SA Map Cleaner Problem

[dertyjerzian]

I've recently been able to return to work on SA. I used Steve's map cleaner. I added my own custom object. There's definately nothing wrong with my data input. My IPLs and

IDEs and GTA.dat are all correct. I've checked everything down to the last drop. Upon loading a new game to test, the loading freezes and goes into an endless loop of music, and stays at the first splash screen. I've exhausted my knowledge and need help to figure out what's wrong. I'm wondering if anybody else has the problem or knows what to do about it.

[steve-m]

I'm not sure there really exists a logical explanation for these things. For some people it works without adding anything, for others it crashes. The general "rule of thumb" seems to be adding several custom objects, until it doesn't crash anymore...

 

If I find some time this summer I might make a new version of the Map Cleaner, which takes better care of the dependencies between files/objects, maybe the current version messes something up there.

[dertyjerzian]

Hey Steve. Long time, no talk. Hope all is well over there. My problem isn't that it's crashing. It's that it loads about 1/3 of the way then the screen stays at the first splash screen with 1/3 loading bar and music playing.

 

So, where it usually flashes a little and spawns me inside the hydra, it just hangs at the first loading screen playing music.

 

This is my mom typing since I don't have the internet at my new apartment.

 

Hoping to hear back soon.

[DexX]

Its odd for sure. If i run the map cleaner on an install of SA that i've already been modding, it seems to load fine without adding any extra objects.

However, if i do a fresh install of SA, and run map cleaner on that, then it won't fully load until a map object is added. Stranger yet, once i get the game to work, i can delete that object, and it will still load, even though it wouldn't initially!

 

but yea, the only universal solution seems to be adding objects until it works. seems to work for me with just one object added, so you shouldn't need to create a whole map just to get the game to load.

[steve-m]

Hmm, what about rebuilding the archive? My tool doesn't do that, it just removes the files from the list, maybe there's something odd that confuses the game?

[dertyjerzian]

Hey this topic is filling up with superstars.

 

That usually was the case for me, too. And this time it might be as well, because it was a fresh install. Since I backed up the entire installation before I cleaned the map, I'm gonna be able to save some time and not have to install SA for 20 minutes!

 

What I'm going to do now is make three or four more test objects and see if that clears things up for me.

 

I was worried that maybe it was the hardware on the computer that I'm using, so this is good news to me.

 

I'll update, but in the meantime, if anyone else came across this problem and found a solution, your input would be much appreciated.

 

I'm crossing my fingers that you're right, DexX. Cause I've got lots of neato stuff to put in the game, once I'm able.

 

P.S. Has anybody been able to get the external scripts like pool, arcade games, sprunk machine, etc. working with a SCM that has the mission strip?

 

Will update later. Thank you, guys.

 

P.S.S. Hope to see mapcleaner up to version 1.0 this summer, Steve. I'll tough it out till then.

 

Happy modding everbody. I'll be more active when I have access to the internet again.

[dertyjerzian]

I tried adding a few objects. The game still stops responding and does not get past 1/3 loading. I don't know what to do from here. So here's a slight bump in case anybody else whose had this problem comes acrossed the topic.

[NathanHenry]

Actually to tell you the truth I had this problem with the SA Map Cleaner too where I would map clean a SA folder of mine and when I would start the game it would crash but the Map Cleaner works when I Map Clean it and then add the Liberty City SA mod right away.

 

dertyjerzian: Tip of advice it might be the long version of getting the map cleaner but here it is. "Since Map Cleaner usually crashes the game but never crashes the game when you use a TC project with the Map Cleaner like VC on SA engine, LC on SA engine, etc, try using a TC project after using map cleaner and make sure that works then erase the ipls and ides and redo the gta.dat and add in your stuff.

 

steve m: Hey steve m is there a chance of editing the exe of map cleaner or another associated file to allow someone to edit the menu so that you can choose what to get rid of like say if you wanted a clean map with interiors or if you only want to get rid of San Fierro and keep Los Santo and Las Venturas?

[steve-m]

steve m: Hey steve m is there a chance of editing the exe of map cleaner or another associated file to allow someone to edit the menu so that you can choose what to get rid of like say if you wanted a clean map with interiors or if you only want to get rid of San Fierro and keep Los Santo and Las Venturas?

That's not possible with this version of the Map Cleaner, because it doesn't keep track of the dependencies between ipl/ide/col/dff/txd files properly. You could try to simply uncomment the interiors in the gta.dat, and rename the interior img, so the tool thinks they are not there, and later rename them back, but I doubt it works.

