need a bit of help for a syst or spob error

calling all pros

ok, im modifying my DeathStarLaser plug. i made a system with the death star, but upon entering the system, the screen turned white, the sound lagged, then the game quit. i tried again, and again but it didn't help. same result. im not gonna make a list of all the info cuz im shot on time, but if you know any settings that could cause this, just tell me which ones and i'll tell you what i've got on there now.
thx for any help.

  1. Are you posting in the EV Dev Board?

  2. Do you have your graphics for the Death Star set up properly?

I don't know of what might cause that offhand, but a quick troubleshoot would suggest that you look at the debuglog.txt file. (if you don't have this file, just create a "debuglog.txt" file in the folder that contains the Nova application (and make certain that "debuglog.txt" is exact name)).

If no one else knows what's causing your problems, posting the debuglog could help. Something else that might be of some help is if you post any plug-in creation related questions over in the EV Developer's Corner board...the folks there tend to have more knowledge of these types of problems.

no, i haven't been posting in the EV Dev board, but i guess i'll start.

and i think i set up the graphics correctly. i set the spin to accept a pict resource, which is what the DS is, and i set the "type" on the spob to the same as the DS's spin.

This post has been edited by Sponge Tom : 29 December 2007 - 12:08 AM

I have moved this topic to the EV Developer’s Corner forum.

As others have suggested, the debug log is the first source of information; it tells you what the game was doing when it crashed, and so is often useful. If not, you may need to have someone more experienced look over your plug-in.

(I should note that as a general rule it is better to use rlëD/rlë8 resources than PICTs for sprite graphics, though this is probably not the specific issue at hand.)

Note: If your on windows, the file should be "Debuglog", and just make it a txt file. If your on mac, its "Debuglog.txt". If you add a suffix to a windows file, the computer will read it as "Debuglog.txt.txt"

Just a bit of info that helped me.
BTW, I'm putting my money on a spob/sprite error too.

here it is:

