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SonicGMI (Sonic Generations Mod Installer) v1.1 RC6

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Dario FF, Nov 17, 2011.

  1. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    New SonicGMI Update. Check the first post for more details. I'll explain how to set up an Update Server for a mod's distribution later once I'm sure the feature is working alright.

     
  2. This makes mods so much easier to use! Awesome!

    A couple suggestions for GMI's interface:

    - As of now, you can't hit "Save and Play" until you uncheck and recheck "Enable Mods". Should be allowed by default if a mod is checked.
    - It would be nice if you could sort mods by the headers.
     
  3. Iggy for Short

    Iggy for Short

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    If you didn't realize this already, they ARE actually sorted alphabetically... by the names of the folders within your "mods" folder. Took me a bit to figure that out. :v:
     
  4. TheUltimaXtreme

    TheUltimaXtreme

    Breaking logic since whenever Member
    The presentation of the new FxPipeline renderer is interesting. It makes me wonder if we could make different shaders that AREN'T just Unleashed and Generations...

    Of course, I can show why you NEED the shaders on in the GMI.



    Can anyone say Virtual Boy?

    If you'll notice, it actually causes some things to disappear. There's no boost trail, and enemy projectiles are invisible (see Chemical Plant Zone and Sky Sanctuary)

    I actually think this is pretty funny to use. I might just play the whole thing to see how fucked up some of the levels can get.
     
  5. I'm not sure if this is the right place to report this bug in, but I think it is. I found a very minor shader bug with a tree in Seaside Hill (gasp!). It's a bit trivial, but a bug is a bug.

    FxPipeline Renderer with custom shaders
    [​IMG]
    Generations Renderer without custom shaders
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    You guys mind testing out something for me?

    It's possible that if you run the game with this version of SonicGMI(makes some changes to the INI), those issues some people mentioned with custom music crashing and such might be fixed... I'm sorry for any inconveniences I might've caused in the past with it if this is the problem indeed. I haven't had any issues since I tried this update, and I would like you to test it out too(endless loading screens, crashes due to custom music, etc.).
     
  7. Chris Highwind

    Chris Highwind

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    >Download the SonicGMI file
    >Notice a new version of the fxpipeline renderer dated yesterday

    Wow, I really need to start using the update feature on SonicGMI.

    EDIT: Also, set Speed Highway to a custom song, decided to pick another song, selected Change Music again, and crash.
     
  8. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    Well, either it's suddenly not triggering, or the new version of SonicGMI fixed the problem I had with the Dragon Road demo locking up on exiting a level from the pause menu.
     
  9. PkR

    PkR

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    SADX Dreamcast Conversion, The Emeralds' Awakening
    Didn't fix the infinite loading screen problem for me. Here's what I did:
    1) Download brianuu's Unleashed Ultimate Pack;
    2) Update SonicGMI and FxPipeline Shaders, check: Sonic Unleashed Jason Griffith Voice, Sonic Unleashed Style Sonic, Unleashed FxPipeline Shaders, Sonic Unleashed Result Music, Startup Logo Removal;
    3) Run the game, play and finish Green Hill Act 2;
    4) Try to play Chemical Plant Act 2: infinite loading screen.

    Unchecking "Sonic Unleashed Result Music" makes the problem go away, so it may as well be a buggy mod or something.
     
  10. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    It seems to have fixed a lot of stability issues on my end, so at least that's one down.

    The Sonic Unleashed Result Music mod might be the one causing the trouble as you said, but without the files it's a bit hard to say. I wouldn't use the Startup Logo Removal mod though, since that seems to be relying on an exception of a file not found rather than a proper solution. Which is why I'm not including that mod in anymore.

    Sadly I haven't seen Korama for a while to try to debug this some more, and I have no source code access to CPKREDIR either. I wouldn't be surprised if Sega's crappy use of the Sound middleware is causing most of the issues though. :v:
     
  11. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    Oop, nope, there it goes. Got it to trigger. Wasn't triggering on the non-FXpipeline version, but it certainly happened on FXpipeline.

    That being said, the first time I noticed the lock up problem back in August, it wasn't on the FXpipeline version, so there's that, at least.
     
  12. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    If you delete the Sound folder from the mod, can you get it to trigger?
     
  13. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    Tried to get it to trigger four times; three times in a row, and then once quitting the game and reopening it. Hasn't happened... yet.
     
  14. Joe T.E.

    Joe T.E.

