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berto -> RE: 2.0* Update Tech Support FAQ (2/19/2014 6:11:31 PM)
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Patching Woes
"I can't get the JTCS menu to auto-patch my installation."
"After patching, I get the complaint about this or that 'file not found'."
For the best patching experience, we recommend:
Start afresh, install JTCS 1.00 from original medium (file, or CD). Be sure to give your new installation a different name, for instance: John Tiller's Campaign Series 2.01
Then either:
ftp download the 2.01 installer at the Matrix site.
Run the 2.01 installer to patch your newly redone 1.00 setup.
Or better:
Use the auto-update feature in autorun.exe (newly fixed for 2.01).
Then, in either case:
Copy over save files, mods etc. from your earlier JTCS installation.
Does JTCS 2.0* Run on Windows XP?
Yes, at least one other dev team member and I run 2.00 on XP without problem.
Note: When attempting to install the 2.00 Update patch on Windows XP, you might encounter this:
[image]local://upfiles/5869/044AB63516AB417CA202FEDC448DCB57.jpg[/image]
Ignore the warning. Just click on the OK button to continue with your install.
But also note: Microsoft is finally (!) dropping support for Windows XP in April 2014. Because of that, we don't formally support this game on XP. Informally, we do. And for now, everything runs fine. But we can't guarantee that going forward!
"The program has failed to launch" or "The application has failed to start" -- Why?
This is aka the "side-by-side" error.
quote:
"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail."
Most likely, you don't have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package, available here:
x86 (32 bit)
x64 (64 bit)
Make sure you get the right version for your system architecture (32 vs. 64 bit)!
Game (or Editor) Crashes
"My game has crashed. What Should I do?"
First off, if you began your game (or campaign) under JTCS 1.04, we strongly suggest you finish under 1.04.
Otherwise, do the following...
Immediately after the crash:
Did the game (or editor) simply exit, or did you see a white (or blue) screen saying explicitly that the game (or editor) has crashed (and possibly suggesting that you contact Microsoft etc.)? Please answer this question in your report to us.
Did the game (or editor) display a pop-up message on crash? If possible, save and post at the forum a (cropped) screenshot of the pop-up, else record the message text and post it at the forum in your crash report.
Check your engine.log. Do the last entries at the end of the file tell you anything? (If it's the game launcher that's crashed, or any of the editors, check frontend.log, edit.log, edmap.log, or edorg.log.)
Please post here, in a single ZIP file, your
- error.log
- engine.log & frontend.log (or edit.log, edmap.log, or edorg.log instead of engine.log, if it's any of the editors that crashed)
- save files (all three, including OLDER & OLDEST) from your game (or campaign)
- any other data files related to your current game (or campaign) (look in Windows Explorer, sorting by date)
NOTE: The Forum will not let you post .zip files! So after you created the .zip file, rename the extension as .txt before you post. We will know what to do with it. (On our end, after we download it, rename the file extension back to .zip before unzipping.)
We will then diagnose your crash with the evidence you provided.
Unless and until we can fix your crash problem, consider reverting to the OLDER, then if need be OLDEST, version of your save files. In Windows Explorer, cut-and-paste your regular save file to a different folder for safekeeping. Then, also in Explorer, rename your save file, removing the " OLDER" (or " OLDEST") from the save file name. Then retry your game (or campaign). There is a chance that the game (or campaign) might take a different random course and avoid the conditions that led to the crash. It's worth a try!
We apologize for any crashes (which are often but not always data related, not a problem with the code itself). We are on a mission to eradicate all such bugs!
System Window Border Colors
While in-game, the game border colors might bleed over to other non-game windows. When you exit the game, however, the default window colors should be restored everywhere.
Toggle Options > System Colors to fix this. With System Colors set (checked), the game uses the default Windows colors for dialogs etc., and leaves the colors in other applications entirely unaffected.
How Does the Toolbar Smoke Icon Work (Also Starshell)?
Here is how the Smoke icon works (same with Starshell):
Click once on the Smoke icon.
The immediate next fire attempt will fire smoke (not the usual gunfire/explosives) -- if the unit is capable of firing smoke.
That's it!
Some additional nuance:
If the fire operation fails to fire smoke (because, say, the unit lacks that capability), by then the Smoke toggle has been deactivated. If you want (this time successfully, with a smoke-capable unit) to fire smoke, you must click the Smoke button toggle once again. Remember: The smoke toggle is not persistent. The immediate next fire operation, smoke fired successfully or not, will toggle off the Smoke state back to the default no-smoke state.
The standard Alt-Ctrl- smoke hot keys (Shift-Alt-Ctrl-, for Starshell) should still work, just as they always have.
There is also the Units > Fire Smoke (and Units > Fire Starshell) menu option. This too is a toggle, and functions just like the Smoke (and Starshell) toolbar icon operates.
The toolbar & menu methods of firing smoke are not available in Artillery Dialog mode. In Artillery Dialog mode, use Alt- to fire smoke (Shift-Alt to fire starshells).
Fixing Graphics Display Glitches
From time to time, while playing the game, or maybe when running the scenario or map editors, you might see graphical glitches -- ghost unit artifacts, map corruption, etc.
If that happens, you might try any of
Changing display modes, selecting any of keys 1 through 5, then back to your original preferred mode.
Rotate Map (R hot key), then rotate back to the original orientation (press the R key twice).
Redraw Display (Alt-D hot key).
For example (from East Front):
[image]http://pikt.org/matrix/cs/graphics/RedrawDisplay3.jpg[/image]
To remove the phantom wreck images, the preferred solution is select Display > Redraw Display, or even better, press Alt-D. That should fix the problem.
Although we attempted to fix all such display glitches, obviously we didn't catch them all. As a general workaround, we offer the Redraw Display, Alt-D kludge. Embarrassing? Yes, but no more embarrassing for us than it is for Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, etc. In any web browser -- Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc. -- when confronted by a messed up web page display, we are all in the habit of hitting the page Refresh button. We accept it, we think nothing of it. Think of our Redraw Display, Alt-D kludge in like manner!
Resetting A/I Parameters
There is a new A/I parameter file, ai.dat. When you run any of the CS 2.0* game engines for the first time, then exit, a default ai.dat is saved in the top-level game folder:
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
If you decide to set Axis Audacious A/I
[image]http://pikt.org/matrix/cs/graphics/ResettingAIParameters1.jpg[/image]
then later exit the game, the (West Front, in this example) ai.dat will now show
0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0
where the 1 indicates Axis Audacious A/I.
The next time you start the game (West Front), the game engine reads in and sets the values in ai.dat.
This is so, from one saved game session to the next, you will have the same A/I settings that you set before.
But what if you start a new scenario? The A/I will be set the same as in the previous scenario!
You may or may not want this. If not, just remember to revisit the A/I menu every time you begin a new scenario.
This might not be the best way to handle this. There might be better ways to retain persistent A/I parameter settings -- save them in the .btl, .btt & other save files, for instance. But there are complications and downsides to that too. So this is how we've now done it -- via the ai.dat file. Which you might want to reset, by visiting the A/I menu, with each new scenario.
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