[WIP] - SH3Weather Update 1.5

[Skweetis]

RELEASED!!! LINKS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!!!

Hi All,

Im back after a long break, the birth of my son last year has demanded much of my time. This resulted in some neglect of the SH3Weather application, which I have corrected now for the upcoming release.

Here is a list of what has been changed for version 1.5

- Adjustment of random weather values/intervals based on personal testing, user suggestions and positive feedback of the GWX default weather settings.
- Implemented full installation package.
- Corrected issue with WINDRAND= key being removed from scenario files if October or November are selected for patrol month. (thanks to Lurker_hlb3 for finding this one)

**Additional features ONLY available when used with SH3Commander 2.6 or greater**
- Read Month and Flotilla when launched via SH3Commander and select them automatically. User will still be able to manually configure weather through the SH3Weather 1.5 interface, but not month or flotilla.

Note: This program writes directly to specific values in your campaign (*.mis) files rather than overwrite the entire file itself, and therefore is compatable with any mod(s) that you may have installed. Source code for the SH3Weather program (written in Visual Basic 6 SP6) is freely available to anyone who PM's me for it, PROVIDED NO PART OF THE CODE OR PROGRAM IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL/FINANCIAL GAIN. SH3Weather is provided free of charge, with no warranties or guarantees, express or implied.

Jscones has also been generous in offering to host the SH3Weather program on his site, as has Mr_Chris via FileFront, so the new version will be easier for most users to get than the current RapidShare option. The addresses for download will be made available when the release is built.

Also, please PLEASE PLEASE!!!! use this thread only to notify me of problems or suggestions with the version you are using. BE SURE TO LET ME KNOW WHICH VERSION IT IS!!!!

Thanks to all for your patience in my absence, and for the support and encouragement many of you have given me.

If you have any questions or support issues related to SH3Weather, you can PM me here at subsim.com

Thanks a million to Lurker_hlb3, TheLuckyOne17 and Jscones for their invaluable help in testing, troubleshooting and guidance in producing this upcomming version. Extra special thanks to Jscones and Mr_Chris for hosting!

DOWNLOADS:

Jonesoft: http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/sof...eather_1_5.exe Courtesy of Jscones.

FileFront: http://files.filefront.com/Setup_SH3Weather_1_5exe/;6612411;;/fileinfo.html Courtesy of Mr_Chris.

Cheers,

James

[ReallyDedPoet]

Look forward to it, thanks.

[rudewarrior]

Hi, looking forward to the new version!!!

Just wondering if you have happened to notice this post:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=103091?

I have been having this issue as well, and I am wondering (assuming SH3 Weather is the issue) has it been corrected?

Again, thanx for the excellent work.

[Jimbuna]

Sounds good mate...and congrats on you family addition

[ReallyDedPoet]

If you use SH3 manually rather than through SHCommander, will this work if you have multiple installs.

[bigboywooly]

You can start SH3 weather on its own
If you have SH3commander it starts it for you

Either way you can use it

[Skweetis]

Actually, this issue about save game crashes.... I wonder, those of you that are having it: are you saving when in the vicinity of a large convoy? I have in the past (in fact from the beginning of SH3's release) had issues where I was unable to load a save that was made while attacking or trailing a large convoy.

Just curious if these are the same circumstances under which others are experincing this problem, especially with how most of the major mods do increase the size of convoys (and by no fault of their own..) the SH3 save engine cannot handle that many objects when saving....

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Jamie

PS - Damn, im gone for a spell, come back, and I have the accursed Medic as my avatar.... *shudders*

[theluckyone17]

Nope... at least, not for me. It's difficult to say what the cause of it is, simply 'cause it takes so long to replicate the problem. The last time I had the issue, though, I resolved it simply by reopening SH3Weather, reapplying the weather changes, exiting from SH3Weather, then firing up SH3Commander to start SH3.

I haven't suffered from this bug since I found the fix above, but the next time I do, I'll document my steps, and save before/after copies of the configuration files to see if we can nail this bug to the wall.

Edit: Hey! I've got Popeye for my avatar! WOOT! Next time I get a HK tailing me, I'll tie him to Bernard along with a sack of spinach cans, toss 'em over the side, and wait for the Brit's to pick them up.

Edit #2: Speak of the devil. It happened again. Gimme a sec, and I'll post up my research.

[theluckyone17]

Allrighty... I'm back. So here's the sequence of events:
Saved the game the way I usually do earlier this afternoon: Save the game, then use the "Save and Exit" option, selecting the same file, and hitting "Cancel" when it asks me to overwrite. Exit out of the game as usual (this way, I'm not abandoning the career). Did not rollback SH3Commander.

