Error reading file!

[Glenn Saunders]

Thanks for this info - I will certainly pass it on to Rich at HPS Support and in fact try it on this VIsta Laptop I use as I experience the white screen but no crash - I was crashing previous to Johns Vista compatiblity thing.

On Defense of the Reich - sorry I am not involved with this as I pretty much work for and help out Tiller so my relatonship with HPS is I guess once removed.

Glenn

[Hadge]

Hi all

Would the same problem with the PDT or version mismatch cause an error message "Error reading replay file" - or is that message caused by something different?

I had'nt come accross this error worded in this fashion before yesterday

any ideas?

Cheers

Chris

[Glenn Saunders]

Would the same problem with the PDT or version mismatch cause an error message "Error reading replay file" - or is that message caused by something different?

Error reading replay is something completely different.
Windows just got confused while writting the preview.
Not something that is easy to duplicate but you will have more chances of it happening if you.

- rarely reboot your PC.
- Play open and leave open two or more Tiller Games at the same time
- Play two (or more) game turns of the same Tile with different opponents in one session. IE best to open your Bulge game - play your PBEM turn - close the game and open it again when you open the next Bulge turn with a different opponent.
- don't keep doing File saves, and reopen at earlier points in the file and redo part of the turn.

** this later one has more impact than the others.

The bottom line is this.
If you COLD Booted your PC,
opened your game file and played the turn without saving and restarting
DIdn't open any other apps that used any memory and could contribute to Windows gettign confused, and
End your turn and booted your PC again
... you would never see this happen.

As soon as Windows gets confused through any number of cause, it writes crap to the file from memory. When Tillers code reads crap that is illogical it simply abort and skips to the end of the file.'

I'd ask your opponent to replay the turn I think as the problem was with end where the replay was recorded.

Glenn

[Hadge]

Hi

Thanks for the info Glen - that would be me causing the problem then

I never reboot my PC because its almost always being used, and I frequently have more than one Tiller title open, either playing, or messing with the unit graphics (Danube85/Bulge44/NGP85 in this case).

As I said - its the first time I'd seen that particular message, and interesting to know the cause of the problem.

Cheers

Chris

[Glenn Saunders]

Hi

Thanks for the info Glen - that would be me causing the problem then

Chris - just to be clear, if you cause a problem - it will be seen when your opponent reviews your file.

If you're seeing the problem, then it is at his end.

I've never been able to recreate this effect intentionally - but I think you get the idea. The replay is built in the PBEM.xx and .yy file. If Windows is writting the a couple different files with the same name, you can see where it might write the info in the wrong file with the same name. Or you can see where playing two games of NGP when something written from game A gets written to your game with player B. But the big culprit I think is saving , opening and reopening the same turn at an earlier point. And all this with Outlook and a few browsers running. The PC just gets confused.

Glenn