BAT Mega FAQ

Jasoncw · June 11, 2013

BAT MEGA FAQ

This thread contains solutions to common problems, as well as a list of helpful resources.

If, after reading the FAQ, you're still having problems, post your question in either the Gmax Troubleshooting thread, or the 3ds Max troubleshooting thread, depending on which program you use.

For corrections or additions to the BAT Mega FAQ, send me a PM.

The old BAT Mega FAQ can be found

Jasoncw · June 11, 2013

EXPORT PROBLEMS

This section covers problems discovered either while exporting, or after looking at your building in the Lot Editor or game for the first time.

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MY BUILDING EXPORTED:

1. AS A BLACK PIXELATED BOX

2. GARBLED AND DISTORTED

3. WITH RANDOM MAXIS BUILDINGS MIXED IN

4. AS BLOCKS OF RED GREEN AND BLUE

Texture ID conflict. Try exporting it again.

Install the ID fix created by Maxis. The name of the file is ModelNames.ms. The fix along with other Maxis files is available here.

Select all of the objects in the scene, and go to file>save selected. In a new scene go to File>Import>Merge and merge the newly saved scene into your new scene. Try exporting from that.

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MY BAT IS DISTORTED

Open the .SC4Model file in ilive's Reader, and select the offending .S3D file. Then select the Vert tab. The v values, which should range between 0 and 1, are off.

In this example, the v values needed to be doubled. Due to some kind of export error they were only half the number they should be. For example, the first v value in the list, 0.085938, needed to be doubled to 0.171876.

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MY BAT IS OFFSET

You may find that for either all zooms or only some zooms your building is offset from where you place it in the lot editor.

If your building is offset for all of your zooms, it's possible that your building is not centered to the scene in gmax/3ds max.

If you're using 3ds max, double check that the LODs are named correctly after importing them into gmax. If they have weird names like LOD3.LOD4, correct their names and everything should work fine.

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THE EDGES OF MY BAT ARE CUT OFF

Your LODs are too small. Go to the Utilities Panel, and use the "Refit LODs" button in the Parameters Rollout.

You can create custom LODs by creating new objects and naming them LOD3, LOD4, and LOD5.

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WHEN I PUT MY BAT/PROP NEXT TO ANOTHER BAT/PROP IN THE LOT EDITOR, IT "EATS" OR IS

"EATEN BY" THE OTHER BAT/PROP.

Go the the utilities tab on the right (the one with the hammer, and where you do renders), and find the button that says "refit LODs" and then, well, refit your LODs. Depending on the shape of your model you may need to create custom LODs.

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ERROR: CODE 6

Code 6 literally means "something went wrong somewhere". Unfortunately, because this error doesn't give any helpful information, it's not very helpful for troubleshooting.

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ERROR: CODE 11: FAILED TO EXPORT S3D

Error saving export nodes to the output file.

Possible causes:

1. File sharing violation. Close any SC4 related programs.

2. Output file is write-protected (read-only).

3. Bad units. Make sure you are using metric system.

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MY NITELITES ARE NOT SHOWING UP IN THE GAME

If other non-Maxis buildings (BATs downloaded from the STEX, etc.) are not lighting up, you may need to update your game. BATUpdate (available here) enables nitelites on custom content.

If that's not the problem, wait longer and toggle between night and day. Sometimes it takes a long time for the nitelites to turn on.

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Edited July 26, 2015 by Jasoncw

Jasoncw · June 11, 2013

PREVIEW RENDER

This section is for problems discovered while doing preview renders. If your preview renders look fine, but you discover something wrong with your building after exporting it, check the Export section.

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WHY ARE DIAGONAL LINES SHOWING UP IN PLACES WHERE I HAVEN'T MODELED OR TEXTURED THEM?

A moiré pattern has formed, caused by the interference between the grid of pixels that forms the image, and patterns found in your building.

Of course, you can't change that your image is made up of pixels, but you can change your building. Slightly changing the angle or spacing of the elements that make up the pattern, can minimize the problem. Using a rougher, busier texture can also help break up the moiré pattern.

In some situations a moiré pattern can't be avoided.

