Mission editor frequent crashes

[F/JG300_Gruber]

Hi guys,

 

I'm having a lot of issues with the ME crashing painfully often.

I need to hit ctrl+S almost each time I do something on the project because even basic actions like zooming on the map, placing or moving an object will make the editor crash. 9 times out of 10, it will also crash when exiting the editor. Even saving the project can sometimes make it crash !

 

I can't tell much about when it started giving troubles since I haven't touched it for almost a year. I just got back in mission creation a month ago.

 

I was hoping that 2.012 would bring some improvements but it's not the case. When loading the building template of the Kuban map, I can barely remove a couple cities to lighten the mission before it crashes again.

 

Am I alone in this case or not, and are there some things I can do to improve the stability of the ME on my system ?

 

 

[Jade_Monkey]

It's kind of unstable. If you can delete all the objects that you are not going to be using in the mission (distant towns and airfields) it runs a bit better. There is not fix as far as i know.

[Gambit21]

I've had fewer crashes over my last few sessions working with Kuban than previously with Moscow.

 

Don't get me wrong - still way too many crashes.

It's just a quirk we have to live with for now.

[Urra]

Hi guys,

 

I'm having a lot of issues with the ME crashing painfully often.

I need to hit ctrl+S almost each time I do something on the project because even basic actions like zooming on the map, placing or moving an object will make the editor crash. 9 times out of 10, it will also crash when exiting the editor. Even saving the project can sometimes make it crash !

 

I can't tell much about when it started giving troubles since I haven't touched it for almost a year. I just got back in mission creation a month ago.

 

I was hoping that 2.012 would bring some improvements but it's not the case. When loading the building template of the Kuban map, I can barely remove a couple cities to lighten the mission before it crashes again.

 

Am I alone in this case or not, and are there some things I can do to improve the stability of the ME on my system ?

1) do you have 4k monitor?. And do you full screen the editor? If I keep it to the standard windowed size its stable for me. If I full screen it. It crashes in 1-2 minutes.

[SYN_Haashashin]

Hi guys,

 

Its kinda stable for me. The more recurrent crash for me is when I try to copy and paste big whole groups. Other than that...its more stable than past versions.

 

Haash

[Gambit21]

I have a 4K monitor - I get lots of crashes right-click dragging to move around the map. Maybe I'll try the suggestion above - although I'd hate to make it smaller.

[coconut]

Same as Haash for me, pretty stable. Crashes occasionally on copy/cut/paste. It's known that some of the terrain.cfg settings can cause it to crash. As that file is no longer used, remove it if you had used it earlier. It was used to get higher ground quality textures at far all distances.

[Gambit21]

I'll try running it 'not' in full screen mode, but for what it's worth it doesn't have a "native" windowed size.

When I take it out of full screen, it shrinks to a very small size and I have to enlarge it quite a bit in order to work.

Anyway I'll see if working in a window changes it's behavior at all.

[F/JG300_Gruber]

I have a 4K monitor - I get lots of crashes right-click dragging to move around the map. Maybe I'll try the suggestion above - although I'd hate to make it smaller.

 

I'll try the same and go with a smaller window see if it reduces the crash occurences

[Gambit21]

So far so good - 2 hours without a crash.

[Gambit21]

2 crashes total over 3 hours or so - much better.

Thanks for the tip tuna.

[Habu]

Hi guys,

 

Its kinda stable for me. The more recurrent crash for me is when I try to copy and paste big whole groups. Other than that...its more stable than past versions.

 

Haash

It depends of the kind of mission you build. For a light one, there is no or a few crash. But more the mission is heavy, more often you have crash.

 

My advice, save as soon you can and use versioning (v1.2/1.3/1.4, ...).

 

Do not forget to enable crashdump, and post the crash dump.

[NETSCAPE]

Interesting reading these reports. I am having a good run lately. I haven't had a crash in a good 15 hours of in-editor time.

 

In the past however I started noticing patterns when I crashed:

 

-clicking to exit the program right after saving (I avoid this by waiting a solid few seconds before exiting now)

-object linking to a group of units when I am too far zoomed out (easy to avoid, just zoom in to make sure visually I can differentiate between units)

-copy-pasting LARGE amounts of stuff, or importing a large group I have saved. (this seems rare for me lately, save before the paste or import for safety)

-opening and closing multiple missions with out rebooting the editor. (reboot editor seems to help avoid crashes)

 

I save constantly. It's a habit I developed years ago from music production. It also is a good idea to periodically reboot the editor. Sometimes I'll open a project, open another for reference or to copy something, open the first again... -at that point I just save, close, reopen editor, open main mission I'm working on and go from there.