EV Nova debug log

Output on 12/29/2007 at 12:12 PM

game engine was compiled Apr 24 2006
game engine version is 1.0.A Carbon

opening data files & loading prefs
initializing monitor
getting available window positioning bounds
opening RezLib
main display at startup was 1280x960 / 32 bits / 72 Hz
switching to 16 bits
system software version is 1039
initializing QuickTime
building trig table
opening platform tool
opening file tool
opening draw tool
opening interface tool
opening registration tool
initializing arrays
opening data files
opening files in Nova Files folder:
Nova Data 1
Nova Data 2
Nova Data 3
Nova Data 4
Nova Data 5
Nova Data 6
Nova Graphics 1
Nova Graphics 2
Nova Graphics 3
Nova Ships 1
Nova Ships 2
Nova Ships 3
Nova Ships 4
Nova Ships 5
Nova Ships 6
Nova Ships 7
Nova Ships 8
Nova Sounds
Nova Titles 1
Nova Titles 2
Nova Titles 3
Nova Titles 4
outf thing.mov
Race 1.mov
Race 2.mov
Race 3.mov
opening files in Nova Plug-Ins folder:
Adv. Defense kit
AllTheCashYouNeed
Availability
cargo thing
DeathStar Laser
IFF Gravimetric all-in-one
Mass cheat
Master Chiefs
Munitions
Real Nukes (mod)
loading sounds
creating window
main window rect: (5368, 302, -1824, -16385)
initializing sprite world
creating scratch frames
creating offscreen buffers
starting music
initializing strings
initializing status bar
initializing objects
initializing buttons
loading object data
warning: Death Star (583) lacks landing picture for stellar type
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Tus'E'Viro (580) to Alderaan (594)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Hot'A'Tanius (593) to Alderaan (594)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Alderaan (594) to Kania (128)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Alderaan (594) to Manit (387)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Alderaan (594) to NGC-1776 (192)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Alderaan (594) to Tus'E'Viro (508)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Alderaan (594) to Hot'A'Tanius (521)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Ran'E'Shepos (595) to Alderaan (594)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Xym'E'Caros (596) to Alderaan (594)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Vyl'E'Tinti (597) to Alderaan (594)
warning: assuming implicit reciprocal link from Mis'E'Odres (598) to Alderaan (594)
warning: outfit item 146 grants ammo to weapon 140, which doesn't use ammo
warning: weapon ID 137 on ship type 172 lacks corresponding oütf resource
warning: weapon ID 219 on ship type 180 lacks corresponding oütf resource
warning: weapon ID 219 on ship type 183 lacks corresponding oütf resource
warning: Striker (262) has a trade-in value of 1163000 but costs only 1000000
warning: Striker (271) has a trade-in value of 1230500 but costs only 1050000
warning: Battle Droid (450) lacks hiring description
warning: Droid Carrier (451) has a trade-in value of 2804250 but costs only 1500000
warning: Droid Carrier (451) lacks hiring description
warning: disaster 128 (An enormous food surplus) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 129 (A glut on the market) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 130 (A minor drought) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 131 (A seasonal lull) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 132 (An excess of trade) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 133 (A recent increase in trade) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 134 (A spate of break-downs) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 135 (A good harvest of bio-agents) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 136 (An excellent harvest) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 137 (An enormous surplus) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 138 (Damage due to student pranks) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 139 (An excellent harvest) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 140 (A large number of prisoner deaths) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 141 (A series of good raids) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 142 (Damage due to student pranks) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 144 (The discovery of a new drug) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 145 (A shortage in supply) has an unusually small price delta
warning: disaster 146 (Another good harvest) has an unusually small price delta
loading mission data
propagating mission bit effects
showing splash screen
loading sprites
checking memory
loading ship sprites
configuring sprites
initializing player
initializing main screen
opening last pilot file
load pilot data 1
load pilot data 2
load pilot data 3
load pilot data 4
load pilot data 5
load pilot data 6
load pilot data 7
load pilot data 8
load pilot data 9
making alias
dumping pilot log
propagating mission bit effects
---
preparing main screen
setting up world
checking network stack
beginning version check
couldn't begin version check (error code -7108)
setting up main screen graphics
doing main screen
---
entering game
adjusting sounds
showing intro screen
drawing stuff
drawing more stuff
changing window attributes
playing game
evaluating ncb set string '!b6021' (terminating cron 184)
evaluating ncb set string '!b6022' (terminating cron 185)
evaluating ncb set string '!b6033' (terminating cron 192)
activating cron 221
evaluating ncb set string '!b6666' (iteratively terminating cron 221)
cron 221 iterated 1 time on termination
evaluating ncb set string '!b6021' (terminating cron 184)
evaluating ncb set string '!b6022' (terminating cron 185)
evaluating ncb set string '!b6033' (terminating cron 192)
cron 221 iterated 0 times on termination

You need to make sure that your plug doesn't conflict with other plugs in your plugins folder.

I tried it again without any other plug ins, and it did the same thing, except in the debug log, it didn't even say it attempted to enter Alderaan. Certain cron resources were also eliminated by NCBs repeatedly (my plug didn't contain NCBs or crons).

I'd take a look at the following:

Quote

warning: Death Star (583) lacks landing picture for stellar type

Make certain that none of your fields are pointing to incorrect/non-existent resources.

You also might want to check out all of those "implicit reciprocal links". I believe they occur whenever you tell one syst to have a link to another system, but you don't tell the destination system to have a link back to your original location. So if you make a new syst a, and set one of its hyperlinks to syst b, you need to edit syst b and make certain that one of its hyperlinks points back to syst a. I don't know if this can cause nova to crash, but cleaning up any errors that your plugs are causing to output in the log would not be a bad idea.

Edit: All of the ncb set strings and crons are listed because Nova is running in the background...they're probably nothing to worry about, especially if your plug doesn't use them.

This post has been edited by GutlessWonder : 01 January 2008 - 06:32 PM

I tried all that, but it still doesn't work. However, there are no more problems in the debug log, except that it doesn't even show that it attempted to enter the system. It stops after showing what NCB's activate and terminate which crons, neither of which I used.