Forged Alliance Forever

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T22:50:49+02:00

Ok I think I know why it's all working now. Previously it did try to make previews for standard maps, and now, as we have them uploaded in the vault, it downloads the previews first.

So basically the only crash scenario I see is that you trying to upload a map, or someone hosts a map which you have but it's not in vault (unlikely but possible)

Statistics: Posted by Raging_Squirrel — 22 Mar 2012, 22:50

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T22:36:57+02:00

Five successful starts of FA Lobby, and I can see map previews in Find Games tab and Map Vault tab. I would say that's a successful test so far.

I only play stock maps or what's in the Map Pack that we loaded many years ago (not even sure what it's called at this point, or if they are vaulted).

Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 22 Mar 2012, 22:36

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T22:30:27+02:00

Looks like FA is installed here:

Code:: C:\Program Files\THQ\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance\

and the stock maps are here (although, I don't see any PNG preview files in this directory structure, only the LUA and SCMAP files):

Code:: C:\Program Files\THQ\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance\maps

I'm DLing and trying the latest update, and I'll let ya know how it works.

TIA for all of your help.

Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 22 Mar 2012, 22:30

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T20:08:32+02:00

Raging_Squirrel wrote:
try out the latest update first, some changes have been made there
I don't think it'll affect anything considering your problem, but give it a shot.

Well he's FORCED to use the new update.

But I think it should work better for him unless he plays a lot of non-vault maps (or has those).

Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 22 Mar 2012, 20:08

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T19:26:08+02:00

try out the latest update first, some changes have been made there
I don't think it'll affect anything considering your problem, but give it a shot.

Statistics: Posted by Raging_Squirrel — 22 Mar 2012, 19:26

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-22T19:15:41+02:00

Sorry for the delayed response, life got busy this week.

I'll check this evening to see in what directory SC is installed. Are you recommending that I copy/move some map previews into the "cache" directory for FAF so that it can find them, or do we think that this should've been accomplished already (e.g. during an install)?

Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 22 Mar 2012, 19:15

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-18T00:27:57+02:00

The issue is, there are no subdirectories for the stock maps there. These are created when dds previews from official maps are generated. The others are from the web, though they too get piped through freeimage.

Where is your Supcom installed on that machine?

Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 18 Mar 2012, 00:27

Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista

2012-03-17T05:39:57+02:00

Here's the contents of the FAF Cache directory (hope this is helpful):

Code:: Volume in drive C is OS Volume Serial Number is 7AF9-5E44 Directory of C:\ProgramData\FAForever\cache 03/16/2012 10:40 PM . 03/16/2012 10:40 PM .. 03/13/2012 11:10 AM 19,052 2v2 sand box.v0001.png 03/13/2012 10:50 AM 20,059 3v3 chaos.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:39 PM 19,369 3v3 croesus 13.v0001.png 03/13/2012 10:51 AM 19,019 3v3 sand box.v0001.png 03/14/2012 01:00 PM 20,927 4a4 a good place to die.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 17,417 4v4 confrontation.v0001.png 03/14/2012 12:44 PM 18,025 a road to thermopylae.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:40 PM 17,749 artys paradise v1.v0001.png 03/13/2012 10:50 AM 14,652 battle of thermopylae v2.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 20,676 big_blasted_rock.png 03/14/2012 08:40 PM 19,071 birth canal.v0001.png 03/13/2012 10:50 AM 13,661 bunnyroanokev3.v0001.png 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 16,003 desertoasis.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:15 PM 15,379 devastation.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 18,040 duel.v0002.png 03/14/2012 08:57 PM 18,976 fight of the giants v3.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 20,513 fredouz battle 2.v0001.png 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 18,485 gap of rohan.v0001.png 03/14/2012 12:44 PM 19,647 hrungdaks canyon rage.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:31 PM 19,117 paradise 3v3.v0001.png 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 15,333 rockstone4v4.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:56 PM 16,336 rush me if u can v2 ep.png 03/13/2012 10:50 AM 17,498 rush me more.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:51 PM 16,778 rush me now.v0001.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM scmp_003 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 17,924 scmp_003.png 03/13/2012 11:12 AM scmp_007 03/13/2012 11:12 AM 17,466 scmp_007.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM scmp_009 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 16,837 scmp_009.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM scmp_011 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 4,632 scmp_011.png 03/13/2012 09:31 PM scmp_012 03/13/2012 09:31 PM 13,160 scmp_012.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM scmp_015 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 16,352 scmp_015.png 03/13/2012 09:24 PM scmp_020 03/13/2012 09:24 PM 12,048 scmp_020.png 03/14/2012 12:46 PM scmp_023 03/14/2012 12:46 PM 10,880 scmp_023.png 03/14/2012 12:47 PM scmp_031 03/14/2012 12:47 PM 19,502 scmp_031.png 03/13/2012 11:10 AM scmp_033 03/14/2012 05:26 PM scmp_034 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 14,694 scmp_034.png 03/13/2012 11:11 AM scmp_035 03/13/2012 11:12 AM scmp_036 03/13/2012 11:12 AM 17,203 scmp_036.png 03/14/2012 05:28 PM scmp_037 03/14/2012 05:28 PM 11,092 scmp_037.png 03/14/2012 05:26 PM scmp_039 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 14,095 scmp_039.png 03/13/2012 10:50 AM 21,385 scmp_di_509.v0001.png 03/14/2012 08:39 PM 12,525 scmp_mvcx_05.png 03/14/2012 12:51 PM 21,293 tabula rasa v3.v0001.png 03/16/2012 10:40 PM 0 temp.txt 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 21,157 twin rivers ep.png 03/13/2012 05:27 PM 20,274,176 update.msi 03/14/2012 05:26 PM 18,761 weqqw.v0001.png 03/14/2012 12:44 PM x1mp_001 03/14/2012 12:44 PM 17,854 x1mp_001.png 03/14/2012 08:08 PM x1mp_005 03/14/2012 08:08 PM 16,792 x1mp_005.png 03/14/2012 12:44 PM x1mp_007 03/14/2012 12:44 PM 18,825 x1mp_007.png 03/14/2012 12:44 PM x1mp_008 03/14/2012 12:44 PM 19,365 x1mp_008.png 03/14/2012 08:08 PM x1mp_014 03/14/2012 08:08 PM 19,030 x1mp_014.png 03/13/2012 11:13 AM x1mp_017 03/13/2012 11:13 AM 18,856 x1mp_017.png 50 File(s) 21,097,686 bytes 23 Dir(s) 100,456,583,168 bytes free


