JA won't open after map installation.

[nwc333]

I just purchased JA from the Mac App Store today after seeing it was reduced to $3.99. I used to own the game on PC. I downloaded Szico VII's Atlantica map, then placed the file in the 'base' folder. When I try to open the game, I get this response:

 

 

Is there any possible way to remedy this? I've downloaded a few other files (a Human Male expansion and another map) and there have been no problems with those.

[Szico VII]

That is an MP map, if you have it in base when running SP it wont work. Would have been an easy fix had I realised when making the map but not now, sorry. Perhaps if someone skilled in hexediting renamed the scripts and then changed the corresponding info in the .BSP?

You could just delete that script file from the pk3 if you werent planning on playing the fiendish VR level.

Basically that script name is too long for SP (but not MP, which is just strange)

Also, make sure youre installed to JKA version 1.01

[nwc333]

Well, here's what I did... And let me first say that I'm not good at this sort of thing. I converted the Atlantica.pk3 to a .zip. Then I went in and changed the name of the file that caused the error, so that it would have few enough characters in the title so that it wouldn't exceed the max. After seeing what both of you suggested, I think I was clearly not on the right path in my way of thinking. It didn't matter in the end anyway since I was unable to successfully convert the .zip back into a .pk3 (I changed the title from .zip to .pk3, but the file kept the .zip). So Szico, while I would do what you said and just delete the file, I wouldn't be able to convert it back into a .pk3 after I was done.

 

Also, the problem with the Mac App version of the game is that it you have to open the SP version to get to the MP version of the game. It's strange.

 

Moondog, I think I somewhat understand what you're saying, but I think I would run into the same problem I ran into before, where I can't convert it back to .pk3 after going in and editing...

[Horatio Culver]

If you're using a Mac, then you should be able to change the .zip into a .pk3 just by renaming it. If you're doing it right, a window should pop up saying something like "Are you sure you want to change the extension from '.zip' to '.pk3'?" It always works for me.

 

EDIT: I think I might know your problem. Is Finder showing all file extensions? If not, then go to Finder's preferences and click Advanced, then select "Show all file extensions." If you're already showing file extensions, though, then I don't know what's wrong.

[eezstreet]

If there's any interested coders in here, I can provide a theory as to why this happens in SP but not MP.

 

Basically when it does the path length check, it strips the .IBI extension in MP but it doesn't in SP. Hence, the length in SP == 67, while the length in MP == 63 == ok. Regardless, people shouldn't be giving files ridiculously long names like that.

[nwc333]

Horatio: You were right about the "Show All File Extensions". I checked it, and it worked.

 

Unfortunately, despite taking the time to go through all of the folders and shorten all of the longer names, it ended up not working. I imagine I'd have to do what MoonDog said and go through the scripts and rename everything to match up with the new, shortened names. I have no idea how to do this. MoonDog, if you or anyone else want to try and dumb it down for me, I'd be happy to give it a try. If not, I completely understand. Perhaps there will be a patch/update in the future that will fix this sort of problem? Or is it doubtful that Aspyr will release any updates or bug fixes since the game is so old?

[eezstreet]

Nope. Aspyr will probably make another shitty, watered down version of the game because that's what they seem to be good at anymore.

[Szico VII]

You can open a pk3 file using WinRAR and simply hit delete - there's no need to change to a .zip or anything like that. I dont know how to extract an entity list from the BSP @@MoonDog.

 

EDIT: Apparently today's computer can compile this beast in <5mins. So I'll put a new pk3 together for you.

[Szico VII]

@@nwc333 - I've fixed the issue and am uploading the new ZIP to the hub. Check the download section in a few minutes!

 

@@MoonDog - The whole map takes 5 mins to compile on this new PC hah, just did a full recompile. But that's really useful info for future events, thanks!

 

https://jkhub.org/files/file/1561-atlantica-fix/

[Xycaleth]

If there's any interested coders in here, I can provide a theory as to why this happens in SP but not MP.

 

Basically when it does the path length check, it strips the .IBI extension in MP but it doesn't in SP. Hence, the length in SP == 67, while the length in MP == 63 == ok. Regardless, people shouldn't be giving files ridiculously long names like that.

I think it's more to do with the fact that SP performs a MAX_QPATH check at startup, and MP doesn't. At least from what I can remember.

[Szico VII]

I dont understand why those limits even exist, some of them just seem arbitrary to me.

[eezstreet]

I dont understand why those limits even exist, some of them just seem arbitrary to me.

