Spring RTS Engine

I am seeing a near constant stream of errors when playing Single Player.

This is the full message. Looking at my infolog.txt there are a few other errors which I have extracted below. I can post the whole file if requested. My system spec is
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit / SP1
Intel Quad Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
8.00 GB
AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series
4847 MB Total available graphics memory
Resolution - 1280x1024
DirectX 10

I am using SpringLobby 0.154 msw
The game this came from was Single Player, XTA 9.725 with a single RAI 0.601 bot.

Can someone tell me where this is coming from and how to make it stop?

Please post full infolog, and there's a XTA subforum. XTA 9.725 works just fine on official Spring 91.0, so you're either running a custom build or something else.

As a side note, Spring uses OpenGL not DirectX, so DirectX 10 means nothing here and is actually wrong, as Radeon HD 6700 is DX11 card and Win7 comes with DX11 not DX10.

And out of all the system data, you failed to mention Spring version.

Aren't those duplicate errors just from the fact that the same widget exists in spring/luaui/widets and in mod/luaui/widgets? Anyway, we should clean up those, I also get a bunch of those on every startup. It wastes infolog size :)

We can't remove the widgets as we must assume the user freshly installed Spring and wants to play XTA, so he/she will have no local widgets installed. If the user does install widgets locally which are already in XTA, then the duplicate error will appear and local widget takes priority over game one.

Deadnight Warrior wrote:We can't remove the widgets as we must assume the user freshly installed Spring and wants to play XTA, so he/she will have no local widgets installed. If the user does install widgets locally which are already in XTA, then the duplicate error will appear and local widget takes priority over game one.

My user name is Paul-Devon-UK = Paul = Male. 56 with I.T. going back to CP/M (before DOS).

This is a relatively old install that has been upgraded whenever SpringLobby stated that an update was available. The only way I can see of finding the version number is to start a game. When I did that the splash screen showed 91.0 (MT-SIM) (8 threads).

I posted infolog.txt at http://pastebin.com/VnwjaXXk but I removed most of the repeated error lines as they are all the same.

As a side note, Spring uses OpenGL not DirectX, so DirectX 10 means nothing here and is actually wrong, as Radeon HD 6700 is DX11 card and Win7 comes with DX11 not DX10.

I got that information from the MS Performance Information page so MS got it wrong LOL! Running dxdaig shows DX11.

I can do a fresh install if need be but would appreciate advice on where to find the Game (XTA etc.) and Bot (RAI, KAIK etc.) files so I can either download them again or copy over from my existing install. As I only play SP these are important to me.

Here is the latest XTA:

http://springfiles.com/spring/games/xta-25

Here is the latest patch:

http://kloot.darkstars.co.uk/XTAPEv9725p1.3.sdz

Aren't the AI:s included in the spring installer? (It can be found here: http://springrts.com/wiki/Download)

Cool. Did you play original TA then before? Where? In Phoenix worx?

Jools wrote:Cool. Did you play original TA then before? Where? In Phoenix worx?

Thanks for the links. I am using the latest XTA public release but not the XTAPEv9725p1.3 version. I might give it a try later today.

It is actually the Bots I am unable to locate.

I have been plating TA for longer than I care to remember I have a 4 disk box set of TA, Core Contingency and Battle Tactics released in 1997. The case also contains a written CD containing 41 maps written to disk in 2000. I have not loaded them for years as the Spring game is far superior. WOW! I just found a copy for sale on FeeBay (now ended) for £25!!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOTAL-ANNIHIL ... 0644910069

Phoenix worx? Never heard of it/them. Site down.

Thanks for the infolog, it shows you're running the MT exe of Spring, which in the current state (Spring 91.0) isn't very compatible with older LUA gadgets. Therefore run spring.exe, and not spring-multithread.exe

Run spring.exe manualy (aka test mode), select edit settings and look for "MultiThreadLUA" and set it to 2 or 1 if it still makes problems.

That should fix your problems.

@Deadnight Warrior - That did the trick. Thank you.

Run spring.exe manually (aka test mode), select edit settings and look for "MultiThreadLUA" and set it to 2 or 1 if it still makes problems.

I could not find where to do that but from SpringLobby, Edit, Preferences, Spring I was able to switch to use spring.exe.

Oddly, the first time I started a game it did not automatically switch the window focus to the game window. When I worked out what was going on and clicked on it in the task bar the game came up full screen and had already started. Weirdly All of the icons for Mex etc. where missing (White squares)! WTF!!! I quit and restarted without the problem reoccurring. Sometimes computers are just weird

It is a shame that spring-multithreaded.exe is not usable as I paid a lot of money for that CPU.

I have no idea what the offending unit_morph.lua does. Is it worth disabling that lua and using spring-multithreaded.exe? I have not run a game to conclusion but would imagine that when a massive battle takes place that spring-multithreaded.exe would have a processing advantage and reduce CPU load/stuttering game.

