Long War for Mac OS/X - pointers / advice?

[Anderkent]

You're probably playing with trailing roulette on. That option is broken on a mac right now.

[Amaroq81]

So ... y'know how the mod says "Steam version only", and "for the March 2014 patch"?

 

I'm trying to get LW working for an Amazon.com XCOM Elite Edition installation, with a build date of October 2014. I've a fair bit of previous modding experience, but primarily with games that were more mod-friendly than this.

 

I've sorted out all of the non-Steam directory locations, found the correct files and locations. For example, I can get the text string replacements in the loading menu, and the .INI file changes, in, correctly.

 

However, anytime I try to bring in the LW .UPK files, I get a CTD immediately after the splash screen.

 

a.) Has anybody previous to me solved this issue?

b.) If not, does anybody have any advice as to "next steps" I can try?

c.) Am I just hosed for having bought the wrong version?

 

Option c.) would be particularly annoying, as I intentionally did not buy the game on launch due to reviews, and bought it now explicitly with intent to play the LW mod of EW.

 

Thanks for the feedback, johnny_lump. I had found and fixed that locally prior to posting.

 

After further exploration, I think my issue is that the Amazon version of the game is still utilizing the .uncompressed_size files.

 

If I take my vanilla installation, and delete Engine, XComGame, and XComStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size from the CookedPCConsole folder, I get the same CTD after splash screen behavior as I do with LW. THE CTD behavior is present with the LW versions of those three .upk files both with and without the corresponding uncompressed_size files.

 

I have tried hex-editing Hashes.sha and also the Mac .exe equivalent, "Contents/MacOS/XCOM Enemy Within", as described in the Basic Guide to Modding, with minimal success; the game still loads only with the original .upk and uncompressed_size files.

 

If anybody has other suggestions, I'm out of ideas. Thanks in advance!

[Amaroq81]

Any help? Anyone?

 

I went back and reinstalled Elite Edition 1.2.0 from .DMG, and the only change I made was disabling phone home (the game loaded), and then removing Engine.upk.uncompressed_size, and the game pulled the CTD behavior.

 

So, this is clearly a "modding Amazon Mac OS X build" issue, and nothing to do with Long War at all.

[Amaroq81]

Okay, it might be a Long War issue after all. I downloaded and compiled wghost's UPKUtils, and used DecompressLZO to decompress vanilla Engine.upk. Deleting Engine.upk.uncompressed_size then worked; game loaded fine. Ditto XComGame.upk and XComStrategyGame.upk.

 

Sadly, still no luck with the LW .upk's, though DecompressLZO reports that "Package is already decompressed!"

[wghost81]

Those packages are indeed decompressed, so DecompressLZO report is correct.

 

You don't need to unpack Engine package for the mod to work properly. You need only the files included in the mod distro (MAC/Linux distro).

 

If memory serves, Engine.upk is not listed in sha file, so this might still be the hash problem.

 

Try installing a fresh game copy with no mods, decompressing XComGame.upk and removing corresponding uncompressed_size file.

Edited February 16, 2015 by wghost81

[Amaroq81]

Thank you for the help! I'm clearly punching out of my weight class on this one. ;)

 

Beginning with the vanilla installation, in my Contents/Resources/Data/XEW/XComGame/CookedPCConsole folder:

DecompressLZO XComGame.upk
mv XComGame.upk.uncompr XComGame.upk
rm XComGame.upk.uncompressed_size

& the game loads fine. What shall I try next?

 

Verification: I am using the Mac/Linux distro, Long War beta 14i.

[wghost81]

Good. It means that your version doesn't have the hash check.

 

Now download Linux/Mac zip LW distro and manually copy XComGame.upk while still having XComGame.upk.uncompressed_size removed.

 

If the game loads fine, continue copying all the other files one by one. Do not forget to remove corresponding uncompressed_size files.

[Amaroq81]

Crash to Desktop. :(

Crashed Thread:        12  WinMain

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
abort() called
*** error for object 0x42: pointer being freed was not allocated

Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib        	0x975dba2e mach_msg_trap + 10
1   libsystem_kernel.dylib        	0x975daad0 mach_msg + 68
2   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x93e4eae6 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 214
3   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x93e4def9 __CFRunLoopRun + 1529
4   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x93e4d696 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 390
5   com.apple.CoreFoundation      	0x93e4d4fb CFRunLoopRunInMode + 123
6   com.apple.HIToolbox           	0x9257b178 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 262
7   com.apple.HIToolbox           	0x9257aeb1 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 494
8   com.apple.HIToolbox           	0x92720798 ReceiveNextEvent + 90
9   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x016141c3 0x1000 + 23146947
10  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0194e31f 0x1000 + 26530591
11  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x00021016 0x1000 + 131094
12  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x01937fba 0x1000 + 26439610
13  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x014415ec 0x1000 + 21235180