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ONLY MY NIGHT WINDOWS WITH AN INTENSITY OF 1.0 LIGHT UP IN THE RENDER. WINDOWS WITH OTHER INTENSITIES (0.6, .0.2, etc.) DO NOT LIGHT UP

Question not resolved.

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PARTS OF MY BUILDING ARE GETTING CUT OFF, OR THERE'S A LARGE AMOUNT OF BLANK SPACE

Go the the utilities tab on the right (the one with the hammer, and where you do renders), and find the button that says "refit LODs" and then, well, refit your LODs.

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MY TEXTURES ARE DISAPPEARING AND BEING REPLACED WITH FLAT GREY

First, make sure all of your objects have uvw maps. Go to modifiers>UV Maps>UVW Map to add one.

The following is Odainsaker's speculation:

Quote

I'm not sure about the moving curtains, but I am well familiar with the disappearing textures. It seems to be some sort of memory bug in Gmax, perhaps part of a stripped down capacity do deal with too many textures or with textures of large sizes, for it is as if the texture needs to be reloaded into memory.

The solution that works for me is done just before previewing and rendering and starts by going through each material in the Material List. I have noticed that for me, the rubik's cube blue button for each material in the Material Editor that determines whether a selected material is shown on the model in the viewport gets out of whack. When the button is correctly activated, it looks pressed down and the material is properly shown. Occassionally, the button on its own apparently pops back to the "off" position, even though the material is still displayed on the model in the viewport, suggesting a program incongruity has happened. Theoretically, having the button displaying the material shouldn't affect the render, but for some reason here it does. Go through every material, and push on this button several times until its on/off setting again correctly synchronizes with the material actually being shown on and off in the viewport.

I am not sure, but the Reload button on each material may do the same thing, but I have gotten into the habit of the rubik's cube button, as it was the button most obviously working wrong.

This should be done each time you run previews or renders, but usually immediate subsequent runs in the same session work alright. Doing any following changes to materials, their parameters, or the model may or may not make you go through the button pushing process again. No amount of saving before or after each temporary fix will save that fix. There is probably a rationale to the pattern of which materials start disappearing first, but I haven't figured it out, and temporarily fixing just one problem material alone usually just causes another random material (or even all the other unfixed materials) to disappear instead, so you should do everyone of them all at one time and straight down the list.

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STRANGE LINES/SHADOWS/SHADING

Those lines are the result of a faulty lighting rig. You'll need to download the fixed lighting rig. (find link to fixed rig).

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MY MATERIAL HAS A BUMP MAP BUT IT ISN'T SHOWING UP IN THE RENDER

Bump maps are broken in Gmax.

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MY LIGHTS ARE SHOWING UP DURING THE DAY, BUT I ONLY WANT THEM TO SHOW UP AT NIGHT

Add the "nitelite" prefix to the name of your object. So, for example, "omni05" would become "niteliteomni05".

The name of the object is case sensitive.

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I MIRRORED AN OBJECT AND THE TEXTURES GOT SCREWED UP

The Mirror tool (Tools>Mirror) in Gmax is broken. However, the mirror modifier (Modifiers>Parametric Deformers>Mirror) is not broken. Use this method to mirror objects.

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I'VE CREATED NITELITES, BUT THE LIGHT IS IGNORING THE WALLS AND "LEAKING" OUT

Select your light and check the "Cast Shadows" check box.

If your Cast Shadows check box is already checked, then make sure that there aren't any gaps between your walls where light may leak out.

Also double check that your walls have two faces. In Gmax, surfaces only have one side to them. The other side doesn't exist and can't be seen. To demonstrate this, go to Create>Standard Primitive>Plane to create a plane, and then render it from all sides. Make sure that you have the visible part of a plane blocking the light.

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MY SHADOWS ARE FACING THE WRONG DIRECTION

The quick and dirty way of solving this problem is to start a new scene, and in the new scene go to File>Merge, and merge in the contents of the old scene (your BAT). Do not merge TB2CameraHandle.

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Jasoncw · June 11, 2013

GENERAL

Questions and problems that don't fit into the other categories are listed here.

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I CAN'T FIND ANY OF THE BAT TOOLS IN THE UTILITIES PANEL

First, make sure that you've installed both Gmax, and the BAT itself. If you haven't installed the BAT yet, BAT-specific tools won't show up.

