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Game crashes when loading new amber area (possible spoiler!)


SkyWolf

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***********WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILER*************

 

I really enjoy the detail and energy put into this NPC mod, it's thoughful and interesting.

 

If you can steer me in a direction to solve this I'd appreciate it.

 

After the abduction. When I try to activate the scroll that leads to Ymmyrt's house, the game tries to load the area and then crashes to the load screen for a few seconds, then a blank screen for a few seconds, then the desktop and a smaller blank screen covering up the error message.

 

I had a similar problem when changing areas with the Saerileth mod and it turned out to be a missing NStisunpack file. After I got the file and ran it, the missing areas were installed and that mod plays fine now. Could this be something similiar? I checked the Amber-v2 zip file and the installed files and didn't see either a NStisunpack or an audioinstall file (I see the audio files in Override but amber remains voiceless).

 

Any assistance appreciated.

bye-the-bye I didn't see a way to attach the setup file to this so I'll email it when I get a reply.

 

W2000 pro 5.0 build2195

via K400A-8235

AMD 1.4ghz

directx 9.0c

 

SOA w/TOB installed

using WEidu 195

no installation errors on any mods installed, no incompatibilities listed in readme's of all

I've tried installing solo and gotten the same error, using the scroll causes the crash

 

Thanks!

Larry

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***********WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILER*************

 

I really enjoy the detail and energy put into this NPC mod, it's thoughful and interesting.

 

If you can steer me in a direction to solve this I'd appreciate it.

 

After the abduction. When I try to activate the scroll that leads to Ymmyrt's house, the game tries to load the area and then crashes to the load screen for a few seconds, then a blank screen for a few seconds, then the desktop and a smaller blank screen covering up the error message.

 

I had a similar problem when changing areas with the Saerileth mod and it turned out to be a missing NStisunpack file. After I got the file and ran it, the missing areas were installed and that mod plays fine now. Could this be something similiar? I checked the Amber-v2 zip file and the installed files and didn't see either a NStisunpack or an audioinstall file (I see the audio files in Override but amber remains voiceless).

 

Any assistance appreciated.

bye-the-bye I didn't see a way to attach the setup file to this so I'll email it when I get a reply.

 

W2000 pro 5.0 build2195

via K400A-8235

AMD 1.4ghz

directx 9.0c

 

SOA w/TOB installed

using WEidu 195

no installation errors on any mods installed, no incompatibilities listed in readme's of all

I've tried installing solo and gotten the same error, using the scroll causes the crash

 

Thanks!

Larry

 

It does indeed look like the area tilesets (and the audio) are not installed correctly.

 

First of all I would like to make sure that your installation went through all the way. After the WeiDU portion of the install was finished and WeiDU prompted you to press Enter to finish the install, did you press Enter or did you just close the window by clicking at the X-button? In version 2 (this will be changed in the next version), they are installed by a batch file that runs after the WeiDU installation has ended (unless you just close the window, of course).

 

You should try uninstalling Amber (and any mods you have installed after her, in reverse order) and installing her again, this time making sure that you press Enter after the WeiDU install completes; you should see a long list of text scrolling across the screen very quickly as the audio files and .tis files are unpacked. The installation of audio and tilesets will take anything from 5 seconds to half a minute, depending on your computer.

 

If this doesn't fix the problem, let us know.

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It does indeed look like the area tilesets (and the audio) are not installed correctly.

 

First of all I would like to make sure that your installation went through all the way. After the WeiDU portion of the install was finished and WeiDU prompted you to press Enter to finish the install, did you press Enter or did you just close the window by clicking at the X-button? In version 2 (this will be changed in the next version), they are installed by a batch file that runs after the WeiDU installation has ended (unless you just close the window, of course).

 

You should try uninstalling Amber (and any mods you have installed after her, in reverse order) and installing her again, this time making sure that you press Enter after the WeiDU install completes; you should see a long list of text scrolling across the screen very quickly as the audio files and .tis files are unpacked. The installation of audio and tilesets will take anything from 5 seconds to half a minute, depending on your computer.

 

If this doesn't fix the problem, let us know.

 

I uninstalled and re-installed as you suggested without a positive result. I still don't see a NStisunpack or an audioinstall file for amber. I'll try downloading the zip file again and see if perhaps these were corrupted on the first download. (although the file looks ok within winrar and the download manager showed no problems or errors). If there's a seperate NStisunpack and/or audioinstall for amber can you give me the link?

