2.4unavoidable bugs/ect

[rEd2k]

Ok, so here we go.. I have tested the game in these ways: Played the game with TIME only and no goal set. Tried 1-30 minutes (incrimentally 1 minute higher each time) of game play and no matter what the game had the long load times after about only 2 or 3 maps and would continue at random after that (If I bothered to wait that long). Tried the game with NO TIME and only GOALS (1-50 incrimentally 1 higher each time). The game COULD load to other maps faster BUT ONLY with lower goal score amounts set -=WEIRD=- Also I noticed that the problem seems to happen more often when the opposing team would score as well (got good at scoring so fast the bots/friends could never get a goal on me ) I tried using all kinds of bot setups like the "players vs bots" and the "specified number" and "Use bot roster" with or without the "Bot's balance teams" option and they had no effect on the result. I tried the options for "quick replays" and "end game replays" and different amounts of replay playbacks (1-3) and those options seemed to not affect the problem either -BUT I did notice my memory usage climbing and climbing when we scored alot and the opposing team scored as well, while having these options turned on. <- I could be crazy though, it was hard to track that while I played for hours on end. I tried the game with multiple friends on a LAN more than 10 times with 3-11 players all with different comps and OS's installed. No matter what the game would take time to load on the one that is HOSTING the game the most and SOMETIMES (rare) the client side would cause it, oh and the dedicated server.. well that's a hit and miss as I told no one to use it and yet the people on it could play the game fine, it would rarely crash or load slowly (but would eventually). I tried all of the above options in EVERY COMBINATION WITH ALL PLAYERS (friends) on the network and all again by myself :S The game was tested using a Listening server and a Dedicated one in all tests... My friends think that I have a "Passion" for Deathball that goes farther than life itself lol -I would always say "What ever man! Deal with it! THIS is what we're playing for the next couple of weeks! -OK??!!! lol Well that's what I said to the guys who wanted to try Halo Beta <-nOObs. So as you can see I have been friggin hard @ work trying to solve this glitch. I do think it does have something to do with the Goal scoring just like DavidM mentioned some time awhile ago but it's so damn hard to say. So far at the moment we found that a dedicated server is the way to go.. and it worked best on a fast system with nothing really installed on it (Fresh copy of XP ect.) and then we could play non-stop (we tried this again in case anyone was wondering, the tests before (like a week ago on a previous post) were not as extensive). Man it got HOT in my place with like 12 comps all night and day... those long nights of testing are so much fun Anyways, I found that the "dedicated server trick" I mentioned above CAN and eventually WILL crash or have a long load time for SOMEONE on the network... it's just a matter of time.. but mostly it will remain stable and you can get drunk before you notice it happening, and by then no else can play anyway -lol One more thing. I have been testing the same things mentioned above in all combination again but with no extra comps around and no big network... I get the same results and I found it didn't make a difference if you wanna add some extras like extra bots and/or music and "little" things like that (of course the bot has to have team colors). I did ALL above testing with ONLY the bots provided with the game and didn't mod anything or change any code ect. ect. so it was all Genuine (all except untill now) Thank you to all who supported my efforts in this, I appreciate your posts! Thanks again to the Deathball team for making a great MOD!!! I has been so fun, and it will continue to be... Lemme know if ya'll (not a cowboy, just Canadian) want me to test again and I will try my best! -Peace out -Stop the damn WAR!

[The_One]

Jeez, heard of paragraphs?

Sounds like a lot of work. Hope it helps. Kudos.

