Config Errors Displaying

[R3vo 2652]

I mentioned this a year ago in Skype chats, and even started writing something I was going to propose here, but I never really found the motivation to finish it, as it didn't seem like anyone would have given it the time of day.

I'd kill for a source-style console. RPT already logs all the info such console would need. I'm not sure if writing to the RPT is still not async, but in reality, all this really needs is an ingame dialog that can be called up with a keypress that displays the same info the RPT's do.

 

You should have posted that here, as you can see, there are quite a few folks interested in a chance/improvement, even though we don't all agree yet on how it should look. But I like the idea of an ingame console, and since scripting/modding and therefore errors are a huge thing in Arma 3, I believe we will all benefit from it now, and in the future.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

You should have posted that here, as you can see, there are quite a few folks interested in a chance/improvement, even though we don't all agree yet on how it should look. But I like the idea of an ingame console, and since scripting/modding and therefore errors are a huge thing in Arma 3, I believe we will all benefit from it now, and in the future.

This thread has been an interesting read.

I will definitely say these errors have saved my bacon a few times. I don't have the skill to ever fix them on my own, but it's definitely helpful knowing something is wrong. It's especially helpful when the error makes it clear which mod or script is having issues (which is why I love your idea R3vo about asking BIS for more info in the errors themselves about which mod or script is causing problems. The directionless or generic errors frustrate the hell out of me!).

That said, the UI I need to close should never ever ever ever have implemented in the game.

[zeealex 2029]

Just pitching into this thread;

okay so say I release a mod, aaand someone gets an error, they report that error to me, I can't reproduce it because, maybe i left the drive letter in a texture path or something, and it works fine on my end as a result, if people have opted to switch off error reports, they won't see this error, instead they'll see an invisible asset. 
so what happens is perhaps some slight confusion, some people are saying there's no error but the asset is invisible, some people are saying the engine can't find the texture. 
Logically in that situation I would take a look at the texture but sometimes the error isn't so simple as a missing/dead filepath as a result that could confuse me as a modder and displease you as a user because it takes me a while longer to fix. 

The reason it forces you to press okay is so that you acknowledge that there is an error somewhere and it's not been missed, as non obtrusive error reporting might cause you to miss the error, not quite get the entire filepath in time etc etc. especially if it's being tested in an MP environment and there are people signing in and using the chat system, it can get bogged down in all of that rabble, the black box error doesn't show the entire message and again, it's on a timer so you might not get it all in time.

The best option for me as a modder is to have a 'don't show again for this session' button, so i see the error on startup or when I place an object, but i'm not bugged again about it for the rest of the session, I've told the engine "I know" it won't bug me. to be fair that normally happens anyway, i don't often see the error again once I've pressed okay. 


I would much prefer the engine to bug myself and users of my addons until i can fix it, in a way it encourages me to speed up the process, because I know it's inconveniencing people by being there so I wanna try and get out a fix ASAP, at present I'm currently also recieving this iteminfo error and wondering how to change my configs to avoid this.  

But i would much prefer the errors to show than to not and to get mixed reports of what's happening, and as a result this slows down my process of fixing it, leaving confused and rather unhappy users of my content... not fun.


by all means, you can disagree, but sometimes, especially with texture path and more critical errors, it's really necessary, as then it's made known that somewhere there is an error and it's not the engine being a dickbag. and so we know who to direct the hate at later on :P

[wld427 1705]

anyone have a working example of an inheritance header to use for gear?

 

I am tired of pounding my head against the wall. 

[Alwarren 2765]

Arma needs a quake-like console.

[R3vo 2652]

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/143930-general-discussion-dev-branch/page-1017#entry3059140

[Vasily.B 529]

BIS, you changed something.

Please change it back?

Man.....

Its already fixed in most of mods, they just fixing smaller issues now. Propably till Monday all mods will be fixed out of this error (about weapons).

Personally i dont know why there is those pictures of units in editor when moving cursor over them, and some more info about weapons, which are not working properly on modded content, but if they puttet time to add it, dont waste time on removing it, that would propably cause more problems than its worth.

