Crashes on saving using .ter terrain file (Does T2 not like Italy?!)

[NickTEve]

Terragen 2 has just started crashing when I try to save a landscape. I don't even have any shaders, objects, or anything that may cause problems other than a loaded terrain. I just open a new Terragen window, add the terrain, try to save it and I get "Terragen 2 has stopped working" (on Vista) and down it all goes. Something seems to have saved as a tgd file is created, but when I open the tgd file I get this: "...6.tgd: Parse error at line 502: unclosed token", which sounds like it didn't save fully.

I can only imagine that there is a problem with the .ter terrain file. I have saved it from another format in 3DEM and have also tried it with another version created in Landserf. Are there any limits or restriction on .ter files? Size? Shape? Don't like being of Italian mountains?!

It also seems to still work with other terrain files, thankfully, so the problem must be with my Italian DEM. It is quite important for me to be able to work on it so I would really appreciate any comments. I have attached a copy of the DEM if anyone can work out what is wrong and how I can fix it. I am sure that I have used it in the past on earlier versions of Terragen 2 as well as Terragen 0.9. I am now using version 1.10.23.1

Many thanks,

Nick

[Kevin F]

works o.k. for me.
what do you mean by "try to save a landscape"? are you saving as a TGD file?

[NickTEve]

OK... that's strange then.

I mean, just having added the terrain - going to File - Save or Save As, and saving as a Terragen 2 Project File.

I'll try putting Terragen on to another PC and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks for trying it!

Nick

[buzzzzz1]

Hi,

I'm not using vista but XP 64 and I loaded your ter and saved the tgd as a test file without any problem. Your terrain is very small (128kb) and I have used 32 MB terrains in TG without error so I guess we can say it's not the ter that's the problem. Must be something else.

[NickTEve]

OK... stranger and stranger...

I've tried it on my old laptop (XP) and it crashes. So this DEM just doesn't like me?

Could it possibly be something to do with my licence or my installer file? They seem to be about the only common denominators left, or the fact that both PCs are Sony laptops (one of which should definitely be powerful enough as it cost more than my car!). In both cases I am using TG2 1.10.23.1 on my computers.

[Matt]

I think it's likely to be something to do with the path/filename, not the file itself. When you save a project (.tgd file), the actual terrain file is not included. It only stores the path to the file (the folder hierarchy and the filename).

If the terrain filename or the folders it's in have any 'unusual' characters (non-ASCII in particular), that could cause problems for TG. You should also avoid ampersands (&). There may be other ASCII characters which cause problems, but most should be OK. Please let us know the full path to your filename.

However, if this is the cause, I'm surprised that it's crashing when you save. These are normally problems that surface when you try to reload the project later. Anyhow, please let us know if this helps or not.

Matt

[NickTEve]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

It was an offending '&' in one of the folder names, and once it was removed all is well.

Amazing how often it is something small like that!

Many thanks to those who helped out. It makes an amazing difference to those of us who are trying to learn.

Nick