[NathanHenry]

actually I did that once and the Map Cleaner couldn't finish cleaning the map because it couldn't identify a Interior folder to erase. Will there possibly be a new verson of map cleaner coming out with the ability to choose what folders you want to clean.

[Mercenary1st]

i been trying ur map cleaner thing for couple months every couple weeks i get somthing new first it was that message with problem with mapcleaner thigny then it would just turn off and not work now its saying invalad pointer aporation and shuts off when i try it on a new installed SA. with a modded SA its get all the way to levelmap and then says invalad pointer thingy i really need to use this cause i want to try the SA LC mod.

[dertyjerzian]

Visiting my mom, she's been typing all of this for me. I still havent gotten this to work as it did before.

 

Clean map, drop in the new water.dat, drop in the stripped SCM, drop in a few objects and.... Nothing. Just 1/3 load, stuck at the first splash screen. Sometimes I can alt+tab out enough to End the Process, other times I am forced to hard-shutdown, which sucks for obvious reasons.

 

I am depressed about this. I'll do it man. tee hee.

 

I'm going to download the LC/SA mod, or another TC, whatever I can find and try NathanHenry's suggestion. Although, allow me toc point out, the game doesn *not* crash, it hangs, not responding, 1/3rd loaded.

 

Wish me luck.

[DexX]

@ all: i've made a quick, 2 object basic map that you can use for testing purposes. Download it here. This is much more efficient than downloading an entire mod (TC or otherwise) just to see if the game will even load. easier to uninstall too

 

Installation is simplicity itself; run mapcleaner according to the instructions, and do everything steve m says to do.

now rebuild the gta3.img.

When your all set to go, replace your gta.dat, with the one i've included. mine is almost identical, since its based off a cleaned gta.dat, with only the extra lines added to make these objects work.

Now, simply put the "basic" folder (rarfile/maps/basic), in your maps directory. thats it.

Run the game.

 

if you did everything correctly, you should see this (except you'll be flying the plane):

 

do NOT modify the gta3.img at all for this, as it is not necessary (other than the initial rebuild). all my map objects are in a self contained .IMG file, as referenced by gta.dat. Uninstalling my stuff should be a snap, so when your own map is ready to go, all that will need to be done is to comment out/remove my lines from gta.dat, and delete the "basic" folder. no other gta3.img modifications like deleting files, and rebuilding it, will be necessary.

[Mercenary1st]

can some1 like put a folder up online that has a cleaned SA map so some people who cant get it to work like me have it so we can install the major convertions map mods. or atleast figure out y we cant use them.

[dertyjerzian]

@DexX: You are the man. Don't ever let anyone tell you different.

 

@all: I downloaded Myriad's lone baseland installer after my last post here and used map cleaner 0.3 instead of 0.4.

 

It worked, and so I deleted the entire installation, made a new backup for stripping and just cleaned with 0.3->Edited Myriad's GTA.dat to not include myriad, and added my typical maps\dertmap\ files. Worked great.

 

I dont know if it was the map cleaner version or if it was the Myriad gta.dat (as it differs greatly from the one included with MC 0.4 in terms of loading order and entry positions), but it worked and that is what matters.

 

Anyone comes across this searching, just get myriad and try this, as it worked for me. Cheers everyone, I'll have something special soon enough.

 

Edit: Also, I tried deleting all the original map file folders (the main ide and ipl directories in parent\data\maps) as removing all of the "#" commented out entries from gta.dat allowed the game to function still as well. BUT without the original FILES still present, it crashes, GTA.DAT aside. Clarity: I deleted just about everything un-needed from gta.dat for a cleaner look, which worked still, but removing the actual "deleted" IDEs and IPLs causes a crash. Why?

 

I'm hoping to basically make all my own directories, I dont want anything but generic sh*t left. I'll be making an intro and all, including new splash screens etc, basically, I want to remove ALL traces of GTASA and have just the engine...

Edited August 5, 2006 by dertyjerzian

[Mercenary1st]

is ne1 going to figure out y it doesnt work for alot of people and like me and when will it update so it will fix the problem where it doesnt work for some people like me (i did everything it says to do and i have SA 1.0 and i tried on freshly installed SA)

[dertyjerzian]

is ne1 going to figure out y it doesnt work for alot of people and like me and when will it update so it will fix the problem where it doesnt work for some people like me (i did everything it says to do and i have SA 1.0 and i tried on freshly installed SA)

1: Download Myriad Islands Land Base for SA

 

2: Use the INCLUDED map cleaner (version 0.3, not 0.4)

 

3: Instead of installing Myriad after cleaning, just remove the Myriad entries from the INCLUDED gta.dat.