[PFC. C. T. Smith III 0]

can someone help me what does it mean what the pop up no entry "bin\congig.bin/CfgWeapons/ItemInfo.scope'.

[Rich_R 1087]

Incorrectly configured mod. More info can be found on all the other previously covered posts on the subject;

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/192680-latest-a3-update-causing-tons-of-errors-on-my-mod/

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/194288-no-entry-configbincfgweaponsiteminfoscope-and-other-similar-errors-mods-list/

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/194157-mod-dev-needs-help/

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/170559-no-entry-binconfigbincfgweapons/

[tortuosit 485]

Reporting in for the great anti dev zealotry war. Put it in a visible log on main screen, BIS!

Realistically - I am ready to see useless error messages until ArmA 46 now. Reminds me of good old Foobar2000. Developer decided to spit out an error message for specific mods: "Some mods may cause harm". The specific mods I use did not cause any problem. Now after all those years I still use the player and that mod, and automated clicking away the error message.

Look. If BIS decides to show a warning message which you'd have to click away: "You are using a modded ArmA. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK [Ok] [EXIT ARMA]". Then all zealots should still applause. I won't.

I'm all against enforced user and modders education. We spend our spare time here. If I want education, I can watch german television.

[Alwarren 2765]

Look. If BIS decides to show a warning message which you'd have to click away: "You are using a modded ArmA. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK [Ok] [EXIT ARMA]". Then all zealots should still applause. I won't.

I'm all against enforced user and modders education. We spend our spare time here. If I want education, I can watch german television.

 

I love how people call other people "zealots" for having a different opinion. If you want to watch an educational program, watch one on "How to discuss in a civilized manner".

[en3x 209]

I love how people call other people "zealots" for having a different opinion. If you want to watch an educational program, watch one on "How to discuss in a civilized manner".

 

Oh yes.If you attack someone - attack opinion or statement, not person (calling names).

[tortuosit 485]

Let's go back to topic.

I am thinking (just my idea) it is time for a log section on the main screen. With as much information as possible, ideally e.g. revealing the mod(s) name which is triggering an error. I don't agree there is a need for enforced user interaction. I'd even allow for collapsing that section, but in collapsed state I would display an exclamation mark + number of reported errors.

[Alwarren 2765]

Let's go back to topic.

I am thinking (just my idea) it is time for a log section on the main screen. With as much information as possible, ideally e.g. revealing the mod(s) name which is triggering an error. I don't agree there is a need for enforced user interaction. I'd even allow for collapsing that section, but in collapsed state I would display an exclamation mark + number of reported errors.

 

Best solution IMO is a quake-like console. Allow people to output to that, have them able to enter commands from there, and overlay it on top for a few seconds if there is an error that requires user attention.

[Vasily.B 529]

Let's go back to topic.

I am thinking (just my idea) it is time for a log section on the main screen. With as much information as possible, ideally e.g. revealing the mod(s) name which is triggering an error. I don't agree there is a need for enforced user interaction. I'd even allow for collapsing that section, but in collapsed state I would display an exclamation mark + number of reported errors.

 

Best solution IMO is a quake-like console. Allow people to output to that, have them able to enter commands from there, and overlay it on top for a few seconds if there is an error that requires user attention.

Optionally please :)

[Alwarren 2765]

Optionally please :)

Geez, why? If you don't press the tilde key you won't see it anyway, and no, I do not think that error messages should be "optional", especially if they are non-obstrusive. I know that a lot of missions don't work since people did not enable error checking, I don't think allowing anyone to opt out of error messages is a good idea.

[Vasily.B 529]

Geez, why? If you don't press the tilde key you won't see it anyway, and no, I do not think that error messages should be "optional", especially if they are non-obstrusive. I know that a lot of missions don't work since people did not enable error checking, I don't think allowing anyone to opt out of error messages is a good idea.

Remember there are people like me, that launches this game once per week, and want to play without seeing any error, and feel like playing beta.

[Alwarren 2765]

Remember there are people like me, that launches this game once per week, and want to play without seeing any error, and feel like playing beta.

