Converted track gets stuck in loading screen; why?

Discussion in 'Track Modding' started by Navigator, Aug 11, 2015.

  1. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Hi guys,

    As in the tittle; the track, just converted like I did two of them before and those work, gets stuck in the loading screen.
    I can't alt/tab; I have to ctrl/alt/del and get the message rFactor2 has stopped working.

    Now I made small mistakes before, but then I could alt/tab out and saw the message; couldn't find a gmt or wrong version and so on.
    This time; none of that.
    Everything is in place as far as I can see (but will look again tomorrow, you never know).

    I did the "trace=3" thing and no messages in there about it........

    What can I look for in this case? Does this sound familiar to someone who did a conversion or something like it and got the same thing?
    I have no clue left what would be wrong........
     
  2. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Hmm......got a clue though; tried another track and it did exactly the same thing.........turns out; its from the same maker.........

    Naming is all okay; could there be something in the .scn with the "true" or "false" thingies?
     
  3. Nibiru

    Nibiru Registered

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    There are many things that can cause this issue. It's mainly trial and error to find the problem. Back up your scn and make a new one only put the ground, road and xobjects and see what happens. Slowly add more objects until you get the issue. Then you can narrow down the object or objects that are causing it. Usually you can alt/esc back to desktop and see error dialog box.

    It can be as simple as a missing bracket {}
     
  4. redapg

    redapg Registered

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    Sometimes it's just the wrong path to the tdf file, which is written in the gdb.
    Sometimes it's ..\XXXX.tdf although it's in the same folder as the gdb and other trackfiles are.
    Make sure that the path matches to the right position of the tdf file or move the file to the written position.
     
  5. andreaglass

    andreaglass Registered

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    If you donĀ“t mind to upload the track folder as it's in ModDev\Locations\, a quick look will let to help you a lot; there are too many reasons, missing lines in scn, wrong folder to tdf in gdb, etc.
     
  6. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Thanks guys, I will take a closer look to the paths and start with a "new" .scn file.
    I will also upload the track when I get home Andreaglass; I send you a pm for that.
     
  7. WiZPER

    WiZPER Registered

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    All X-GMTs must be present... Pit, Sector, Start/Finish
     
  8. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Okay, I checked all the paths again and tried some things; nothing.
    Checked the X-gmt's; all there.
    Made a new .scn; sometimes the yellow loading bar gets further or even full, but never further than that. I never get past that. Still; I have to ctrl/alt/del out of there, never with alt/tab.

    I couldn't get the whole folder in dropbox to upload, so I rar'd it if thats okay: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13313246/Baltimore.rar

    The obj1021 and wall9 are // because I couldn't get the gmt converted. Also, just like the other two tracks I did, I had to // the sky and some other small stuff in the beginning of the .scn.
    I even copied the whole beginning over from a working track at one stage; still nothing.

    The routing/folder order and such may not be great, but this works for me and I did my former tracks like this also; I figured it should work........should be okay.

    I think I tried everything; different tdf, changed the scn, checked and double checked the gdb; nothing.
    I even redid all the gmt converting to make sure I didn't make an error with that.
    The loading screen picture and tdf are in two locations because I was not sure where to put them......but tried it in both places alone too so that should not be the problem.

    Please help me out here?
     
  9. redapg

    redapg Registered

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    I send you a working version later.

    Seems as if something went wrong with the conversion from rF1 to rF2.
    I loaded all gmt and exported as rF2 gmt again and got some errors because of a corrupted gmt and in some materials the bump map wasn't selected.
    Now it works.
     
  10. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Really? The gmt's were wrong?
    Damn, did them twice.

    Can you elaborate on the bumpmap not selected thing? I dont want to make the same mistake again.
    The error I got was with the 1021 thing (Blender got stuck) and the wall9; just gave an error and so I took those 2 out.

    Converting those gmt's took me 3 hours.......you are pretty fast :)

    Thank youu very much mate, great!
     
  11. redapg

    redapg Registered

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    You're welcome.

    I've sended you a PM with the link of the gmt.

    Some more things:
    Delete the following whole wall9_s0 entry from the scn file:

    Instance=wall9_s0
    {
    MeshFile=wall9_s0.gmt CollTarget=True HATTarget=False ShadowReceiver=True
    }

    That gmt is "empty"/corrupted.
    And delete the tdf file in the main Baltimore folder.

