Bit of a Querk with the Areas Plugin

[Baaleos]

Pretty much, I have found a bit of a querk with the Areas Plugin, in that Deleting an area, while you are inside a previously generated area, can result in a semi-permanent area turning black effect.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. CreateArea("area001");
2. Enter, and leave this area.
3. Set this area to delete itself, 5 seconds after you enter the next area
4. CreateArea("area002");
5. Enter, and wait.
6. Result for me at least: The Area turns black, npc's appear to have vanished, and my player character is not visible either. Opening a door, or toggling a visual effect on myself appears to make everything return to normal though.

I was just wondering if there is any code adjustments that can be done in the areas plugin that would resolve this.

Alternativly, I can change the DestroyArea nss code to conditionally apply a visual effect to players who are inside 'generated' areas, to make their area refresh.

[MaxRock]

Can anybody confirm this behaviour with the linux version?

[Baaleos]

Im unsure about Linux, but I can describe in more detail the circumstances surrounding how I found this querk.


As I have gone on and on about in detail, my Module has a 'Spectral' Realm component to it, where if you die, the area you are in gets auto-duplicated by the areas plugin, and the area properties changed to look like the underworld.

Well, I decided I wanted to delete un-needed spectral realms, and as such, implimented a Pseudoheart Beat which starts when a player leaves the Spectral Realm.

It checks
1. Is there any players in the Spectral Realm copy of the area.
2. Is there any players in the Material Realm original of the area
3. Is there any players who are currently Transitioning. (eg - GetArea(oPC) == OBJECT_INVALID)


1. This is self explanitory, we dont wana delete the area if its occupied.
2. We dont wana delete areas if someone might be capable of transitioning into the area just as we give the delete command.
3. Since we cannot get the area of players in between areas, we treat a transitioning player, as a potential occupant of the area.

Each of these 3 criteria, is enough to continue the pseudo hb.

The HB Stops, and Fires the DestroyArea command, when all 3 of the criteria return 0.

In anycase, the scenario that first revealed this querk happened as such.

I died in the Slums
Respawned
Appeared in the Slums Spectral Realm.
Left the Slums Spectral Realm, returning to the Slums Material Realm
The system still knows I am a potential Occupant of the Spectral Realm, so...
I then enter a House in the Slums
When I appear in the House - who's Interior was generated via CreateArea(), the HB finally recognizes I am over 1 transition away from entering the Spectral Realm, and as such, knows it is safe to delete it.

5 Second delay starts . . . . .
Destroyed Area, and POOF!!
Lights out for me inside the Generated Interior of my lovely little Slums Housing.

My initial speculation, is that the Area Minimap data or the Area date loses its index or something in the Area List.

eg Spectral Realm = Area 13
Interior = Area 14
Deleting the Spectral Realm, somehow doesnt correctly index the area which was generated after the Spectral Realm or something.


But, as said, It is fix-able via nwnscript. When I toggled Stealth on my character, which is hooked to apply a visual effect, it made my character appear again, and a few seconds later, made the rest of the area appear.


Correction - Visual Effects do not resolve the issue. The only thing that seems able to make the area appear again, is to interact with a door or similar placeable in the area. Eg - Open the Door.

I think a RecomputeOfStaticLighting might fix the issue, but thats a cpu heavy function.

Interestingly enough, I can still see light sources, such as torches etc, when the area is black etc. So the area does exist, it just seems to be the lighting of the area that gets disrupted.

[Baaleos]

Generate area
Enter Area,
Log off in Area
Re-Enter

When you re-enter, the area will be black.


In one case, this even caused a crash for me. At memory location
129d70

Which is part of the ExploreArea function.

Is there any ides on potential fixes?

[Baaleos]

I think I may have a potential cause of this error.


This issue only occurs to players who are logged in, at the time of the area creation.

Suggesting that the first part of this issue occurs at the Create Area call, which Sends the Area data to players.

Eg - AddToCreatures or whatever it is called.

Ok, so, this data is added to Creatures in a sorta artifical way.

However, when somone logs in for the first time, the Module itself sends the Area data for all areas, to the player, and they get it in the authentic way.

For whatever reason or not, When the first player, who was logged in at the time of area creation, logs out, and then in, the area data is being lost from their Turd (I think) - God that sounds awful.

But for some reason, Player 2, who logged in after the area was created, doesnt lose his area visibility, because for some reason, he received his area data in a different way, and his view of the same area remains intact dispite logging off and in.
Its like his Turd is valid, and Player 1's turd is not, or at least the area data in them is differing.

Would it be possible to re-send Area's To Creatures on login, to fix this?

Note - I recorded a video of this bug in action, to help you recreate and possibly be a genius and devise a solution. hehe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRKRsltcohQ

[Baaleos]

Working on my own fix.

Do you think this will work?

[Baaleos]

HOLY SHIT.
IT WORKED.


I fixed a bug.... YEOW!!
Lol

Well, its not really a fix, but its more like a patch.

I bet you guys could find an easier or more impressive way of fixing it.


I tested this out, by logging into the black area, and then calling a voice command
+area

and a moment later, the area loaded

Although... come to think of it, the way I have it implimented, will cause a momentary blackout for every player in the game.

Grrr...
That 'better solution' is looking nicer and nicer round about now. Lol
Or.. maybe not.. I mean, its only sending the one area, to all players.

Meaning they shouldnt black out, if they are not in that area.


Ooooh, using my newly learned skills,
I can set the local string on the player who is to receive the minimap updates, and then it will target just him?

[Baaleos]

OMG -
I HAVE COMETH!!

Lmao

[Baaleos]

A player joined the server, and it crashed.
129d70 - I will look this offset up in the morning.

[MaxRock]

Something is "wrong" with the linked list.
They might have a different layout on linux which is where I copied the definition from:

[Baaleos]

Lol, alot of that went over my head.
But I generally got the gist of it as

'ClearTurdList - in order to get this to work, you needed to make changes to a class, which then in turn broke Areas plugin'

Is this something that is fixable?

I mean, The pseudo fix I came up with, to re-send the area data to players does work, although I did get a crash when a new player entered the game....

But my main problem really, is that Black Universe bug.

About 75% of my module is reliant on the areas plugin's capabilities, and it kinda scares me that a player could experience blackouts if they log out and in again.

Im pretty sure they will get the blackout if they log out in or outside of a generated area, eg - re-entering the area via a door will give black area too.

I had a look to see if there was a internal nwn function which sends all the areas to the player on first login.
I couldnt find anything at first glance.

Do you have any ideas on how to fix the black universe bug?
It seems to be something to do with the area data is not stored persistently on players, and gets lost when the log out and in.
Like Turd Data is overwriting it.