Then make sure that you're opening the program using the SC4 BAT icon, and not the Gmax icon. If you open it using the Gmax icon it will open Gmax but not the BAT.

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I TRIED OPENING MY BAT AND GMAX WON'T OPEN IT

Your file is corrupt!

Once your file is corrupted, there isn't a lot you can do about it. Check C:\gmax\autoback for your file.

To help protect yourself from corrupt files, you can use the "Increment on Save" feature. Go to Customize>Preferences, and under the Files tab, check the "Increment on Save" check box. Now, when you save, it will automatically "Save As" a new file, with a number added to the end of the file name. For example, Untitled01.gmax would be saved as Untitled02.gmax.

This way, when one of your files is corrupted, you can go back to the most recent un-corrupted file. To save storage space, you can delete old files when you know you don't need them anymore. This feature is also useful because when you simply make mistakes or want to use something that you changed or deleted, you can go back to an earlier version of your scene.

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MY MOVE ARROWS ARE GONE

You may have accidentally pressed "x" on your keyboard, which toggles the Transform Gizmo.

Press "x" on your keyboard to turn them back on.

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THERE ARE EXTRA DIAGONAL LINES IN THE VIEWPORT IN WIREFRAME MODE

Go to Customize>Preference Settings and go to the Viewports tab. Click on Configure Driver, and uncheck "Display Wireframe Objects Using Triangle Strips".

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MY NIGHT WINDOWS DROP DOWN BOX IS EMPTY

Make sure that you don't have a file called Thumbs.db in Gmax/gamepacks/BAT/Maps/NightWindows or its subfolders.

Thumbs.db is a thumbnail cache used to store thumbnails images for Windows Explorer's thumbnail view. It is a hidden file. It will recreate itself every time you view a folder in thumbnail view, but it can be turned off by going to Folder Options and checking "Do not cache thumbnails" in the View tab.

Starting with Windows Vista, thumbnails are stored centrally on your computer, and not in individual folders, so this isn't an issue for people with newer versions of Windows.

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IS SKETCHUP COMPATIBLE WITH GMAX?

Gmax cannot directly open .sku files. If you model something using Sketchup you'll have to export it as a file type that Gmax can import.

If you have SketchUp Pro, export your model as a .3ds file, and import it into Gmax.

If you have the free version of SketchUp, export it as a .XXX file, and import it into Gmax.

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I GET A FATAL ERROR WHEN OPENING A BAT

"Interactive 3D render initialization failed.
Please check your device settings using the -H command line option."

Go to Customize>Preferences and go to the Viewports tab. Select Choose Driver and try a different driver.

If that doesn't work, right click on Gmax's (not the BAT's) shortcut (not the .exe itself) and go to Properties. Add "-h" to the very end of the Target. Click OK and double click the shortcut. It should prompt you to select a driver before launching.

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IS IT POSSIBLE TO OPEN A .SC4MODEL OR A MAXIS BUILDING IN GMAX?

No, you need the original .gmax file and textures.

For more information read the "What is a .SC4Model file?" entry.

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I APPLIED AN EXTRUDE MODIFIER TO MY SPLINE, BUT THE SHAPE IS "BROKEN" AND DOESN'T APPEAR SOLID

You need to make sure that you've made a closed shape (for example, the shape of the letter "C" is open, but the shape of the letter "O" is closed). If you believe you've made a closed shape, double check that all of the vertexes are welded together.

This means that some of your vertexes are not welded together.

So, let's say you have a pen, and you're drawing letters to extrude. In order for it to extrude and be capped, it needs to be a closed shape. So if you draw the letter "o" it will extrude and be capped off. If you draw the letter "c" it is not closed and won't be capped off. The c isn't really a shape, it's just a curved line. Now lets say that you tried to draw the letter o, but your pen didn't go all the way to the starting point and there's a little gap. Since it's not closed, it's still technically a c shape, even though from a distance to us, it looks like an o.

So you need to weld all of your vertexes together to ensure that it is a closed shape. So, go into your spline, select all of the vertexes, and then in the right pane menu there is a button called weld, and a number next to it. If you click that button while you have vertexes selected, it will weld together any vertexes that are that number's distance from each other. By default it's .1, so if you have unwelded vertexes within .1 meters of each other, they will be automatically welded.

