Crashing during laser general challenge

[DasUgliEmu]

I have been experiencing frequent crashes during the above mentioned level, it happens around the 4th or 5th time Townes attacks with particle cannons; the most recent save has the crash occurring within a minute after starting; i cannot really do anything besides watch the game crash. It happened in previous/other saves as well.

I had changed the resolution to widescreen as well as camera height, however i switched it all back and even took out the options.ini file from the documents C&CG:ZH folder for the game to create a new one - nothing helps. I also tried opening the game as admin as well as downloaded the GenPatcher and installed the fixes, however nothing really changed, the game keeps crashing around the same time.

Something peculiar i noticed in the save game file folder was that there is a file called "gc_lasergeneral.map", it doesn't really seem like the right place for it; the map folder is completely empty.

Could it be a matter of excessive save file amount? Because i have around 275 saves, however i cannot imagine how that could be related to such a specific crash case.

The web offers several threads on same issue, however most of the solutions i have tried and so far nothing worked; i have not yet reinstalled the game from 0, that would be my next step.
Has anyone who has come across this same issue found a fix? A solution would be greatly appreciated :)

[Legionnaire]

For some reason this mission is just prone to crashing. I'd recommend saving every 3 to 5 minutes, and loading whenever there's a crash. In most cases, you'll be able to get further every time. I know it's not really a solution, but it's the best way to get through it. So ideally try and play this challenge a bit quicker to prevent encountering many crashes.

Some people have claimed that installing d3d8to9.dll or the Vulkan.dll have helped, but to my understanding, there is just something wrong with the map itself.

[last light of the library]

Originally posted by Legionnaire:

For some reason this mission is just prone to crashing. I'd recommend saving every 3 to 5 minutes, and loading whenever there's a crash. In most cases, you'll be able to get further every time. I know it's not really a solution, but it's the best way to get through it. So ideally try and play this challenge a bit quicker to prevent encountering many crashes.

Some people have claimed that installing d3d8to9.dll or the Vulkan.dll have helped, but to my understanding, there is just something wrong with the map itself.

It's the player transfer script's that do it.
each defence section on his base is classed as a different player it tries to swap the player sections over for the whole "can only power 1 part of his base at a time thing"
which doesn't always work and causes the game to crash.
I ran into that issue when i was converting the challenge to an ECA mission for ROTR.
Only way around it was to just have it entirely as 1 player and scrap the power transfer, map just bugs out, lag's or crash's if the scripts exist.

[Highrule -1]

I'm playing without any 3rd party apps and the mission works fine.

Originally posted by DasUgliEmu:

Something peculiar i noticed in the save game file folder was that there is a file called "gc_lasergeneral.map", it doesn't really seem like the right place for it; the map folder is completely empty.

Having that in the save folder is strange. Map folder being empty isn't strange, as GC maps aren't readily available there. As for what this means... I have no idea. I'm just sure that the map being there is an irregularity as you already guessed.

Originally posted by DasUgliEmu:

Could it be a matter of excessive save file amount? Because i have around 275 saves, however i cannot imagine how that could be related to such a specific crash case.

Probably not, but the game's old and old games are weird. If you don't value the saves you have, you could try to get rid of some/all of them and see if it changes anything.


You can ignore the above two posters, they have no idea what they're talking about. I started playing ZH around 2005, and through my active years I didn't see a SINGLE person asking about persistent crashes in Townes' mission. I've also played through the challenges hundreds of times over four different pc's and never have I noticed anything resembling a consistent crash on any mission. This doesn't mean a consistent crash doesn't exist (I believe you when you say you're having the issue), but it means that the reason for those crashes is 100% guaranteed NOT to be in the map itself. It's something on your end, and that means it CAN be fixed. Unfortunately, I'm not tech smart so I can't help you pinpoint (pun unintentional) the issue; however, this gives a hint at least:

Originally posted by Legionnaire:

For some reason this mission is just prone to crashing.

This would be a factually incorrect statement back in my heyday. If this is true nowadays, it points to some sort of issue with modern hardware.

[DasUgliEmu]

I just went though verifying the integrity of local files through steam and what was curious that a single file (who knows which one) needed to be replaced after every launch of the game, however the crash continues after verification process.

What i came upon was the ReleaseCrashInfo.txt file, where the info about last crash (just like all the previous ones) states:

"Last error:
Exception is access violation
WinMain at 401700
Error code: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION
Description: The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
Access address:00000004 was read from."

Perhaps this could lead or at least point towards a solution...

Originally posted by Highrule -1:

Unfortunately, I'm not tech smart

Same dude, same :(
I will poke around a bit, play with the save files a bit and if nothing works, i'll try reinstalling it. Might try to restart the level first tho, maybe i did something wrong while playing (while not necessarily the case in every crash, during the last save the super weapon is used very near the edge of the map, maybe the AI going over the map border is related to the reason of crashing, next time will avoid building close to the edges)

[Legionnaire]

Originally posted by Highrule -1:

You can ignore the above two posters, they have no idea what they're talking about.