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    Big the Cat in Sonic Generations, High-Res HUD for Sonic Lost World, Metal Sonic Lost World (Version 1.0,) Sonic Generations: Episode Metal (Version 3.0.)
    I tried using this new version. The "infinite load screen" still happens (though it seems to happen a bit less often than it used to.)
    Even though you weren't asking that to me, I can confirm that the "infinite load screens" only happen when SonicGMI is being used to load any mod which modifes any of the .aax files in any of the sound .cpk's.

    I doubt that it has anything to do with how the actual game handles .aax files. Back when modders HAD to re-create the .cpk files (back when CPKRedir didn't exist,) I never encountered that specific type of problem.
     
  15. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    Just to rule out the possibility, if these AAX files you replace via CPKREDIR are the exact same as the originals in the CPK, does the freeze still happen?

    Seeing as the situation might be purely nailed down to Sound files themselves, I guess the alternate solution for now would be to provide the repacked CPKs of Sounds for the ones with the issue. I've not been able to reproduce that issue at all here.
     
  16. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    I'm guessing that's something for Joe to do, because the AAX files in the Dragon Road mod aren't in Sonic Generations for me to do a simple copy/paste job.
     
  17. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    Sorry, it was indeed directed to Joe. For you all I can say is you should just keep running it, although at that point it might just crash for the same reason the vanilla game does. :v: Never saw endless loading screen on it though, so you're probably on to something here if it can't be reproduced again.
     
  18. Joe T.E.

    Joe T.E.

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    Big the Cat in Sonic Generations, High-Res HUD for Sonic Lost World, Metal Sonic Lost World (Version 1.0,) Sonic Generations: Episode Metal (Version 3.0.)
    Yep. Both the original (un-altered) .aax files, along with same-length custom .aax files (as in, the exact same loop points) still can cause the "infinite loading screens."

    Also, for reference, the only time that I've ever seen altered music crash the game (not counting ridiculously broken non-sound files) was with the Dragon Road demo. I almost never use stage mods, and I've only seen 1 music-based crash throughout the entire time that I've been playing the game (not counting non-mono/different length boost tracks, which have no relation to this problem.)

    I'd honestly hope that we won't have to resort to that.

    It's entirely possible that some mod-users won't read the instructions (whether by ignorance, mistake, or not understanding the language that the instructions were written in,) and end up over-writing their old .cpk's without backing them up first.
    Even for the users who know what to do, having to manually re-name the .cpk files whenever you switch mods can end up being a hassle (unless they got used to doing it back in the pre-CPKRedir days, like I did.)
     
  19. Dario FF

    Dario FF

    Tech Support Hotline Tech Member
    Seeing as the situation seems to happen only to a few people(the endless loading screen one), I've already decided to distribute a separate file with the Sound Pack, and the original just for backup. Only the people who read the Issues & Troubleshooting section on my mod's page will know whether they want to do it or not. We won't go back to the old way, but might as well offer the solution until Korama's back around.

    Seeing as you said even using the same AAX file causes the problem to trigger, that nails down the problem to cpkredir alone. There's a couple of settings you could try and play with on cpkredir.ini if you're interested, it's certainly hard to debug by myself when I can't reproduce it. So until Korama's back, we should probably keep trying to find the problem.

    You should try turning on the file logging mode for cpkredir(LogType=file), and at the moment the endless loading screen happens, alt-tab and grab the log file(if it's flushed already). It will probably hold something relevant.

    The other thing you could try is changing up any of these:
    Code (Text):
    1. ReadBlockSizeKB=4096   (Try changing it to 1024, or other powers of two)
    2. HandleCpksWithoutExtFiles=0  (Change it to 1 and see if the issue can still be reproduced)
    3. PlaceTocAtEnd=1 (Change it to 0 and see if the issue can still be reproduced)
    4. EnableSaveFileRedirection=1 (Maybe save file redirection is somehow affecting it? Worth a try. Change to 0.)
    Obviously you should try these settings only one at a time to track properly if any of these fix it.
     
  20. Falk

    Falk

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    I've been wondering something, actually. For me, a lot of the time (yet not all, with no discernible pattern), when returning to the hub world, the wrong 'zone's music plays for a bar before swapping to the right one. In some Youtube videos, this doesn't occur, while it does in others. I'm thinking there could be something making those files in particular take too long to load, making the game's (extremely unorthodox) hub world music playback code freak out resulting in this glitch-out, and if so, it -could- be related to the above infinite loading screen problem. I've also (*DISCLAIMER*) anecdotally noticed the infinite loading screen happen to me more often than not if I exit a level just as it starts, as opposed to playing through or playing for a while.

    Next step would be to pin down if it happens with custom hub music only or any custom music. Might be a complete red herring but eh, worth exploring.