Please help me! (DDF related problem)

I'm just about done with my mod and when I tried to playtest it, I get this stupid warning:

DDF_MainProcessChar: Read Buffer Size Exceeded, Size: 1024
Error Occured in Line 3825 of DDFTHING
Error Occured in entry [WW2_BRITISH_LIZARD:5557]
Line Contents: BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE

I've never seen this warning before and it's scaring the hell outta me. Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks in advanced!

Well, I don't know a thing when it comes to DDF, but by looking at the error it seems there's something wrong with the helper's reaction to seeing an enemy. I think you might have some bad code to blame. If I were you, I'd go back to line 3825 of the DDF code and investigate.

Another thing that crossed my mind was that you might have too many Things(guns, enemies, etc.). I can think of a few weapons you could do without, and a few ways to get a bunch of those weapons(that you can only get through IDKFA) available to the player without having to use cheats. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to tell you how to make your mod, I'm just saying I got a few ideas. I'll send a PM.

Well, there is only one or two mods that have more guns than mine (one is the Earthbound TC and I forgot the other one) and according to some that used them, they work perfectly fine. So I'm guessing that it's probably faulty DDF coding. Then again, the EDGE engine is kinda unstable...

You've done something to THINGS.DDF that EDGE doesn't like.

Hi, the problem was:

DDF_MainProcessChar: Read Buffer Size Exceeded, Size: 1024
Error Occured in Line 3825 of DDFTHING
Error Occured in entry [WW2_BRITISH_LIZARD:5557]
Line Contents: BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE


you must go to this line in your THINGS.DDF file:

BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE

And add , after the CHASE option, like this:

BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,

If this is the last frame of the state, add ; like:

BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE;

Remember that if you put, for example:

BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
#REMOVE;

You CAN´T do it:

BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE;
#REMOVE;

If you have more problems about DDFs or RTS scripts, post a reply again.

Here's the actual code. I don't get why it still has that error.

[WW2_BRITISH_LIZARD:5557]
SPAWNHEALTH=120;
REACTION_TIME=0.1;
RADIUS=20;
HEIGHT=56;
SPEED=16;
MASS=100;
PAINCHANCE=50%;
SPECIAL=SOLID,CLIMBABLE,MONSTER,SHOOTABLE,DROPOFF,SLIDER,ATTACK_HURTS;
MINATTACK_CHANCE=70%;
CASTORDER=25;
BLOOD=BLOOD;
PALETTE_REMAP=PLAYER_GREEN;
SIDE=1;
RESPAWN_EFFECT=RESPAWN_FLASH;
ACTIVE_SOUND="BRACT?";
DEATH_SOUND="BRDTH";
PAIN_SOUND=BRTPN?";
SIGHTING_SOUND="BRSIT?";
OVERKILL_SOUND=SLOP;
RANGE_ATTACK=PLAYER_STEN;
SPARE_ATTACK=ENEMY_CASING;
STATES(IDLE)=BRTL:A:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:A:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:B:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:B:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:C:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:C:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:D:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
              BRTL:D:3:NORMAL:SUPPORT_MEANDER,
		  #IDLE;
STATES(CHASE)=BRTL:A:4:NORMAL:MAKESOUNDRANDOM,
              BRTL:A:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:B:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:B:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:D:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:D:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:A:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:A:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:B:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:B:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:C:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:D:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              BRTL:D:4:NORMAL:CHASE,
              #IDLE;
STATES(MISSILE)=BRTL:E:5:NORMAL:FACETARGET,
                BRTL:E:3:BRIGHT:RANGE_ATTACK,
                BRTL:F:1:BRIGHT:SPARE_ATTACK(ENEMY_SMOKE),
                BRTL:E:3:NORMAL:SPARE_ATTACK,
                BRTL:E:1:NORMAL:REFIRE_CHECK,
                #MISSILE:2;
STATES(PAIN)=BRTL:G:3:NORMAL:NOTHING,
             BRTL:G:3:NORMAL:MAKEPAINSOUND,
             #IDLE;
STATES(DEATH)=BRTL:H:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
              BRTL:I:5:NORMAL:MAKEDEATHSOUND,
              BRTL:J:5:NORMAL:MAKEDEAD,
              BRTL:K:5:NORMAL:DROPITEM(STEN),
              BRTL:L:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
              BRTL:M:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
              BRTL:N:-1:NORMAL:NOTHING;
STATES(FLMEDETH)=BURN:A:5:BRIGHT:PLAYSOUND(FIRDIE),
                 BURN:B:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:C:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:D:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:E:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:F:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:G:5:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:H:4:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:I:4:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:J:4:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:K:4:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:L:4:BRIGHT:NOTHING,
                 BURN:M:4:NORMAL:MAKEDEAD,
                 BURN:N:-1:NORMAL:NOTHING;
STATES(OVERKILL)=BRTL:O:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                 BRTL:P:3:NORMAL:MAKEOVERKILLSOUND,
                 BRTL:Q:3:NORMAL:MAKEDEAD,
                 BRTL:R:3:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                 BRTL:S:3:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                 BRTL:T:3:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                 BRTL:U:-1:NORMAL:NOTHING;
STATES(RESPAWN)=BRTL:K:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                BRTL:J:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                BRTL:I:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                BRTL:H:5:NORMAL:NOTHING,
                #IDLE;

