I mean like this technical question.

When trying to start a TC in Nova, I get first:

Error: Resource ID 0
Code 104

Then: Assertion Failure
SpriteLayer.c 104 N/A

and then the startup quits.

The debuglog stops at:

Configuring Sprites
Error cloning ship base sprite, #63

Since the debuglog has passed "Loading Sprites", I assume that the ship shans loaded OK. What I would like to know is first - What do the error messages mean? Presumably this question could only be answered by a programmer or a beta tester who has discussed errors with the programmers.

The second question is - what exactly is recorded in the rlës? All the other resources are defined in the bible, but rlës are just hex data.

This question may or may not be important. I ask it because I am trying to figure out what the error is referring to, and on consideration, ship base sprite #63 might refer by index # to shďp resource 191 (191 - 128 = 63). There is no shďp 191 in the files, or referred to in any of the files (I have checked through all the resources twice now). However, there was a shďp resource 191. Sometime after I had encoded the shän and PICTs into rlës I changed the shďp and shän resource numbers. So the shďp sprite might have been loaded OK based on the new resource numbers, but the Nova application might be trying to find an index number based on the original resource ID, if it is encoded in the rlë.

Again, this question can only be answered by someone who knows what the application is doing internally when it starts up.

As far as "irrelevant comments" are concerned, in a previous post Matt answered one of my questions, that file names don't matter, but further posts drifted off itno comments on whether things would be different on a Windoze computer. Who cares? Such comments belong on the regular web board.

This is supposed to be the Developer's board, presumable where we can discuss technical problems, and posts to topics should be restricted to discussions of the techical issues. I know that Matt and ATMOS are very busy, and limiting comments would make it a lot easier and more probable that they would be able to proffer advice and assistance if they did not have to spend their time wading through hundreds of comments in order to pick out the relevant questions. When a topic is started, like this one, with a technical question, if posts are limited to relevant responses then Matt, ATMOS, or knowledgeable responders can track the results of corrections made and/or additional problems encountered while the originator of the topic is trying to get all the way to a working plug-in/TC.

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One of your ship graphics is broken - I suspect either a missing rleD/rle8 or a malformed shan.
.
mcb

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"If it's not on fire, it's a software problem."

Stuff you're plug (or did you say it was the nova files?) and post it here... I fixed mine, so ill take a look. If you don't have web hosting email it to me at hypermike@va.prestige.net

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Please understand that its nothing personal...
...I attack everyone!

(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/infernomsh")Inferno Studios (under reconstruction)(/url)

(edit: Just found out you can't use mailto: in a url tag...)

(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 05-31-2002).)

Is there another way to extract/create rlës besides Dr. Ralphs EnRLE/DeRLE.

I just ran the modified files through DeRLE, and while I got the shäns and PICTs for the ships and spďns and PICTs for the weapons, I did not get any of the planetary spďns or PICTs, nor did I get the explosion spďns or PICTs although they are in the files.

All of these were originally compiled for the files with EnRLE.

I think there may be a bug in one or both of these apps.

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Matt,

I recreated all the ship shäns and rlës, but still got the same problem.

So I restored all the original files to the Nova Files folder, and started up to ensure them. I only went as far as the new pilot screen, didn't try to create a pilot, but Nova started up fine.

I then assembled all the modification files in a single plug, and put it in the Nova Plugins folder.

I started up again, and this way it worked, at least as far as the new pilot screen. I haven't tried to create a pilot, or to modify yet any original Nova resources except those replaced by modifications. I will have to make a lot of modifications in the original resources to run this as a plug, primarily to set ncbs in the original resources to separate them from the new resources.

I had been trying to create a TC which could be combined with the original Nova, so almost all of the additional resources were added with resource id's not in the original files. The only originals modified were the STR#s, which had to be changed to add additional strings.

Since the mods work as a plug, the error appears to be something encoded in the application itself. The fact that it breaks down on a ship sprite, and that the sprite #63 could correspond to ID# 191, which is the original Escape Pod in EV, makes me wonder if this has something to do with the escape pod outfit, ModType 11.

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Quote

Originally posted by JohnnyAndrews:
**Since the mods work as a plug, the error appears to be something encoded in the application itself.
**

No, it means that when you remove/overwrite Nova's files you wound up with missing resources.

mcb

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"If it's not on fire, it's a software problem."

Quote

Originally posted by JohnnyAndrews:
**Is there another way to extract/create rlës besides Dr. Ralphs EnRLE/DeRLE.

I just ran the modified files through DeRLE, and while I got the shäns and PICTs for the ships and spďns and PICTs for the weapons, I did not get any of the planetary spďns or PICTs, nor did I get the explosion spďns or PICTs although they are in the files.

All of these were originally compiled for the files with EnRLE.

I think there may be a bug in one or both of these apps.

**

What's going on here is that you don't have enough memory allocated to either program. Add about 20MB+ to them and they should work fine.

That might solve your other problem as well -- re-encode them once you up the memory allocation.

(edit)Didn't read Matt's reply above when I wrote this -- obviously, there's deeper issues than just mis-coded rlë files...(/edit)

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(This message has been edited by UncleTwitchy (edited 06-02-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by JohnnyAndrews:
I had been trying to create a TC which could be combined with the original Nova, so almost all of the additional resources were added with resource id's not in the original files. The only originals modified were the STR#s, which had to be changed to add additional strings.

Except you don't have to modify the STR# resources. Read up in the Bible about 'STR ' resources.

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Kevin Ballard
(url="http://"mailto:kevin@sb.org")mailto:kevin@sb.org(/url)kevin@sb.org

Quote

Originally posted by mburch:
**No, it means that when you remove/overwrite Nova's files you wound up with missing resources.

mcb

**

The problem is in trying to identify the missing resource. The debuglog says it is a shän resource, but as far as I know shäns are only required for shďp resources. If you remove the shďps and their associated shäns, you shouldn't have a problem unless the application is looking for a required shän. That is why I was wondering about the oütf 11 Modtype, for the Escape Pod.

The (presumably) index number, #63, given for the broken shän in the debuglog is not a valid index number for an existing shďp resource, even if the application recomputes index numbers for existing shďp resources. That is, if the index number is the shďp resource number - 128, an index #63 would appear to refer either to shďp resource 191, or to the 63rd existing shďp resource. But in the modified files there were only 27 shďp resources, with resource IDs 454 - 480. And as I stated earlier, they appeared to load all right, since the debuglog had not mentioned any errors for "Loading ship sprites", only later for "Configuring Sprites".

Thus, it appeared to have found valid shäns and rlës when it loaded the sprites.

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Quote

Originally posted by Aranor:
**Except you don't have to modify the STR# resources. Read up in the Bible about 'STR ' resources.

**

Glad to hear from you, Kevin. I haven't seen you posting for a couple of weeks. Have you been busy with your map application?

The problem with the STR modifications is that you have to figure out the appropriate STR# number for your resource, and then compute the correct STR resource number. Since I am primarily adding more strings at the end of the existing resources, I felt it was easier just to copy the STR# and then add on to the end of it.

I am just glad that Nova no longer requires STR# additions for shďp and oütf names. That has made it much easier to add shipd and outfits. Short names, LC names, LC plural names, gaaaaah.

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