Nightmare of an update for the Mission Builder

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

This update id absolutely unbelievable and not for any good reason, especially for the mission maker. It's taken me a little over 18 hours to update all my missions to work with this patch (and that's even with using the resave feature) but I was horrified to find that you ALSO HAVE TO re-browse and re-set every single media trigger (jpeg, mp3 etc) which is taking an age to do and the final straw is finding that every single Subtitle trigger has been wiped of text. OMG!!!

What is the point of spending HOURS UPON HOURS making highly detailed & immersive missions only to have them all completely stripped because of one lousy update.

 

Lousy because being a VR user, I'm never going to get a high fidelity on spotting aircraft so I haven't bothered about it but now with this update, the contacts appear from a distance so large, they look like bombers. There's no scale to it at all. They just appear huge and remain huge.

The sound is buggered, The Tempest engine note is very weird and 'un engine-like', the stereo effect in external views are porked & the graphics somehow seem to have gone downhill.

 

These are bad enough but the gargantuan workload that the mission builder is going to have to do to save his or her precious work just because of some needless fog is just staggering.

 

[Gambit21]

I'm having no problems with media files.

Where do you keep your media files?

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

Hi Gambit.

 

I create a mission folder and within the folder, a sub folder named 'media' and 2 more sub folders within media called 'jpegs' and mp3'

I've not made any structural changes to the folders of any kind. I've always had a folder within the Missions folder called 'My Missions' and within that folder goes the individual mission folders and so on.

This is the only time I've had troubles of this nature, all other updates have been fine but now, with every one of my SP missions, I'm having to, for some reason, re-browse for the files, 'even though' the path is unchanged. As soon as I re-browse the file and then 'set', it shows in mission, but 'only then'

And every single Translator subtitle trigger has been erased. Crikey I can't even remember the text files now. At least it's good to know I guess, that not everyone is having this hassle.

 

[Gambit21]

42 minutes ago, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

At least it's good to know I guess, that not everyone is having this hassle.

 

 

Well it's troublesome to know that anyone at all is having it.

I'm wondering if somehow your folder structure is responsible in this case, (granted I know it's never been an issue before) but maybe one too any subfolders.

I keep all of my mp3 files for each mission in the Hell Hawks scripted campaign for instance in their own mission-specific folder, in the same directory as the missions.

So along with all of the mission files etc, there's also a "1 calls, 2 calls" folders etc...and no subfolders beyond that.

 

However none if this would explain your subtitle texts going blank...that's the stuff of nightmares.

Do you have a backup of your mission files?

 

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

I do have backups which is at least a saving grace so once I find out just what's gone wrong I can begin the salvage operation. Regards the translator subtitles all going blank, I just can't begin to fathom that one at all. 

[Jaegermeister]

 

2 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

However none if this would explain your subtitle texts going blank...that's the stuff of nightmares.

 

I'll take a look at that as well, but the only thing that has been necessary for me to do so far is delete the .msnbin files and the missions run fine even without resaving them.

[Nolly]

My subtitles go blank on occasion lately anyway.

 

I do not think it is update related. Maybe a previous one, but not this one.?

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

And every single Translator subtitle trigger has been erased. Crikey I can't even remember the text files now. At least it's good to know I guess, that not everyone is having this hassle.

 

Are you sure you didn't delete more than just the .msnbin files?

 

I just deleted them from a set of missions I have been working on and then ran the resave all missions in folder tool in the ME. It took about 10 minutes for 4 missions, but it worked and all subtitles work as before. I do not have any media file links, so I can't check that with this particular mission set. 

 

I will try that tomorrow with a Scripted Campaign file. I will let that resave when I go to bed. It does take a while. 

 

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

7 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

Are you sure you didn't delete more than just the .msnbin files?

 

 

 

My process was to go in to every mission I'd made, delete the msnbin file from each, then I opened up ME, ran the 'resave all missions in folder' tool which expectedly took an age.

Some missions are fine and unscathed but most have dead media triggers and blank subtitle triggers.