MAX_QPATH is a legitimate limit, not very arbitrary at all. Reason is because some networked paths are bad if they exceed the maximum total character limit for networked strings (also known as configstrings).

The actual path of sounds, effects, models, etc. get thrown into a pool along with player names, light saber colors for each client, dynamic light data, terrain data (for the unused Random Map Generation feature), cvars set via sets, voting data, and more. Needless to say, overflowing this is very bad, and issues can range from MB2's Kyle bug to MAX_GAMESTATES exceeded.

It seems arbitrary yes, but the path limits are a step in the right direction.

[Szico VII]

MAX_QPATH is a legitimate limit, not very arbitrary at all. Reason is because some networked paths are bad if they exceed the maximum total character limit for networked strings (also known as configstrings).

The actual path of sounds, effects, models, etc. get thrown into a pool along with player names, light saber colors for each client, dynamic light data, terrain data (for the unused Random Map Generation feature), cvars set via sets, voting data, and more. Needless to say, overflowing this is very bad, and issues can range from MB2's Kyle bug to MAX_GAMESTATES exceeded.

It seems arbitrary yes, but the path limits are a step in the right direction.

 

How is this not arbitrary in a single-player campaign? (Which works in MP, how ironic)

[eezstreet]

How is this not arbitrary in a single-player campaign? (Which works in MP, how ironic)

..because SP uses the same netcode as MP?

And SP is inconsistent in a number of ways. Like I said, I think it's an issue of the game not stripping out the .IBI when it does the path length check in SP, and not in MP. I'll download Atlantica and get back to you on that.

(Also see: MP has twice as much memory for Ghoul 2 vertex transformations, despite SP having more intensive models)

[Szico VII]

Why SP needs netcode at all is beyond me - it my mind, that makes any netcode limits entirely arbitrary.

[nwc333]

@@Szico VII - I really appreciate you doing that. Looks like it's already been downloaded a few times so I imagine others are thankful too. Always been one of my favorite maps. I installed and it works with no problems. It also loads much faster than it did when I used to play this on PC.

 

@@MoonDog - Thanks for the info!

 

This is a very helpful community, haha. Much appreciated.

[eezstreet]

Why SP needs netcode at all is beyond me - it my mind, that makes any netcode limits entirely arbitrary.

Netcode doesn't necessarily mean networking, you know. The netcode is also used on a local game in MP, but I hear no complaints about the limits being irrelevant there either. My speculation is that they kept a lot of the structures intact because it was either easier or because they intended for co-op of sorts.

[Szico VII]

Local game in MP is again, not SP. Netcode has no place in SP, that's inherent in the name SP -  "single-player"

 

Anyway, the point is - in SP, if that's netcode causing the error, it is silly as there are by definition, no network features in single-player.

[MagSul]

I've wondered for a long time why Atlantica did this when I tried to load single player. Thanks for securing a fix!

[Futuza]

Local game in MP is again, not SP. Netcode has no place in SP, that's inherent in the name SP -  "single-player"

 

Anyway, the point is - in SP, if that's netcode causing the error, it is silly as there are by definition, no network features in single-player.

Lemmee see if I can make it more clear.

 

I'll give you a general explanation.  Once upon a time there was a video game programmer.  He wanted to make single player games and multiplayer games without having to rewrite an entire new game and just be able to reuse most of his code.

 

So he invented a thing called "netcode".  The programmer designed netcode to manage the data transfer between 'client' and 'server' in a general abstract sort of way.  The clever programmer realized that by designing the game like a multiplayer game with a server and a client he wouldn't have to rewrite large portions of the single-player version of the game.  He would just treat different 'chunks' in memory like a server and a client and they would talk to each other using memory (RAM) as the line of communication instead of TCP/IP.  This would save our clever programmer from having to reinvent the wheel, and allow changes to be made to both types of game types without too much work.

 

Hope that helps.  My description may be in need of some clarification if we want to go for accuracy, but I think its a good general summary of what netcode is.

 

Oh, and the programmer lived happily ever after.

[eezstreet]

@@Szico VII: Fixed in OpenJK as of https://github.com/Razish/OpenJK/commit/e71ab51ad58b7bdb0045473e93dae4a1f6c8c6e7

[Shake]

Maybe this map is corrupted...

[Szico VII]

Thanks @@eezstreet.

@@Shake - No, there is no 'corruption,' just a filename limit which affects JASP and not JAMP. Or rather, doesn't anymoreif you now use OpenJK or download the fixed version with shorter filenames.