Slitherine

I do think it's a java issue for me, too.

v1.06 has never worked right for me. v1.04 ran great, but v1.06 has always given me lockups and semi-frequent (2-3 times an hour) crashes to desktop. I'd updated every driver I could think of, uninstalled and re-installed multiple times, and nothing helped, so I gave up. I didn't play CEAW for a couple months. Recently I wanted to play again, tried all the same fixes again, nothing helped again, so I was just living with the lockups and CTD.

I saw this java hotfix and remembered that windows auto-update had updated my java version just a couple days before v1.06 was released, so i gave it a try.

Well, on the up side, it cured the lockups and CTD.

Downside, the game now runs very very slowly. When a unit moves from one hex to an adjacent hex, it does so in two distinct jerks, CHUNK (pause) CHUNK. When I click on a unit, there's a noticeable pause before it's selected, then another noticeable pause before the available destination hexes light up.

So, I think you're on the right track to a fix, I think it's a java compatibility issue.

On a perhaps-related issue, when I run the game in lo-rez mode, the map is all one color. The shading to show side of control is absent.

system

3.4 ghz CPU
1g RAM
Nvidia 7600Gt 256MB video card
win XP Pro SP2

Odd unexpected side-effect of the java hotfix. I try to uninstall, and get a weird internal error "The selected application could not be instantiated"

Here is a screenshot.

Oh, and you see those log files? Those are all error log files from the java virtual machine, something called Hotspot. I zipped them up for you, the zipfile is only 68K, and you can DL them here

Could you try uninstalling any instances of Java and then reinstalling them?

Cheers

Pip

Done.

Didn't help any; same behavior observed in both modes.

Very odd - I'm not sure what this could be - I'll ask Johan to have a look. It doesn't seem to happen for other people so it may be imspossible to track down

Possum, are you signed up for the CNAW Beta
http://www.slitherine.com/beta_test
Just in a few days we will be releasing the first beta version and for you it would be interesting to see if you experience the same problem since CNAW is built in the same way. If the problems differ then we know there is something wrong about the updating process.

Johan,

Did you DL and look at the java error log files I posted?

No, in fact I did NOT sign up for the CNAW beta specifically because I was having such troubles with the CEAW engine, and I didn't want to be a pain in the butt.

But if you think it'd be helpful, I'm perfectly willing. Errr, umm?

****edit*******

OK, I followed that link and filled out the form.

firepowerjohan wrote:Possum, are you signed up for the CNAW Beta
http://www.slitherine.com/beta_test
Just in a few days we will be releasing the first beta version and for you it would be interesting to see if you experience the same problem since CNAW is built in the same way. If the problems differ then we know there is something wrong about the updating process.

According to the error files, the problem is an access violation and the jsound.dll is listed.
Several possibilities. Can you check your sound/ folder so that it is not deleted. Another point could be to dowload and install the jsound.dll , but no dll should be needed for CEAW to run. Maybe the latest windows update changes this.

firepowerjohan wrote:According to the error files, the problem is an access violation and the jsound.dll is listed.
Several possibilities. Can you check your sound/ folder so that it is not deleted. Another point could be to dowload and install the jsound.dll , but no dll should be needed for CEAW to run. Maybe the latest windows update changes this.

Well, the \sound folder is still there at -

C:\Program Files\Slitherine\Commander - Europe At War\sound

I did a Win-F file search of my entire C: drive for jsound.dll and found nothing. Is this a windows file?

********edit************

Found it. This is a JAVA file, not a MS file. It was considered a "hidden and system files", which is why my first search didn't find it. I have a copy in, no wait I have 3 copies in various places....with three different time/date stamps. Let me investigate further and report back.

************edit**************

Here, seeing is believing



The top one is with the latest/greatest version of Java I just installed last night, the middle one is from CEAW itself with v1.06 and the java hotfix patch applied (and how the heck did that get a time/date stamp of yesterday?), and that bottom one fools me entirely. It's shown as being in some disembodied "bin" directory with no indication of a path to root.

Johann, I sure hope you can make heads or tails of this, because I am so close to out-of-my-depth that my toes are barely touching bottom and the water is right up under my nose...

Embarassing/amusing addendum to the above. That "disembodied bin" location is at -

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Java\Update\Base Images\jre1.6.0.b105\core1.zip

So not out loose and confusing things. To double-confirm, I did uninstall all existing versions of Java and MSJVM last night, before re-installing the latest Java 1.6.0.6

Thus we appear to be working with just two copies of jsound.dll

What happens if you uninstall Java and then don't reinstall it? Perhaps it might then use the JVM that ships with CEAW?

Just trying to poke it and see what recoils...

Cheers

Pip

pipfromslitherine wrote:What happens if you uninstall Java and then don't reinstall it? Perhaps it might then use the JVM that ships with CEAW?

Just trying to poke it and see what recoils...

Cheers

Pip

OK, I tried that, it was quick and easy, but didn't seem to make any difference at all.

I also tried turning off music and sound effects, by toggling them from 0 to 1 in settings.txt, but unfortunately that didn't improve things either.

*******edit**********

I did a brute force delete of the whole CEAW directory, rebooted, and re-installed from my original v1.00 install file. I started to patch, then thought WTH, let's see if it runs.

CEAW V1.00 runs fast and smooth as a gamer's dream. Umm, ummm, ummm, what the heck does this mean?

I have the old patch files for v1.01, and v1.04, and I think I'm going to try patching to v1.04, just to see how that runs.

TSIA!

I re-installed as explained above, patched to v1.04, that's running fast and smooth (well, OK, quickly and smoothly!), and I think I'm just going to play it like that for a while.

I really do love CEAW, it's a great fun game system

Out of interest, how up to date are your video drivers? Could it be a problem with them? Often when you had odd 'jerkiness' it can be a bug where video drivers are buffering too many frames (unhappily this will tend to only show itself if an app isn't doing anything 'slow' that would stall the video pipeline). Could it be something like that which is only showing up because of the 1.06 optimisations?

Cheers

Pip

pipfromslitherine wrote:Out of interest, how up to date are your video drivers? Could it be a problem with them? Often when you had odd 'jerkiness' it can be a bug where video drivers are buffering too many frames (unhappily this will tend to only show itself if an app isn't doing anything 'slow' that would stall the video pipeline). Could it be something like that which is only showing up because of the 1.06 optimisations?

Cheers

Pip

No, Pip, when I first complained of this back in march, you suggested updating drivers, so when I came back to try again with CEAW, that was the first thing I did.

Every driver of relevance has been updated in the last 2 weeks - audio, video, mobo, I even checked for mouse driver updates and BIOS updates.