Crash upon game startup

[Annorax]

I've been using Exult for many years and it's worked great, until now. Whenever I try to start a new game or load a game (using BG) it crashes on the red loading screen back to my desktop with no message. My files are the following:

stdout:
=====
Exult version 1.4.01cvs
Built at: Feb 23 2005 10:32:56
Compile-time options: USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 3.4.2 (mingw-special)

Platform: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Version 5.1 Build 2600
Exult path settings:
Data : data
Digital music : data\music

4 Midi Devices Detected
Listing midi devices:
-1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
0: B: SB Live! MIDI Synth
1: A: SB Live! MIDI Synth
2: SB Live! MIDI UART
3: Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
Using device -1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Music player: Internal Win32 Midiout Midi Player for Exult and Pentagram.
Black Gate : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : e:\games\ultima\ultima7\static
Gamedat : e:\games\ultima\ultima7\gamedat
Savegame: e:\games\ultima\ultima7
Patch : e:\games\ultima\ultima7\patch

Gamedat identity FORGE
Support for SI Paperdolls and Multiracial Avatars in BG is enabled.
Loading /exult_bg.flx...
Loading default keybindings


stderr:
=====
============================
An exception occured:
Error opening file e:\games\ultima\ultima7\patch\autonotes.txt
errno: 2
============================



exult.cfg:
=======





c:\games\exult\ultima7


(default)


jmsfx.flx




c:\games\exult\serpent


(default)


jmsisfx.flx




1




yes



yes


gs




yes


digital



no


0




no


0



1.0000


-1


yes




yes



no




yes


no


no


yes


no


no


no


no


no



0


original


no



8


yes


no


-1


-1




320


200


2


SuperEagle


no


no



1.00


1.00


1.00



5




blackgate


gimp-remote -n



475


184






Could someone help me out? It seems to look for a file "autonotes.txt" which isn't anywhere on my computer. Thanks for any help.

[drcode]

That's not supposed to happen, as "autonotes.txt" is supposed to be optional. I'll try to fix this tonight.

For a workaround, create a 'patch' directory parallel to 'static' and 'gamedat', and create an empty 'autonotes.txt' file within it.

[Annorax]

I already had a \patch directory with combos.flx and faces.vga in it. I manually made an empty autonotes.txt and now it seems to work. Thanks for the help.

Is this related to the new Journal feature perhaps? What is it suppose to do?

[blackhorse]

I was getting the same problem and making the autonotes.txt fixed the startup crash. However, now I'm crashing whenever I try to save the game.

Are these related you think? What information can I post to be helpful?

[blackhorse]

stderr.txt

Digital SFX's file specified: jmsisfx.flx... but file not found
Error while listing files: The system cannot find the file specified.


============================
An exception occured:
Error opening file C:\Games\Ultima Collection\Serpent\gamedat\notebook.xml
errno: 2
============================


Well, not sure how that's related to saving the game, but there's no notebook.xml in my gamedat directory.

[blackhorse]

I'm just going to keep replying to myself.

I made a file named notebook.xml and threw it in the gamedat directory. It saves fine now. But pressing N caused the game to crash.

So, I deleted the file I made by hand and started the game. Pressed N and the notebook came up fine, it created the .xml file in the gamedat directory and now everything, including saving, works great.

So I guess the flaw is that the file isn't created until you use the notebook feature. This messed me up because I was starting a new SI game.

Oh, and BTW I fixed my audio problem too. Hadn't noticed since I wasn't playing with my speakers on.

[marzo]

Yes, I also had noticed (and reported) the problem with notebook.xml not being created when you create a new game. Someone from the Exult team has set it to closed, so I thought it no longer happened.

It is interesting to note that quick-saving (Ctrl+S) does not crash the game, but that saving normally does - until you open the notebook for the first time.

[drcode]

Looks like there are at least a couple bugs awaiting tonight...

[drcode]

These should both be fixed now.

[marzo]

(downloads and installs the new snapshot) Yep, they are fixed indeed.