"Missing map" error, problem with writing permissions (?)

[NeoAssassin]

UPDATE 05/07/2021: There seems to be a successful workaround for server operators to prevent any issues with downloading files that has been discovered by Pikouchu and posted by SuperConker.

So to all server operators; you can workaround any downloading issues by using uncompressed (not BZ2) files on a FastDL server.

There's an error that will occur sometime when a level has been downloaded that will say that the map is missing once it's been done downloading. As far as we know, this is a glitch with Windows, since there is nothing within the game code that is controlling the writing permissions for the game. Therefore we cannot fix this within the game code, we can only offer some things for you to try and workaround this issue.

We thought this was an issue with Windows, but it appears this will happen with Linux as well. So we're still unable to determine the cause of this problem, or if there's something that we can fix. Try some of these workarounds and let us know if they fix the issue for you.

Potential workarounds for clients (players) include;

• Restart the game.
  
• Restart Windows.
  
• Take an in-game screenshot (not Steam overlay screenshot) through the screenshot console command.
  
• Uninstall then download and (re)-install Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (32 bits (x86)) from Microsoft Download Center[www.microsoft.com]. (ZPS is not an ARM or 64 bit (x64) application, so you don't need to (re)install these.)
  
• Keep your Windows 10 and Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable installations up-to-date through Windows Update.
  
• Play ZPS on Linux. (Doesn't fix the problem.)

The most effective workaround will likely be to just restart the game. If that doesn't work, try again another time or two, and if that doesn't work either then try restarting your PC. Uninstalling then reinstalling the Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable may fix the problem entirely for you, so it could also be worth a try.

Because this is most likely a writing permissions issue with the game, this will prevent the game from writing any file whenever the issue occurs. So this issue extends further beyond just levels, it goes for screenshots taken through the in-game commands (not screenshots through Steam overlay, those will still work), recording demos, writing configs or caches or other such files, just to name a few.

We're very sorry for this inconvenience. We'll look into any leads we might get about what could be causing this. But as it stands, there's nothing more that we can do.

[Silence]

Since we know that this issue is, most likely, a permissions-related issue (with Windows no less, which is not a surprise), there may be other workarounds that might work as well. With the assumption that this problem is a client-side permissions issue on Windows (a server side issue would have been far easier to detect, imo), there are at least two ways (with varying degrees of escalation) that you, the user, could also resolve/alleviate this issue if the workarounds listed by the developers do not work:

1. Give the ZPS executable and its associated directories read/write/modify permissions. This does NOT mean running the game in admin mode or just giving the ZPS executable full access permissions for everything on your computer. It means looking into what permissions the ZPS files/directories/executable have and giving them the proper permissions it needs to read/write/modify files correctly within its own directories so that it can actually download the files from the server and write them to the proper ZPS directory. Sometimes, files/directories that are downloaded through Steam will inhereit the same permissions properties as the directories they were installed to, even if the service that wrote them is in admin mode, which might result in the problems some users are seeing when downloading files. Checking/changing the file/directory permissions of ZPS might fix this problem.
   
2. Lower the UAC security settings in Windows so that it allows reading/writing/modifying in general and does not suspect applications like ZPS of being suspicious/malicious. This does NOT mean turning off UAC or disabling it completely (even if it is an annoyance most of the time). There are mixed feelings about UAC across the multitude of communities out there dealing with anything from games to general system access/security. However, for most users, including those that aren't exactly savvy with computers, UAC helps prevent them from doing something careless by accident. Kinda like (annoying) training wheels. However, there are times where UAC does become over-zealous in its quest to "protect" you from yourself or the things you install, so it is likely that this either contributes or is the issue as UAC will block applications from writing/modifying files if security is set too high.

In general, these two things might be the problem that most users are facing when getting files from the server, especially when using Windows 7, 8, and 10 (Windows 10 particularly likes to reset/change some things during its scheduled updates, so it is likely that if you've done this before, you should double-check your settings again just in case). However, if none of those work, you may, in extreme cases, need to give escalated privileges to the ZPS executable and its files/folders or disable UAC. While these are generally not advised in some cases, looking around the internet, you will find a few articles or posts about Steam, UAC, and other such things where they suggest you do this to either see if it works or as a solution to the problem. Being that this game is running on the Source engine, you will most likely have to look at a number of permissions options/workarounds for the game and its files in order to fix the issue of ZPS not being able to download/install maps correctly since the problem is that ZPS is just not writing the file to the disk after it downloads it. Issues like this have happened in the past with games like ZPS before on Windows and the general idea was that it was only possible to fix in one or both ways listed above. It was not something the devs of these games could fix so easily and as time goes along and Windows attempts to "protect" its users from themselves, stuff like this is bound to happen.

Finally, if you decide to go with the workarounds listed above, please be sure to do your homework and take care not to be careless when dealing with your own OS system and its security. Also, to make this perfectly clear, the suggestions listed are from a 3rd party and NOT a suggestion by the game's developers. Neither myself or anyone else is responsible for what happens if you are too careless and do not take the time to look into the pros/cons of making these kinds of changes. With that said, there is a large amount of information out there that can help you figure out how to do all of this safely, but you will need to look into that yourself and determine if that will help you or not. Hopefully this helps or was insightful.

[|{sT}| SuperConker]

After a lot of testing on Windows (7 and 10) and also under Linux/Ubuntu (20.04 LTS)
it would appear that this Missing Map error shows up no matter what OS you use.

Screenshot under Windows:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1777209501312784634/FB06244E1F886A05822432F57293EEA4C297956F/

Video under Windows:
https://youtu.be/9NdhAMju2_w
Screenshot under Ubuntu:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1777209501312785101/852B57A528F771C154928B7C613580CD474764E5/
(Yes, that is really how the loading-screen looks under Ubuntu lol)




Looking inside the map-folder right after this "Missing Map" error shows up,
shows that there is no traces of the map there (under Windows 7/10).

On Ubuntu however, the game leaves the compressed ".bz2" file behind,
(after receiving the Missing Map error):

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1777209501312862441/0A0E3C67F378852286CE6DB04F4920B78C4EADC2/

This is not supposed to happen by the way, and makes it so you cannot rejoin the server (restarting the game does not help either).

So under Ubuntu, you basically have to close the game and delete the ".bz2" file first
(or you can extract it and keep the ".bsp" but not the ".bz2").




So that is what happens if a FastDL/Redirect is being used on a server.

Sadly, removing the FastDL/Redirect does not solve the issue either.


If you take FastDL away, by removing the whole sv_downloadurl from your server's server.cfg.

Then the download simply hangs at "1 seconds remaining" and never completes:
https://youtu.be/c6U7QhuRxLU



After a long talk with NFO, it is confirmed that the ".bz2" files are downloaded correctly
from their FastDL/Redirect (the staff at NFO checked the logs and confirmed this).

This all tells us that FastDL is not the issue, but rather something about the game itself.

This is further supported by the fact that Ubuntu leaves the ".bz2" file behind
(the ".bz2" file is a complete file, and can be successfully extracted).


This could all be a Writing Permissions issue still, but it is present under Ubuntu as-well
(and not just Windows).

[NeoAssassin]

There seems to be a successful workaround for server operators to prevent any issues with downloading files that has been discovered by Pikouchu and posted by SuperConker.

So to all server operators; you can workaround any downloading issues by using uncompressed (not BZ2) files on a FastDL server.[/b]