 

I'm running Win 8.1 with a FX8350 & GTX970

[F/JG300_Gruber]

Nice to hear some workarounds from you guys 

[EAF_Starfire]

I am doing a Kuban DF mission with a lot of objects and it crashes like hell and if not, the server crashes even before it gets in the air.

 

Does anyone know what the limit is?

[Habu]

For the crash server, you have to check the server and the configuration. There is no link between crash in the editor and on the server. I had crash in the editor on a mission, and no crash with that mission on my server.

 

The limit is your server hardware and the badwith of the server. A mission wich works fine on a server, could be laggy and unplayable on another one which have a different hardware. You have to run test on your own server.

[EAF_Starfire]

Thanks Habu

Any idear what Integrity failures effect have on the hosting?

I ask because I loaded up the Kuban map with the big template and the integrity test went nuts 

I am sure the developers will get around to it, but I wonder if that is part of the reason it crashes.

[Habu]

Thanks Habu

Any idear what Integrity failures effect have on the hosting?

I ask because I loaded up the Kuban map with the big template and the integrity test went nuts 

I am sure the developers will get around to it, but I wonder if that is part of the reason it crashes.

The integrity error from the element of the 2 templates gave by the dev has no effect. There is the same thing with the Moscow map. It's something i reported, and hope which will be fix as soon as possible, because the check of error integrity is very helpfull for mission builder. I host several mission on moscow and kuban with no problem, and my mission are quite heavy.

 

To test, you can try the mission from Haashashin on Kuban, it's a light one, but it's a good mission for VVS pilot.

 

You could find the Haashasin mission here :

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/30922-syndicate-corner/?do=findComment&comment=505984

 

I enclose my training mission on Kuban, i hosted since the the kuban map is avaliable. It's the last version at that moment. Feel free to use it, or use any contents in the mission. One word about one thing i use in my multiplayer mission, in the bottom right corner (you have to zoom in to view them, because they are under the buton if you don't zoom), there are 2 airfields named Reload, one german, and one russian. If you use one plane of that airfield, it will end the mission. Spanw and do nothing, and after 10 sec, the server will load the next mission. If there is only one mission in, the pool, it will reload the same mission. I gave the possibility to my palayer to reload teh mission, and to avoid to begin a mission, and that the server reload automaticaly after a few minutes in flight.

 

PS : I don't know if you know that, but when you host on a dedicated server, do not copy the . mission file. Use only the .msbin. The mission will load faster, and the height of the mission to upload to the clients is lighter. But using the .mission do not crash the dedicated server.

[EAF_Starfire]

 

PS : I don't know if you know that, but when you host on a dedicated server, do not copy the . mission file. Use only the .msbin. The mission will load faster, and the height of the mission to upload to the clients is lighter. But using the .mission do not crash the dedicated server.

 

I sort of did.....*ggg*

 

I did some testing saturday and found a work around. 

 

 

 

Probem 1 and solution

Problem:

- FMB crashed everytime I wanted it to make a binary file (.msbin) for all in my mission folder.

 

After a little light reading I found that the FMB makes a binary file everytime we save! 

(The reason why purposly did this was because I was unaware that the FMB does this automaticly every time you save.)

 

 

Solution: Don't do it! 

 

 

Probem 2 and solution

 

Problem:

- Dedicated server crashed or will not run my Kuban mission (unable to read mission)

 

By moving the mission back to my the computer where I edit, I found that the editor was unable to read/open the mission as well.

Essentially the crashed binary action makes the mission unreadble 

 

But since the FMB does make a binary file automatically, this problem was solved.

 

I also assumed that the Dedicated server would prioritize binary file when it was included.

As a test I took everything else out of the folder except the binary file and discover that my assumption was in error. Just like you wrote.

I have also discovered that it needs the language files in order to show the briefing 

 

 

So right now my issues should be solved.....at least those related to mission building and hosting 

[Habu]

Ok, you don't have the basis. let's have a little explanation :

 

A mission is composed of several files :

 

1- Missions files wich is code in two ways which are :

• .mission (large files)
• .msbin (binary files)

 

The editor can open both files and can genrate both files. But sometimes, with patch the coding of the mission change, and dev say to regenerate msnbin. If you try to open the mission, you'll have an error. In that case, you have to delete the msnbin, then load the mission file.

