Svencoop 4.8 & rcbots crashing, bad crash problem just after adding bots Options

[madmax2]

Hey Cheeseh, I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear...

I just installed sc4.8 & the bots yesterday, and there is a serious crash problem now. I PMed w00tguy123 about it, and he confirms he is having the crash problem too, on the maps I list below, plus others...

Here is an edited part of my PM to him:

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I can verify there is a crash problem with sc4.8 and rcbot. The game crashes to the desktop with a repeating sound loop and the following windows dialog...

CODE

The instruction at "0x0cd93a89" referenced memory at "0x000000cc". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program.

Then I click OK and the PC works normally afterwards....

So far, I get 2 memory locations for the instruction location, [edit] I get this one more now for some reason?... It's very consistant...

CODE

The instruction at "0x0ce13a89" referenced memory at "0x000000cc". The memory could not be "read".

I'm on winXPsp3.. I'm fully updated on steam as of yesterday...

So far I've checked 7 maps, multiple times, and get the crash very soon after adding the first bot, usually within seconds of adding a bot. Crashes on:

murks
crystal 1 & 2
intruder
activist2
activist3

I went all the way through activist 1, without a problem. I even played some. Then after a map change to activist2, it crashed within seconds of a bot spawning. I reloaded activist2 and it happened again...

Before I installed sc4.8, I moved my sc4.7 install to another location. I can quickly switch back to sc4.7, and the bots work perfectly on the same maps... This is the way I normally upgrade my HL mods with rcbot, by editing the nessesary files (liblist.gam, server.cfg, etc...) and copying the addons (metamod) folder over to the new mod version, so i'm sure it's not an install error on my part...
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It is not an intermitant crash on most maps I've checked, so far... I did some further investigation this morning with a surprizing result. Before I get into that, I want to add that crystal is a good map to see the crash on , cause it is always within a second or 2 of spawning the first bot (intruder might be the same). In murks & crystal2, the bots sometimes can go a few steps, before the crash.

Okay, here are the things I tried this morning. I have been testing this mostly with the latest rcbot dll (rcbot_mm_sc47_3.7z) and metamod-p-1.21p37. So first I tried the original rcbot sc4.7 dll (RCBot1_SC47_release_dll.zip), no change, same crash. Next I switched back to metamod-p-1.19p32, again no change.

So, since i had the rcbot sc4.6 dll handy (rcbot_mm_SC46_debug.zip), I thought I might as well try that too, and to my surprize the crashing seemed to stop, for a while!!!

I was able to play crystal past the underwater part, up to the first set of "problem" ceiling mini-turrets, without any crashes, 10+ minutes, then I ended the test. After a short test on crystal2 without a crash, I loaded intruder. I played intruder past the big lift room, past one of the side routes where a bot press a console button to open a new area/door. We back track to the main path, where I got shot up with 1% health left, so I retreated to the side route, a bot was coming towards me, I quickly spun the mouse wheel to select medkit at the same time bringing up the menu to call medic.. It was about there I got the same crash with the rcbot 4.6 debug dll... This all took about 10 minutes too.

But I should add, this needs more testing (rcbot 4.6 dll with sc4.8), it may be a very intermitant crash with the rcbot 4.6 dll. This could of been the same very very intermitant crash I was getting on sc4.7 with the sc4.7 dll's? I didn't report it because it was so very intermitant, it could take you days just to duplicate the crash... And most of the time I was waypointing at the same time, so i just shrugged it off as unimportant...

I will try a couple more tests today, with the rcbot 4.6 dll & sc4.8 maps, to see if the crash on intruder was just one of those freak intermitant crashes I was getting before? I'm not sure if that would help you find the problem or not? I was just thinking if the rcbot 4.6 dll is much more stable than the rcbot 4.7 dll's in sc4.8, then you could look at the code change's you made back then (4.6 to 4.7 rcbot), and it might help you pinpoint the problem?

I want to do some rcbot2/dods stuff today, so i'll try more testing on SC later today, if time allows... I just wanted to get this bug reported, so others can give feedback too...

Also, w00tguy123 thought the crash might possibly be related to entity changes made in sc4.8, but he wasn't sure about that?

max

[madmax2]

Okay, it's working on crystal2, but they seem to let go to early, shortly after they leave the ledge.

On the other side if the canyon, i moved an objective wpt that was positioned between the grapple and the grapple-point out of the way, thought it might be causing a problem, but that didn't work.

Next I moved the grapple wpt closer to the edge, didn't seem to help...

To get them to fire somewhat reliable at this location, i had to do a couple things it seems.

i had to move the grapple-point closer to the grapple wpt, originally it was right on the slime, they were not seeing it there at all. seems they need a bit more range for this location?

also, i tried with different paths across the cavern to different grapple-point positions, usually they would just run off the edge with that, if it was tied to an obj wpt on other side...

Now what I ended up with, i tried with both path and no-path across the canyon, to a normal wpt which is tied to and obj wpt off to the side. The grapple point is not connected to anything at the moment. The path across the canyon seems to be working best, probably cause it helps them face the right way. Its sorta like this:
[edit] This is wrong

CODE

N---G============ GP --N  slime
                       |
                      OBJ

the GP is not connected, it's just beween the grapple and normal wpts that are connected...

Anyways, they fire reliably with this, but can't make it, its a horizontal path, they let go way early.

If I remove the path across the canyon, they don't get any closer, and fire at it far less, standing around, sometimes shooting the BG a each other... So the path across to a normal wpt with obj, seems to help some...

I can send you the rcw if you want to look for yourself, and i can tell you exactly how to get there. It's the third grapple area in the puzzle part...I have bots forced to go there, but you have to do a couple things so they get there on thier own. Or I guess you can teleport them, it might be faster?

max

[edit] I Just attached in case you want to look for yourself? --- Removed, it was wrong....

To noclip there, go out of the cave to the next room, go right over by the BG. then noclip straight down, thats the 3rd grapple area where i have been testing....