Kranebitten Conversion fail

[vettelsepp]

Normally it`s easy to do a quick and dirty conversion using rfactortools. These conversions are not perfect but for me it`s OK. I`d love to have the rfactor track Kranebitten in AMS (i love this bumpy Circuit and it must be even better in AMS). But using rfactortools delivers me a "wrong gmt version" message. Anyone here with a solution or a working Track for AMS?

 

[roguk]

Just done a few laps in the Alpine A364 and track and mountains same as Dann`s,using nvidia gtx770 driver 10.18.13.6451 with win7, Thanks vettelsepp for finding the track and Thanks Dann for conversion and download.

 

[Marc Collins]

Aha....I don't know the answer specifically, but we have one more piece of information! I usually use my Beta version of AMS because I am an active contributor the beta program. The only mods I have installed in Beta are Patrick's tracks. When I popped into Jacarepaguá in my regular AMS today, I saw the same plain/profile-only mountains!!! Flipped back to Beta and can see the detail in the mountains. All settings are identical between the two, but I have lots of modded cars and tracks in my main install.

So before looking for a needle in a haystack, any ideas of what mod or stray files could cause this strange effect? At least I know it is something different between my two installs and has nothing to do with AMD or settings or SweetFX!

I have only three files in the Locations folder:

commonmaps.MAS (standard)
commonmapsGSC.MAS (used for many GSC track conversions and not in my Beta installation)
terrain.tdf (standard)

I would immediately suspect the second one if I didn't think almost everyone here had it, too, including of course Dann.

Can't wait to hear the theories!

P.S.--this is what I am seeing:

 

[vettelsepp]

In the scn file of Kranebitten folder you can see the paths, in my case

CUBEASF

//-------------------------------------------------------

SearchPath=.
SearchPath=Kranebitten
SearchPath=Reizacommon
SearchPath=Reizacommon\bak
//-------------------------------------------------------

MASFile=Kranebitten_gmt.mas
MASFile=Kranebitten_dds.mas
MASFile=CommonmapsGSC.mas
MASFile=sky.mas

//-------------------------------------------------------

so its essential to have the CommonmapsGSC.mas in the locations folder of every AMS installation.
I`m not a betatester but i think you should have this file, too.

 

[Dann Murillo]

Marc-

First I would suggest to make a new test profile to see if you have the same thing happening in a new profile. Or I have even copied my beta to public or vice versa. It's a good test option as sometimes weird things can just happen with the profiles.
Next be sure your commonmaps.mas file is the original as well. I would just copy the beta over to the public as it is faster than verifying.
Finally I do not use any commonmapsGSC.MAS but it wouldn't matter if you are using my conversion anyway since my scn looks like this:

SearchPath=.
SearchPath=Kranebitten
SearchPath=ReizaCommon
//-------------------------------------------------------
MASRandomFile=CloudsRandomA
MASFile=CloudsDefault.MAS
MASFile=SkyEuro.MAS
MASFile=Kranebitten_gmt.mas
MASFile=Kranebitten_dds.mas
MASFile=commonmaps.MAS

 

[Marc Collins]

Marc-

First I would suggest to make a new test profile to see if you have the same thing happening in a new profile. Or I have even copied my beta to public or vice versa. It's a good test option as sometimes weird things can just happen with the profiles.
Next be sure your commonmaps.mas file is the original as well. I would just copy the beta over to the public as it is faster than verifying.
Finally I do not use any commonmapsGSC.MAS but it wouldn't matter if you are using my conversion anyway since my scn looks like this:

SearchPath=.
SearchPath=Kranebitten
SearchPath=ReizaCommon
//-------------------------------------------------------
MASRandomFile=CloudsRandomA
MASFile=CloudsDefault.MAS
MASFile=SkyEuro.MAS
MASFile=Kranebitten_gmt.mas
MASFile=Kranebitten_dds.mas
MASFile=commonmaps.MAS

Thanks, Dann. Both Beta and regular have the same commonmaps.MAS, which I assume to be the latest since it has a Sept 21-2017 date stamp.

Good to know it's not related to the GSC file.

I will test the profile thing next. My AMS profile is likely quite old and may not have properly updated over the many months. I think the Beta has been forcibly replaced a couple of times.

 

[Dethrone1427]

In the scn file of Kranebitten folder you can see the paths, in my case

CUBEASF

//-------------------------------------------------------

SearchPath=.
SearchPath=Kranebitten
SearchPath=Reizacommon
SearchPath=Reizacommon\bak
//-------------------------------------------------------

MASFile=Kranebitten_gmt.mas
MASFile=Kranebitten_dds.mas
MASFile=CommonmapsGSC.mas
MASFile=sky.mas

//-------------------------------------------------------

so its essential to have the CommonmapsGSC.mas in the locations folder of every AMS installation.
I`m not a betatester but i think you should have this file, too.

CommonmapsGSC isn't essential mate, this is an rfactor track, not a GSC track so that mas file serves no purpose.

 

[Marc Collins]

OK, the user profile is not the issue. I created a new one and did a line-by-line comparison (using Microsoft Word) with the Beta one. Same result: nice mountains in Beta; blank mountains in regular.

