Dome of Doom

[Guest R_Driscoll]

Andy, as to your original question, you need to reinstall your UKS package from the distribution disk. If you still have problems after doing this, then you will need to reinstall the whole UK-South.UK-South uses the San Fransisco palette only (as Jon explained!). The distribution disks are correctly palettised.The last picture of the dome does look a bit alien. But its also far too large. You may have also lost your terrain height data, and that suggests a fill install of UK-South is needed (unless agtim/Cristian knows a shortcut?)RobD.

[Guest jonpoint]

Chris,Like you I have been spending a lot of time in FLED recently (Lewis Creek/Twin Peaks) and I have suffered from my usual hiccups but, noting your question above, this is what has been happening to me recently (BTW, I regard this as 'normal' for FLED):Random lockups - occur when dragging objects across megatiles. It's been said before (I once lost an entire airport under a megatile...) but, even though the lines were right there in front of me, I still dragged a couple of things over the line and WHAM... "This program has encountered a problem and must close etc..." It doesn't occur WHEN you move the object but when you deselect it. Restarting FLED is OK if you check your task manager before starting it - quite often you'll find FLED still there. If the task manager won't close it, you have to reboot :-(Save-mode lockups - after placing a certain number of models (or even just moving them around), FLED appears to refuse to save. I normally just hit then every 5-6 operations. It DOES seem to relate to the complexity of items - I can place or move 20-30 trees (6 polygons) without problem but only one or two aircraft (~400-1000 polygons). Sometimes it DOES save, sometimes it doesn't so I just force it to (the alt+f thingy) to avoid the hassle. Again, the "This program has encountered etc..." This doesn't lock the PC at all but a soft reboot is a good idea. The advantage of saving every 5 moves is that you know straight away whether to proceed or not - a blank screen means 'stop planting trees now' ;)BTW, XP gives a slightly different error message (and tries to report it to Microsoft - I can just imagine them trying to contact LGS to report the problem - NOT) but the same happens. If, when you look in the task manager, FLED is still there, you will have to reboot.Mouse cursor problems - These are weird and relate to your video card/settings/drivers. I used to get the same problem with my previous card but it has gone away right now. In fact, both previous Nvidia cards I've had caused problems with the cursors in some way. In Windows, sometimes the cursor would cause menus to go blank as you swiped over them :-grr Suffice to say it has to do with how your PC handles video calls for DirectX and OpenGL. Cursors are normally run as an 'overlay' that is quite independent from the application. This is necessary because, for example, in FU3 you are 'in' a DirectX screen. Obviously, the PC has to find a way of displaying the cursor without interrupting Direct3D. It does this with an overlay. FLED also uses Direct3D as well. What seems to happen is that the OS (Windows) gives FLED a 'hook' for cursor control via an overlay. FLED tells Windows what sort of cursor it want (crosshairs), Windows finds the cursor resource (in FLED or it's own) and applies that. When you exit a program (or even just move the cursor over another program window), the program should pass control back to Windows. Sometimes it doesn't, other times if a program quits ungracefully (crashes), this control isn't restored. When MM2 locks-up on me and I crash out with the task manager, I'm left with the huge 640x480-style mouse cursor...We all know that FLED was work-in-progress and was never finished. It was never subjected to external peer review and the lack of documentation (and features) imply that it probably wasn't the final version intended for release. Maybe the real version was too buggy, maybe it allowed one to do things that LGS (or most likely EA) didn't like. Just another unfinished piece of software - just like Win95, Win98, ME, XP or nearly any software released after 1984 :-lol:-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Jon,Thanks for the information, but you are still not giving me a straight answer regarding the mouse pointer "freezing". Therefore, I will ask again.DO YOU EVER EXPERIENCE THE SITUATION WHERE YOUR MOUSE POINTER FREEZES ON SCREEN, AND YOU CANNOT DO ANYTHING AT ALL APART FROM REBOOTING THE PC ?Sorry for the bluntness, but everyone is assuming that I am suffering from the standard FLED crashes and the "mouse pointer changing to a crosshair" problem, and I am not getting the information that I require :-)Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest andy9164]

Chris,My answer is No, I dont suffer from a mouse freeze.Andy

[Christopher Low 5,332]

You don't know how lucky you are.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest glidernut]

Chris,Iv never had a mouse freeze.glidernut

[Guest jonpoint]