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MY VIEWPORTS ARE GLITCHY

Go to Customize>Preferences and go to the Viewports tab. Select Choose Driver and try a different driver.

OpenGL is generally recommended for minimizing viewport lag.

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I CREATED A LIGHT AND THEN MY VIEWPORT GOT REALLY DARK

Right click on the label of that viewport ("Top" "User" "Right" "Perspective" etc.), and go to Configure. Check the check box labeled "Use Default Lighting" and select the radio button labeled "2 Lights".

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HOW BIG ARE THE GRIDS IN GMAX? HOW BIG ARE THE TILES IN THE GAME?

In the lower right hand corner of the screen, there's an area which tells you the current dimension of the grid in the viewport.

As you zoom in and out, the grid resizes itself. While the grids in the examples above are roughly the same size on your screen, they are actually different sizes. Be mindful of the grid size, especially when you're starting a new BAT.

Although you model in Generic Units in Gmax, those Generic Units correspond to meters.

The tiles in the game are 16x16 meters. For example, a 2x3 lot is 32x48 meters.

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WHAT IS A .SC4MODEL FILE?

.SC4Model is the file type associated with BATs. These are created by the BAT when you export a scene from Gmax.

But a .SC4Model is actually a container file, meaning that it is not a file itself, but something that holds other files. The extension is just for the convenience of the user. .SC4Lots, .SC4Props, SC4Descs and .Dats are all container files.

A .SC4Model container holds the following types of files:

.S3D File: These are your LODs, the 3D objects that appear in the game. There are 4 rotations and 5 zoom levels, making 20 files. Zoom 6 is just an enlarged zoom level 5.

.BMP File: This is a normal .bmp image file. These are used by the Official Maxis SC4 Exchange, and are not needed for your buildings to function properly in the game. There are two of these, one for night, and one for day.

.JFIF File: This is another image file used by the Official Exchange. It is not needed for your building to function properly in the game. There are two of these, one for night, and one for day.

.FSH File: This is another image file, but this one is important. These are the rendered images of your building, which are assembled and mapped onto your .S3D files. These files also contain the transparency information which blocks out the black background behind your building. There are a lot of these.

.DIR File: You might be wondering how the game knows which file's are supposed to be associated with each other. Each file has its own number, called an Instance ID (IID). The .DIR file has a directory of IIDs which describes their relationship with each other, and other content for the game. There is only one of these files for each .SC4Model file.

.XML File: This file contains information for the lot editor and plug-in manager. There is only one of these.

Files can be looked and, moved around, deleted, edited, and more using The Reader. Understanding how a .SC4Model file works is important in working with LODs, and 3ds Max.

Deleting unnecessary files can reduce the file size of your model, letting the game run faster, and can prevent your .SC4Model file from being uploaded to the offcial SC4 exchange.

Sometimes modders manipulate and repackage these files, so a .SC4Model file might not be easy to recognize, but remember that all that matters are the files contained inside of a .SC4Model, not how they are packaged. It is possible to break a .SC4Model file into smaller files, or merge it with .SC4Lot files, for example, and it will still work properly in the game.

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HOW DO I OPEN A .SC4MODEL IN GMAX?

You can't. A BAT is a simplified model with pre-rendered images applied to it. A building would look something like this:

If you'd like to edit a .SC4Model, you can contact the creator, and ask for the original Gmax file. They might give it to you, which you could then modify and re-export.

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HOW TALL SHOULD I MODEL MY FLOOR HEIGHTS?

Maxis used a variety of scales on their buildings. For example, some of the R§ houses are the same size as the cars in the street. Most Maxis buildings have a more realistic scale.

If you model your building using realistic dimensions, your building will look too short in the game, because SimCity 4's view is a parallel projection, and will distort the appearance of your building. Vertically scaling your model by 133% will overcome this squashing effect.

Modeling with realistic dimensions, and then vertically scaling by 133% (or modeling with the scaled up dimensions as you go along) will make your buildings visually proportional. It will also keep your building's scale consistent with other buildings you do.

But ultimately your buildings will be used in the game. Another way to judge your building's scale is to do a test export, and plop your building next to similar buildings. For example, if you are making a R§ house, you might choose to under scale your building, so that it fits in with its environment of other under scaled R§ houses.

