[BUG???] Engine&Editor failing to load terrain pieces

Started by mobius, September 09, 2021, 01:13:43 AM

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mobius

I have the latest NL 12.12.1 I've recently downloaded and installed all the current styles. (confirmed the files are there). I can create a brand new level using terrain from L2 Space. I've cleansed the attached levels yet I am unable load them correctly in the editor or player. The placeholder pieces are there instead.

The second level Toy Story Returns has a slightly different issue. Some errors say 'some terrain pieces are missing' and fails to load at all. Or sometimes the editor loads the level but cuts part of it off and the editor usually crashes after this. The last attachment is the error message that appears with this level.

This could be the graphic set(s) changed recently? But the Toy set was Raymanni's; unless someone else altered the set I don't think it's changed recently.

I have a number of other levels/sets which fail to load as well should I list all of them here? Jarv's Future set also does this (the first bug, just loads placeholder pieces). So far only the Toy Story level has this more extreme error.
everything by me: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5982.msg96035#msg96035

"Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away."
-Hakuin Ekaku

"I have seen a heap of trouble in my life, and most of it has never come to pass" - Mark Twain


namida

#1
These pieces have somehow ended up with references to the fallback piece actually written into the level file. These copies will not be possible to salvage for the most part - although in the second level, it looks like only the background has been set to the fallback one, so it might be recoverable by simply removing the background with a text editor, then loading the level and manually re-adding it.

So the bug you are directly seeing, is a result of bad data - with that being said, what I suspect has happened here is that the levels were cleansed by a copy of NL, that was missing styles that the levels used, therefore the default:fallback reference got written in their place. This shouldn't happen - NL should either refuse to cleanse levels that reference pieces that don't exist at all (as opposed to aliased, which it should continue to hardwrite the new name for), or keep the existing reference names - so in that sense, while not being able to load these files is expected, the fact that these files exist in the first place (in their broken state, I mean) exposes a bug. I'm going to open a new topic for that bug. EDIT: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5748.0

In the meantime - try to hunt down the pre-cleanse copies of these levels, if you still don't have them, and see if you can play them as-is in NL. You might just need to download some missing styles - if you can download some missing styles and thus get the pre-cleanse copies working in NL (not the editor), then once you do have those styles present, you should be able to cleanse the levels again and this time the post-cleanse output should work. If not, then it is most likely that the levels reference pieces that don't exist anymore - possibly culled, possibly renamed.
My projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)
Non-Lemmings: Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined (a Commander Keen fangame)