 

But if you have only the msnbin file, in that case, you can't open the mission anymore, and you lot your work. So, always keep both files on your hard drive.

 

 

 

2- Language files (at that moment, but later, it could have addidional language file) :

• .eng = English
• .ger = German
• .pol = Polish
• .rus = Russian
• .spa = Spain
• .fra = French

In the language file, you'll have the briefing, information in the subtitle, ..

 

 

 

 

3- List file (file that must be download by client) :

• .list

 

 

 

 

For the Dserver, you have to use theses files :

• .msbin (binary files)
• .eng = English
• .ger = German
• .pol = Polish
• .rus = Russian
• .spa = Spain
• .fra = French
• .list

 

About the language files :

If your game is in english, in the editor, you'll work by default with .en file.

If your game is in french (for exemple), even if the editor is still in english, you work with the .fra file.

 

It's very important to unerstand that. An information in one language file is not duplicate in other language file. So, for exemple :

 

Mission builder (MB) have its game in english.

 

Player A has its game in english

Player B has it's game in french.

 

If you do nothing :

 

Player A will view the briefing because he use the same language file as the mission builder.

 

Player B see no briefing, because he use the .fra file which have not the information.

 

It's very important to understand that, because if you display information some see it and some other not.

 

So in the editor, you have a button Loc, with that button you can select the language file you want, and can add the right information. It could take a long time if you want to localise your mission for every language. But if you don't need to localise the mission because all your player use the same language, or that you want to display in only one language, tehere is a trick.

 

Be carefull with the trick, you can lost your localisation work.

 

The languages files are text file you can open with notepad. You have two solution :

1. Open your default language with a text editor (notepad, notepad +++, sublimetext,...), then copy all the information in the text file, then open another language file, delete all the information inside, and copy the information.
2. Delete the language file you want. Copy/past you default language file and delete the word which has been add, and change the extension (for exemple .eng by .fra). Be carreful, you must have the same name as your default language file.

I advice you to do some test to well understanding.

 

 

About dserver, you can have download error which is not link to the mission, but to the path of the mission.

For exemple :

As a mission builder, i work in that directory :

 

H:\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Multiplayer\Dogfight\WIP\Mission coop

 

The list file (you can open with notepad) has these informations :

 

filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.eng","da51fa2d"
filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.fra","789f09da"
filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.ger","40a3f7b6"
filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.pol","89625553"
filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.rus","3d90b835"
filename="multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/px_coop_stalingrad_summer_v1.0.spa","a0ff49bc"
 

 

The default path of teh game is Dogfight.

 

multiplayer/dogfight/

 

If i copy my mission in the default directory on my server and run the dedicated server.

The server will load the mission but it can't upload the language file to client and client will have an error transfer.

 

The problem is that the mission read the .list file where there are the path for the language files. In my exemple, it try to read the file in the directory multiplayer/dogfight/wip/mission coop/ which do not exist on my server.

 

You have 2 solutions :

1. Recreate the same path on the server
2. When you want to play/test the mission, open it with the editor and do a Save as in the default directory, then upload that mission on your server.

I suggest the second option which will be easier, and avoid that you  create many directories on your server.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Habu

[Jade_Monkey]

Hi guys,

 

The more recurrent crash for me is when I try to copy and paste big whole groups. Other than that...its more stable than past versions.

 

Haash

 

 

This ^^  except copy and paste for even small groups can crash.

 

I think you need to give the editor time to finish each action, dont click too fast on the next thing you want to do.

Some programming languages (not an expert) have a DO command, that asks to finish the previous step before continuing. It feels like it's missing something like that. If your actions overlap it will probably crash.

[WWGeezer]

My crashes are very focused on ships.  Seems certain ships trigger a crash every time I placed them.  Also had difficulty getting the ships to convoy in the mission.

 

The rest seemed to be working okay

[WWSitttingDuck]

Ditto here....and for the first time ever, got a window; "please wait till operation is finished  Cell Cache Update", and seconds later, ME crashed.

[II./JG1_Kliegmann]

I have had major problems with the cut/copy/paste crashes.  What I started doing was building the mission in modules.  I open the primary mission, import all buildings, airfields, ect, then I close it.  Then I open the editor, same map, different name - "Static ground": build all the airfields, ground targets, player missions, ect, then I group them by side, then import the groups into the primary mission map.  I do the same for "Ground Combat": Build all ground combat units, movements, engagements ect.  Then group those and import them into the primary mission.  By doing this, I've cut my crashes by about 60%.

