Bug: [SOLVED] SmartMaps - Grass Only Planet

[fisholith]

SOLVED:
==Problem:
When using the "SmartMaps" mod to generate a map for Direct IP multiplayer, the entire planet will be all grass tiles and rivers. No ocean, desert, trees, islands, etc. Just grass and rivers.

==Solution:
A: Uninstall the BlueMarble v2 mod. (if it's installed)
B: Uninstall the BAT. (if it's installed)
C: If you don't have either of the above mods installed: (1.) Try uninstalling all mods other than Smartmaps. (2.) Verify that Smartmaps now works in multiplayer. (3.) Now, try reinstalling one mod at a time and testing that Smartmaps works after each additional mod is installed. This should make it clear which mod or mods were causing the problem.


How to uninstall BlueMarble:
Run the installer executable for BlueMarble. It has an uninstall option as one of its three main buttons.

Hope this helps out.
Take care everyone.



ORIGINAL POST:
I have just gotten the "SmartMaps" mod, and I am very impressed with it. I have one problem however. While it works just fine in single player, I seem to have some strange problems hosting a Direct IP multiplayer game.

If I leave all the SmartMaps settings to the defaults and start a game, everything works fine until the level loads. The level will consist of only grass tiles and rivers. Literally, the entire planet will be all grass tiles, with rivers all over it. Now, while I am seeing this, the person who joins my game will see a normal level, with ocean, islands, desert, trees, etc. I have also tried hosting Direct IP multiplayer games in which the only players are me and an AI, and I see exactly the same grass planet problem.

Even more strange is that when I host a game, the person I'm trying to play with can save the game, email me the save-file, and I can open it and see what the level actually looks like, with all its expected features, desert, trees, etc. I get all sorts of errors trying to play from that save file, but I can see what the level is supposed to look like at least.

Additionally, if the other player exits and rejoins, they will see the grass-planet effect from then on as well.

I have looked around the web and have not yet seen anyone else with the same problem. As such, I decided to register at this forum to see if anyone might have any advice.

Game Overview:
I am running Civ4 v1.74
The only mods I have installed are the follwing:
- SmartMaps v9.1
- BlueMarble v2
- "XHuge-and-Giant" (which I have just removed)

Computer Basic Overview (just in case):
- OS: Win XP Home
- CPU: Core 2 Duo 3.0ghz (dual core)
- Graphics: Evga GTX280-FTW
- Memory: 2GB (I forget the make and speed, but I'm not sure it's that important)

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Take care everyone.

 

[WillShakeyspear]

The same thing is happening to me and my wife when we play, only we get the grass planet on both computers. We haven't figured anything about it out yet.

 

[fisholith]

SOLVED:

Thanks for the reply WillShakeyspear.

It occurred to me that if both you and your wife see the grass-planet glitch, then the problem likely originates from a game alteration. I figure that because you two are married, there is a very good chance that you have exactly the same mods installed. Because my friend and I did not coordinate which mods we installed, odds are good that the bug may have resulted from a mod. This would explain why I see the glitch, and he doesn't. As such, I suspected that he did not have the BlueMarble mod installed, (which is the only other mod I aside from SmartMaps).

Thus, I uninstalled BlueMarble then hosted a Direct IP multiplayer game in which the only players were me and an AI. This time the map looked normal!

Oddly, If you hadn't mentioned that the person you were playing with was your wife, it might have taken me much longer to figure out what the problem was.

So, just out of curiosity, do both of you have BlueMarble installed? If so, you might try uninstalling it temporarily, in order to check to see if that solves your problem. (Note: The easiest way to do that is to run the installer executable for BlueMarble. It has an uninstall option as one of its three main buttons.)

Hope this helps out. Thanks again WillShakeyspear.
Take care everyone.

=== === === edit:
Additionally AvatarofBelle has informed me that the BAT mod can evoke the same bug.

 

[AvatarofBelle]

So, just out of curiosity, do both of you have BlueMarble installed? If so, you might try uninstalling it temporarily, in order to check to see if that solves your problem. (Note: The easiest way to do that is to run the installer executable for BlueMarble. It has an uninstall option as one of its three main buttons.)

Hello fisholith. I'm the one married to WillShakeyspear.

Yes, we both had BlueMarble installed. We uninstalled it last night as part of a reinstall if Civ4. We haven't tested out the smartmaps issue yet. I'll ask him to start a smart maps game with me tonight to see if it works this time.

 

[AvatarofBelle]

We're still getting a grassland glitch with smart maps right now. The only mod we're using is BAT mod and that seems to be causing the grassland planet error for us.

I am getting very frustrated with Civ. I'm quite tempted to format my computer so I can start fresh again!

 

[fisholith]

Sounds frustrating. I'll update the Solution info to include the BAT mod issue.

After looking into the BAT mod, my guess is that both Blue Marble and BAT provoke the grass planet glitch via some alteration to Civ4's graphics, or perhaps they have some component that attempts to query information that Smartmaps is designed to alter. From the looks of it, this may relate to some problem with memory allocation. If this is the case then the grass planet glitch may be an unavoidable consequence of mixing certain kinds of mods with the present version Smartmaps.

I've actually seen a very similar (though fortunately avoidable) memory allocation conflict arise with a mod I built for the game Descent 3. After trying to figure out what caused it for nearly a year, I happened to be looking through a "known bugs" list for the Descent 3 game engine. One of them was a flawed memory unloading system that had the exact symptoms and method for evoking the bug that I had seen occasionally when running my mod. So, for the whole time I had been looking for a way to fix what I had assumed was a flaw I had introduced into the mod, it turned out their was nothing I could have changed to eliminate the glitch because the problem was in the engine code itself. Fortunately it turned out that the bug is easily avoidable, so I simply worked around it.

It looks as though Smartmaps could be suffering a similar kind of problem. Especially if two very different mods can trigger the same bug. Then again, maybe Smartmaps modifies a lot more than it looks like from the outside, and perhaps there's room for some kind of optimization in the mod that would prevent these conflicts.

In any case, it would probably be good to try and get this information to the author of the Smartmaps mod, because this is literally the only thread I know of that mentions this bug.

Thanks again for the input AvatarofBelle, and of course WillShakeyspear.
If anyone knows of a way to get in touch with the Smartmaps author, any advice would be appreciated.

Take care everyone.