 

And remember there are people like me that spent a lot of time making addons for free and are tired of hearing non-descript reports like "It doesn't work" or "it's broken" without giving the slightest shred of information. Most of them even don't know where to look for that information. So pardon me if you being offended by a temporary text display once a week doesn't make me shed a single tear.

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

Remember there are people like me, that launches this game once per week, and want to play without seeing any error, and feel like playing beta.

In that case why play on devbranch in the first place?

 

Cheers

[commy2 188]

Show as many error messages as possible. The more obstructive the better. It will force addon makers to fix bugs with their content and will make broken mods less attractive.

Behind every error message there is a problem. If not, then get rid of the error message.

[Vasily.B 529]

In that case why play on devbranch in the first place?

 

Cheers

What? I play on stable ONLY. Where did you readed i play on devbranch? I sugested it here, so developers would eventually think about it in dev branch, beacuse most of things presented on dev branch went to stable.

 

And remember there are people like me that spent a lot of time making addons for free and are tired of hearing non-descript reports like "It doesn't work" or "it's broken" without giving the slightest shred of information. Most of them even don't know where to look for that information. So pardon me if you being offended by a temporary text display once a week doesn't make me shed a single tear.

So optionally would be perfect solution for me and you.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

Show as many error messages as possible. The more obstructive the better. It will force addon makers to fix bugs with their content and will make broken mods less attractive.

Behind every error message there is a problem. If not, then get rid of the error message.

While I totally agree with you, some mods that are very much alive and active and supported by coding geniuses only get updated once every 3-6 months due to their scale. I play the game every single day. I don't see any reason why I should have to manually click past an error in say, CUP Terrains, literally hundreds of times over several months in the middle of the ACTUAL MISSION IN GAME while the CUP devs are aware of the hypothetical issue and there's nothing as a player I can do about it (not to point out CUP. Just using them as an example).

Why can't it simply show up in the radio chat? People could still read about the error and report it without having to physically stop playing to click ok every time we boot the game. I've never in my life played a game with such an intrusive error system.

[Varanon 892]

I love to 101% disagree. As mod makers or scripters, it is a self chosen fate to get bug reports with no meaningful explanations. I mean, it's the price for love and hugs... I tend to agree with the guys whose main meaning of life is not ArmA. Who start up ArmA once a week. They do not need to be presented a magnitude of error messages right in their face. Error messages, which they cannot understand and where the errors maybe do not have any influence on their playing session at all.

No forced education of the users!

 

I hope you are kidding here because if you don't, that's ridiculous.

Just for your kind information, Arma isn't the meaning of life for us modders either. But if getting shitty bug reports is a self-chosen fate, then it is YOUR damn self chosen fate if you have problems with the game that you start once a week.

Well, fine then, if you don't want error messages littering your precious once-a-week-experience, then don't use mods, and if you do, don't you DARE to complain about them not working.

No one is 'forcing' anything on you. Just don't use mods, then you will not have any problems.

 

[tortuosit 485]

I hope you are kidding here because if you don't, that's ridiculous.

Hmmm, I wanted to delete the heat, but you quoted me before... because some things deserve more time for discussing, which I not have. No. I am not kidding. And as for the casual "once per week ArmA starters". I am not talking about myself.

Shitty bugreports will always happen. Look at professionals, not only developers. They have to learn to deal with repetetive shit. Yes, modders do it for free for whatever reasons. But this fact does not change anything. Users are users.

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

I hope you are kidding here because if you don't, that's ridiculous.

Just for your kind information, Arma isn't the meaning of life for us modders either. But if getting shitty bug reports is a self-chosen fate, then it is YOUR damn self chosen fate if you have problems with the game that you start once a week.

Well, fine then, if you don't want error messages littering your precious once-a-week-experience, then don't use mods, and if you do, don't you DARE to complain about them not working.

No one is 'forcing' anything on you. Just don't use mods, then you will not have any problems.

Again, I'm pretty much on the same side on this as you, but is forcing the user to aknowledge the error and click ok in the middle of actual gameplay really the best approach? Like I said above, why can't it be moved to the radio chat area? Errors would still be seen but gameplay wouldn't be interrupted.

It doesn't make sense for non-fatal errors to get a UI pop-up like that.