Games Portfolio - Issues and Fixes

Here is a list of several different problems I encountered during the production of my final product and what solutions I used to overcome them. This post is to be included as a section in my report, of which I will also hand in with my finished product.

Issues and Fixes:

During the production of my final Supreme Commander MOD, a wide variety of problems were encountered. Most of these problems consisted of software issues with the Supreme Commander game itself, however each issue was addressed and an attempted fix was made allowing me to progress on through the development of my product. Following is a list of problems encountered and how I attempted to fix them.

[1] Problem: “GPGNet ‘Vault’ not loading, hanging on a white screen.”

[1] Fix: The majority of students could not access the GPGNet ‘Vault’ on home computers, therefore were not able to access the map editor. No fix was found for this, however the map editor could still be accessed by copying the execution file from University PC’s.

[2] Problem: “Supreme Commander Map Editor not loading.”, “Supreme Commander Map Editor crashing upon loading a new map.”

[2] Fix: To fix the issue with the Map Editor not loading up, Supreme Commander had to be patched seven times before it would reach its latest version, eventually allowing the map editor to load. After this however, the editor would crash upon starting the creation of a new map. This issue was solved by copying the Map Editor .exe file from University computers and installing them to home PC’s.

[3] Problem: “Models ‘ripping’ in 3Ds Max.”

[3] Fix: During the creation process of my models in 3Ds Max, a frequent problem occurring was using the cut tool, with the line guide not showing up. This often led to my model becoming ‘ripped’, with small parts of them missing due to the vertex’s joining incorrectly. This was fixed however by more carefully creating the cut outline, creating a simpler six sided cut to shape out my protesters arm.

[4] Problem: “Importing Models into Supreme Commander.”, “Models floating above ground.”, “Models appear ‘broken.’”

[4] Fix: Importing models into Supreme Commander involved saving them as .smd formats and placing a low-poly and high-poly version into the Mod folder. When models appeared in game however, several problems occurred. To fix the models from floating above the ground, their position in 3Ds Max needed to be tweaked, placing them just before the centre point and having them face upwards. The reason some models were showing up ‘broken’ and disjoined was due to the fact they were scaled after the pivots had been configured, meaning to fix the issue the model in question needed to be re-made for it to show up correctly.

[5] Problem: “Importing Model animations into Supreme Commander.”, “Model animations not functioning correctly.”

[5] Fix: Animations, the same as with Models, need to be saved as a specific format before imported into Supreme Commander. Once animations were created in 3Ds Max, they were exported as this format and saved into the Mod folder, hopefully allowing the models also in the folder to use the animations next to them. However, these animations would not work successfully, with models in the game still moving around without any animation. This problem could not be solved by either me, or any other students, ultimately leading to my models remaining as static objects in the game.

[6] Problem: “Creating weapon scripts.”

[6] Fix: In order for Supreme Commander units to fire, weapon scripts must be created and placed inside the Mod folder. These weapon scripts use existing unit information to replace user created models with existing weapons, allowing players to fire in game. This however caused problems, with the weapon scripts being created, however not having any effect on the models. This problem still remains un-fixed by me and fellow students.

[7] Problem: “Texturing Models in Supreme Commander.”, “Models appearing un-textured.”

[7] Fix: To texture Supreme Commander models, .dds files must be created using software provided on the Internet by various developers. Using an NVidia tool, these texture files can be created by converting images created in Photoshop. However, the NVidia tool crashed a fellow student’s computer, bricking his system and ending up with him having to format his hard drive and re-install drivers. Due to this, I didn’t take the risk of installing the NVidia tool and texturing my models in fear of losing work done so far on this project, other projects and my computer. University computers would not let students install the software due to lack of admin rights.