Load error for savegame created in 9.2 with Pak.Britain-Ex

[jamespetts]

AvG,

I have just checked this - the program does indeed pause when saving even in Experimental (although not when the save dialogue box is open, as it is not saving until one clicks "save" or presses enter/return here). Are you sure that you have noticed the game progressing while save is in progress in Experimental?

Edit: I have just noticed AEO's post. Can anyone else who is having this problem confirm whether they have changed any settings using the "i" key (in Pak128.Britain-Ex)?

[TheUniqueTiger]

I had changed some settings through the settings dialog before I created the map. However once a game is running I never changed any settings.

[AvG]

James,
Assuming that when the hourglass is visible the save is in progress, I checked again and saw 100% sure:
A The hourglass
B The program in progress (moving vehicles)

On a large map you see after pressing save, that the vehicles halt for a brief moment (~ 2 sec), then they start moving again whilst the hourglass is still visible.
AvG

Edit: Also datw and time are progressing during the hourglass.

[jamespetts]

AvG,

the hourglass (assuming that you mean the mouse cursor) is not the indicator: the game should be paused when the save game progress bar in the middle of the screen is visible. Do you ever see the game not paused when the progress bar is visible?

[jamespetts]

Yes, its related to powerlines & electric substations. I did some more research and found that

• On any map 512*512 or more, it crashes if you have powerlines and electric substations.
  
• On any map 384*384 or less, the same kind of powerlines and electric substations work pretty well.

I've been playing Simutrans since 2000, but this is the first map-size related crash I've seen. I hope its solved soon.

For example, I have uploaded 2 saved files, with all default settings...

• http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Test090110-31.sve (CRASH) 512*512 with a powerline connecting a gas-fired power station to a city, with electric substations at power station & city.
  
• http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Test090110-41.sve (NO CRASH) 384*384 with a powerline connecting a gas-fired power station to a city, with electric substations at power station & city.
  

Can any other member with Win7 x64 please confirm this crash by the given steps... IMO, a program which works properly on 32-bit Windows works without any issues on 64-bit, but not vice-versa.

Thanks.

Hmm, now that I have my Windows 7 64-bit system up and running, I can't reproduce this. I created a 768x768 map with a gas fired power station connected to a substation, connected to another substation in a town by a short section of high-voltage line, saved it and it reloaded it without difficulty. The file is available here. It needs Pak128.Britain-Ex.

Can you test loading this and re-saving it to see whether you get the same results?

[TheUniqueTiger]

As I said it was happening on & off... Probably try a larger map. I used to get consistent error messages with 2048*2048 maps. However its not a 'guaranteed' crash. Besides, now I feel the change of settings may be the reason as well.

[jamespetts]

I tried again reproducing it with 2048x2048, one gas power station connected to one city by a single high voltage line with two substations (one at each end): saved and loaded without difficulty. This was without changing any of the settings using the "i" menu, however.

[Junna]

After experimenting and playing around, I can confirm that this is a result of changing the settings during play. After doing so and saving, the save game will be corrupt.

[jamespetts]

Junna,

thank you for that - that is most helpful. Until this problem is fixed, I recommend not entering the settings menu at all (as even entering the menu if the code is sufficiently flawed will rewrite bad values when the menu is closed).

[TheUniqueTiger]

Are you sure it happens only during game play? On several occasions, I changed the settings before creating a new map and not after the map was created. So in case someone is looking to correct the bug, please keep this in mind too. Hoping to see this bug fixed soon.

[AvG]

James,
Checked again a couple of times.
Still using the GB-map of 1276x886.
Reset the auto-save to every month via config-file.

Saving via save-command: Visible progress-bar and hour-glass. Program is HALTED. Time for a save is 17 sec.

Saving via auto-save: Only hour-glass is visible. Program keeps running.  Time for a save is 17 sec.

Both results are loadable however.

Junna may be right. I took the latest loadable save of my scenario (somewhere in 1803) and did not change the settings any more.
Scenario-year is now 1806.
AvG

[jamespetts]

AvG,

thank you for that; however, as noted, the problem appears to be with changing the settings.

TheUniqueTiger,

no, I'm not sure that it only happens when the game is running. I'll have to look into this, too. Thank you for pointing that out.

[ӔO]

changing the settings through the config.tab file will not cause it either.
Although, I've had problem with getting the settings to stick on creating a new map, if changed in game, and not through editing config.tab

[jamespetts]

I think that I have found and fixed the problem, and the fix is now on my 9.x branch: the problem was an error in the code to set the Simutrans-Experimental version saved, meaning that games were saved with Experimental version 0, which presently does not work. I have also made some other changes to the dialogue, including increasing its width slightly to accommodate the full set of inputs and enabling many of the values to be incremented in single units, making changing them useful. Anyone able to compile the code can test these changes now; otherwise, they will be incorporated into Simutrans-Experimental 9.3 when that is released.

Thank you everyone for your reports!

[TheUniqueTiger]

Thanks James!
Eager to get my hands on 9.3....

[jamespetts]

9.3 is now released, which should fix this problem.