Auto DL

Vile. · Post by **Vile.** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:55 pm

Howdy folks!

I took a rather extended break from d3, and now that I've come back I've encountered a problem. I can't get EMZ to work. I downloaded it from the site and everything seems to be set up properly.

Currently I can get EMZ to run, but I can't get the AutoDL to accept. I'm thinking it's most likely a problem with Vista. Usually it's a problem corrected by running doom as an administrator. I tried that and it doesn't seem to be a solution.

If I try to join a server that has maps/files that I don't, it prompts me to download them. When I say ok nothing happens. It simply returns me to the EMZ Server locator screen.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Post by **eXg. Pun1sher** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:46 pm

WB Vile, and YES, it IS Vista. Go into your security center, and kill your UAC.

PuN

Vile. · Post by **Vile.** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:15 pm

Thanks much Pun. I think that my alleviate a few issues I've had with Vista, although now I've run into a new problem.

Randomly during the Autodl process I run into:

I'm starting to detest Vista....

Post by **eXg. Pun1sher** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:39 pm

Hmmmm. I haven't seen that one yet. Answer me this, can you play D3 for extended periods with no issues ??

Problem only happens DURING the autoDL ??

PuN

Vile. · Post by **Vile.** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:45 pm

Yep. I've played for 4-5 hours at a time with no incident.

At first I thought maybe my screen saver was to blame so I turned it off. That wasn't the problem.

simulation · Post by **simulation** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:57 am

Vile. wrote:Thanks much Pun. I think that my alleviate a few issues I've had with Vista, although now I've run into a new problem.

Randomly during the Autodl process I run into:

I'm starting to detest Vista....

Don't be too hard on Vista. The UAC/download problem and the random crash are down to Doom 3 doing things it shouldn't, not Vista. Pity that I already had UAC turned off when testing the pre-release versions of D3 1.3.1 otherwise I'd have seen that download problem and been able to report it to id Software.

If you're joining a server with a large number of maps you can get this crash. The server sends a list of the download locations for all the PK4 files you haven't already got. For example...

Code: Select all

http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/base/map_swd3dm1.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/base/map_swd3dm2.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/emz000.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/emz001.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/emz002.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/emz003.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/the-emz-d3-131-data.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/the-emz-d3-131a-windows.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/the-emz-d3-131a-linux.pk4
http&#58;//www.your-web-server.com/doom3/emz/the-emz-d3-131a-mac.pk4

If the list of maps exceeds 1024 bytes in size you may start getting crashes on clients or the "server does not provide downloads" message. That limit is pretty easy to hit; the above example is 598 bytes for only a few files.

Problem with all this is that the 1024 byte limit is in the D3 engine and can't be amended by a mod (at least until the engine source code goes public).

What I will do in the next version of EMZ is make it so that the list sent never exceeds the limit. That means you'll get the "does not provide download" message, even when it does, but at least no more crashes.

In fact, I could also spit out a warning on the server if the list of maps they have is likely to cause download problems; must add that to the todo list.

Also, there is a bug on the download screen in the current EMZ. It leaves the Yes/No displayed even after you've cliked Yes. So people think they've not clicked it, click it again and the screen closes - which sounds like part of your problem with it dropping back to the menu.

You could check in the console when this happens.

If the crash you get happens after a few maps have downloaded it could be that the download system has got to the end of the list where it has become corrupt. Try joining the same server again and see if you get the next group of maps.

Vile. · Post by **Vile.** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:36 am

Thanks much Sim. I'll give that a go when I get a little time.

Post by **eXg. Pun1sher** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:42 pm

Very interesting. I was unaware of the smallish size cap before that happens. Hmmmmm. So who is the culprit regarding that last crash ? D3 or Vista ?

PuN

simulation · Post by **simulation** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:48 pm

eXg. Pun1sher wrote:Very interesting. I was unaware of the smallish size cap before that happens. Hmmmmm. So who is the culprit regarding that last crash ? D3 or Vista ?

PuN

Its all D3. The size limit causes the data sent back from the server to overflow an internal buffer, with unpredicatable results.

The UAC killing the autodownload is because the D3 autodownload uses a runtime function to create a temp file for the download. That temp file is stored in C:\ and moved to the D3 folder when the download is complete. Creating files in C:\ is a "no no" on Vista and can fail on XP too, if you're not an admin (which most standard XP installs are).