11 réponses à ce sujet

[casadechrisso]

An attempt to move to the autodownloader went horribly wrong again, and I can't see what the problem might be after a day of trial&error.

It seems that everything for the ADL was set up correctly, the problem is that suddenly the server app won't finish loading the module (directory) anymore since it was staged for the Autodownloader. My guess is that there's some new file in it preventing it from finishing loading, but that's only one theory.

What happens is that the module directory starts loading, but then hangs forever. It does not crash, it just won't get over the "login disabled" stage. At the same time the module is already visible in Gamespy with an average ping, players can connect to it but never get over the "connecting, attempting to log in" message.

The very same module worked correctly before the attempt to move to the ADL was made. Now even without marking the ADL option and trying to load it the old way won't work anymore, with or without NWNX.
It should also be said that the module directory is above 2GB in size and that the symptoms might look like the 2GB limit would prevent loading, however, it worked just fine before the move as long as it loaded in directory mode.

I'm out of ideas at this point, has anyone run into this issue too or have any ideas?

Modifié par casadechrisso, 13 février 2012 - 05:39 .

[painofdungeoneternal]

Find your error logs on the server ( inside the temp folder is where you usually found them ). Should be able to google where to find them as it's the standard windows temp folder. Pretty sure this is noted on these forums somewhere, but that is your first step. I'd imagine if it's tilting memory the logging might just go caput, but see if it's showing some stupid error.

Very likely if you are above 2 gigs, well the memory used by the server is not exactly the modules size. You might be just under it, and the hosting of whats needed for ADL when the game starts up is throwing it over, that is just speculation, read the logs. You can also watch memory use in the task manager.

However getting up to 2 gigs is a bit nuts to begin with--it takes a lot of time to make a world that big, and hopefully by that point you have a team helping you and can spend money on beefing up your system.

Remove things which don't need to be in the module. Put them in the servers override or a hak, this reduces memory and speeds up everything. Generally it's the GFF files and the actual area files, the faction definition file. Everything else can go in override ( scripts, blueprints, server side 2da files used just by scripts and not the engine itself ) or in a hak attached if it HAS to be used by the client (models, special effects, any 2da file which comes with the vanilla game ). Some people use campaign folders for this, however this makes it more complex as that gets staged and override works just fine and the game acts as if those files are still inside your module.

You can also optimize your areas and make sure you don't have things which don't add value for the player, should be just enough to get the point across, and not literally thousands of objects when the player only really is going to notice a portion thereof. Hopefully your module's areas are not the main reason you are tilting and you can just move resources to override and haks.

You can increase the memory of course ( 3gigs with some startup parameter, and more gigs with 64 bit system ), but frankly the resources you are talking about should be dedicated to gameplay itself and not the map, so if you are at 2 gigs you probably want to try to lower the memory amount and also increase the memory the game can access.

[casadechrisso]

Thanks for the suggestions so far...

Point is, the 2GB were reached over years, we're talking about a long established PW that was live for 4 years already and the size built up over time. It's hard to make any sudden cuts at this point, given that the server was live and being played until two days ago.
I can't give you the exact module size or task manager stats at this point, since I'm only the messenger. The error log apparently built up over 4 years and has reached 1.77GB in size, can't be opened anymore (it was deleted and we'll try with a fresh one).

Fresh one's last message is this:

[Mon Feb 13 18:24:38] Loading Module: Module
TRANS: [Mon Feb 13 18:24:38]Not decompressing as not loading from a previously visited module.
TRANS: [Mon Feb 13 18:24:38]Setting up Stall Event now.
You need to install Expansion Pack 1 : Mask of The Betrayer in order to load this module.
...[Mon Feb 13 18:27:53] Server Shutting Down

No idea what the MotB message is about, my thought was that it's a message to the players who try to log in. The module uses both expansion packs, has been using for years.
I believe that the system the server runs on is a 64bit system, however the server app itself is only 32bit so no idea if it matters. It's not that the system gets unstable or the server crashes with out of memory errors, it just stops loading the module directory and idles.

[painofdungeoneternal]

Do you have a campaign set up for your module - you should even if it's a dummy campaign? Do you have all the expansions, or require them? ( note i don't require any expansions BUT do use all
of them on my PW ). Have you just now started using the ADL after all this time, or is this an issue after having used it for a while?

Looks like your culprit is written in your log, something in your module wants the expansion, i would take a look at the campaigns and describe what you have going on with those.

Understandable if it's been running for a while, you still should follow my suggestions, quite a few of them are simple and relate to being organized - just getting some of the files out of the actual directory of the module helps a great deal. ( and if your content is not organized to a insane degree you are going to run into trouble )

As the world gets bigger, it needs to be organized and disciplined, and everything should be aimed at improving the bang for the buck, and making sure everything used is adding value and not just useless overhead. At the very least you should be improving this with new areas, and as you get time reworking old areas with what things your team has learned. ( generally this can add some new life into old areas the players have memorized as you change minor details )

You should look in the tech support areas on how to post requests, and provide all the details they require, age of the PW, etc, what system your server is on, what memory the task manager is saying it's using, basically all the details. You probably need to get the actual folks involved and talking as well.

[casadechrisso]

All the expansions are installed, so I can only guess something related to them got deleted accidently.
And yes, the server used it's own downloader (like others used Worlgate etc.) until now, the switch to ADL was mainly done to make it more accessable to new players.
Besides the current issue, the server's quite well organized as far as I can tell from my own opinion, it's definitely not a newbie project and has been stable and very playable all the time.

NWN2 is currently being reinstalled on the server machine, we'll see where it gets us.

[painofdungeoneternal]

I'd set up a custom campaign for your module if you haven't already. Just copy the settings from whatever default you were using before ( OC perhaps ). It is just one of those things which makes things more reliable.

[casadechrisso]

Well, the server issues seem to be gone after reinstalling NWN2 on the server, all loads fine.
Now we're hanging at the moduleressources.xml error message that I'm sure I had to fix myself when playing with my own module.

Error goes something like "moduleresources.xml was successfully downloaded but could not be verified".

I'm pretty sure I've dealt with this before but can't remember how - was it excluding it from uploading via the prepare downloadable files -> Edit files? Or am I mixing something up?

[painofdungeoneternal]

No idea, you really should copy paste the actual error log as that makes no sense. ( note there is a server error log and a client error log and you should look at both of them )

[Vulpina]

The ADL is now working, thanks for your help with this.

[NWN DM]

So... which PW is this?

Also, what was the final fix? Others may be helped by knowing.

[casadechrisso]

The server loaded again after reinstalling NWN2, apparently some files went missing, I can't say.
As for the moduleresources.xml, I can't say what the fix was, I wasn't there. But I'd say it was voodoo, the usual trial and error and suddenly things worked - as always with the ADL which escapes every logic.

[Arkalezth]

NWN DM wrote...

So... which PW is this?

Dammendrech.