[jollyjack]

BUMP !!!

So this is a real old issue, as these posts are from 2017 !!!

 

The ME still crashes far too often in 2021 also. Nothing seems to have been done about it for over 4 years. Why?

 

General hypothesis:  the crashes are related to either:

1) DX11

2) Windows 10 64bit

3) NVDIA GPU hardware

4) a 4k monitor

Edited February 3, 2021 by jollyjack

[IckyATLAS]

I did a long explanation on another post :

 

ME crashes tip ? - Mission Making and Mission Editor - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

 

about how to avoid crashes and believe me it works, but you must absolutely not cut corners otherwise it crashes.

I have added an additional point.  Have a look.

 

As I said I have now long evening sessions without any crash at all. It is a heavy procedure and you must be very disciplined but it definitively works.

 

[Gambit21]

The editor behaves differently on each system. There is no ‘cure all’ for crashes.

[Jaegermeister]

7 hours ago, jollyjack said:

General hypothesis:  the crashes are related to either:

1) DX11 - 

2) Windows 10 64bit

3) NVDIA GPU hardware

4) a 4k monitor

 

1) DX11 -  Required to run the game

2) Windows 10 64bit - Required to run the game

3) NVDIA GPU hardware - I don't have it

4) a 4k monitor - I don't have one

 

I do still get crashes though. A couple of days ago it crashed like every 5 minutes. Now it's fine. What's your point? Do we really need 2 or 3 necro threads stating what we already know?

 

If user made content is getting produced the way it is, unfortunately I don't foresee a lot of Dev resources getting assigned to revising it just to make our lives easier and more efficient.   

[jollyjack]

Thanks. At least enlightening for me that you have crashes without NVDIA hardware, or 4k, both i blamed so far. Spent a lot of time with fiddling the settings there.

 

So it seems the ME itself, and by now i think that it happens more after you put in a lot of new especially Linked MCU stuff.

The way i work with it now is creating a new (Icon-translators to be removed later) group, and put all active stuff, waypoints etc in that group.

Seems the ME is a bit more reliable; not as much crashing on zooming (??), only occasionally on save, and IMO also less frequent if you let the ME settle down first after new enties.

 

The reason for posting is pushing IL2 to do something about it. Maybe this stripped ME is less stable than the pro-version they might use because of that.

The more rumor about these crashes ... better chances for a fix?

 

PS you're near Area 51? Maybe that's the cause at your end. I live below sea level ...

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, jollyjack said:

Thanks. At least enlightening for me that you have crashes without NVDIA hardware, or 4k, both i blamed so far. Spent a lot of time with fiddling the settings there.

 

So it seems the ME itself, and by now i think that it happens more after you put in a lot of new especially Linked MCU stuff.

The way i work with it now is creating a new (Icon-translators to be removed later) group, and put all active stuff, waypoints etc in that group.

Seems the ME is a bit more reliable; not as much crashing on zooming (??), only occasionally on save, and IMO also less frequent if you let the ME settle down first after new enties.

 

The reason for posting is pushing IL2 to do something about it. Maybe this stripped ME is less stable than the pro-version they might use because of that.

The more rumor about these crashes ... better chances for a fix?

 

PS you're near Area 51? Maybe that's the cause at your end. I live below sea level ...

 

The other day I mentioned, I was changing multiple object links in the ME. I was selecting objects from the mission tree, double clicking check zones to open them, changing parameters on the check zones, double clicking object links, closing that object, opening another object, right click and moving camera to the next object, repeat... I had to do this roughly about 700 times over 10 missions. None of this involved zooming, panning, or adding new objects. I was getting a crash roughly every 4 or 5 minutes over an hour or so. I saved after every object was relinked, so I lost about 2 minutes work with every crash. Regardless of the cause, the only real solution ATM is to save work frequently.

 

It's not a rumor, it's reality. They use exactly the same interface we do from what I hear., I know BlackSix makes his missions with the same issues we have. Starting multiple threads will not get the Devs to do anything about it. Posting a report in the bugs thread is more likely to do something. Maybe if enough of us post reports with specific examples, it will get addressed. A new report every time it crashes with details could get annoying for them.

 

BTW, I'm in Roswell Georgia, outside Atlanta. Funny how lots of people started posting wacky locations after I put that there. 

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

Regardless of the cause, the only real solution ATM is to save work frequently.