 

4: Add your entries.

 

Will work Well, it did for me Good luck.

 

 

[Mercenary1st]

oh thats what u meant but will it delet everything that i need to use liberty city mod? and can u give me the link to downlaod the mod i cant find it

 

edit:nevermind thing still doesnt work for me

Edited August 5, 2006 by Mercenary1st

[steve-m]

Why?

Good question. Because the game is stupid and R*^ have (had) no idea how to code a proper game engine. I just hope this changes with GTA4.

 

@Mercenary1st: Not sure why it doesn't work for you. What operating system are you using? If WinXP, do you have administrative rights, otherwise do you have full access to the SA folder(s) and/or do the programs you are using have full access?

 

As I said, I might make a new Map Cleaner, but not now.

[Mercenary1st]

yes window XP is my comp and i have full acess to everything but the only thing i see which i dont think is the problem is when i click on the folder option of SA its says read only i take it off but its still on then i got to the other stuff in it all the other stuff in the folder is off readme is that a problem?

[steve-m]

No, that shouldn't be a problem. No idea, must be a bug I'm not aware of. Don't have time to check, though.

[dertyjerzian]

ok, so I went ahead and started laying my ultra realistic roads, and laid in a bunch of personal generic grass (to be ommitted and replaced with new pieces, piece by piece) and I came across VERY frustrating problems:

 

First, after making no changes to my setup, just loading the day-after a heap of work to decide what I'd do next, my generic grassy grounds are no longer solid! Lots of col work later, no improvement.

 

Second, after all of that, with no new changes from a prior test load (resulting in disapointment that my collision-missing problems still were there), the game is now crashing before the second splash.

 

I use !Spark to edit my archive (we all know I was a spark whore, pimping it all over the boards) because it compiles for you. I remember on once-in-a-blue-moon occasions needing to make an all new image to fix problems. Doing this did not fix this for me this time.

 

I then made an all new GTA.DAT after finding NO errors in my input, so it is fine.

 

My IPLs and IDEs have been checked, double checked, and remade numerous times.

 

Everything is in working order, it just doesnt work anymore.

 

What's the deal? Why did the game forget my collision and then begin crashing?

 

I believe this must be my own error, I just cannot track it down, and am starting to lean at something else being the culprit.

 

After all of this, I just decided to backup my massive project, and after doing so, deleted my STRIPPED installation and amde a new one.

 

Here in lies the problem as of now: Map Cleaner stops responding when it gets to the data collection stage of TXD CUTS. I have to end the process. It was actually very fast before, so I'm sure it is not a time issue, never the less I have left it running at my apartment and hope to see an apply-changes dialog when I get home, though I doubt this will be the case, since I attempted similar waits already.

 

help?

 

I feel like a noob.

[Mercenary1st]

yes mine use too stop at the lAN files but for some reason it passes those now and stops at the TXD CUTS now.... why do they make it where u need this program to download some mods :'(

[dertyjerzian]

MapCleaner still stops responding at TXDCUTS for me.

 

I've searched for filenames containing "map" in my windows folder and deleted to map cleaner prefetches (There were two from my using two versions).

 

deleted and copied my original game again, tried again, fresh install, no response, mod it up a bit, try again, no response.

 

What could be going on? Are there other files that are created in my system folders that could cause it?

 

Why is there a second map cleaner task running when I go to ctrl+alt+delete and kill it, yet only one shown in the end-process list?

 

Hopefully this outlined the problem. Heading home now, see if me mom wil check up for me

 

Love you mom

[steve-m]

OK, let me get this right:

• you work with a fresh install of SA 1.0 US
• you are using SA Map Cleaner 0.4 beta
• you keep the default settings
• it crashes saying "Collecting information..." on the left label and "txdcut" (without s!) on the right
• the last ide entry in gta.dat is "IDE DATA\TXDCUT.IDE", without s, and that file really exists and looks like this:

  txdp

  csbravura, bravura

  csopcarla, copcarla

  cscopcarla92, copcarla

  cssabre92, sabre

  csfirela, firela

  csgreenwood, greenwoo

  csvoodoo, voodoo

  cszr350, zr350

  cszr350b, zr350

  cssadler, sadler

  cswashington, washing

  csbobcat92, bobcat

  cssecurica92, securica

  csglendale92, glendale

  csandrom92, androm

  csmothership, camper

  csmtbike92, mtbike

  cssavanna, savanna

  csremington92, remingtn

  csburrito92, burrito

  cstaxi92, taxi

  cssabre92, sabre

  csmonster, monster

  end

   

I checked the relevant program code again and couldn't find any (obvious) mistakes, so I really hope there is another cause. You could try to disable the txdcut.ide line in gta.dat. If nothing helps, there are some other things you could try to test, but they are a bit complicated.