Chris,What 'mouse freeze' implies is a lockup whereby the CPU cannot access the mouse driver. Question is, can you do anything with the PC apart from reboot? For example, can you reboot by hitting ctrl+alt+del? If so, your CPU (nor motherboard) is not locked-up and it's probably just the mouse driver failing. This could be because of your mouse(!) or driver if they are weird. I used to use a Logitech Trackball for graphics but the driver was strange and some programs wouldn't recognise it as a mouse! This meant I had to have a normal mouse for some stuff (and installs) and only use the trackball for Autocad. This became annoying so I got rid of it (it was an old serial one anyway).If the entire PC locks up (mouse freezing, no keyboard access) then your OS (Windows) has a problem and it was probably caused by FLED. Think of it as a 'general protection fault' where the fault was so general it affected the PC's ability to display anything! I must admit that FLED has done this to me before, but usually only AFTER I had already noticed some strangeness. For example, sometimes I move the 'place models' popup and the screen remains black underneath (in fact, I move it every now and then to be sure). This is a sign that Windows and FLED aren't getting along. If you save and exit at this point, you'll be OK usually. Continuing past this point CAN result in a locked screen (mine usually goes black and the keyboard locks out so it's reset button time - with the corresponding Scandisk restart).Oh! One more thing. FLED doesn't like external drives too much and you should avoid 'delayed writes' as well. I have found that, with delayed writes enabled, if you attempt to save again (before the last save command is actually executed - which could be 30 seconds or 2 minutes) it's lockup city!My simple rules for FLED:* Let it start before loading packages. * When working on a new area, make bookmarks then save, close and reopen. It appears that 'merely' saving does not save the bookmarks properly. If you save but later get a lockup, your bookmarks can disappear.* When moving objects adjacent to, or on top of megatile edges, just delete them and place anew.* Never drag an object across megatile edges. Well, try not to.* When placing individual objects (planes, houses, fences etc), save after each placement.* When placing bulk items (trees, tyres etc), save after every 4-5 placements.* If FLED goes strange FOR ANY REASON - slow response, missing models, blank megatiles etc - save, close and restart FLED.* If FLED locks up or crashes upon saving, close it straight away. * If restarting after a lockup (without rebooting), always check your task manager (ctrl+alt+del) that FLED isn't still there in the list. If it is, RESTART your PC. DON'T use SHUTDOWN. In Win98 and ME, the PC will just lockup and you'll be hitting the reset button :-( * Every 30 minutes or so, save and exit FLED, then restart. This is as much for Window's peace of mind as FLED's. It simply 'forces' your saved work to be saved and any tempfiles cleared from memory.BTW, if FLED ever locks up when you're just looking at it, your PC memory is cactus! Use 'memtest.exe' to find out (search the web or I can send it to you). Don't rely on Window's memory testing - it just verifies that the memory size is correct as reported - you could have 40% crook memory and it wouldn't know...:-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I think I've had all of the different types of behaviour - from mouse freezes to lockups. And its not consistent. So I assume that when FLED can't handle something, it is accidentally overwriting protected memory (like writing to an array element one greater than the nominated size), and either overwriting itself or something else its not supposed to.At present I have a sort of in-between response - I get the error message, and then can safely exit to desktop. But if I start FU3 or FLED again, the whole computer instantly and totally locks - dead mouse, CTRL-ALT-DEL no effect - nothing at all. Then its time to reboot. So I avoid the problem by rebooting straighway after an error message anyway, avoiding the dreaded blue screen of death without problems (You know the blue screen of death? Where Microsoft informs you that you have not shut down your computer correctly, and it would be better if next time you used the START button to stop. Duhh!). But best is to avoid allowing FLED to have any errors - observing the basic rules:THE SEVEN UNBREAKABLE GOLDEN RULES OF FLED1) save after every few object moves2) save immediately after deleting any object3) save airport work twice as often4) never change a model with BSP that has been used without deleting all occurrences of it first from all other packages5) make backup copies of packages off-computer and in other directories FREQUENTLY.6) if anything strange happens (like a model doesn't select correctly), exit, delete package, reinstall from backup, redo work.7) Cross fingers, toes, and teeth at all times whilst working, but never let object paths cross over themselves.Objects disappearing beneath scenery when you slide them is not a problem since glidernut explained how to handle them - one of the many great tips he has published here over the years.Anyway, I like the green dome of doom better. AvagoodweegendRobD.

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Robert,If only there WAS a fail safe way of using FLED. However, this is impossible on my PC, since mouse freezes and crashes to desktop are not preceded by anything in the way of a warning. They simply happen !Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Jon,I have had two years of experience using FLED, so I am well aware of the "golden rules" of FLED use. I have never experienced a lockup just looking at FLED, so presumably my memory is intact... :-)The "mouse freeze" is an incompatibility between my PC and FLED. It has nothing to do with the mouse (a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical), since I have no problems with any other piece of software.I have just added yet more work to my upgrades list, so it still occupies nearly two pages of a Microsoft Word document :-eek I hope that Cristian gets back from holiday soon, so that I can get on with the two airfields that need to be flattened.......Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest andy9164]

Just to let you know the problem is fixed.A corrupted mip file for the dome and a missing bin file for the Houses of Parliament.All back to normal and even better with the new EGLC package.Andy

[Guest R_Driscoll]

Excellent! I still think you should have kept the Dome of Doom and marketed it though - you could have made millions. You'll misss it now!