Thanks for the current fix as now I have time to read messages before the vanish.

unit_morph.lua is the gadget that lets you upgrade commander to a better one. It was added in XTA 9.6 or something.

I'm not sure multithread would really be so much better. The program must also be written to utilise all those cores.

Jools wrote:unit_morph.lua is the gadget that lets you upgrade commander to a better one. It was added in XTA 9.6 or something.

I'm not sure multithread would really be so much better. The program must also be written to utilise all those cores.

I rarely if ever morph my commander so I might rename the file and see what happens.

I think that the name spring-multithreaded.exe has a bit of a clue in it somewhere That and the fact that the splash screen stated 8 threads which matches my 4 core (each using 2 treads).

Paul-Devon-UK wrote:

Run spring.exe manually (aka test mode), select edit settings and look for "MultiThreadLUA" and set it to 2 or 1 if it still makes problems.

I could not find where to do that but from SpringLobby, Edit, Preferences, Spring I was able to switch to use spring.exe.

You can either do: Start->Programs->Spring->Test Spring or open your windows explorer and browse to the folder you installed Spring and double click on the .exe

Paul-Devon-UK wrote:My user name is Paul-Devon-UK = Paul = Male. 56 with I.T. going back to CP/M (before DOS).

I thought that I was being clear enough for an IT prefessional with 30 years of expertise to understand me, my apologies if I wasn't, so I'll try to be exact next time.

Paul-Devon-UK wrote:It is a shame that spring-multithreaded.exe is not usable as I paid a lot of money for that CPU.

I have no idea what the offending unit_morph.lua does. Is it worth disabling that lua and using spring-multithreaded.exe? I have not run a game to conclusion but would imagine that when a massive battle takes place that spring-multithreaded.exe would have a processing advantage and reduce CPU load/stuttering game.

That LUA gadget implements one of the core game features, so removing it is not an option. The problem is not in Spring MT capabilities, but LUA gadget implementation itself. Some topics about: Spring and MT, LUA and MT. For an IT professional with your experience, it shouldn't be hard to understand those texts.
So to sum it up, that gadget needs to be rewritten/modified to support MT execution (aka concurrent programming), otherwise it must be run in compatibiliy mode. In incremental patch versions of XTA, I've set the compatibility mode through game rules, so custom Spring settings shouldn't be necesary. But using MT spring executable is not advised in multiplayer due to possible syncronization problems with other players.

With Spring 92.0, which might be on-line for Christmas or New Year, a good deal of MT issues we have now will be gone, but ST will still be preffered. You may ask the Spring engine developers about the current status of MT implementation, and since this is an Open Source project, you may also help them.

@Deadnight Warrior - Thank you for the detailed reply.

You can either do: Start->Programs->Spring->Test Spring

I did not know that program group existed as I have used a desktop shortcut to SpringLobby for so long that I had forgotten about it. Being picky Clicking on Spring.exe through Explorer is not the same as running Safe Mode (D:\Games\Spring\spring.exe --safemode) but let's not quibble over semantics.

I thought that I was being clear enough for an IT prefessional with 30 years of expertise to understand me, my apologies if I wasn't, so I'll try to be exact next time.

When you get to my age you might understand LOL!

spring-multithreaded.exe - Interesting information and a number of interesting links. While single core CPUs will exist for some time, MT CPUs are pretty much in dominance for today's tech so I am hoping that the focus is now moving to a predominantly MT environment. The MT/LUA issue looks unfortunate as a HUGE rewrite is implied. I am unable to volunteer due to other commitments which is a shame.

Spring 92.0 sounds like a nice Christmas present for me Thank you in advance.

Thank you for taking the time to help me with this issue. Merry Christmas to you.

Paul-Devon-UK wrote:The MT/LUA issue looks unfortunate as a HUGE rewrite is implied.

It depends on how much the game uses SYNCED and Script.LuaUI.

I converted BA to threading model 4 in a few hours.

I tried the single thread spring.exe but soon found I could no longer run at 10x speed during the early part of the game do to CPU overload.

I have just finished going through the list of LUAs and pause, F11, dissable one, F11, Un-pause, look at messages. Nothing stopped the stream of messages. I then redid but enabled each one that was not active. No improvement

Wait for V92?

If you hardware specs are correct (the ones you posted) you should be able to run Spring with the same config file as I do, and I have no errors. Just drop it in you Spring folder and overwrite (better rename) the old if needed.

Sometimes when you have many AIs their command queue gets limited, and that causes warning messages, all you have to do is increase/disable the limits (as I did in that .cfg file). Also the .cfg will set your LUA mode to 2 to avoid most (maybe all) MT related errors.

@Deadnight Warrior - Thank you for that. I will definitely give it a try.

Unfortunately I manage a few domains and have been severely hacked so will be up to my neck in it for a few days undoing the damage and implementing better security.