I don´t know where is the error. I use EDGE for my mod and I haven´t got problems with DDF or RTS Scripts. Delete the code of this monster and try to make it again. It can be done by the CHASE and SUPPORT_MEANDER commands in a bad configuration.

This error message means that the string which Edge is trying to read is simply to big (>1024). What do you use to edit DDF? Maybe you have some freaky junk characters in your DDF file which are filling up Edge's read buffer.


[edit]just saw this on the edge bug tracker[/edit]
Here's what the developers have to say:
Date: 2003-10-17 07:21
Sender: ajapted
Logged In: YES
user_id=11869

It means something that EDGE is parsing (a keyword, string,
state line, etc) exceeds 1024 characters.

My guess is that you have an open bracket "(" which is
missing the closing ")" bracket somewhere before line
3825
(roughly 1000 characters earlier, if that helps :). Maybe
an unterminated string could also cause this error.

Hooray! Lobo's back :D!

That was my message I posted. I use Notepad to edit the DDF files. Should I switch to another TXT editing program or something?

EDIT: I finally got that error fixed (I followed Cyberkiller's advice BTW), but now I have a new problem. For some reason, the maps I had made don't recognize my LSMC Soldiers. They say that they are unknown thing types. The odd thing about it is that before the error I had with the British Lizard, the maps worked perfectly fine. Should I redo the coding for the LSMC Soldier?

Lizardcommando said:

I use Notepad to edit the DDF files. Should I switch to another TXT editing program or something?

Use whatever you want to edit DDF/RTS, as long as it's more or less plain text, not Word or something :)
Personally I use Editplus, and have created some syntax files for it (you can get them from my site) which highlight DDFs keywords with different colors and stuff: it's quite handy while coding DDF.

EDIT: I finally got that error fixed (I followed Cyberkiller's advice BTW)

Hooray! Good stuff.

but now I have a new problem. For some reason, the maps I had made don't recognize my LSMC Soldiers. They say that they are unknown thing types. The odd thing about it is that before the error I had with the British Lizard, the maps worked perfectly fine. Should I redo the coding for the LSMC Soldier?

Who said they're unknown thing types, your map editor or Edge? Make sure you didn't accidently change the Thing number or something in the DDF.

Lobo said:

Who said they're unknown thing types, your map editor or Edge? Make sure you didn't accidently change the Thing number or something in the DDF.

Well, whenever I play a level that have the LSMC soldier, I open up the console and it says UNKNOWN THING NUMBER:3041. That's the number that I assigned to the LSMC soldier. It worked before that other error ever occured. Now that I had that error fixed, this happens! What do I do?

The only other time I've seen this message (in my case it was "WARNING: Unknown thing type 79 at (3392, -1408)") was when I used the invisible Blood-with-empty-skin (as a reference for some RTS in a map editor) but didn't have it defined in my things.ddf

If you want you, can pass me the complete Things.DDF you're using and I'll have a look. Like Andrew Apted said, it could be something further up in your code that's messing up the stuff further down. My mail is lobo_eire@hotmail.com

Man that is one BIG ddf file!!

I've been having a look through it and the only odd things that jumped out at me are a few entries without map numbers (for example M5, M4 , 9MM_CLIP etc.) which could be confusing Edge. Of course there could be some other little errors somewhere but there's just way too much DDF to go through it all :(


BTW I've finally found the reason why your original [WW2_BRITISH_LIZARD:5557] didn't work! :) You were missing a " in the line PAIN_SOUND=BRTPN?"; and therefore edge was reading a big wallop of ddf until it either came across another " or (in your case) ran out of string buffer.

Lobo said:

Man that is one BIG ddf file!!

I've been having a look through it and the only odd things that jumped out at me are a few entries without map numbers (for example M5, M4 , 9MM_CLIP etc.) which could be confusing Edge. Of course there could be some other little errors somewhere but there's just way too much DDF to go through it all :(


BTW I've finally found the reason why your original [WW2_BRITISH_LIZARD:5557] didn't work! :) You were missing a " in the line PAIN_SOUND=BRTPN?"; and therefore edge was reading a big wallop of ddf until it either came across another " or (in your case) ran out of string buffer.

Thanks for looking at it. Well, if you find anything else suspicious, just let me know. :)