<snip>

Thread 12 Crashed:: WinMain
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib        	0x975e169e __pthread_kill + 10
1   libsystem_pthread.dylib       	0x98847fd5 pthread_kill + 101
2   libsystem_c.dylib             	0x96623fca __abort + 187
3   libsystem_c.dylib             	0x96623f0f abort + 173
4   libsystem_malloc.dylib        	0x99c0feb9 free + 428
5   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x00036ba1 0x1000 + 220065
6   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x011d231a 0x1000 + 18682650
7   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0123f0c7 0x1000 + 19128519
8   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x012065ca 0x1000 + 18896330
9   XCOM Enemy Within             	0x01262287 0x1000 + 19272327
10  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x01262510 0x1000 + 19272976
11  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0126135f 0x1000 + 19268447
12  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0121fe02 0x1000 + 19000834
13  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0002d1ba 0x1000 + 180666
14  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0002d8ec 0x1000 + 182508
15  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x00028a4e 0x1000 + 162382
16  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0002abe1 0x1000 + 170977
17  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x0002af11 0x1000 + 171793
18  XCOM Enemy Within             	0x016143a4 0x1000 + 23147428
19  libsystem_pthread.dylib       	0x98845ecf _pthread_body + 138
20  libsystem_pthread.dylib       	0x98845e45 _pthread_start + 162
21  libsystem_pthread.dylib       	0x98843f0e thread_start + 34

That is different from my usual crash, which is in Thread 0 at that same mach_msg_trap.

 

However, the tail end of Launch.log looks the same as it "usually" does, which is cut off at the same line of the system spec -- I suspect this is due to buffering, and not indicative of the GPU causing a problem:

[0006.56] Log: Caching packages from path ..\..\XComGame\CookedPC: 10674 packages
[0006.64] DevDataBase: Connection to "Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=production-db;Initial Catalog=EngineTaskPerf;Trusted_Connection=Yes;Connection Timeout=2" or "10.1.20.20" failed
[0006.65] Log: resX=1440, resY=900
[0006.66] Init: OS stats:
[0006.66] Init:         Unknown Windows
[0006.66] Init:         RemoteDesktop=0
[0006.66] Init: Memory stats:
[0006.66] Init:         Physical: 16384MB
[0006.66] Init:         Virtual: 16384MB
[0006.66] Init:         PageFile: 0MB
[0006.66] Init: CPU stats:
[0006.66] Init:         MeasuredPerformanceTime: 95.447 (stored result)
[0006.66] Init:         Hyperthreaded: 1
[0006.66] Init:         NumProcessorsPerCPU: 1
[0006.66] Init:         NumLogicalProcessors: 8
[0006.66] Init:         NumPhysicalProcessors: 1
[0006.66] Init:         MaxSpeed: 2700
[0006.66] Init:         CurrentSpeed: 2700
[0006.66] Init:         CoresPerProcessor: 1
[0006.66] Init:         IsOnBattery: 1
[0006.66] Init:         BatteryLevel: 98
[0006.66] Init:         Manufacturer: Unknown
[0006.66] Init:         CPUName: Unknown
[0006.66] Init:         L1CacheSize: -1
[0006.66] Init:         L2CacheSize: 256
[0006.66] Init:         Architecture: x
[0006.66] Init: GPU stats:
[0006.66] Init:         VendorID: 000010DE
[0006.66] Init:         DeviceID:

In the "dumb questions" category .. For vanilla EW, is the following the correct/expected output?

>> more XComGame.upk.uncompressed_size 
12336756

[Amaroq81]

So, I decided to tackle a different approach, just to ensure that, y'know, I'm not starting with a bad assumption.

 

I downloaded and extracted your "Larger Pods" modfile.txt, ran PatchUPK LargerPods.txt /pathto/cookedPC, and verified that THAT runs, no hiccoughs.

 

So I think we can rule out "Amaroq's .upk files are flat-out unmoddable" as a possible culprit.. not that that helps me come up with any other ideas to try. :/

 

Looking at your body of work, hot damn, have you done a tremendous amount of work on this game! I am very appreciative that you're taking the time to assist me.

 

And it still loads/runs with: Alien Squad Size, Random Pod Placement, Random Drop Down, Random Meld, and Map Tac Info

Edited February 18, 2015 by Amaroq81

[wghost81]

Seems, we have found the problem: EW patch3 XComGame.upk.uncompressed_size holds 12436252. So your game version is not EW patch3.

 

Fortunately, I keep all the versions on my hard drive :smile: so I was able to identify yours: it is Changelist 394142 also known as patch0 or the initial release!

 

Since most of my mods are version independent, they work correctly. But LW distro contains version dependent packages, that's why it's not working for you.

 

So, you need to find a way to patch your game.