[DavidM]

funny thing about your posts is, they are always a huge rectangle

give em some structure, makes it easier to read and understand

I'll read the Cube tomorrow, too tired now

[rEd2k]

Ya did up my whole post in a notepad sorry bout that LoL ya it's a brick for sure... :S Won't happen again -peace (not a hippy) lol

[DavidM]

I read the whole thing. Your dedication is amazing. Just needs structure and comma work

Well, most of it makes no difference I guess.
What I find interesting is the RAM usage thing. I'm fiddling around with it ATM. It could explain some things.

thanks a lot

[rEd2k]

Just glad to help out! Oh ya and after reading the post I made... It's kinda all over the place lol but that's me when I get wired from too much gaming

Oh ya I forgot to mention, when the map didn't load wether the memory usage was higher than normal or seemed to be completely normal I could hear the HDD working but then eventually stops (like as if the map has finished loading).

The memory would just stay the same (what ever it was at) but my cpu indicators would go up and down, non-stop like it was processing something non-stop when nothing is happening and the pre-loading screen is just frozen and sitting there waiting for the game to start.

Don't know what to make of it.. just know that eventually the map will load EVERY TIME just gotta wait either 1 min to 3 hours lol. Anyways, hope that helps too (Oh and I know that there is supposed to be 3 sentences per paragraph (lol) but I never wanna see that brick again either.. It's horrendous!!! lol) -peace out

[DavidM]

rectangolor has been defeated!

ok thanks, I hope goldy can make something of it

[The_One]

rectangolor has been defeated!

lol (okay, so I didn't really laugh out loud but I did find it amusing >.>)

[DoMmeh``]

i am totally amazed

<3 :-*

[rEd2k]

Man it's been a long time I've started up my own computer repair business and I've been so darn busy lately testing DB has gotten to be less and less But I have managed to find out that this problem may not be a coding error with DB itself but the UT2K4 engine!

Ya, reading and reading and testing and testing (both DB and UT2K4) I have seen this lil error with load times crop up in the game itself but only under certain circumstances.. Like loooong duration of play with using custom maplists that I made that contain custom made maps.. I would jump from one game type to another like Deathmatch to ICTF or whatever under my custom maplist selections and to my disbelief it can't load the next map sometimes!

I thought that maybe the problem could be with the maplists since DB sometimes (for some reason in previous versions) would let me USE the maplists but most of the time I can't as they are supposed to be disabled from what I understand. I just hope I'm not going on the wrong track here.. Anyway, can anyone confirm this?? It could just be some stupid setting I had made in UT2K4 and the next map tried to load.. Id'a know, but hey it's a start

If it's not the actual game engine and there is something goin on with DB itself, I hope we can iron that out Oh and before I forget.. David, did anything come of the memory checks? Or any kind of debugging that you may have tried or know of? Thanx in advance Peace out

[:-)]

I get the feeling that there is a memory leak in the replay code. Something along the lines of the replays being garbage collected on a map change instead of being deleted in the code. If it doesn't already happen, I suggest that during the end state of the game erase whatever is holding the replay data.

[rEd2k]

Holy friggin CRAP!!!!!!!!! The only reason why I didn't keep playing with replays was because I tried it before and I had the same loading problem.. BUT YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!! I have confirmed this.. I turned off the replays completely (again) setting the replays to 0 and turned off the "end game replays" and turned on the "short wait time after goal" and played non-stop for hours!!!!

Good job man! I have confirmed this actually works and works WELL, the other people on my network had no trouble loading the next map and we played ALL of them in a row for the first time!! YAY!! I only used a "Listening" server during this test just so ya'll know I hope DavidM and others read your discovery as you have figured out what I couldn't after hours and hours of testing.

I always had a feeling it might have something to do with replays but I swear I tried that already.. Like WTF??!!! it might have been another system causing the issue as well.. who knows.. but yes I have officially kissed your but -lol Thanks again Whom ever you are with the smiley face " " Anyways peace out -all. I gotta play some DeathBall now!!!

P.S. PLEASE! Someone fix the replays feature! If the DB team can do it I'll Love ya for ever -lol (I actually like replays as do my friends)

[DavidM]

Yeah, that's what we always kinda knew....replays being the root of that. Just nobody knows why its doing that.
Need to contact usaar33, the replay coder, eventually.
Anyway, thanks for the enlightment again!