Crashing TGD

Started by helentr, March 21, 2007, 05:59:05 PM

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helentr

I am getting an intermittent crash ("Terragen has generated an error and has to be closed" etc. Windows message) on opening some files and I can't open many of my saved TGDs.
One of the error generating ones was made with the update, the others with the previous version.
I tried opening the TGD_BAK files where available and, if these were opening, I did a file compare.

The common differences are in the gui_network_view_position and gui_network_view_zoom (slightly different numbers), which I think are not important, but maybe I am wrong.

The second common difference was in the planet and atmosphere,
where , in the working one it has
centre = "4.0886e-022 -6.378e+006 -4.08252e-008"
and in the crashing one
centre = "-3.8573e-022 -6.378e+006 4.08252e-008"
These numbers were invariably the same in all 5 cases of TGDs I compared.

In three cases there was another difference in the cloud layer
input_node = "Atmosphere 01"
in the working one
input_node = "/Atmosphere 01"
in the crashing one

The one I uploaded in this thread http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1112.0, seems to be one of those crashing, also the one used for this image http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1104.0.
I think that in those two, I pressed the save+exit button. I tried it on a new TGD and save+exit changed the centre exactly as above. Is the planet moving on its own?
The strange thing is that sometimes I can open these files without a problem (Today was not my lucky day).
For example, I opened the red sphere TGD after 3 failed attempts, rendered an image (where BTW the image was quite different from the previously rendered one, see the first thread above), closed and was unable to open again.

Helen

Oshyan

Helen, I can't get your scene to crash. But I also don't have the object in it and I'm not sure if that's related.

The small changes in positioning shouldn't be a concern - note that the negative symbol after the 'e' in scientific notation means those are very *small* numbers, so the differences are not great. I understand they're due to little inaccuracies from having multiple ways of controlling planetary positioning. Perhaps something gets rounded on loading based on the accuracy of the planetary positioning sliders. I'm not entirely sure. But in any case it shouldn't be something to worry about as you are extremely unlikely to notice any difference visually.

- Oshyan

helentr

Thank you Oshyan.
The object is uploaded together with the TGD.
I have not the faintest idea what number or function "e" represents :( - I was taught math in a different language. Could somebody tell me please?
Today all these files seem to load without any crashes; maybe my system was in a bad mood yesterday.

Helen

Arandil

#3
Oh, the 'e' thing, that's scientific notation!  I had to re-learn that when I was playing with Orbiter.  It essentially boils down to a shorthand way of writing numbers with lots of zeros or decimal places, as when you're describing distances in space in kilometers or meters .. ;^)

'e' stands for how many places you move the decimal point.  A positive (default) or negative (-) indicator tells you which way to move the decimal point (left or right).

So, a number like 1,743,000 would be 1.743e6, because you move the decimal point 6 places left (because the number is large).  1.743e006 is the same thing, as is 1.743e+006 or something like that.  EDIT: BTW, I was assuming American notation here.  I believe the European notation for this number would be 1.743.000 ... but I'm actually busy with something else right now and unable to confirm.

A number like 0.000001743 would be 1.743e-6 or 1.743e-006 and so on.  EDIT: I guess this would be 1,743e6 in European terms?

Hope this helps!

helentr

Thank you Arandil. So the e-22 means a very low number.

Helen

Arandil

Quote from: helentr on March 23, 2007, 07:44:13 AM
Thank you Arandil. So the e-22 means a very low number.

Helen

Verily and forsooth!