 

Thanks again,

Larry

 

 

Edit: corrected the quote tags, Meira

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I uninstalled and re-installed as you suggested without a positive result. I still don't see a NStisunpack or an audioinstall file for amber. I'll try downloading the zip file again and see if perhaps these were corrupted on the first download. (although the file looks ok within winrar and the download manager showed no problems or errors). If there's a seperate NStisunpack and/or audioinstall for amber can you give me the link?

 

Thanks again,

Larry

Edit: corrected the quote tags, Meira

 

Did the decompression of audio files and tilesets occur when you pressed Enter when prompted? If not, what was it that happened?

 

Amber does not use anything called NStisunpack or audioinstall, but uses OggDec for decoding .ogg files into .wav files (Amber's voicing), wav2acm for converting music files from .wav to .acm (Amber's theme music) and tisunpack for unpacking .tiz files into .tis files. All of these utilities should be included in the download package and run automatically by a batch file launched by the WeiDU install.

 

What platform are you trying to install Amber on? In earlier versions there were some issues with older versions of Windows which we thought we fixed, but there might still be some compatibility issues (the command prompts of the different Windows versions function slightly differently from each other).

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There no separate download for the audio or tilesets. You might want to make sure that all media files were downloaded correctly. However, I'd imagine that the files will have downloaded correctly, because I don't think that the .zip would have extracted without an error if parts of it were missing.

 

In the 'amber' folder there's a folder called 'areas', which should contain .are .mos .tiz and .wed files for six areas (m#ar01-06) and a tizunpack.exe. Furthermore amber/sounds should contain a decent number (over 500) of .ogg files and oggdec.exe. In amber/music there should be two .mus files, ten .ogg files, snd2acm.exe and an empty folder called 'mxm#am'.

 

You said that you saw audio files in your override... I'm guessing that all m# prefixed audio files are still in .ogg format? (Which would be a further confirmation that the AmberUnpack.bat didn't run after the WeiDU installation; the .ogg files are copied to the override during the WeiDu installation, but unpacked and deleted by the AmberUnpack.bat.)

 

You can manually run the AmberUnpack.bat if you copy it from the 'amber' folder to your main bg2 folder and double click it. (If you want to see first what that .bat file does you can right click it first and choose 'edit'.)

 

We are running a Win2000Pro on out other computer and the .bat file is launched without problems there, so I don't think it's a windows issue were experiencing here.

 

I wonder if it's possible that an over zealous anti-virus program or a windows setting would prevent a .bat file prompted by another program from running. :blush:

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What platform are you trying to install Amber on? In earlier versions there were some issues with older versions of Windows which we thought we fixed, but there might still be some compatibility issues (the command prompts of the different Windows versions function slightly differently from each other).

 

He says he's using win2000pPro in the first post. :blush:

 

Darios, shouldn't you be, you know, working... :hm:

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Did the decompression of audio files and tilesets occur when you pressed Enter when prompted? If not, what was it that happened?

 

Amber does not use anything called NStisunpack or audioinstall, but uses OggDec for decoding .ogg files into .wav files (Amber's voicing), wav2acm for converting music files from .wav to .acm (Amber's theme music) and tisunpack for unpacking .tiz files into .tis files. All of these utilities should be included in the download package and run automatically by a batch file launched by the WeiDU install.

 

What platform are you trying to install Amber on? In earlier versions there were some issues with older versions of Windows which we thought we fixed, but there might still be some compatibility issues (the command prompts of the different Windows versions function slightly differently from each other).

 

Darios/Meria,

 

I'm using:

 

W2000 pro 5.0 build2195

via K400A-8235

AMD 1.4ghz

directx 9.0c

 

SOA w/TOB installed

using WEidu 195

no installation errors on any mods installed, no incompatibilities listed in readme's of all

 

 

After installation and pressing "enter" there's a brief flash of a DOS window (approx 1/2 second or so) and the Readme is launched. I didn't see any areas or ogg files unpacking (usually that takes quite a while, depending on the volume of tilesets and sound files, in my experience, so I don't think it's doing that).

 

the tisunpack is included in the areas folder after installation.

 

I copied the Amberunpack file to the main BGIISOA folder and it unpacked the ogg files so she now has a voice. NICE WORK, THANKS!

 

I'm gonna try reinstalling after disabling norton antiviris and see if that is causing the problem. I suspect not since it hasn't caused problems with other mods but it's worth a try.

 

The area files look to be in the override as m#ar01, ect.. Somehow I deleted my saved file just prior to Amber's kidnapping so I'll have to wait to see if the transfer to those areas will work when I use the scroll again.

 

 

Thanks!

Larry :blush:

 

 

EDIT: Fixed the quote tag. -Meira

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The area files look to be in the override as m#ar01, ect.. Somehow I deleted my saved file just prior to Amber's kidnapping so I'll have to wait to see if the transfer to those areas will work when I use the scroll again.

