Chunk Cloning Help

[Eaton]

I have been cloning chunks in Entity 1.3.9 to add some vehicles to my map, but I noticed that some weapons contrails are EXTREMELY corrupted. I open my map up in Contrail Editor and it gives me an error. I delete the cloned chunks in Entity, try and open it in Contrail Editor again and it works fine. Any ideas on how to properly clone chunks that won't break the contrails?

[shade45]

Your best bet is to make sure your plugin is correct.

[neodos]

Or that someone fix Entity chunk cloner...

[Eaton]

Your best bet is to make sure your plugin is correct.

The plugin is correct because I have tried a couple of them and I talked with xzodia and he says that it is the Chunk Cloner. I guess I will just have to ignore this issue and hope that the contrails don't get messed up even more.

[shade45]

Your best bet is to make sure your plugin is correct.

The plugin is correct because I have tried a couple of them and I talked with xzodia and he says that it is the Chunk Cloner. I guess I will just have to ignore this issue and hope that the contrails don't get messed up even more.

Try replacing the unused values with unknown for now. Im gonna take a look and see if I can find the problem with the chunk cloner.

[Eaton]

Your best bet is to make sure your plugin is correct.

The plugin is correct because I have tried a couple of them and I talked with xzodia and he says that it is the Chunk Cloner. I guess I will just have to ignore this issue and hope that the contrails don't get messed up even more.

Try replacing the unused values with unknown for now. Im gonna take a look and see if I can find the problem with the chunk cloner.

EDIT: I tried Entity Alpha 1 with Chunk Cloning, cloned a few chunks, opened up Contrail Editor, and it loaded! This old version seems to have the best cloner...

[shade45]

Your best bet is to make sure your plugin is correct.

The plugin is correct because I have tried a couple of them and I talked with xzodia and he says that it is the Chunk Cloner. I guess I will just have to ignore this issue and hope that the contrails don't get messed up even more.

Try replacing the unused values with unknown for now. Im gonna take a look and see if I can find the problem with the chunk cloner.

What do you mean by replacing the unused values?

Becouse enity ignores unused values in the plugin you have to find them and replace them with unknown values.

If you look in your plugin this would be an example of an unused

Code: Select all

<unused offset="60" size="36" />

see the size is "36" take that and dive it by 4.

36/4 = 9

we need to replace that line with 9 unknowns values like this.

Code: Select all

<undefined name="Unknown" offset="60" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="64" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="66" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="70" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="74" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="78" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="82" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="86" visible="False" />
<undefined name="Unknown" offset="90" visible="False" />

add 4 to the offset on each line like above.

Doing this should make the plugin work in the chunk cloner.

[Eaton]

Looks complicated. I just looked through the plugin and I see what you mean. I hope this will work. I just wish someone would fix that cloner... But thank you for your help!

EDIT: There are WAY to many to correct. I think I will just ignore it or use Alpha 1.

[neodos]

I already explained this problem months ago no one cares no one fixed apps

[Eaton]

I already explained this problem months ago no one cares no one fixed apps

Well, it's not a huge problem, but I guess I won't be able to edit the contrails now. That would be nice if someone would fix it... *hint hint*

I program, but Halo applications are too advanced for me. I wish I could fix it...

[kibito87]

I already explained this problem months ago no one cares no one fixed apps

While I understand this can be frustrating to you among others...myself included... People need to realize that programmers do have a life and do have other important matters on their agenda and can't tend to every care and need somebody comes up with.

Some may not have the time. Other's may not feel like coming back to it and fixing it because of all the headache and hassle. I know for a fact that entity was a program that was built for testing and researching purposes. So it wasn't entirely built just for the community. Thus the code wasn't written perfectly and can get tiresome when sifting through and trying to correct. I've talked to Anthony about this before so I do have justification for what i'm saying.

If it really boiled down to it, learn to program and learn how to read a halomap file and fix these flaws yourself.

[TroyMac1ure]

*bump*
This is old, but I have started fixing issues in Entity and just releaed a new version. I came across this post yesterday, so it will not be included in this release, but I will see what I can do if you're still modding

[Eaton]

*bump*
This is old, but I have started fixing issues in Entity and just releaed a new version. I came across this post yesterday, so it will not be included in this release, but I will see what I can do if you're still modding

I still mod. Not as much because I am frustrated with this issue and many more... But if you could fix it so it wouldn't break maps, that would be an immense help!

