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]

Hey Cheeseh,

I noticed a small issue with weapon pickups that you might want to check before the next release?

If weapons fall in a hazardous or pain/death area, bots tend to go for the weapons, instead of objectives such as buttons to turn off the hazard. It can be a domino effect, where bot1 sees a weapon in killing area, dies & drops his weapon, bot2 sees bot1's weapon , etc..

I think they might be to quick to pick up every weapon anyways, before players get a chance. Could you make it so bots only pickup weapons if their primary weapon ammo is below a certain level, say 30 or 50%? Or just have them pick up every forth weapon they see? Something to reduce their desire just a bit, should work with hazardous areas.

Of coarse , I noticed this updating the crystal 1 rcw, at that first button with the "firewall". bots were going for the dropped weapons in the flames, and not getting to the button at the panel. I don't think it's happening every game, it depends on where the weapons fall, i guess?

For grapple, i did see a bot trying to shoot though worldspawn again, at the place in royals2 I thought I had fixed. He got grappled to another bot too. i think they should let go of other players or bots, and reset to navigation.

Bots really hit the grapple point well now, if the waypoints are set up correctly. They always hit it with the second shot . So I think 4 or 5 shots at a grapple point should be plenty, before they reset to navigation, if they are not successful, then go to the correct location to fire from...

Thanks,
max

[edit] btw, i'm using the rcbot_mm_SC48_grapple_upd2.zip dll, not the rcbot_mm_SC48_release2.zip or Release 1 from the web site