The most important here is the uncompressed tileset m#ar01.tis (not .tiz). If you have that for all six areas, you're on the safe side.

 

I'll have to ask around if and how it's possible to have the the .bat print a debug report of it self. It could give us a hint why ithe automatic launch of the .bat file in not working in your system.

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Yes, that way the command prompt window isn't closed automatically and you may view the (error) message.

 

Of course, if you don't have the whatsitsname program that allows you open the command prompt directly to the folder you're browsing in the Windows Explorer, you have to know your HD well enough to navigate to where ever you have installed BG2.

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Yeah, TheBigg explained in the other thread at the Modding Q&A forum why it's not working (if it was working weidu could include bat file's log to it's own debug file).

 

I was really hoping that I could get an useful log file out of the unpack.bat, because this problem seems to come up from time to time and I haven't been able to pin point what's causing it.

 

So far I've gathered:

 

* At least according to SkyWolf's report here the .bat launches, but doesn't do anything because there's no voicing and evidently no tilesets since my area(s) crash. Missing music has not been confirmed.

 

* It's probably not a Windows version issue because like SkyFolf, I also have Win2000Pro in one computer and Amber installs to that computer perfectly.

 

* In earlier cases uninstalling and installing Amber again has usually solved the issue.

 

* If launched manually the .bat seems to do what it's supposed?

 

It would be very helpful to know what message is displayed in the window when the .bat is launched but not doing what it should. Unfortunately, by default that window closes automatically.

 

If you SkyWolf, or anyone experiencing this issue is willing to give a hand and either do as Nightmare suggested above and run setup-amber.exe in command prompt:

 

In Win200/XP

 

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt

 

Or alternatively add 'pause' to the AmberUnpack.bat found in the Amber folder. Right click the file and select 'Edit' then simply type 'pause' at the end of the file and then save it.

 

Either way you should be able to view the possible error message displayed when the bat file is launched.

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Yeah, TheBigg explained in the other thread at the Modding Q&A forum why it's not working (if it was working weidu could include bat file's log to it's own debug file).

 

I was really hoping that I could get an useful log file out of the unpack.bat, because this problem seems to come up from time to time and I haven't been able to pin point what's causing it.

 

So far I've gathered:

 

* At least according to SkyWolf's report here the .bat launches, but doesn't do anything because there's no voicing and evidently no tilesets since my area(s) crash. Missing music has not been confirmed.

 

* It's probably not a Windows version issue because like SkyFolf, I also have Win2000Pro in one computer and Amber installs to that computer perfectly.

 

* In earlier cases uninstalling and installing Amber again has usually solved the issue.

 

* If launched manually the .bat seems to do what it's supposed?

 

It would be very helpful to know what message is displayed in the window when the .bat is launched but not doing what it should. Unfortunately, by default that window closes automatically.

 

If you SkyWolf, or anyone experiencing this issue is willing to give a hand and either do as Nightmare suggested above and run setup-amber.exe in command prompt:

 

In Win200/XP

 

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt

 

Or alternatively add 'pause' to the AmberUnpack.bat found in the Amber folder. Right click the file and select 'Edit' then simply type 'pause' at the end of the file and then save it.

 

Either way you should be able to view the possible error message displayed when the bat file is launched.

 

 

Meria,

 

The Amberunpack installs the voicing AND music for amber without errors after I copy it to the main BGII directory.

 

The amber setup log shows alot of "not copied because it did not change" stuff and also shows the m#ar01 ect. files being copied to override with the entension "tiz". Do I understand correctly that they should have the "tis" extension instead? When I look at them in the override directory they show as "are" files.

 

Below is what I see in amber's setup log:

 

-------------------------------

Copying 1 file ...

[amber/areas/m#ar01.are] loaded, 5092 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar01.are] to [override/m#ar01.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar01.mos] loaded, 14936 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar01.mos] to [override/m#ar01.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar01.tiz] loaded, 480156 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar01.tiz] to [override/m#ar01.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar01.wed] loaded, 5686 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar01.wed] to [override/m#ar01.wed]

[amber/areas/m#ar02.are] loaded, 7956 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar02.are] to [override/m#ar02.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar02.mos] loaded, 25848 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar02.mos] to [override/m#ar02.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar02.tiz] loaded, 274175 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar02.tiz] to [override/m#ar02.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar02.wed] loaded, 11042 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar02.wed] to [override/m#ar02.wed]

