Objects move?

[thobson 38]

Can an Object be displaced from where it appears?

I hope someone can help me avoid a very serious sense of humour breakdown.

How to describe this?

I have a cut scene in the attic of one of the three storey buildings that come as standard on Malden.

Originally I had it so the cut scene started when the player got to the top of the ladder.  It worked perfectly in the mission editor but in the pbo file the action to climb the ladder was missing.  This was the subject of a different thread called Lost Actions.  From that thread you will see that even with the same pbo file one person did get the action to climb the ladder but all the others did not.  Same file!!

It seems there is no solution to this random bug so I set about solving the problem in a way that doesn’t involve climbing the ladder, just getting to the bottom of it.  Near the bottom of the ladder is BuildingPos 3 so as soon as the player enters the building I create a Game Logic and move it to BuildingPos 3 and then when the player gets close to the Game Logic the cut scene starts by transporting the player to one of the BuildingPos on the top floor.  This also works perfectly in the mission editor.  So I created a pbo file and played the mission to this point (nearly 1 hour) and guess what?  Not only is there no action to climb the ladder but the cutscene does not start!!  Back to the mission editor – still works.  Create a new pbo file but this time teleport the player nearby to save the hour it takes to get there – and it works!!

Clearly something so unpredictable is totally unacceptable.

One possible explanation is that somehow the building is over time displaced from where it is visually represented so the ladder and the BuildingPos with its Game Logic are a few feet outside the building.  I am clutching at straws to get any explanation.  

Anyway whatever the reason – does anyone have any experience of this sort of behaviour and have an explanation?

I do notice that objects I have placed on the map can move vertically by several feet over time. especially if the terrain detail is not set to normal – could it be that objects that are already on the island move laterally as well?

[ACF 0]

Thinking aloud: could the apparent movement be a consequence of saving/resuming the game and ever-so-slight corruption of the saved files, rather than just time elapsed? (Not sure why I'm thinking this, I have to admit.) How many kosher saves would you expect in an hour of the mission?

In the next version, if you have a radio slot spare, might it be worth setting one up to hint the coordinates of three or four 'fixed' objects across the island? I'm sure the crew would be happy to record them every hour or so to see what variations there are against time elapsed and saves. Same goes for any other data you might think worth acquiring.

[thobson 38]

I did save a few times (about 3 or 4 I think) but didn't do a restore. I have set up the radio trigger to record some locations and will just leave it to soak for a while.

The mental image I now have is that buildings have an invisible structure - the location of BuildingPos; the locations of actions to climb ladders etc. etc. and a visible structure and that over time these move apart. It would fully expalin all the symptoms seen so far. I mentioned one person who was able to get the climb ladder action. Well later on in the mission he couldn't.

I will report back.

[Garcia 0]

Well, how about making a simple mission, where you got 1 man and 1 game logic...you move the game logic to the position of the ladder, and then (if you got the time) you could use a radio trigger on repeatedly and setpos the unit (you) to the game logic every hour or so. That way, you should be setposed to a different location of than the bottom of the ladder after maybe 1 hour, and then even longer from it after 2 hours...

The perfect way of testing this would be to let your computer stay on over night and then test it

[thobson 38]

Thanks. Already in hand. Couldn't do it last night but will over the next few days. This is a mission that I have soak tested from Sunday to Friday several times just to make sure my code works in the long run. It is a bit disappointing to find that the BIS code starts falling apart after less than an hour. If that is indeed what is happening - though I can think of no other explanation at the moment.

[thobson 38]

I take it back.  buildingPos do not move relative to buildings over time.  I just put a Game Logic at a buildingPos and used a radio hint to get the location of the GL, the buildingPos and the building.  11 hours later they were in exactly the same place.  The action to climb the ladder was still there and my cutscene started so something else is going on.  I will now dream up a differnet test to find the problem.

[thobson 38]

I have found the problem. Saving and restoring the mission moves the location of buildingPos a looong way from where they were before the save.

[Garcia 0]

Well, that's a ugly bug

Good thing I only make MP missions