Here's some additional info:
The 0 byte temp.txt file is the text file that I piped this directory listing into, so it can be ignored (I've deleted it).  
I viewed all of the PNG files in the root of this structure, and they all appear relatively normal (using Windows Photo Gallery).  However, the "birth canal.v0001.png" did have an odd looking background (looked like a planet in space) instead of black.  Not sure if it's any indication of corruption.  
I checked all of the sub-directories, and most appear to have a .DDS file and another copy of the .PNG preview except for the following (these were empty):  scmp_033, scmp_035

If I had a small program that called that DLL (even command line based), I could tell you which ones of these PNGs are causing it to crash.

What version of FreeImage are you using?  I looked into FreeImage.dll on SourceForge and it looks like it is relying on LibPNG for reading PNG images.  There were no known crash warnings specified on LibPNG since v1.2.24 in 2008, so unless we are using a very old version, this is likely an unknown bug or implementation oversight in FreeImage.dll.  Not knowing what the source code looks like, is it possible that weird things like the MSI file or Folders are being fed to FreeImage.dll which might cause a crash?Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 17 Mar 2012, 05:39



Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-16T18:36:37+02:00

Thanks. I'll check the cache tonight and let you know what I find.Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 16 Mar 2012, 18:36




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-16T10:23:22+02:00

SiliconKnight wrote:
Well, I loaded it and got at least 12 starts in a row with no crashes, so maybe the map preview is what was crashing.  I can live with this version, but if we could figure out how to include a fix in the regular code stream, that would be great.


Important: If it's the map previews, it's NOT the starts, but it's rather the generation of map preview images for games with maps you haven't got a preview for yet. Since you get a large batch of games told by the server directly after login, the chance of crashing is highest directly after login, of course.

These can be caused by three types of maps:
 official maps, freeimage needs to read the .DDS data from them, that has been known to fail (most likely cause)
 local maps you have but that are not in the vault (again, DDS data needs to be extracted, but these games are rare)
 any vault map (but since you were able to see games before, general preview downloads and scaling just must have worked - freeimage is used to scale these down)

Anyway, knowing it's most likely related to freeimage or to the map preview generator, I can now look for alternatives or the root cause.


Can you use the BETA menu, click "show logs", and then look into the cache folder in that directory and tell me what's in there?Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 16 Mar 2012, 10:23




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-16T04:44:56+02:00

Well, I loaded it and got at least 12 starts in a row with no crashes, so maybe the map preview is what was crashing.  I can live with this version, but if we could figure out how to include a fix in the regular code stream, that would be great.Statistics: Posted by SiliconKnight — 16 Mar 2012, 04:44




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-15T20:45:53+02:00

http://faforever.com/faf/FAForeverLobby-nopreviews.msi

Try this one.  (you should not be seeing any map previews) Trying to narrow it down to the components that are likely to crash.Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 15 Mar 2012, 20:45




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-15T13:58:37+02:00

Raging_Squirrel wrote:
SiliconKnight wrote:I got it to load and submitted a bug report.

didn't find anything on bitbucket   
can you use pastebin to show us the log?


The crash is outside of FAF (probably in a dll), meaning Windows kills it before it can write anything to the log.Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 15 Mar 2012, 13:58




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-15T11:20:46+02:00

SiliconKnight wrote:
I got it to load and submitted a bug report.

didn't find anything on bitbucket   
can you use pastebin to show us the log?Statistics: Posted by Raging_Squirrel — 15 Mar 2012, 11:20




Re: FAF Client crashing in Vista
2012-03-15T10:26:13+02:00

Okay, that means it's almost definitely the preview generation of the map images, and most likely FreeImage.dll (the dll I changed in the 352 test build) or the associated wrapper.

I'll look into it.Statistics: Posted by thygrrr — 15 Mar 2012, 10:26