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:

-----------------------------------------
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...
-----------------------------------------

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]

Hey Cheeseh,

I got it working!!! They go across perfectly... With your last post a little bell went off in my head, heh heh... I think it was #2 that helped....

I was putting the grapple wpt at the starting location, instead of at or near the landing zone. Allthough I had to move the grapple-point in front of that to get them to fire (this is fixed with grapple update2, put grapple-point right on the slime, see code), it seems to be beyond thier visibility at the slime... So this is what I have now...

CODE

This is wrong now, it won't work good with grapple upd2

S---N========== GP ==GW--obj  slime

Needs to be like this for upd2, it works perfect now...

S---N============GW    GP slime
                  |
                  |
                 obj or N, as long as it goes to a obj someplace...

Or like this...

S---N--======-GW---N   GP slime

[Edit] The GW usually will work best on, over, or near the ledge you want the bots to land on safely. Bots release the grapple as they pass the GW. Do not connect paths to the GP, it is a marker or target for the bots to aim at.

S = starting area wpt
N = normal wpt
GP = grapple point (no path connections)
GW = grapple waypoint
obj = objective wpt
slime is slime, heh heh...

=== mid air connected path
--- ground connected path

The GP needs to be on or close to the slime now, not connected to any other waypoint.

One of my mistakes was I thought they let go at the grapple-point, but its the grapple waypoint where they let go. So the grapple-point is the top of the pendulem, and the grapple waypoint is any place along the swing path or trajectory where you want them to let go... now I get it, yea....

One thing I notice, is once they got across the canyon, they were constantly shooting back at the grapple-point. This may of been because they had no place to go from there? The wpts dead end there at the objective wpt.

Also, I was trying it at a different location, that is a bit smaller target, and was having a hard time getting them to hit the slime.

Yeah, if you want to tweak it some when you get back from work, go ahead. I'll be gone visiting extended family for a few days into next week, anyways.

This is so cool, bots can grapple now...

I'll be able to update the crystal wpts now, and players won't have to use cheats to play with the bots... Then I can look at other maps to use this in....

max

[Cheeseh]

the grapple point must be precisely on the slime (you can crouch and noclip right up to it and add it)

HEre's an updated dll that fixes a few bugs

http://rcbot.bots-united.com/downloads/rcb...rapple_upd2.zip

Here's my crystal 2 waypoint. you'll need to delete some paths from the other teleport to force bots into the grapple area. But you should be able to see how I did the grapple waypoints.

[madmax2]

the grapple point must be precisely on the slime (you can crouch and noclip right up to it and add it)

HEre's an updated dll that fixes a few bugs

http://rcbot.bots-united.com/downloads/rcb...rapple_upd2.zip

Here's my crystal 2 waypoint. you'll need to delete some paths from the other teleport to force bots into the grapple area. But you should be able to see how I did the grapple waypoints.

Got them & will check them out today, thanks....

Today is the last day, then heading out for the beach tommarow . Hopefully my nephew will have his laptop with him & I can check in a few times...