[amber/areas/m#ar03.are] loaded, 7948 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar03.are] to [override/m#ar03.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar03.mos] loaded, 22896 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar03.mos] to [override/m#ar03.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar03.tiz] loaded, 335526 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar03.tiz] to [override/m#ar03.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar03.wed] loaded, 10706 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar03.wed] to [override/m#ar03.wed]

[amber/areas/m#ar04.are] loaded, 4496 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar04.are] to [override/m#ar04.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar04.mos] loaded, 18864 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar04.mos] to [override/m#ar04.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar04.tiz] loaded, 178402 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar04.tiz] to [override/m#ar04.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar04.wed] loaded, 6712 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar04.wed] to [override/m#ar04.wed]

[amber/areas/m#ar05.are] loaded, 2228 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar05.are] to [override/m#ar05.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar05.mos] loaded, 6760 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar05.mos] to [override/m#ar05.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar05.tiz] loaded, 59624 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar05.tiz] to [override/m#ar05.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar05.wed] loaded, 2500 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar05.wed] to [override/m#ar05.wed]

[amber/areas/m#ar06.are] loaded, 9324 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar06.are] to [override/m#ar06.are]

[amber/areas/m#ar06.mos] loaded, 22392 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar06.mos] to [override/m#ar06.mos]

[amber/areas/m#ar06.tiz] loaded, 270131 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar06.tiz] to [override/m#ar06.tiz]

[amber/areas/m#ar06.wed] loaded, 14678 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/m#ar06.wed] to [override/m#ar06.wed]

[amber/areas/tisunpack.exe] loaded, 94208 bytes

Copied [amber/areas/tisunpack.exe] to [override/tisunpack.exe]

------------------------------------------------

 

I reached the point in the game where I've got the map but when I use it, the game crashes as before.

 

I'll try executing the .bat file in command prompt and see what happens. If I get a usable error log I'll let you know.

 

Thanks for the good ideas, I see progress and apprecitate the effort.

 

SkyWolf :blush:

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The Amberunpack installs the voicing AND music for amber without errors after I copy it to the main BGII directory.

 

The amber setup log shows alot of "not copied because it did not change" stuff and also shows the m#ar01 ect. files being copied to override with the entension "tiz". Do I understand correctly that they should have the "tis" extension instead? When I look at them in the override directory they show as "are" files.

 

A .tiz file is to .tis what an .ogg file is to .wav file. A compressed version of a file too large for convenient distribution. The file with .are extension on the other hand is a the file that contains all the information that is need for a complete area. Among other things it tells the engine what tileset (.tis) and script (.bcs) to use for the area and what actors (.cre) or points of interest (exit regions, containers etc.) it contains. In a way, when talking about areas an .are is the equivalent of a .cre file that is the base of an NPC, monster or a PC .

 

That said, during weidu installation (that is launched when you doble-click the Setup-Amber.exe) the compressed .tiz and .ogg files are copied to the override folder. In current version Amber at the end of the weidu install the AmberUnpack.bat is launched by the AT_INTERACTIVE_EXIT command. The .bat is supposed to run tispack and oggdec programs (distributed with Amber) in order to uncompress the .tiz files to .tis files and .ogg files to .wav files. Then the .bat is supposed to delete .tiz and .ogg files from the override. If the AmberUnpack.bat was not executed successfully the override folder contains only the compressed files (.tiz and .ogg) that the BG2 is unable to use.

 

 

I reached the point in the game where I've got the map but when I use it, the game crashes as before.

 

I'll try executing the .bat file in command prompt and see what happens. If I get a usable error log I'll let you know.

 

Thanks for the good ideas, I see progress and apprecitate the effort.

 

SkyWo

 

Getting the whatever error or other informative text is displayed when the .bat gets to the unpacking of the .tiz files would be great help. :blush:

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Getting the whatever error or other informative text is displayed when the .bat gets to the unpacking of the .tiz files would be great help. :blush:

 

OK, I unstalled amber and installed using both the command prompt and the "pause" inserted in the amberunpack.bat file. Amber's voice & music files install ok and then at the end of the installation the "pause" command netted the following errors:

 

oggdec is not recognized as and external or internal command

could not find g:\bgII-soa\override\m#*.ogg

could not find g:\bgII-soa\override\oggdec.exe

tisunpack is not recognized as and external or internal command

could not find g:\bgII-soa\override\m#ar*.tiz

could not find g:\bgII-soa\override\tisunpack.exe

----------------------end of file----------------------------

 

If I understand this correctly, the routine is looking for both oggdec.exe and tisunpack.exe to be in the override directory and not finding them, yes? is possible to copy them (and the files they're looking for) into the override without screwing up the install?

 

Thanks for sticking with this, I appreciate the effort.

SkyWolf :hm:

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