XWAU 2020 Issues

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Re: XWAU 2020 Issues

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:34 pm

@aceazzameen87 @Geoffman72 @BattleDog

Before an installer is uploaded please try this fix. It's for the default "Azzameen" X-wing.
Place it in the DynamicCockpit folder. It should solve the issues.
Please let me know. Thanks :)

Edit: File removed
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Post by aceazzameen87 » Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:12 pm

The Dynamic Cockpits file did in fact fix the X-Wing Azzameen cockpit's radar globe. I was able test it, and found that it displayed correctly now. As for the Radio messages, attached are images of what the radio messages currently look like.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

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Post by AV8R » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:33 pm

A bit of good news - I discovered the cause of the cutscene performance frame drop issue: XWAHacker.exe (and, by extension, XWAHacker-qt.exe).

Frustrated by this whole experience, I completely wiped X-Wing Alliance from my PC and removed every file and registry entry off of my Windows installation. After a reboot, reinstall and configuration of GOG.com's X-Wing Alliance, I played through a few missions to make sure everything worked fine (which vanilla Alliance ALWAYS does) but didn't want to deal with the forced 800x600 resolution. So I redownloaded the 2020 Mega Patch and the new Update V2 and, without making ANY changes to the GOG installation files, went ahead and installed the Mega patch and Update. After install I did basic configuration for the video, sound and joystick options and started the game. No frame rate drop on the opening W-Wing/Tie chase. In fact, no appreciable frame rate drops anywhere during any animation/cutscene. So far so good.

Then, not wanting to disturb the current install or its executables (since it was actually working), I made a copy of XWingAlliance.exe and copied the file to a separate folder to open it with XWAHacker to add the FPS counter at the bottom of the screen (the ONLY tweak I did to the EXE). I backed up the original working XWingAlliance.exe file that was left in the active game folder, copied the XWAHacker modified EXE into the game folder and opened the game - and I was back to square one - the opening X-Wing/TIE chase ran dog slow again. I deleted the altered file and put the unaltered XwingAlliance.exe file back and things went back to normal frame rates again. Interesting.

So I made another copy of the working XWingAlliance.exe and simply opened it with XWAHacker, and without saving ANY CHANGES AT ALL, closed the program and copied the supposedly unaltered XWingAlliance.exe file into the active game folder and ran the game again - the opening chase sequence crawled again (no changes were made to the EXE, I simply opened the EXE with XWAHacker, made no changes and closed it). After putting the original untouched XWingAlliance.exe back again, everything ran fine.

Bottom line: XWAHacker alters the XWingAlliance.exe file in such a way that affects how it plays animations/cutscenes (the frame rates plummet during playback causing video/sound skipping and choppy playback). What XWAHacker is exactly doing to the EXE, I don't know, but you don't even have to make any real changes - just opening the EXE with XWAHacker is enough to ruin the file.

Now that I know what is causing the animation frame-rate drop, I will no longer use XWAHacker to alter the XWingAlliance.exe file for any reason since, whatever the Mega Patch installer is doing to the EXE to add extra capabilities and resolutions is fine, and more importantly it WORKS without causing any performance issues with the game. If you're having this same performance issue with animations/cutscenes playing back poorly, do a complete uninstall of the game, reboot and reinstall everything as they recommend here and it should work fine.
DO NOT USE ANY OTHER TOOL TO ALTER THE XWingAlliance.exe FILE OR YOU RISK BREAKING THE GAME.

In other news - even after this "win" there is still the crash on game exit situation going on (even after a completely clean reinstall as described above):

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: XWingAlliance.exe
Application Version: 2.0.0.2
Application Timestamp: 3765a9b7
Fault Module Name: Hook_Normals.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 6019a256
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00013be5
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3ac7
Additional Information 2: 3ac7b95e5273afc4a91adb0208cac5b3
Additional Information 3: 2681
Additional Information 4: 2681ab590962a9a1529662a5149ac0f2
Last edited by AV8R on Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:43 pm

Hello,
Can you attach your "Hook_Normals.dll" file?

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:46 pm

aceazzameen87 wrote:
Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:12 pm
The Dynamic Cockpits file did in fact fix the X-Wing Azzameen cockpit's radar globe. I was able test it, and found that it displayed correctly now. As for the Radio messages, attached are images of what the radio messages currently look like.
Thanks for testing. Full fix should be up later today.
I can not replicate that issue at all. Sorry. Not sure why the smallest change to XWA seems to alter things.

