Failure to Decompress Game Data

I re-organized (read: rewrote) most of my changes to RevDCM source code, to make it cleaner and to move new functions to the bottom of the code, instead of scattered everywhere.

When I was re-ordering the Read/Write functions, I made sure to keep them in the same relative locations and in the same order, but despite my best efforts, I got a Failure to Decompress Game Data error when I try to open saves.

I went and commented out the pairs of Read/Write functions in CvInfos, CvCity, and CvPlayer (Those were the main files I changed with Read/Write functions), one by one, and at the end, I had commented out every single non-firaxis code in the read/write sections, but I still got a the same error.

So, my question is, are there other factors that also affect save game integrity? Are the safe delete array calls in a particular order? Are there other calls that must be in order as well?

Afforess said:

and at the end, I had commented out every single non-firaxis code in the read/write sections, but I still got a the same error.

Click to expand...

Are you very sure? If the read and write calls are all in exactly the same order, I don't see how this error can occur. One hack way to double check may be:

1. Copy CvInfos.cpp into a new file, say read.tmp, and delete all the functions except the various read() functions.
2. Copy CvInfos.cpp into another new file, say write.tmp, and delete all the functions except the write functions.
3. In write.tmp, global search and replace the write function to read.
4. Compare the two files, using winmerge or diff or whatever you want.

Since I hadn't asked before, just to be CERTAIN that we aren't facing a "oops" moment here... you are trying to load saves which you JUST made with the current compile, right? (ie - open game, SHIFT+F5, SHIFT+F8, error)

davidlallen said:

Are you very sure? If the read and write calls are all in exactly the same order, I don't see how this error can occur. One hack way to double check may be:

1. Copy CvInfos.cpp into a new file, say read.tmp, and delete all the functions except the various read() functions.
2. Copy CvInfos.cpp into another new file, say write.tmp, and delete all the functions except the write functions.
3. In write.tmp, global search and replace the write function to read.
4. Compare the two files, using winmerge or diff or whatever you want.

Click to expand...

I'm doing this right now. It seems to work fine for boolean/integers, but it's pretty useless for arrays, which I have a lot of...

xienwolf said:

Since I hadn't asked before, just to be CERTAIN that we aren't facing a "oops" moment here... you are trying to load saves which you JUST made with the current compile, right? (ie - open game, SHIFT+F5, SHIFT+F8, error)

Click to expand...

Yes, I create a new custom game, save it, and try to reload my save.

Edit:

I also checked to make sure that I did not smash Firaxis code by accident, by winmerging with an older copy, but it seems that is not the cause either.

Afforess said:

I'm doing this right now. It seems to work fine for boolean/integers, but it's pretty useless for arrays, which I have a lot of...

Click to expand...

I guess it comes closer if you delete the SAFE_DELETE_ARRAY lines and lines with " new ". One common error might be writing M number of items but reading N number, for example by accidentally using a different GC.getNumSomethingTypes.

I finally fixed this. Tip: if you count the number of read tags, and then the number of write tags, and they are not equal, you have an issue.

Afforess said:

I finally fixed this. Tip: if you count the number of read tags, and then the number of write tags, and they are not equal, you have an issue.

Click to expand...

That is a good tip, but you knew you had a problem because of the uncompress failure message. Did you track it down by simply repeating the visual inspection over again?

davidlallen said:

That is a good tip, but you knew you had a problem because of the uncompress failure message. Did you track it down by simply repeating the visual inspection over again?

Click to expand...

Yes, but I had edited 4 different files read/write calls, including most of CvInfos, so it was a big search. I found the error in CvPlayer, I accidentally removed a read but not the write portion. So it's useful for multiple files...

One way to maintain your sanity while coding is to make small changes between testing. Instead of reordering the read/write code for four classes, do one at a time and save/load a game after doing each class.