I also removed commonmapsGSC.MAS from the Locations folder (which I do need for a bunch of converted tracks) just to confirm 100% that it is not the cause. Kranebitten doesn't reference it, but it is not present in Beta, so just making sure.

In conclusion, the only thing left that is different between the two installations is the presence of many mods in my regular, with none besides Patrick's tracks in Beta. I wonder which mod could cause this? Understanding first how a mod could interfere might lead to the answer...

 

[Dann Murillo]

Did you try copying your beta profile in your public install?
Verify your public install?

 

[Marc Collins]

Did you try copying your beta profile in your public install?
Verify your public install?

Yeah, I do a verification any time there is an anomaly. No effect here

I did not swap the profiles because I created a brand new profile from the release, which is the same version as Beta right now. I also double-checked the .PLR file line-by-line. Is there some other part of the profile that could affect this besides the player.PLR file?

I think I will ask over on the official forums. This is too bizarre!

 

[Dethrone1427]

Well I'd say maybe remove your locations folder, verify integrity, allow Steam to install the tracks, then try it out. You may have an errant file in your locations folder, if not it could be shader/shared folder related??

 

[PieterN]

Is the file commonmaps.MAS the same in each install ?

 

[Marc Collins]

Is the file commonmaps.MAS the same in each install ?

Yep, as reported above: Sept 21/17. All D3D files are the same, too.

 

[Marc Collins]

Well I'd say maybe remove your locations folder, verify integrity, allow Steam to install the tracks, then try it out. You may have an errant file in your locations folder, if not it could be shader/shared folder related??

The problem is affecting stock Reiza tracks and converted tracks (like this one Kranebitten). I guess the next move is to load Kranebitten into Beta and see what happens... OK, it works as expected. Conversion or stock are consistently working properly in Beta and not working in Release.

There is no errant file in the Locations folder main directory, but I guess you are suggesting there could be one in a mod track folder? How could this affect all tracks? I will try it, but even if it works, I am curious as to what file in a track sub-folder could have this much impact? I was actually thinking it was more likely a car mod.

Could any of the "clutter" files in the Vehicles folder affect tracks? Unlike my Release Locations folder, the Vehicles folder has a bunch of crap in it.

 

[PieterN]

How about the contents of the ReizaCommon folder ? Are they the same for both installs ?
I think the background-dds-files are inside Sky.mas ?

 

[Marc Collins]

How about the contents of the ReizaCommon folder ? Are they the same for both installs ?
I think the background-dds-files are inside Sky.mas ?

We were thinking alike! I couldn't believe I was so dumb as to forget about the ReizaCommon folder--the most likely source of a problem like this. So, I deleted it and replaced it with the contents from the Beta install. ...no effect

That was frustrating, so I decided to eliminate all tracks except for this one and Jacarapagua, which also has the same issue easily noticeable. ...no effect

Tehn I thought--see I was right all along that it was likely a car mod. So I eliminated all Vehicles (deleted entire folder) and kept only one (old Opala) transferred over from the Beta along with the loose files from the main directory. ...no effect

This is quite unbelievable. I think there is only one possibility left--the Shared folder.

 

[Marc Collins]

We were thinking alike! I couldn't believe I was so dumb as to forget about the ReizaCommon folder--the most likely source of a problem like this. So, I deleted it and replaced it with the contents from the Beta install. ...no effect

That was frustrating, so I decided to eliminate all tracks except for this one and Jacarapagua, which also has the same issue easily noticeable. ...no effect

Tehn I thought--see I was right all along that it was likely a car mod. So I eliminated all Vehicles (deleted entire folder) and kept only one (old Opala) transferred over from the Beta along with the loose files from the main directory. ...no effect

This is quite unbelievable. I think there is only one possibility left--the Shared folder.

BINGO!

It's one of the loose files in the Shared folder. Seems like these could be cars or tracks... I guess I'll find out with a loading error some day which mod needed them. Or with luck, they were redundant or stray and not actually needed.

I was hoping someone familiar with modding would get me to this conclusion faster, but at least I figured it out!

 

[PieterN]

Glad you figured it out !

 

[Marc Collins]

Glad you figured it out !

It's also evidence that I broke my own rule of never installing a mod when the modder has sloppily added files to one of the core directories (Locations, Vehicles, Shared). We know this is an extremely bad practice and is completely unnecessary to get a mod to work. I won't do it again and neither should anyone else. Ask the modder to do the job properly before publishing and interfering with other mods or the main game itself.

Of course the one notable exception to this is the commonmapsGSC.MAS file in the main Locations folder that is utilized by many GSC track conversions.

 

[Dethrone1427]

Without naming names, which mod was it? I thought it might be the shared/shader folder. If you don't want to say here just PM, just so I know which mod not to download.

 

[Marc Collins]

Without naming names, which mod was it? I thought it might be the shared/shader folder. If you don't want to say here just PM, just so I know which mod not to download.

I have no idea. The modders who sloppily spread files around also don't use consistent or clear file names.

As mentioned, I expect one day I will load something and it will error-out looking for one of those files. Do you have stray files in your Shared folder? FYI, I don't have a "Shader" sub-folder in Shared. If you do, at least those are in an identified sub-folder, so less likely to be a problem.

I eventually deleted everything and went back to base, but if I recall my test, I only had to delete the stray files in the Shared folder to fix the problem.