My apologies for asking this again, but I seem to have lost my thread some how...

I am currently working on a "modmodmod" where I am getting the terribly frustrating "Civ 4 Needs to Close" message when I attempt to run it. In this case the "HidePythonExceptions" control provides absolutely NO help.

Xienwolf was attempting to assist me and had me download the WinDbg debugging program from Microsoft. Unfortunately it has a problem locating the symbol table for the crash dump (GenerateCrashDump set to "1") and isn't providing terribly useful information at this point.

I have managed to get by the first message of this type I was getting (when I attempted to launch my mod it was crashing before it even reached the Civ 4 selection screen -- single, multiple, civilopedia, etc.). Having fixed some missing "art" definitions, I can now actually get into the game. However, when I go into "Single", "Custom Game", select my critieria, then hit "Launch" it attempts to load the game, but next provides the "Civ 4 Needs to Close" message.

So... Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to debug this type of problem? It there a particular type of error that would cause such an abort at this point?

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.

Are you sure, that all missing artdefines are fixed now?

Are you sure, that all missing artdefines are fixed now?

I'm not sure... I tried running a program called "CivCheck" that I downloaded from CivFanactics and it claimed to find missing artwork, but I'm not sure it worked correctly. I had pages and pages of supposedly missing artwork that I knew for a fact was there (it appeared as if it wouldn't work, and understandably so, if the artwork as in a "FPK" file).

If you know of a better tool for checking missing artwork, I would love to know.

Thanks for the feedback!!

The best way to find the issue (which I'm 99% sure is being caused by a missing art define entry) is to run the game with a debug dll. Ask Xienwolf if he has one handy since I assume you are using a FF gamecore. The debug dll will throw an assert when it loads up and say something like ART_DEF_UNIT_BLABLA not found and that'll let you know what's missing (and then it'll crash like normal, which is alot better then just being told "sorry windows needs to close" without giving you a clue as to what the problem is). Unfortunately it wol't catch missing ethnic unit art entries until they apear in game (and crash the game), but at least you are told what the problem is. A debug dll saves alot of time finding things like this, even if you don't know the first thing about the SDK.