Admittedly, with a lot of time and effort, these can be salvaged but the 'resave' tool stopped three times, not being able to read three missions. I've retried the tool since and have also tried to open these missions directly via the ME and no luck at all.

 

I've included a dropbox link to one such mission of mine that won't load. (This is an original backup copy so the msnbin file needs removing)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4gvuofp4o6uuv4v/A-20B's Attack on Hopsten Air Base.rar?dl=0

 

As I've not even gotten to a stage of opening it I don't even know the state of the triggers etc so if someone were to have a spare 5mins on their hands to see if they could have better luck at openeing it, I'd be very grateful indeed. ?

[DN308]

@GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk, I have exactly the same issue with two of my missions. I've edited the *.mission file in order to find and change all the "!", "*", "é", "è", "à", "ç" it can contain but nope... nothing to do, I still have the same error message "can read this file" or something like that.

I've tried many ways to edit the mission, but I can't do nothing.

 

One of this mission is really impossible to rebuild from scratch for me. There are too many things to do, I can't rebuild it.

I guess that's the end of my campaign project...

 

Edit: I just tried to open your mission. It's not working for me neither

Edited September 19, 2020 by DN308

[Deacon352nd]

Has anyone tried to create a new mission on the Bodenplatte map?  I tried installing all the cities, bridges and airfields from the template folder. When looking in the ME, you can see the icons for the airfields but not the bridges or cities as before. Therefore you can’t ungroup  a city and change the durability of anything.   There is no city icon to select. 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Deacon352nd

[jollyjack]

Still busy converting to 4.501. Will give it a try later, being curious as i was busy on a mission for Rheinland, haven't got time to look at it yet.

 

PS due your post, i wonder if your own added groupfiles should be re saved too?

Edited September 19, 2020 by jollyjack

[JG4_Deciman]

3 hours ago, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

 

I've included a dropbox link to one such mission of mine that won't load. (This is an original backup copy so the msnbin file needs removing)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4gvuofp4o6uuv4v/A-20B's Attack on Hopsten Air Base.rar?dl=0

 

 

Tried to open with mission editor, but no sucsess.

But:

Failure message took really long to appeare

 

On my own missions (and they are really a lot larger than the downloaded one) the message appeared much earlier.

And after setting the 'Haze' (even manually by editing the .mission file by hand) it was gone.

 

So I really don't think it's related to the new 'Haze' setting introduced.

It must be something else...

 

I've still got an unupdated version on a second pc (but right now not the time to do any further investigations)

but I'll try to open the faulty mission with that version as soon as I can and report if it was loading...

 

Deci

[jollyjack]

Deacon, here's a fresh Rheinland summer mission, only the imported bridges, cities, and airfield groups i found in the Template folder.

No other objects etc as is added normally in a mission.

 

Nothing seems wrong ... Rheinland all group test 4.501  (DOWNLOAD ZIP)

 

PS there's nothing modded, just as it came default, and the default map used. I did not resave any group,

and my guess is that these groups were were automatically installed with the update.

Maybe you have older group stuff in that folder for some reason, or an older map version??

 

When i updated my existing 4.009 game i had all sorts of misbehaving,

I had a barebone installation from 4.009 backed up, updating that via Launcher worked. Or maybe do a fresh install?

 

==============================================

 

52 minutes ago, JG4_Deciman said:

Tried to open with mission editor, but no sucsess.

But:

Failure message took really long to appeare

 

On my own missions (and they are really a lot larger than the downloaded one) the message appeared much earlier.

And after setting the 'Haze' (even manually by editing the .mission file by hand) it was gone.

 

So I really don't think it's related to the new 'Haze' setting introduced.

It must be something else...

 

I've still got an unupdated version on a second pc (but right now not the time to do any further investigations)

but I'll try to open the faulty mission with that version as soon as I can and report if it was loading...

 

Deci

 

Deci, I downloaded the Houndstone thing, tried a re save, and convert to binary -- the ME crashes, sorry. Modding related maybe.

