Exult Forum

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

These should both be fixed now.

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