Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 16, 2019, 11:09 PM:

There is a new class in the Steam Workshop "Ethereal Blade".
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1865176502

I see this class is very good, but unfortunately when I try to open the Skill Menu in game, I experience a crash (I play on Mac OsX).

Note: Crashes occur with or without other Mods.

Can you ask the author about this?

Thank you.

@ the Author of this Mod:

I am aware that Mac users also experience Crashes with the Red Mage mod class in the past, not sure if that info will help however it's worth noting that only some mod classes cause this. Thanks for your time.

@steffire3

Thanks for the report, although I do not have a Mac to test and rectify the problem, all I can tell You that skill menu was not heavily modified whatsoever, the only thing that was changed was the skill icons, skill tree icons and their respective descriptions, everything else was left as it was.

I do not know what can cause this crash, but I will try to find solution for it, maybe there will be some tips on Red Mage class mod page. Also maybe there are any other Mac user that also have the same problem? Maybe the mod load order? But if it's played without any other mod that shouldn't be the case.

I'll look into it.

EDIT: I had similar problems long ago with some custom class (but it was not with skill menu, the game crashed when I loaded the class into game) and apparently my mod save file (there are 2 saves - normal 'save' for vanilla and 'modsave' for modded games) was corrupted and had to be created anew, maybe he could back it up, and first check it if it helps?

Just in case, when in mod loader, make it that Ethereal Blade is at complete bottom of the list, it doesn't use any external mod assets, but it's better if its there just for safety reasons.

Really sorry for not creating topic myself, I was kinda lately all over the place and to be frank, I quite forgot about it.

@ Gurei (author) : Thanks for your reply! I will pass your response and info to Sch123 over on Discord and then return with his answer if given.

I admit the Mac issue is a difficult one to solve as it's not the first time in TL2 mod history for them nor is the Red Mage the only one. In fact I should ask Sch123 if he remembers which Classes gave him problems and whether the Skill Window was related in those cases.

Sch123 is a rather active mod tester and has provided much feedback on various mod classes so he will hopefully be able to relay more info on the matter regarding Mac crashes and Class lists.

@ steffire3:

Great! Pass me any information regarding that problem at your nearest convenience, I already scouted through Red Mage mod page, and sadly I couldn't find any bug report regarding skill window crash (or maybe im just blind)

Even more, I scouted through some net and found that same crash apparently happened to someone playing vanilla Engineer (probably it was in some way modded, but still - it wasn't a custom class).

The only thing that comes to my head is that modded save file which I mentioned in last reply. There are data there regarding any modded playthrough with mods - if there was in some custom class mod, by some miniscule chance an asset in skill tree named identically like in this mod, that TECHNICALLY could create some reaction, whether a crash or anything else. Starting a new modsave file would give me a hint if its related to other mods, or this one alone.

I will try to help as much as I can, but because I do not have access to Mac myself, its gonna be a tough cookie.

@ Gurei (author):

Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 18, 2019, 6:10 AM:

This is what I experienced, I crashed when I wanted to open the Skill Menu. When I click it crashes right away.
This also makes me unable to test any further. I hope this can be fixed.

I suspect that there is some skill or the other cause that makes crashes happen, but I don't really understand much about this.

Yes, there are classes that crash when played on Mac OS, such as:

- Red Mage, the mod crashes immediately. But there's a slight improvement in the Variant Class mod, where Red mage does not cause a crash at the start, but will still crash when we want to use that class.
- Theolentist, there are some skills that cause crashes when used.
- Ember Sage, there is one skill that causes crashes when used.

Note: there is one class that previously had the same problem as Red Mage but now it can be used [Variant Mod], which is the Elemental Blade Dancer class.

I've asked Sch123 if he remembers which Skills of the Theolentist and Ember Sage crash his Mac.

I understand how difficult it is investigating Mac issues without one. I thank you for your efforts, regardless how this ends we appreciate your help.

@steffire: Okay so, let's get some things clear just in case, that's how I'm interpreting this situation:

1. Sch123 reported that EB mod crashes when opening skill window on Mac.
2. He had problems with crashes using some other custom classes mods, but in different circumstances - using skills/selecting class/crashing at game start.
3. He did not have the same thing happened to him before - crashing the moment he opened skill window.

Does he backed up and created new modsave file like I mentioned earlier? (only for test purposes) If not, is it possible for him to do so? I could rewrite and remap all the skill tree assets to check if it will help, but it's quite troublesome, may take me some time and potentially generate additional bugs with skill affixes and triggerables.