PS i also loaded an old Rheinland mission of my own, that works ok after the re save bizzinezz

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by jollyjack

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

5 hours ago, DN308 said:

@GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk

 

Edit: I just tried to open your mission. It's not working for me neither

 

Yes I feel your pain. These missions are a huge labour of love. Sorry to hear you're having the same issues and thank you for trying to open my attachment.

[coconut]

Where do you keep your missions? If it’s outside of the game directory, in missions, multiplayer or one of their subdirectories, I’ve noticed that the re-saver doesn’t always work. 

[JimTM]

7 hours ago, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

 

My process was to go in to every mission I'd made, delete the msnbin file from each, then I opened up ME, ran the 'resave all missions in folder' tool which expectedly took an age.

Some missions are fine and unscathed but most have dead media triggers and blank subtitle triggers.

Admittedly, with a lot of time and effort, these can be salvaged but the 'resave' tool stopped three times, not being able to read three missions. I've retried the tool since and have also tried to open these missions directly via the ME and no luck at all.

 

I've included a dropbox link to one such mission of mine that won't load. (This is an original backup copy so the msnbin file needs removing)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4gvuofp4o6uuv4v/A-20B's Attack on Hopsten Air Base.rar?dl=0

 

As I've not even gotten to a stage of opening it I don't even know the state of the triggers etc so if someone were to have a spare 5mins on their hands to see if they could have better luck at openeing it, I'd be very grateful indeed. ?

 

Here is your mission that now opens for me in the editor. To save space, I omitted your "media" folder from the zip file so copy your existing media folder into the folder for the mission files. Try opening the mission yourself and see if it works.

a-20bs attack on hopsten air base - FIXED.zip

 

I did the following:

1. I opened your .mission file in NotePad++ (free download) and changed all apostrophes to nothing (e.g., changed "a-20b's attack" to "a-20bs attack").

2. I removed the apostrophe from the folder "a-20b's attack on hopsten air base", changing it to "a-20bs attack on hopsten air base".

3. I opened the mission in the editor and saved it to generate a new .msnbin file (I did not need to delete the old .msnbin in this case; there may be cases where you need to delete it).

 

[Deacon352nd]

Thanks, JollyJack.  I'll give it a try.

[GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk]

1 hour ago, JimTM said:

 

Here is your mission that now opens for me in the editor. To save space, I omitted your "media" folder from the zip file so copy your existing media folder into the folder for the mission files. Try opening the mission yourself and see if it works.

 

 

 

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. You're a diamond on a pebbly beach sir. That's so very kind of you to take the trouble to salvaging that mission which does indeed work, media triggers, the lot!

I'll have to take this onboard for the other missions that aren't loading but in the mean time I'm really so bloody grateful to you Jim. And thank you all on this thread for input, time and help. ?

[JimTM]

You're welcome HH. Glad it's working for you now.

[=RS=Stix_09]

4 hours ago, JimTM said:

 

Here is your mission that now opens for me in the editor. To save space, I omitted your "media" folder from the zip file so copy your existing media folder into the folder for the mission files. Try opening the mission yourself and see if it works.

a-20bs attack on hopsten air base - FIXED.zip 359.84 kB · 2 downloads

 

I did the following:

1. I opened your .mission file in NotePad++ (free download) and changed all apostrophes to nothing (e.g., changed "a-20b's attack" to "a-20bs attack").

2. I removed the apostrophe from the folder "a-20b's attack on hopsten air base", changing it to "a-20bs attack on hopsten air base".

3. I opened the mission in the editor and saved it to generate a new .msnbin file (I did not need to delete the old .msnbin in this case; there may be cases where you need to delete it).

 

 

@GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk
Its best to only use alpha numeric names for objects/MCU's. You can use '-' and '_' characters eg Bf109_Player or Bf109-Player or Bf109Player or Bf109Players
I also don't use spaces in names of objects or mission files.( I adopt the Linux/Unix file naming conventions.)

Edited September 19, 2020 by =RS=Stix_09

[JG1_Butzzell]

S!

 

If you have a repair refuel vehicle that has a setting less than 1  (0.5), the resaver will not work on that mission.  You need to edit that mission and save it with those values at 1. Then the resaver works.

