Constructor can't export cathedral

#1 Yeah, I've had the same problem, although I don't know how to fix it. :P

#2 I just exported it and loaded it into the stronghold mission just fine. It took a while to export (of course) and to load and relight, but it came through fine. Relighting took forever, though. Mostly because of the mission I chose. Grrr!

EDIT:
Perhaps you are running out of memory. The DIF file was 6+ megs. I don't know what the overhead for creating it was, but I would assume it was pretty heavy.

#3 Works for me
Took a while to export (about 15 mins).. but it got there in the end.

#4 Thanks for the replies everyone.

Ethan: I know how you feel. :)

David: I think I have enough memory, removed some stuff to make sure and it still didn't work.

Joseph: Nice pic, heres mine. :)

Oh yeah, not sure this matters but it closes while it says its exportig coord bins and I found this in the console text:
"Unable to open file 'C:/Program Files/Torque/Constructor/scenes/cathedral.clx'"

Not sure if those things are very important though. Any ideas?

#5 Mine says the same thing, as well as inverting valid planes. But it compiles just fine. It takes a while, though. All I can think is that it is running out of memory or hard drive space or something. Strange.

#6 Thanks for your post David.

Cleared more memory, but still no luck. I think I may have found something important though. I successfully exported some of the prefabs included with constructor and a couple of simple houses I made. I put them into torque but when I try to place them in the mission nothing appears and the console reads :

Interior::read: incompatible file version found.
Unable to read detail level 0 in interior resource
Unable to load interior : starter.fps/data/interiors/wallwithstairs.dif

Not sure if this is related to my exporting problem. I am probably just going to have to unistall constructor and reinstall it again. (I don't think that will do any good though)

Any suggestions?

#7 Yeah, reinstalling didn't do anything. I guess I'll look at it tomorrow.

#8 That message usually means that your textures for the interior are not where Torque thinks they should be. I'm not sure why it is not copying them during the export process.

EDIT:
Are you having Torque place them into the interior directory or are you manually copying them? If you're manually copying them, you need to make sure to place the textures, too.

#9 There is a patch to Constructor. I don't know which problems it deals with specifically. Also, I cant say if the Constructor you downloaded is already patched by default. I couldnt find the link to the patch on the torque forums site, but I know it is there.

#10 Oops. I thought I'd posted that, but it must have been another topic:
Constructor patch

#11 Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry for not posting back right away, but I've been pulling my hair out trying to understand what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for the patch but constructor still crashed on export. I realized everything I exported from constructor 1_0_3, either didn't export or it didn't load into torque right. Since I was getting nowhere, I decided to use constructor 1_0_0 again. I finally got the prefabs and my simple houses into torque, but not the cathedral.

Right before I gave up I decided to delete the mid section of the cathedral for giggles and grins. With just the four towers, I tried to export. To my suprise(I think my jaw actually hit the floor) the structure exported and loaded into torque. So maybe there is something wrong with with the lights or structures in the middle of the cathedral. Or maybe it was just too big. Has anyone run into something similar?

Thanks again everyone. (Hope the post wasn't too long)

#12 I think your machine was just crapping out for some reason. Perhaps not enough RAM or bad RAM or corrupt page file.

I just did it on my Acer laptop. It's a Tablet PC at 1.5ghz and 512m of RAM shared with the crap video. Not a powerhouse by any means. It died just like yours is. My core 2 duo with 4g of RAM and my dual G5 with 8g kicked it out just fine.

The processing requirements for the numerous arches and roof areas was probably a bit too much for your computer if it worked when you removed those sections.

#13 Well, crap. I have been reading this post, and I thought to myself "I know constuctor works because I have made a couple buildings and they have exported fine, but, you know I never have tested that cathedral to see if it exports." So, I tried it. It gets pretty far into the exporting process and then I get:

The instruction at "ox100063a" referenced memory at "Ox0007bbc0". The memory could not be "written".

Just like Jeremy's initial post it crashes when it is "exporting coord bins". I have 2gig ram, is that enough for a file this large? I know the above type error is fairly common in windows programs, but I'm not sure exactly what it means or how to cure it. Any help would be appreciated. Meanwhile, I am also going to test this on a more powerful machine, as David has suggested.

#14 Actually, the core 2 duo that I was using here at work has 2g and exported it fine (and extremely quickly in comparison to the laptop that it crashed on).

