Posts: 3822
Joined: 16 Sep 2007, 22:00
KaM Skill Level: Skilled
ICQ: 269127056
Website: http://lewin.hodgman.id.au
Yahoo Messenger: lewinlewinhodgman
Location: Australia
Recent crashes in the release candidate
Hey guys,
We got a lot of crash reports last night about players being out of sync. I'm pretty sure this is because of the different units.dat files I posted here with the advantage for units with shields.
The game compared your data files to make sure they match, but there was a flaw: The data files are loaded into memory when the game starts, but if you update the files while the game is running, it would still let you join a lobby of players even though the game had already loaded the old data files. I've changed it so the consistency check is based on what you loaded into memory when the game started, not what is on your hard disk at the moment you join the lobby.
This meant that last night every game that was played with players who updated their units.dat file while the game was running (and didn't restart in between games) would have crashed the game for everyone as soon as the changed units got into combat.
I apologise for the inconvenience of this bug, but it's good that we found it. It can be worked around by making sure anybody who installs the units.dat changes restarts his game after changing it. Basically, do NOT update units.dat while the game is running. Close the game first, update units.dat, then start the game. Please people when you play with them and get them to restart their game if they have updated units.dat while the game was running. Otherwise it will just crash as soon as there's combat involving those units.
This won't be necessary in the 3rd release candidate because it will be checking the CRC of the data files loading when the game started, so players will be forced to restart before they can join your lobby.
Cheers,
Lewin.
We got a lot of crash reports last night about players being out of sync. I'm pretty sure this is because of the different units.dat files I posted here with the advantage for units with shields.
The game compared your data files to make sure they match, but there was a flaw: The data files are loaded into memory when the game starts, but if you update the files while the game is running, it would still let you join a lobby of players even though the game had already loaded the old data files. I've changed it so the consistency check is based on what you loaded into memory when the game started, not what is on your hard disk at the moment you join the lobby.
This meant that last night every game that was played with players who updated their units.dat file while the game was running (and didn't restart in between games) would have crashed the game for everyone as soon as the changed units got into combat.
I apologise for the inconvenience of this bug, but it's good that we found it. It can be worked around by making sure anybody who installs the units.dat changes restarts his game after changing it. Basically, do NOT update units.dat while the game is running. Close the game first, update units.dat, then start the game. Please people when you play with them and get them to restart their game if they have updated units.dat while the game was running. Otherwise it will just crash as soon as there's combat involving those units.
This won't be necessary in the 3rd release candidate because it will be checking the CRC of the data files loading when the game started, so players will be forced to restart before they can join your lobby.
Cheers,
Lewin.
