Freeze on lot hover

[Wiimeiser 436]

So, in this lot pack, the lot file "TL-GazboPaths Gravelle End Plaza Large_68ab09b6.SC4Lot" appears to be glitched. Hovering over the lot in the menu freezes the game (strangely, not even crashing it, it just hangs), this happens if it's the only file in my plugins folder. I assume it's trying to load something that doesn't exist, but that's just a guess...

[kathrynlacey 36]

  On 11/9/2018 at 12:38 PM, tariely said:
"(I'm back !!!) I assume that by SC4 Hang you mean that weird blank instead of lots in a menu, and/or the fact that name and icon don't correspond ? It is annoying, oh, yes ! But I am afraid I can't do much more that what I already tried to do  ; when I asked about it way back then (annoyedly ! *:)), I was told it has something to do with conflicts in lots' menu order properties (i.e. lots having the same Item order value). I tried to avoid that, following the advice I received re tinkering with those properties (with plop cost + item order). But I cannot control what is in other players' plugins folder...  So my first question is : how much Stuff do you have in your park menu ? The chance of interferences goes up proportionately...(The second question would be : are you using more than one Gazbo set ? -- although I took that in consideration). As far as I know, I'm afraid the only way for you to (possibly)  correct the Hang would be to go through your parks with the Reader and check each one's Item Order value and plop cost..."

That leads me to ask this question:  If I download the file named 'TL-GazboPaths Gravelle End Plaza Large_68ab09b6.SC4Lot'  and I decide the file name is way to long, then change the name of the file to be 'TL-gravel end plaza large.SC4Lot' without making any other changes to the internal workings of the file nor to its SC4Desc file, will that file still work in the game?  That is, does it matter to SimCity 4 game-engine what the file name is called?  Or, does the game engine get all its advice from the internal workings of the file itself?

Sometimes I have files from Poland or wherever that are named 'Z^~t###Y8hpge87y!%j Zlod chiewennek.SC4Model'.  What If I just re-name it Zlod chewnek.SC4Model.  Would that be wrong?  Of course, it would only be called that on my personal computer, and I would not share that re-named file with other players.

[rsc204 21,805]

2 hours ago, kathrynlacey said:

"(I'm back !!!) I assume that by SC4 Hang you mean that weird blank instead of lots in a menu, and/or the fact that name and icon don't correspond...

I've just responded as a comment on the file:

The issue with the game hanging is something I've replicated myself. The menu "ghosting" effect described is simply a corrupted/missing icon, I've located the problem file, so easily fixed. But none of that would cause the game to hang like it is doing. Messing with Item Order properties will NOT help, nor is a conflict (other content) the cause of the issue, SC4 simply doesn't work this way. Most likely, a lot file is corrupted or contains a problematic value, that can only be fixed by finding the Lot in question and taking care of the error.

I'm looking into it, but there's a lot of files to go through, so please be patient. I'm sure we can resolve both issues and get an updated file on the exchanges.

Update: There was a second corrupted file, this was behind the game hanging/freezing. I've passed fixes to Tariely, but in the meantime, removal of the following two lots will alleviate the issue:

• TL-GazboPaths Sand Pg WSandPark A_a8ac4a9c.SC4Lot
• TL-GazboPaths Gravelle End Plaza Large_68ab09b6.SC4Lot

 

2 hours ago, kathrynlacey said:

That is, does it matter to SimCity 4 game-engine what the file name is called?

Not one bit, it could literally be named anything, the file name is only there so you as a user can determine what it is. So you can rename them however you like, the caveat being, if you do this, there is the chance you might not later know which files (installed), correspond to those you downloaded. This can make things confusing, but otherwise there is no real problem with renaming them.

2 hours ago, kathrynlacey said:

Sometimes I have files from Poland or wherever that are named 'Z^~t###Y8hpge87y!%j Zlod chiewennek.SC4Model'.

Usually, that's characters from a language your computer does not support, so they show differently. But again, renaming such files is not an issue for the game.