Restarted SH3 by SH3Commander after picking the wife up from work and returning home. Reloaded the game, just to have the bug hit. Closed out of SH3 via "Alt-F4". Did not roll back SH3Commander.

Saved a copy of the Campaign and Cfg directories, along with the requested SH3Weather.log file. Ran SH3Weather, selected September and Random, had SH3Weather do its thing, then closed it. Copied the directories and the log file to another directory. Restarted SH3 and reloaded. Same problem occurred.

Saved and exited this time, saving to the "Bug" file. Attempted to restart the original bugged "ToPatrol" saved game. Bug hits again, boat's at the bottom of the ocean. Saved the game to the "Bug" file again. Used the usual procedure to save & exit. Rolled back SH3Commander this time.

Reran SH3Weather, selecting Random September weather again. Saved the directories and the log file again. Started SH3 back up, loading the "ToPatrol" game. Successful. The bug did not occur.

Here's the final SH3 Weather Log:
#2007-01-05 13:56:14#,"1","0","0","0","193","1","1","0","1","1 1",9,3,#FALSE#
#2007-01-05 16:53:34#,"1","0","0","0","76","1","1","0","1","11 ",9,3,#FALSE#
#2007-01-05 17:09:16#,"1","0","3","6","4","1","1","0","1","11" ,9,3,#FALSE#

My installed Mod's, according to JSGME:
GWX - No Medals on Crew
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - 16km Atmosphere
GWX - Dec 23rd Corrections
Longer Repair Times LITE v1.31 (GWX compatible)
(along with GWX, obviously)

I'm going to try copying back those original files from the first backup, and see what happens.

Update: I rolled back SH3Commander, and copied the original corrupted files (then entire Campaign and Cfg directories), and reproduced the crash. Now I'll copy the new, working, directories back, and verify that they're still working. Then we get to compare the files, and see what SH3 doesn't like, right?

[Skweetis]

Lucky, thanks for the detailed information, Im going to do some more investigating! Keep it coming, cause if SH3 Weather is causing this bug, I want to make sure its good and squashed in the next release.

Im just leaving work now, and will look at this in further detail when I get home in about an hour.

CHeers, and thanks for the information.

James

[theluckyone17]

Alrighty .

Continued research: It's definitely the campaign files. I've got the original campaign files saved, and the new files that work. If I copy the original campaign files over the working copy, SH3 bugs out. Copy the working files back, and SH3 works perfectly fine.

I diff'd/compared the campaign files, and here are the results:
Corrupted Campaign_LND.mis:
Line 11: Fog=0
Line 17: WindHeading=193
Line 18: WindSpeed=0

Working Campaign_LND.mis:
Line 11: Fog=3
Line 17: WindHeading=4
Line 18: WindSpeed=6

Corrupted Campaign_RND.mis:
Line 11: Fog=0
Line 17: WindHeading=193
Line 18: WindSpeed=0

Working Campaign_RND.mis:
Line 11: Fog=3
Line 17: WindHeading=4
Line 18: WindSpeed=6

Corrupted Campaign_SCR.mis:
Line 11: Fog=0
Line 17: WindHeading=193
Line 18: WindSpeed=0

Working Campaign_SCR.mis:
Line 11: Fog=3
Line 17: WindHeading=4
Line 18: WindSpeed=6

Edit: Corrected file names.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Skweetis

Additional features ONLY when used with SH3Commander 2.7 or greater
- Read Month and Flotilla when launched and select them automatically. User will still be able to manually configure weather, but not month or flotilla.

Really looking forward to this - I actually started passing the necessary parameters to SH3Weather back in R2.6 (when the feature was first added), hoping that you'd modify it to read and use them.

Anything that makes it easier for players.

[Skweetis]

Fixed the version compatability, thanks for the heads up J!

Im dillegently getting back into this, and resolving this crash issue... interesting that the different MIS files make a difference, as I always thought the MIS weren't read on save load.

There seems to be a pattern there with wind and Fog being 0 for the "corrupted" campaign files.

For reference, the log file contains the values written to the campain files as follows:

Now, Clouds, Rain, Fog, WindSpeed, WindDir, CloudsRand, PrecipRand, FogRand, WindRand, Interval, SelectedMonth, Season, InMedSea <==Edit: removed PHP tags for better readability

That's snipped directly from the code that writes the log entry.

Thanks for the additional info Lucky, we'll get to the bottom of this.

James

[Hartmann]

Downloading now

thanks

[Skweetis]

Lucky,

Is that log posting a cut and paste job? or did you type it in manually?

The reason I ask, is that the first line in the log, which also happens to correspond with the "Corrupted" campaign entries you posted, the interval value is "1 1", this should be "11", I am curious where the space is comming from, and if it is somehow being generated by the program, that may be what is causing the problem....

Let me pick apart the code...


Ill be back.

James