[xXFeRcHoXx]

Well, since Entity 1.3.9 throws me an exception error while trying to clone chunks, I clone chunks with Entity UE 1.6 just fine.

[Eaton]

Well, since Entity 1.3.9 throws me an exception error while trying to clone chunks, I clone chunks with Entity UE 1.6 just fine.

No Entity clone chunks correctly. I don't think the chunk cloner code was altered in any version. With the exception of 1.4.

[ogrish]

ive been looking thru this and comparing plugins.
How can you tell if something is wrong?
I find changes in all plugins, which is right?
Example

Does this effect chunk cloning or transfering tags to maps?

[DemonicSandwich]

@Eaton:
Brok3n Halo coded Entity up to verison 1.3 After that it was purely coded outside users with a slight exception to 1.6. Although none of them intentionally changed the chunk cloner coding, the coding was changed as a sideaffect to whatever the user changed/added.

And since the very same Entity version and plugins have drastically different affects on different PC's, one of the major causes is clearly the .Net Framework.
Next likely cause is user error and plugins. Then the cloner code.
--------------------------------------------------
@ogrish:
Entity doesn't use plugin offset values. The offset values in the plugins are purely for user reference.
It just counts the values in order so say if there is a float(which is 4 bytes) at offset 28, it will expect the next value or structure to be at offset 32 and if there is a short (2 bytes) at offset 32, it expects the next value/structure to be at offset 34.
It completely ignores the plugin offsets.
--------------------------------------------------
In the first pair of images, that value can be either one. A short and an Enum16 use the same amount of data and display values the same.
However since it is a count, it should be a short but again, in that case it doesn't matter.

In the second pair, the left image is showing a plugin that is likely to have a float or two too many cause that reflexive should be displayed at offset 164.
The right image shows Entity not even reading the plugin correctly because those values are not inside of "Old Functions".
It's likely due to bad plugin or just what it likely is...a fail plugin editor.

Structurally [bipd], [bloc], [ctrl], [eqip], [mach], [proj], [scen], [vehi], and [weap] are identical from the top down to the "Predicted Resources" reflexive.
The structures are so identical that you can transfer chunk meta across tag classes. The "Old Functions" reflexive is among these reflexives and every plugin I've used has either labeled "Old Functions" at offset 164 or has labeled it unused.
Nor have I ever seen this reflexive even exist in a tag.

Some have more in common than others like [bipd] and [vehi] which are identical all the way down to the "Seats" reflexive.
Yes, some [bipd]'s actually have seats. So when that marine says: "Lets catch one and ride it", you could take that to a more literal level.

[Thrasher Alpha]

I have been cloning chunks in Entity 1.3.9 to add some vehicles to my map, but I noticed that some weapons contrails are EXTREMELY corrupted. I open my map up in Contrail Editor and it gives me an error. I delete the cloned chunks in Entity, try and open it in Contrail Editor again and it works fine. Any ideas on how to properly clone chunks that won't break the contrails?

Thats Entity for you. Try to use Alpha, if not UE1.6

[TroyMac1ure]

The whole Entity Alpha thing doesn't work either. Entity Alpha just had no checks for issues. If you clone in Alpha and open it in 1.6UE (or whatever) you will still get the errors.
I did some testing and discovered that the cloning has nothing to do with UNUSEDs. I changed all the UNUSEDs in the [CONT] tag to UNDEFINED and I still get errors. This goes with my looking through the source and not finding any issues there either. I believe the problem lies in the total size of the TAG.

For instance if you clone a chunk under [CONT] BANSHEE_BOMB the map messes up. But if you then go into [CONT] BANSHEE_WINGTIP_CONTRAIL and delete one of it's three chunks, the map is fixed. Therefore, I am sure that the issue is not with the plugin or with the UNUSEDs, but with the TAG total size(?)

I'll have to do a more in depth look at this.

[OneZeroOne]

That's it it may also be chunk/reflexives size being wrong, the problem with unused is that some are not unused and if you set these to floats sometimes the app will clone chunk without errors.

Also tags like vehi have shared reflexives with other tags.