No need to be rude.

Originally posted by Highrule -1:

Originally posted by Legionnaire:

For some reason this mission is just prone to crashing.

This would be a factually incorrect statement back in my heyday. If this is true nowadays, it points to some sort of issue with modern hardware.

I'm assuming you don't know me... I've helped many people with technical difficulties. Several hundreds over the past few years alone. It is not uncommon for people to create support tickets asking about crashes with this particular mission. The response made by last light of the library seems like a very reasonable explanation to me.

If you have anything that can help OP, please do share it.

[DasUgliEmu]

Alright, so i just managed to finish the mission (completely from the start) and the conclusion on my end is - do not build near the edges of the map so that the enemy super weapon would not go out of maps borders. As of now i have not discovered any other reason for the crash and i played quite similar to how i played when the crash did occur; for you to draw the enemy super weapon fire to a specific location, build a super weapon of your own, the AI will attempt to destroy that instead of other structures.

I am going through the challenges with every general, this was the first one, if the crash will occur again i will update the post.

[last light of the library]

ill add to that to make is somewhat easier.
the AI 90% of the time in base ZH uses super weapons on "highest value target in an area"
so basically if u want to bait the sw's, place the high value stuff in 1 area. a sw for eg, or in china's case an internet centre full of hackers.

[Highrule -1]

Originally posted by Legionnaire:

I'm assuming you don't know me...

Nope, and I don't particularly care about who you are either. To put things into perspective, if a little known person called xezon made your initial post, I would still rebuke it. And no matter who you are in today's community, I very much doubt your name has more weight behind it than xezon's.

Originally posted by DasUgliEmu:

Alright, so i just managed to finish the mission (completely from the start) and the conclusion on my end is - do not build near the edges of the map so that the enemy super weapon would not go out of maps borders. As of now i have not discovered any other reason for the crash and i played quite similar to how i played when the crash did occur; for you to draw the enemy super weapon fire to a specific location, build a super weapon of your own, the AI will attempt to destroy that instead of other structures.

I am going through the challenges with every general, this was the first one, if the crash will occur again i will update the post.

If you still read this topic, which map edge in particular was it? I'm trying to replicate the crash, but so far any beams that went off-map haven't crashed me

[DasUgliEmu]

Originally posted by Highrule -1:

If you still read this topic, which map edge in particular was it? I'm trying to replicate the crash, but so far any beams that went off-map haven't crashed me

Left side, just above the hospital, i had build a nuclear reactor just by the edge of the map (running quickly through the thread it seems i didn't mention this: i played with the China infantry general, one of the few that didn't get their challenge level, perhaps there's an issue with said general, though that would most likely be in the cut content).

If anything, i can find that specific save (and the saves before) and share them somehow (open to suggestions).

[Sacr1fIces]

As you have found out, The supply pile at the top left corner of the map is part that causes all the crashes when AI uses its particle cannons there, One thing i found out is that if the game is going to be crashing you got no choice but to restart the laser challenge instead of loading a previous save from that ongoing match because the AI will still uses its lasers at the said part of the map even if you sell all your buildings there, Thankfully It's not that big of a pain to restart this challenge since laser is of the easier opponents because you can just bait his particle cannons when they're ready with some simple build/cancel.

[last light of the library]

@highrule -1
You know Legion made Genpatcher right? and is probably one of the people who knows the most about the games code/engine and how things work.

I also listed up top why this map crash's.
The defence section and particle cannons work with the player transfer scripts which are bugged on this map causing the crash.

[DasUgliEmu]

Update on the same level with different general:
This time, while playing with the tank general (4th, had no issues whatsoever with: demolitions and superweapon generals) i finally decided to push forward with the suggested swarming/flanking strategy. Took a while to develop, however i managed to build 4 bases around the map, in each amassing a horde of tanks (battlemasters and gatling tanks) and tried to push into the enemy base from all directions at once. While the strategy works beautifully, at a moment when most of the tanks are in the enemy base wrecking havoc - the game freezes apart from the music, dropping to what i suspect could be around ~0.025 fps, perhaps even slower (it takes at least half a minute for the options menu to open after pressing ESC, nothing else moves/happens). So far i have not been able to continue with that particular save, will try it on a more powerful device. This level obviously, as stated before over and over again, has some fascinating issues

[last light of the library]

that's a map script issue more than likely the player transfer for the defence sections power firing constantly. a more powerfull device isn't going to make a difference, the solution is either to suffer the frame rate and just kill him, or dont attack from all side.
I just tend to brute force 1 side regardless of the defences, it's not to hard to keep the AI dozer sniped so it can't rebuild.