And if skill tree assets are not at fault here but something else, I'd rather not rewrite skill tree if possible.

I do want to help but I need some form of starting point.

EDIT: Also, is there a crash error message whatsoever? Is it the same or different?

@ Gurei (author) : It appears he missed that point on the Back up - new Save so I'll ensure I get that info from him.

Indeed, having assisted several modders in the past I understand it's much better to gain as much info as possible before deep diving for issues.

I will relay all this to him.

@ steffire3: Let me know how it ends with the save file, I had similar problems with custom classes in the past and constant crashes. Modsave files were broken and had to be manually deleted, and then created anew by game after first start with mod loader.

I've read that it happens pretty often with people who install lots of mods which may fiddle or influence each other in/directly, so that could be a guess what happened in this case, but in the meantime I'm currently scurrying through UI's and Skill Tree data to see if I can find something.

@ Gurei (author) :

Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 18, 2019, 5:09 PM:

Theolentist Class:
- Crash when used "Anaerobic Acolytes" , "Intelligent Design" , "Sepulchre" skill .

Ember Sage:
- Crash when trying to use "Ice Titan" skill.

When I do tests I always play clean to avoid problems with save games & other mods, I also clean logs. So there is no save game other than the one I will test.
After the first stage (test without other mod) there is no problem then I'll goes to the stage 2, which is test for compatibility with other mods.

I also asked about his Crash Message on the Ethereal Blade class. Will hope to add that if answered.

@steffire3: Hey there, In recent build I sneaked in a bit of work I did on skill tree. There were essentially no errors, but I remade whole skill tree from scratch just in case - maybe that can help.

Let Sch123 know so he can test it whether or not it works for him.

@ Gurei (author) :

I will inform Sch123 to test the mod again. He also expanded on his previous info:

Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 18, 2019, 9:53 PM:

I don't really understand what he means, does he mean Mac Crash Report? if yes, then there is a message notifying you but the contents only say that there is a problem with the App you have or just notice that the App is not suitable for Mac.
But if he means Crash Report like what happened in GUTS, it doesn't show up.

In conclusion, Crash Report is not very helpful for this. But from experience when Doudley fixed the Blade Dancer class, he changing the problematic GUIDs and Textures and fixing missing Tags, so that the class could be played on Linux & Mac.

I suspect the problem is in Textures that are not suitable for Macs. Because this often happens, for example in one of the skins in the Variant pet Crawler & Goba (Starwars). Previously the skin caused crashes, and after repairing the texture image the crash had not happened again. What Korzeam did is replaced it with the DXT5 format.

@ steffire: Ok, now I know what could be the cause, it may be related to custom textures used in creating skill tree icons. GUTS usually forced me to use .dds format for textures, so it may be something related to its compression etc. (I used gimp with .dds export plugin for it to work).

I'll try to fiddle with other texture format so it could be used on Mac without any crashes. When I'm done, I will create a seperate mod build just for Sch123, and upload it on google drive for him to download it.

EDIT: It seems that plugin has also possibility to use DXT5 compression for said DDS textures, I'll try to compress all of them to DXT5 and then send the link, or just upload new build to steam.

@ Gurei (author) :

Thanks for your help and working attempts to fix this. It's very generous and we highly appreciate it! It also helps to shed some light on texture formats and is a great boon for compatibility.

@ steffire3: Just released a new build with all textures in whole mod now replaced with DDS files with additional DXT5 compression. Let me know if this will help.

@ Gurei (author) :

This first message was written before the DXT5 version release: Grateful!

Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 19, 2019, 3:14 AM:

I have tried "Ethereal Blade (v.184)" and as a result, crashes still occur. It's looks like I have to wait for the next fix, maybe changing Texture format to DTX5 will solve the problem (I'm hoping).

I'm also grateful because he is willing to help Mac users to be able to enjoy the classes he has created.

This second message was written after the DXT5 version was released: Success!

Originally posted by By "Sch123" in Discord on September 19, 2019, 5:08 AM:

There is good news, I've tried "Ethereal Blade (v.187)" with the improved DTX5 format. The result is now no more crashes when trying to open the skill menu.

And as soon as I tried the skills, there seemed to be no crash problems. I will try to test it further and see if there is a problem or not.

@ Gurei, Thank you for fixing Crash that occurs on Mac OS users.
@ Steffire, Thank you for bothering you to deliver a message to @ Gurei.

My thanks to you Gurei for going to great lengths to attempt fixes and then re-compress all the textures once that was suggested! ^_^