#15 I got it to work on a more powerful computer: 4 gig ram, windows xp, geforce 6800(?) not sure what processor (worked fast and no problems at all)

Did not work (at all) on: 2g ram, windows 2k, 2.4 gig processor, radeon 9500 video card.

#16 Thanks for everything guys. Sorry for not responding quickly again.(Wasn't home over the weekend)
Although it seems like I have more than enough memory, I think it may be my computers fault like you guys said. I'm thinking of exporting the cathedral in sections and combining them in the mission or just not using it at all. The only thing still bothering me is why would version 1_0_0 work better than version 1_0_3. I guess its not important though, their both still free. Thanks again.

#17 Haha Interesting post,

I have had the same problem with the default cathedral as well, and frankly this is a bug, I mean if that many people have the same trouble trying to export out a file, then it is not us, but the Program having a bug, pure and simple, or you would think it would be that way anyway right?
Now I could not export it out yet my Programming partner could, and we both have the same machines with duel 3gig chips and a gig ram, same video card and so on, yet his exported out and mine didn't. Haven't a clue as to why, in fact Programmer partner said I was nuts and something wrong with my machine ROTFL, Naw not after seeing these posts, its a bug. Having said that not sure what it is, but my programmer partner is going to love this post when I shoot him the link, lol hahaha /waves at Shon when he gets to reading this , hay bro.....

So now where are we at? well humm, I have just downloaded and installed 2 patches one for 1.0.3 and one that upgrades to 1.0.4. Now I have not tried to see if that helps yet as frankly I really do not care about the building really other then it was an interesting that the building GG gives us to play with cannot get exported out very well. But I have never been that impressed with Tim's work anyway myself, and when I looked at it in Big C, It really was not a cathedral at all but a bunch of objects just stuck together.

And I am betting that when you look at it and realize it has no LOD, that that is a good indicator that they were having big trouble with it as well to begin with. I also think this is a very good reason why they released it as a freebee, can you imagine what the hew and cry would be if we had paid for this puppy? hahaha lolol, but good for GG as while it has as many bugs as swiss cheese in many ways, it does meet our needs mostly and is still better then Quark by a long shot, so I hang in there with the hope they will get a version that works killer one day. So don't beat yourselves up guys to much, it ain't us Artists, it is the programmers learning there trade as they go along just like us as we go along learning our trade. We all in the same boat, to poor to go out and buy the 1.5 million dollar engine per seat. Which I might add, I really am not sure is any better then what we are working with now, since as I understand it, there is not much of a GUI in the high priced spread either, and we doing better then most for poor developers, right? /smiles.....

Now since I have all the new updates I probably will have to try and export it out now just to see if that helped, but I think I will LOD it first, then if I do get it out, it will actually be a workable building in some zone somewhere maybe.

I have not posted much, as like you guys I always figure it is me and not them hahaha, well in this case it is them guys not us /winks.

DeathTwister aka Maylock

#18 Can you provide useful information on where it seems to be causing problems on your system? I've exported the Cathedral on low-end laptops, several work machines here, my G5 and Mac Mini with no problems. I know that a few people are having them, but there is no way to solve a problem until it can be isolated.

You could use Radiant or 3D World Studio is Constructor doesn't match your needs. You could also see about contacting Valve for using Hammer.

#19 Hay my friend,

Yes I would be more then happy to lend a hand if I may, as I said before I have not posted much before now as I wanted to make sure it was not me first before I stated posting. So it would be my pleasure to help out. Give me a day or 2 as I am deep in something else right now ands I will get on this as much as I can from an artist point of view.
LOL we are just a 2 man team right now so I am swamped with stuff most times, but this would help me on many levels. Also I wanted time to do a go through with all the new patches that I installed, then after I round out something next day or 2, I will get on this then, if not before my brother.

As for thos eother prrams? Naw, been there done that, anf the Big C is still better then the average bear in my humble opinion, so I am more into jumping in and helping out, and I am sure my programmer "Shon" will also when he can help some here and there as well as we have a need, and this is a fun program please don't get me wrong. But I do have some ideas I would like to through your way as well, but first let me see about this cathedral matter, then on to other things.

Also Dave I do have a Huge Problem I am going to post later today as a post by it self I need advice on and any work arounds that anyone can think of, but that will be later in the day. Right now I need to change out some internet towers so I can be on more stable after the last series of storms that hit us ROTFL.
DT

#20 Cool. I tried to help Shon on a problem a little while back with Overlord. Don't know if I'll be able to help, but I'll try.