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CAN ONE OBJECT HAVE MULTIPLE TEXTURES?

Yes. When creating a new material, choose Multi-Material instead of Standard. Create the textures you want the object to have in the Multi-Material.

Then right click and go to Convert To>Editable Poly to convert your object into an editable polygon. Select the parts of the object and change their Material ID to

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HOW DO I PUT MY IMAGES INTO GMAX?

You need to create a material/texture for the image. You can then apply the material/texture to an object in your scene.

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HOW DO I CHANGE THE COLOR OF MY NIGHT WINDOWS?

Go to the BAT Utilities Panel. In the Parameters Rollout, there's a dropdown menu box where you can change your night map. The default color is beige, but Maxis provided blue and green as well.

Additional night maps, either made by yourself or downloaded from the STEX, can be added by putting them in Gmax/gamepacks/BAT/Maps/NightWindows. If you use Windows XP read the entry titled "My Night Windows Drop Down Box is Empty".

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HOW DO I HAVE MORE THAN ONE NITELITE COLOR?

You can only use one night map at a time.

In some situations you can use a self illuminated material. There is no way to automatically turn self illumination off during the day.

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HOW DO I TAKE A SCREENSHOT OF MY PREVIEW RENDER?

The Print Screen (or Prnt Scrn) key on your keyboard will take a screenshot of your monitor and copy it to your clipboard. You can then go to Edit>Paste in an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or Microsoft Paint to paste your screenshot into that file. Then you can then save the image and upload it to the internet so that other people can see it.

If you're using 3ds Max, there is a save icon at the top of the preview render which allows you to save the preview image. There is also an icon which will copy the image to your clipboard.

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Jasoncw · June 11, 2013

INSTALLATION

These are questions and problems you may encounter while trying to install Gmax, or the BAT.

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WHAT IS GMAX AND WHERE DO I GET IT?

Gmax is a free 3D modeling tool based on 3ds Max.

You can download Gmax for free at www.turbosquid.com/gmax. Follow the instructions at that website.

You need to install Gmax before you install the BAT.

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WHAT IS THE BAT AND WHERE DO I GET IT?

The BAT (Building Architect Tool) is a gamepack that Maxis made for Gmax that lets you export your 3D models

as .SC4Model files.

You can download the BAT for free at http://sc4devotion.c...dex.php?page=14.

That page also has important updates and fixes which you should download and install.

It also has helpful tips and tutorials downloads to help you learn how to BAT.

"Gmax" and "the BAT" are generally used interchangeably within the SimCity 4 community, but keep in mind

that they are two different things.

You need to install Gmax before you install the BAT.

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GMAXLOC VARIABLE NOT FOUND

Right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop, and select properties. Then go to Advanced, and then Environmental Variables.

There should be an entry for GMAXLOC. If there is, confirm that the path points to the folder where gmax.exe is located.

If there isn't an entry for GMAXLOC, click New, and enter GMAXLOC in the first line and the path to the folder containing gmax.exe in the second line.

Common locations would be: C:\Gmax\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Gmax\ Note that they end with "\". The paths may be case sensitive. If the path is correct but includes single quotes (for example 'C:\Gmax\') try removing them.

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I'M PROMPTED TO INSTALL ACTIVESYNC 4.2 DURING INSTALLATION

Uninstall ActiveSync, install Gmax, and then reinstall ActiveSync.

ActiveSync 4.2 is a program used by Windows Mobile PDAs/Smartphones to synchronize data with the computer.

The Gmax installer uses files called .cab files, and those are the common files used in PDA phones operating on

Windows Mobile OS. Because ActiveSync recognized this type of file, you are prompted to install an updated

version of ActiveSync (from 4.0 to 4.2) before continuing with your Gmax installation.

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WHEN TRYING TO OPEN THE BAT INSTALLER, IT STATES "UNABLE TO COPY PLUGIN TO PLUGIN DIRECTORY"

The BAT installer may be corrupted. Delete the installer, redownload it, and try again.

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WHEN TRYING TO INSTALL GMAX, IT STATES "SETUP.EXE DOESN'T EXIST"

Restart your computer and try again.

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