 

Which can cause a corrupted, unrecoverable mission file...adding yet another layer to frustration of editor instability. So saving a backup every few times is advisable. It’s saved me 3 times now. I lost time, but better than losing it completely.

 

 

 

[jollyjack]

Most times i save various versions on the way, learned that doing audio for video. One can revert to an earlier version when a save fails and ruins the file.

[Jaegermeister]

6 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

Which can cause a corrupted, unrecoverable mission file...adding yet another layer to frustration of editor instability. So saving a backup every few times is advisable. It’s saved me 3 times now. I lost time, but better than losing it completely.

 

Yes, I forgot to mention that one of those files that kept crashing turned out to be corrupt. When I stared the mission, it went to a black screen on the loading splash screen. I lost about an hour of work on that one because my most recent backup was from before I did all the updates.

 

That creates another problem with keeping track of all the backups. Have you ever overwritten a file with an older one? I have and it's just as aggravating as a CTD if not more so because I did it to myself.

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

That creates another problem with keeping track of all the backups. Have you ever overwritten a file with an older one? I have and it's just as aggravating as a CTD if not more so because I did it to myself.

 

Yes, I made a serious mistake in that regard finishing up Hell Hawks, so even my back-up was non-existent. Just a momentary brain fart, and boom...I'm hosed.

Fortunately I had a copy of the working campaign in my drop-box folder that I'd sent to testers a day or two before.

I lost hours of work, but better than the alternative.

 

Every few days when working on that thing (should have done it every night) I'd drag a copy of the entire campaign into another drive.

 

 

 

 

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, Gambit21 said:

Every few days when working on that thing (should have done it every night) I'd drag a copy of the entire campaign into another drive.

 

That's what I do. Every time I finish working, I copy the whole folder.

Every time I test and I know it runs, I copy on to another drive.

[jollyjack]

If you guys, apparently professionals LoL, backup stuff a lot, there are a few tools, even free, to backup your stuff. Some even with automated cloud backups possible.

I use (paid) teracopy, but there are many more. For windows boot partitions i use Acronis 2014, running occasionally from a bootable USB dongle, why i keep my boot partition small.

 

[Jaegermeister]

18 hours ago, jollyjack said:

If you guys, apparently professionals LoL, backup stuff a lot, there are a few tools, even free, to backup your stuff. Some even with automated cloud backups possible.

I use (paid) teracopy, but there are many more. For windows boot partitions i use Acronis 2014, running occasionally from a bootable USB dongle, why i keep my boot partition small.

 

I’ll ignore you vaguely condescending tone and say yes, there are tools that we are well aware of. The simplest and easiest to manage is dragging a folder from the active directory to a USB thumb drive or external SSD. The hardest part about that it remembering to do it.

 

If you are suggesting loading an automated backup program that runs in the background and auto saves mission files while you are working on them you go ahead and test that out and report back.

[Gambit21]

Saves me the post.

[jollyjack]

On 2/6/2021 at 4:21 AM, Jaegermeister said:

I’ll ignore you vaguely condescending tone and say yes, there are tools that we are well aware of. The simplest and easiest to manage is dragging a folder from the active directory to a USB thumb drive or external SSD. The hardest part about that it remembering to do it.

 

If you are suggesting loading an automated backup program that runs in the background and auto saves mission files while you are working on them you go ahead and test that out and report back.

 

Will do ....

 

ADDED: testing EaseUs (ToDo) Backup Home, seems to be OK, only it seems to get the separate and automation file/folder functions working it costs 23$.

The free version seems to run 30 days full, in the background, and is kind of slow, 50 minutes,  with my 5.1 GB missions folder.

Installed it again blocking ads etc with my firewall, now 3 minutes for the mission folder LoL.

Seems you can access individual files, just drag them out of the backup pdb folder, you can even exclude unnecessary file types.

Set automated backup before auto shutting down the PC. There seems no verify function as with teracopy. you can even exclude unnecessary file types.

 

ADDED 2: Correction: You can manually verify an image, but i haven't found a proper auto backup function, only made a preset that saves the mission folder.

Backing up 5GB takes about 4 minutes, verify the same.

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by jollyjack

[IckyATLAS]

Lately I have also started more using the F button on the editor which allows a direct focus on an object. No need to Pan and Zoom. It is a direct jump to a given object.

This will also diminish the number of crashes due to Pan and Zoom. I am in 4K which seems to be more sensitive to that type of crashes.

Edited February 10, 2021 by IckyATLAS