AV8R wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:33 pm
A bit of good news - I discovered the cause of the cutscene performance frame drop issue: XWAHacker.exe (and, by extension, XWAHacker-qt.exe).
SNIP
In other news - even after this "win" there is still the crash on exit situation still going on (even after a complete reinstall as described above):
That's really interesting info @AV8R. Again though it shows how hard it is to trouble shoot XWAU now.
Did you use the program or App version? And was it the latest.
If you hadn't mentioned using XWAHacker then we would never have known. I think we may need to put some of this info in an announcement.
I don't think there should be much need to use Hacker these days. I use Fraps for a counter but you can also apply one via the XWAExePatcher tool.
Thanks for your testing.
Chief XWAU Team annoying nitpicker.
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Post by AV8R » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:59 pm

JeremyaFr wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:43 pm
Hello,
Can you attach your "Hook_Normals.dll" file?
Here you go....
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

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AV8R
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Post by AV8R » Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:12 pm

Ace Antilles wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:46 pm
That's really interesting info @AV8R. Again though it shows how hard it is to trouble shoot XWAU now.
Did you use the program or App version? And was it the latest.
If you hadn't mentioned using XWAHacker then we would never have known. I think we may need to put some of this info in an announcement.
I don't think there should be much need to use Hacker these days. I use Fraps for a counter but you can also apply one via the XWAExePatcher tool.
Thanks for your testing.
You're welcome. The issue is caused by either version of XWAHacker (app or program using the latest version - I tried them both). But with so many options/tools created for this game over the years, it might be a good idea to dissuade people from using any tools other than what you're supplying through the official Mega Patches, Updates and Hooks on this site - and make it clear that the use of other tools beyond what you're offering here could cause performance/stability issues.

There is no reason why you guys need to try to troubleshoot anything other than existing GOG/STEAM installations that have been altered ONLY using the products you've created here. Anything else beyond that is a waste of resources/time (as I have now discovered). Sorry for my own failure to police my installation by not sticking to exactly what your patches were designed to do - add to the capabilities of the game engine within the parameters you've all carefully crafted and considered.

Now if we could just nail down the cause of that crash on exit issue.... :)

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JeremyaFr
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sun Apr 04, 2021 3:35 pm

AV8R wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:59 pm
JeremyaFr wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:43 pm
Hello,
Can you attach your "Hook_Normals.dll" file?
Here you go....
Your hook_normal.dll is up-to-date.
I don't know why it crashes at game exit.

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Post by Ace Antilles » Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:11 pm

@aceazzameen87 @Geoffman72 @BattleDog

The radar fix is now live with Update 2.1 in the download section.
Thanks again for your reports.
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Post by GABICV » Thu Apr 08, 2021 3:20 pm

Hi,

I've not seen this bug posted yet so here you go: I have an issue with the speed display on the X-Wing. I believe it appeared with the Update 2. At least I don't recall seeing it before.
As you can see on the screenshot, the first 2 digits of the speed are not visible.

Image

I did not check if I have the same issue on other crafts. Don't have time since I'm still fighting my B1M7 bug.

I'm playing on a Steam version with the Mega Patch and Update 2.1.

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Post by GABICV » Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:15 pm

Nevermind, the issue is fixed when NOT using the FR patch that I was previously using. Everything's good on the speed display now.

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Post by GABICV » Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:20 pm

AV8R wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:33 pm
In other news - even after this "win" there is still the crash on game exit situation going on (even after a completely clean reinstall as described above):

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: XWingAlliance.exe
Application Version: 2.0.0.2
Application Timestamp: 3765a9b7
Fault Module Name: Hook_Normals.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 6019a256
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00013be5
Same problem here, with the exact same report.

(and I'm done spamming this thread)

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Post by Ace Antilles » Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:24 pm

GABICV wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:20 pm
AV8R wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:33 pm
In other news - even after this "win" there is still the crash on game exit situation going on (even after a completely clean reinstall as described above):

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: XWingAlliance.exe
Application Version: 2.0.0.2
Application Timestamp: 3765a9b7
Fault Module Name: Hook_Normals.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 6019a256
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00013be5
Same problem here, with the exact same report.

(and I'm done spamming this thread)
Have you done what Jeremy advised you to do? Which is do a fresh Steam install. We believe Steam is causing a few minor issues.
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Post by GABICV » Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:43 pm

I did. Fresh Steam install, copied the whole XWA directory to another directory, then patched the new directory and played.

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Post by Ezwen » Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:58 pm

aceazzameen87 wrote:
Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:46 pm
I've also noticed something that is affecting all craft--text chatter does not appear across the top of the screen, nor does it appear in the MFD display showing mission update messages "X jumped to hyperspace. Y was disabled. Z was destroyed, etc." This includes radio messages.
Me and my brother are having the same problem on both our setups: all our radio messages are empty, all the time. We can only see the timestamps, but no messages. We do hear the audio of each message though, it's only the text version that is not shown.

Our configuration:
- X-wing Alliance GOG version
- XWAU 2020 Mega Patch
- XWAU 2020 Update Version 3.0
- XWA_TourMultiplayer_Hook_2.1.1

If anyone knows what could be the cause, we are interested!

EDIT: it turns out that the problem was due to having installed XWA_TourMultiplayer_Hook_2.1.1 atop the XWAU 2020 3.0 patch. If we only install XWAU 2020, without the 3.0 patch, then the XWA_TourMultiplayer_Hook_2.1.1 works perfectly, and radio messages work well once again! I suppose this hook needs to be updated to work with the 3.0 update.

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Post by SaintVezner » Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:05 am

I just finished a complete playthrough of the campaign after installing the latest version of the XWAU mod and using the GOG version of XWA. I'm pleased to say that it worked great with the exception of the AI Ion Canon bug (see the other thread in this section of the forum). Otherwise I was able to play the game with no game-breaking problems.

I have to say, THANK YOU to the creators of this mod. You've injected new life into the X-Wing franchise and made XWA better than ever. It was a blast to play through again!

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