[kathrynlacey 36]

Amen to that!  I see in my crystal ball  --->  This month I will completely organize my plugins folder MY WAY!.  Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Moderator.

[tariely 4,496]

5 hours ago, Wiimeiser said:

So, in this lot pack, the lot file "TL-GazboPaths Gravelle End Plaza Large_68ab09b6.SC4Lot" appears to be glitched. Hovering over the lot in the menu freezes the game (strangely, not even crashing it, it just hangs), this happens if it's the only file in my plugins folder. I assume it's trying to load something that doesn't exist, but that's just a guess...

So, rsc4 to the rescue, he found out that two lots had been corrupted -- some cosmic particle no doubt (I knew the universe was out to get me !), 'cause he says it's through no faulty manipulation of mine (relief !). I apologize again anyway. I am putting the two modified lots below. Would you care to test them and tell me if the set is OK now before I edit the upload? Thank you (and thank you for downloading them in the first place !)

TL-GazboPaths Gravelle End Plaza LargeV2_68ab09b6.SC4Lot

TL-GazboPaths Sand Pg WSandPark A V2_a8ac4a9c.SC4Lot

[Wiimeiser 436]

Glad to see the issue seems to be resolved, I'll check on the replacement files in a little bit. EDIT: It worked. Also, for the other one I wasn't getting a freeze but I was missing its icon in the menu. Which makes me wonder about the others I'm missing...

6 hours ago, rsc204 said:

'Z^~t###Y8hpge87y!%j Zlod chiewennek.SC4Model'.

That would actually be a problem on older operating systems that use the FAT file format (non-NT versions of Windows before ~2004), as ^ is a prohibited character on those systems for some reason. My hypothesis is either something allocation table related, or simply because it looks too similar to < and >, which are also illegal characters as they tell you where to start typing in DOS.

  Edited December 8, 2018 by Wiimeiser  
Solved

[tariely 4,496]

5 hours ago, Wiimeiser said:

Glad to see the issue seems to be resolved, I'll check on the replacement files in a little bit. EDIT: It worked. Also, for the other one I wasn't getting a freeze but I was missing its icon in the menu. Which makes me wonder about the others I'm missing...

Thanks for testing ! I'm glad they work now. You didn't get the other piece's icon because it was corrupted, so you shouldn't be missing any other pieces.I will recheck the whole shebang tomorrow just-in-case, then reupload.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

This seems a little bit like how if you hover over a transit enabled lot with a puzzle piece the game will crash. Except your game isn't terminating. 

[Wiimeiser 436]

7 hours ago, HayleyRenaNemeth said:

This seems a little bit like how if you hover over a transit enabled lot with a puzzle piece the game will crash. Except your game isn't terminating. 

The problem seems to be the game is waiting for something to load, but it doesn't exist so it doesn't load. The exception monitor doesn't catch this as it's not running at the time due to the game being single-threaded.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

Recently I  accidentally had 2 different waters installed and the game would freeze when I would try to save. This was enough to trip up the game. 

[rsc204 21,805]

In this specific case, it's not actually a result of something being missing, especially in the case of missing .png or Icon files, the game has error trapping that can handle this. When such a thing occurs, it messes up the menu when scrolling, but it wouldn't actually crash.

Behind the problem was a corrupted file or two, most likely the DIR or Directory Index, which is necessary for the file integrity where compressed files exist in an SC4 container file. Some other data was also completely messed up, but nothing important that the game loads. Interestingly of the two problem lots, it was the one where the Icon was not corrupted, which was causing the CTD.

22 hours ago, HayleyRenaNemeth said:

This seems a little bit like how if you hover over a transit enabled lot with a puzzle piece the game will crash. Except your game isn't terminating. 

It's worth noting, that this problem has been fixed if you install the following mod:

In this case, when you hover over a TE lot with a transit piece that references a game network, the code looks for a match for the configuration in the RUL code. When it inevitably doesn't find such code, it doesn't know what to do, thus the CTD.