GPDL compiled program issue

[Budzo]

Hi,

In my design for the Fall contest I am having an intermittent problem with the GPDL compiled program I am using.

I wrote this part of the module quite some time ago and thought I had it fully de-bugged. When I test it by putting the party in the same room as where the talk.bin program is invoked it works fine. I am getting far enough along so that I am starting to test by running through the module from the beginning and when I do this it does not run. It is interesting because the other events in the chain run (there is a sound event before the text event with the **SHAZAM**mirror() command). There is a graphic in the text event which is also not showing when it fails so I guess the entire event is not starting. There are no event triggers, if you enter the square you should hear the sound, see the graphic and get the you say prompt. My first thought was that there was something in the start-up commands (basically a whole bunch of utility events and a pass time event to set the game clock), but I think I have shown this is not it as I have gotten it to work after executing these events (changing other things so I can go right to the library where the talk.bin file is used). I am starting to work through step by step to isolate this but there is a lot to check. I have also disabled all step events as I thought this might be it, but it does not look like it.

My question is are there any known conflicts that would cause the **SHAZAM** command not to execute?

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Budzo

[manikus]

I am having a similar issue with talk.bin. Interestingly, if I take the talk.bin and copy the event to a blank design, it works perfectly...

There must be something in the design that is conflicting with this...but I don't know what.

I also think that your talk.bin event may be working but not displaying - b/c this is actually what happens to me. I thought at first that I was locking up the design, but during the talk.bin event, I can type key words, and use (all from memory of course ) and if I hit at the proper point, the design continues on.

Considering that I'm using the talk.bin events for about 30 different encounters, my design is dead without it.

I will try deconstructing this error over the next couple of days and post to this thread as I discover or don't discover things.

Does your only not work from the start? And when you are trying from the start, is your editor open?

[Budzo]

Thanks for the response. To answer your two questions:

It has failed from other start points than the beginning. As part of my debugging, I kept trying starting the party further and further away from the square where the talk.bin program is invoked. It works for a while, and then at some point stops. As there was nothing between where it worked and did not I thought one of the step events was firing, but disabling them did not work either.

I had only tried this with the editor open, but just now ran the module without the editor and it failed again.

I will also keep plugging away at trying to isolate the problem. While I only have one spot in the module that uses this, it is integral to the game.

Budzo

[Budzo]

I also just checked if the talk.bin event was firing but not displaying as noted in Manukus' post. As near as I can tell it is just not starting. The mod does not lock up and you cannot type anything, you hear the sound, get the text from the test text event I inserted to help de-bug and then the event stops and game play goes on.

Budzo

[manikus]

Have you tried using the talk.bin in another design where there is only one event? (The one to activate it.)

[Budzo]

To answer the question, yes I have tried it in another module and it worked fine.

I have also isolated the issues in my design. The conflict seems to be coming from a GPDL script which is used in an examine event of an item I created. Specifically, the 1st event is a logic block where the event trigger is a GPDL function with the folowing script:

$IF ($GET_CHAR_NAME( $MyIndex( ) ) == "Toad")

{
$RETURN true;

};

The purpose of this is to check to see if the right character (Toad, my dwarf thief) is the one trying to use the item. It would appear that even just calling this causes problems as the conflict occurs no matter what character tries to use the item. I also have several items where I do something similiar so I may have a big issue to figure out a solution to.

When I changed the event trigger to Always from Execute GPDL function the problem went away so I think it is highly likely this is the cause.

Unfortunately I cannot spend any more time on this today. I just got back yesterday from a business trip to Japan and my wife is starting to wig out over how much time I have been at the computer on my first day back. I will look at it some more tomorrow.

Thanks,

Budzo

[manikus]

Very interesting...

Do you have any other events that do not fire on "Always"?
I have quite a few (though no logic block triggers).

This gives me a good place to start looking so I can hopefully get this resolved quickly (if Paul is able to find the time).

Enjoy the time with your wife.

[Budzo]

It is 2:00 am here, I am wide awake because of jet lag issues (Mrs. Bud is sound asleep).

I have many other events that fire on a different event triggers all of which seem to work. Based on some more testing I am becoming convinced that the conflict is between the use of the talk.bin file and GPDL calls. I just reproduced the issue with another event which is used not as an event trigger but as a logic block action ($SET_PARTY_XXXXX).

Also I noticed when I do the GPDL call first and then invoke the talk.bin file the talk.bin file just does not start. If you invoke the talk.bin file first it works, but when you try to execute the GPDL command the program crashes.

I hope I am not being anal about this. I am just trying to help. This program is wonderful, I have had a blast writing this mod and have learned a great deal. I even created some new art (ok it sucks but it is a start).

Thanks,

Budzo

[manikus]

I've been able to partially duplicate this - it's not crashing on my at any point.

This is one of those issues that is going to be a good news/bad news thing.

The good news is that this can be fixed and indeed has been fixed.
The bad news is that the fix is not for version .914 of DC.

Is there another way to accomplish the test of the 'execute GPDL' trigger, such as 'specific race in party' (you mentioned he was a dwarf)?

[Paul Stevens]

Sorry about this.......

When I first designed the talk.txt/talk.bin
business, there was no other way to run
a script. Only the **SHAZAM** method.

Now that you can run other scripts, they
interfere with the **SHAZAM** method.
I discovered this recently and fixed it in a
recent version.

I saved a version 0.914003 that I suppose
I could fix for you (0.9140035 ?).
Manikus - any idea if this would be useful?
It is from Feb 5, 2009.