Edited September 20, 2020 by JG1_Butzzell

[DN308]

@JimTM

is there a chance to send you the two missions I made and can’t  open?

I tried to remove all troublemakers like * or accents but maybe there is some thing else you would see easily

 

thanks in advance 

[JimTM]

1 hour ago, DN308 said:

@JimTM

is there a chance to send you the two missions I made and can’t  open?

I tried to remove all troublemakers like * or accents but maybe there is some thing else you would see easily

 

thanks in advance 

 

Yes, I can have a look.

[DN308]

I’ll send it to you tomorow if you don’t mind.

thanks a lot 

[JimTM]

No problem.

[WWSitttingDuck]

On 9/20/2020 at 12:19 PM, JG1_Butzzell said:

If you have a repair refuel vehicle that has a setting less than 1  (0.5), the resaver will not work on that mission.

 

Am curious...does making that number .5 have an effect?   I am still clueless on exactly what those numbers do, what happens if you increase/decrease them, or what the consensus is on what they should be....

[DN308]

Some of my resaved missions not appears ingame now...

Another problem...

 

Am I the only one or not?

[JG1_Butzzell]

1 hour ago, WWSitttingDuck said:

 

Am curious...does making that number .5 have an effect?   I am still clueless on exactly what those numbers do, what happens if you increase/decrease them, or what the consensus is on what they should be....

S!

 

I think less than 1 slows it down. I use it on fuel. That way it is easier to watch the fuel being loaded and you can stop when you get what you want.

[DN308]

On 9/19/2020 at 12:29 PM, GSHWK_Houndstone_Hawk said:

 

My process was to go in to every mission I'd made, delete the msnbin file from each, then I opened up ME, ran the 'resave all missions in folder' tool which expectedly took an age.

Some missions are fine and unscathed but most have dead media triggers and blank subtitle triggers.

Admittedly, with a lot of time and effort, these can be salvaged but the 'resave' tool stopped three times, not being able to read three missions. I've retried the tool since and have also tried to open these missions directly via the ME and no luck at all.

 

I've included a dropbox link to one such mission of mine that won't load. (This is an original backup copy so the msnbin file needs removing)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4gvuofp4o6uuv4v/A-20B's Attack on Hopsten Air Base.rar?dl=0

 

As I've not even gotten to a stage of opening it I don't even know the state of the triggers etc so if someone were to have a spare 5mins on their hands to see if they could have better luck at openeing it, I'd be very grateful indeed. ?

Hi,

 

I've just flown your mission, and I have some questions to ask you if you don't mind.

If you're ok, I'll give you some DM.

Cheers

[Jaegermeister]

On 9/22/2020 at 8:29 AM, WWSitttingDuck said:

 

Am curious...does making that number .5 have an effect?   I am still clueless on exactly what those numbers do, what happens if you increase/decrease them, or what the consensus is on what they should be....

 

That's how many minutes it takes for the repair/refuel/rearm function to be complete. Up until the last update it had no effect, it was basically instant. Now some things take longfer than others, but it basically works. Don't put 10 in there any more...

 

I was not aware that .5 did not work, maybe 1 is the minimum.

[WWSitttingDuck]

I have it from good authority that the values you can use are 1, 2 and 3.  If you use anything above 3 it will default to 3.

 

Not sure if others have gotten .5 to work, but when I tried the mission bombed.

[IckyATLAS]

I just resaved my campaign missions. It all worked well with the first tests and had no issue with the media player. More testing is to be done to ensure there is no problem at all.

My mission media files are not embedded in each mission. I have a media main directory inside the campaign where all the media files are structured in mission folders. The missions then have links to their media file inside this main media directory. This is so because it is a campaign and missions are not planned to be single missions otherwise I would have structured it like Gambit did. In any case Gambit's way of doing is better as each mission can be self standing with everything it needs embedded inside the mission. For scripted campaign in reality does not make much of a difference. After all it is a collection of self-standing single missions. It is in a dynamic campaign that it would be different but this is another story.