 

 

Why is there a second map cleaner task running when I go to ctrl+alt+delete and kill it, yet only one shown in the end-process list?

There should only be one.

 

Also, if Map Cleaner crashes, it hasn't modified any files. It will not apply changes before you allow it to, via the dialog at the end. So no need to install a fresh copy every time.

[Quadropheniac90]

Dexx, I love you. I don't know if it was the rebuilding or your GTA.DAT, but it worked. Yay!

[dertyjerzian]

OK, let me get this right:

• you work with a fresh install of SA 1.0 US
• you are using SA Map Cleaner 0.4 beta
• you keep the default settings
• it crashes saying "Collecting information..." on the left label and "txdcut" (without s!) on the right
• the last ide entry in gta.dat is "IDE DATA\TXDCUT.IDE", without s, and that file really exists and looks like this:

  txdp

  csbravura, bravura

  csopcarla, copcarla

  cscopcarla92, copcarla

  cssabre92, sabre

  csfirela, firela

  csgreenwood, greenwoo

  csvoodoo, voodoo

  cszr350, zr350

  cszr350b, zr350

  cssadler, sadler

  cswashington, washing

  csbobcat92, bobcat

  cssecurica92, securica

  csglendale92, glendale

  csandrom92, androm

  csmothership, camper

  csmtbike92, mtbike

  cssavanna, savanna

  csremington92, remingtn

  csburrito92, burrito

  cstaxi92, taxi

  cssabre92, sabre

  csmonster, monster

  end

   

I checked the relevant program code again and couldn't find any (obvious) mistakes, so I really hope there is another cause. You could try to disable the txdcut.ide line in gta.dat. If nothing helps, there are some other things you could try to test, but they are a bit complicated.

 

 

Why is there a second map cleaner task running when I go to ctrl+alt+delete and kill it, yet only one shown in the end-process list?

There should only be one.

 

Also, if Map Cleaner crashes, it hasn't modified any files. It will not apply changes before you allow it to, via the dialog at the end. So no need to install a fresh copy every time.

Yes, that was the txdcut.ide that I was refering to. And being away from the computer at home, I just repeated me statement, and I'm aware of that file's contents.

 

You're right, I could try to disable it in GTA.DAT, and seek out other dependancies it has.

 

Also, for it to be named (I'm not familiar with your tool's full list of selections to clean, I've skimmed them but stuck with the basics.

 

What would be nice in my case at this point is a GTA.DAT after cleaning, an already purged IMG, and maybe the scripts you supplied included thrown together from a mapper at these forums as a download.

 

Could be the manual install, maybe some people would even use that instead. Personally, I like your tool and am baffled by it's failures, only able to guess at reasons why. It shouldn't with the default settings. I keep going back to files in the system folders and sh*t that you have that connect to the thing.

 

Beat.

 

Really, I can make my own GTA.DAT, all I really need is an already-cleaned IMG. ah-t'ink-ah-t'ink.

 

kinda hinders my motivation though. I dont want to hand clean sh*t line by line, test by test, that's absurd.

 

It's a shame I never got down with coding tools.

 

[Cecil475]

SA-Map cleaner doesn't work. I have 2 versions of program:

 

0.3 alpha and 0.4 beta

 

It gets to 'deleting unneeded files' and 'LAn' the first file to be deleted and It hits an error. The error messages are:

 

0.3 alpha - Invalid pointer operation

0.4 beta - Access violation at address 00402387 in module 'MapCleaner.exe'. Read of address Bf4A4918

 

Both crash at the same place.

 

Thanks

 

- Warren Lewis

[Cecil475]

(sounds of crickets chirping in the distance is heard)

 

....Oookay. I admit I not much of a wordsmith so I'll try again.

 

Map cleaner is crashing on me when I try t ouse it on San Andreas. Does anyone know why this is happening. I've reinstalled the game. And it does not work. It crashes when it starts to delete the unneeded files. I do have an extra copy of the GTA San Andreas folder in (Renamed something else. Is this also a problem?)

 

If you dont know or, don't understand what I am asking please say something and don't leave me hanging.

Please.

 

- Warren Lewis

[steve-m]

Of course it's understandable. It's just that your problem isn't much different from those discussed in this thread, so the same potential solutions apply. There's not much I can do at the moment.