes with the franks. And all their officers have now vanilla textures.
So that's bad.
Can you confirm that this is a likely solution? And that my hardware probably has a problem with some IJ textures?
Because switching the general-textures to the vanilla ones was actually just a blind guess by me.

[julianus heraclius]

Thank you so much for your patient help Julianus!
I have now switched the frankish general to the vanilla BI one.
It does not crash when zooming close to him anymore, but a little later, when looking around his army.
All in all there are still pretty random crashes with the franks. And all their officers have now vanilla textures.
So that's bad.
Can you confirm that this is a likely solution? And that my hardware probably has a problem with some IJ textures?
Because switching the general-textures to the vanilla ones was actually just a blind guess by me.

It does seem to be the case. I think Hans Kloss said it right that the barbarian models that Ramon created had some problems with them. When you look at the mdb files it lists a cloak end bone problem with three of the barbarian generals.

It causes problems with some and not others, I assume depending on ones video graphics card or whatever.

I'll look into it as a possible patch for IJV2.0 and also for IJV3.0.

Thanks for your help and your patience.

Cheers

[Hans Kloss]

I was hoping to be able to try to fix model files this weekend but unfortunatly I got to work both Sat and Sun