    The missing bumpmap thing...if you edit the material of a mesh, you select the shader that you want to use and the 3DSimEd shows the properties of the shader, where you can set it to your needs.
    And you also have to select the textures that you want to use.
    And the "problem"-materials have been materials with a bump map needed.
    But that wasn't selected, the cell was empty. That don't works when you try to load that mesh in DevMode.

    I forgot, you use Blender. I don't know Blender, but it will have something similar to 3DSimEd.
     
  12. Navigator

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    Thanks for the info; I will look in Blender how that works. Should be doable; I can select properties there and just look what you did and how it looks in there.

    Very nice help, thanks a lot!!
     
  13. andreaglass

    andreaglass Registered

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    Sorry for the time since my last message, but I wasn't connected. In fact it tooks me just 15 minutes to solve it.

    There were some problems:

    - Not every gmt were rF2 version, some were rF1. Now all of them are rF2's.

    - After placing the .tdf file in the right folder, you have to point it right in .gdb: TerrainDataFile = ..\Baltimore.tdf

    - The .aiw file was wrong, as it had two different pit entry paths; it has to be remade, but now it allows you to enter the track.

    - Material 2071 was missing a texture called white.dds; I've included a simple white.dds just to make it work.

    - There's a wall, wall9_s0.gmt, which is an empty gmt file. I've commented the scn line, but you should find the right wall9_s0 and convert it to rF2 in case it's needed.

    I didn.t check if you're missing to define any drivable materials in tdf, and you should make a new aiw file, but if you put the Baltimore folder in \ModDev\Locations\ folder, you'll be able to load the track and drive.

    Here's the folder:

    https://mega.co.nz/#!RYUgkaLT!8E6grI6SaIz_cs6MzdJVqmo_wZGwqkpuBroFkr4XRDE
     
  14. Navigator

    Navigator Registered

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    Thank you too Andreaglass.

    Just got it back from redapg also ;)
    But its nice; I can now more compare as I have a lot(!!) to learn. I can see what you did different and some nice feedback from you also; thats always a good thing.

    Thanks a lot mate!
     
  15. Richard E Long

    Richard E Long Registered

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    A couple of thoughts on track conversion with Blender and Traveller's scripts -

    Materials are often the most important part of the sequence. There are a number of things that can happen depending on the original files. Image files can be missing, this will be addressed by the scripts assigning a Default (Blender generated) test image. If you try to export that Default image, rFactor will not be happy - because the image file does not really exist. I have an article on my website about missing textures called "rFio Imports & Missing Textures". The site link is in my sig.

    One of the tools that Traveller built into his scripts allows you to check a variety of factors related to materials. It is in the Special Functions at the bottom of his rFactor Menu, called Check All Materials. The results of that check will be seen in Blender's Console window. Can be a bit verbose, but much of what is displayed can be traced back to one or two issues. The "Missing Textures" articles touches on what to do with that info.

    In rF2, the rF1 'Sky' is replaced with the built in weather system, so, yes, you must remove it.
     
  16. Navigator

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    Thanks for responding Richard.

    Very nice and educating site btw!
    I go and play with it; there is a lot to learn. Its hard though......very hard.

    Thanks for the information!
     
  17. Nibiru

    Nibiru Registered

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    Stick with it. It becomes easier once you've done a few conversions. The biggest thing I've learnt from modding is patience :)
     
  18. redapg

    redapg Registered

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    Yes, patience and that coffee is not as unhealthy as it is said. :D
     
  19. Euskotracks

    Euskotracks Registered

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    For this type of problems where tracks do not load it is important to have a method to detect where the problem is.

    In some cases an error message appears but cannot be properly seen. Using windowed mode helps to easily see the message.

    When no error message appears, it is important to check at which point of the loading bar it crashes. About 80% of the bar is for loading the track. The rest is for loading the cars (when it loads the cars you will notice that the progress steps are quite constant in terms of bar length and time it takes each). If the crash is when loading the cars there can be a problem with AIW.

    You can introduce error provoking flags in the scn to try to locate the problem. Creating an instance call in the scn for a non existent xxx.gmt is the easiest way. You will need to move the flag throughout the scn and load the track to sort out the location of the uncontrolled bug. Whichever failure occurs (missing xxx.gmt or uncontrolled crash) is first within the scn.

    I hope I have explained clearly enough.

    Enviado desde mi GT-I9505 mediante Tapatalk
     
  20. Navigator

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    Thank you Euskotracks, some very nice info too.
    You won't believe, but I get wiser with all this; I made a duplicate track and am trying 1001 things. Wont bother me when things go wrong ;)

    Never thought of the windowed mode btw; good one!
    Thanks mate!
     

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