Certain areas crashing client systems

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

Certain areas on my server have been crashing client computers. Mine and everyone else. I can fix the problem by making a copy of the area and deleting the original, but it then seems that another area may end up doing the same thing. I can't enter as DM or Player without a crash, but the area opens in the toolset fine. The only thing that I can guess is that the area files are getting corrupted or something.

 

I don't know what's causing it, so I don't know how to prevent this. Has anyone experienced this before on their servers, and if so how did you stop/prevent it from happening?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kalbaern]

               

After a client crash, can they relog and the area loads fine?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

Nope.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

I have found several instances where areas have crashed me

 

1. The are file is missing - but the area still shows up in toolset. 

     This was actually some sort of corruption - I found that the area was showing in toolset, but when people tried to go into the area in the game = crash.

    The area would also crash toolset when I attempted to open it.

    Had to copy the area back into the head revsion of my module, from an earlier version.

2. Certain placeables using the static modifier - those glowing ones - Mythrallar or whatever its called etc

3. Certain tilesets being used on area, but missing on clients

4. If you are on windows - then uppercase / lowercase in filenames/extensions should not cause a problem

    Linux however - it is best to have everything as lower case - I think in some instances Windows can accidentally save GIT and GIC files in uppercase.

    I use a batch file to rename everything to lower case before I construct my module.

 

Strictly speaking - the most likely reason for client crash, is a miss match between client and server content.

The server will refuse to start if tilesets are missing on the server installation.

Players will crash when they try to enter areas where they do not have the correct tilesets.

 

I would recommend you take an inventory of the haks, and override files - if you can get their MD5's too 

Then compare between your inventory of your local content.

 

 

Are you using differing versions of CEP?

Eg:  2.6 on the server, 2.4 on your game?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

Also overrides/enhancements might cause crash. Community Patch, tree overrides, texture overrides, Zwerkules facelift, NWNCQ. Try disable these things all if it fixes the issue, if so enabling one by one will show you which package is causing this, then contacting the author with as much info as possible to fix this.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

There are no overrides used by the server specifically. Everything is in the haks. All players are experiencing it, and not one of them uses any override that everyone uses. I know I don't have any and it crashes me.

 

Double checked area files, all of them are there. 

 

It'll take me time to go through the area placeables, but I will keep that in mind as I do so. However it is an intermittent problem, and one that showed up recently in areas that have not changed in 6+ months.

 

I've made sure that I was using the same versions of the hak files, and I continue to have the problem. Other players have told me the same thing.

 

I use windows, but for completeness sake I have looked through the temp.0 folder and there were a couple uppercase extensions. However they were in areas that have, and have not reported problems. I'll see what this might accomplish.

 

The server does not use CEP.

 

 

 

Kalbaern and I talked last night. He pointed me in some of the same directions ya'll have. I'm going to do some more testing. It's starting to look like the problem may not be in my tilesets, but somewhere in my spawning. I use NESS in every area that has reported the crash to spawn randomized commoners. I've been reviewing every part of the body that changes, and every clothing that spawns for missing or corrupted models.

 

Further pointing at this possibility is that one of my players found that if they did not immediately try and log back in, which crashes them, but wait five minutes they are able to join just fine. That is the same amount of time it takes for NPC's to despawn in the areas. 

 

I appreciate all the help. It's helped me a lot to zero in on what may be the cause. I'll keep you updated if I figure this out.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

After exhaustive searching I discovered that a single clothing piece was causing a client crash whenever it was created through the spawn system as characters entered a new area. A belt to be exact. I'm not sure why it was such a problem, as it never seemed to screw up when players themselves wore it, but there it is. After removing the offending clothing piece from the hak files and altering the outfits that spawned on the NPC's we haven't experienced a single crash in three days. Appreciate all the help and pointers you guys have given me,