GGMAX Bug - Full level disappearance

[mav3r1ck1981]

so, ive been working on a level today, that has over 300 hours of work involved (see video below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdGZdvv_juU

I added some logic links for a character, saved game and pressed test game.......my PC crashedand rebooted. OK this sometimes happens, no big deal. reboot, reopen Max, go to project and level. Max is still displaying the thumbnail for the level so theres some data that max appears to be aware of.

open level and this appears.........

The mapbank folder for this level "Revanant" is now only 1Kb in size, the previous file was 17,913Kb.

Ok, scary but theres automatic backups now, open latest backup.......

All the terrain modifications are still there, but every single asset, character, logiclink etc have now disappeared, the level is completely empty.

There are several other backups saved in the autobackup folder, with the correct memory size, but attempting to open them causes max to crash.

This is the 3rd level that this has happened to on the past 6 months. Im on EXP build, so i do understand that strange things can happen, the last time this happened was after a significant update, i dont think theres been one recently.

PC Specs: Device name DESIGN-MAIN Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K 3.00 GHz Installed RAM 128 GB (128 GB usable) GPU: GeForce RTX 4090 Device ID DC911553-588F-4B67-951B-974A8D5D9BF0 Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA222 System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

[mav3r1ck1981]

update: Ive managed to get an older save to load, so ive saved multiple backups of said file. So fortunately, ive only lost a days work now. i would like to know why this happens occasionally if possible

[SampeyFS]

yes yes

[SampeyFS]

It happened like me

[LeeBamberTGC]

@mav3r1ck1981 Well done on making your own backups and restoring your work. One of the first lessons in game development is get really paranoid about backing up, especially if you are using a dev environment that is still in development.

I have never seen the blank level load when loading my level files. Are you saying this has been happening on and off for 6 months with the EXP builds, or since the DEVTEST builds?

[mav3r1ck1981]

@LeeBamberTGC thanks for replying. Im not on DEVTEST, but have spent most of my time on EXP since its inception. Its a rare occurrence but has now happened to 3 different levels. Each time its been a substantial level, there been a crash either directly after, or during a save. Once GGMax has been restarted (same spot on storyboard/same name of level etc) the level opens rapidly and brings up a completely blank map. When i go into mapbank, the fpm file is there, but not record a size of 1kb. When i go to the autobackup folder in mapbank, the latest backup of the latest savedata is also 1kb.

In this instance, Max crashed my PC during a save, my PC didnt bluescreen, but rebooted automatically. Once back on my desktop, i opened Max, clicked on the level i had been working in previous to the crash, and it was completely blank. Thank god for the autobackup folder! I then closed down Max and went to my mapbank (due to the previous occurrences) and once again, the saved fpm was 1kb in size.

Regarding timeframes, it might be slightly longer, i know its happened 3 times now, and they've all occurred in 2024 (checked in my conversations with Steve)

[LeeBamberTGC]

@mav3r1ck1981 It could be this issue has been fixed a while if you are on the EXP build. Sounds like a crash in the saving of the FPM which would explain the 1Kb and the subsequent backup of the file when you reload (it backs up the last FPM extant, which in your case would be the 1Kb file). You can look at the previous backup files in the automatic backup folder for earlier non-1Kb versions. Also having your project in a dropbox folder down the road would provide additional back up options. Hopefully this is resolved in the DEVTEST builds, and you can try it out soon when I promote a build to the EXP build.

[mav3r1ck198-1]

Very much looking forward to the EXP update Lee!

[Kasseyus]

@mav3r1ck198-1

I’m currently in the process of going through all the outstanding issues. As this ticket is over a month old, I'm just checking to see if you are still having a problem with this, or if the matter has since been resolved, either through an update to the engine, or if the issue was resolved when another, similar issue was fixed.

Please let me know by replying to this issue and I will investigate further.

[mav3r1ck198-1]

Morning @Kasseyus oh this happens on a regular basis. Confirmed that if your level crashes during a save, it wipes the entire level so that the next time you open it, it's.completley blank. Thank God for the autobackup system that's now in place. This has happened to me at least 6 times this past week on the same level, with crashes occurring many many times throughout the week regardless of saving.

I can only assume that there's something in the level (as well as others) that conflicts with Max's core functions. I don't necessarily think it's the engine per se, as less complex maps function without error. But without any real diagnostic tools for the user, or an explanation over how to identify issues in the new logs that are produced, it makes it difficult to find what the root cause is.

Having said that, I'm wondering if models aren't centred correctly with origins and transforms having not been adjusted prior to export (particularly en masse in a level) if that could be causing some issues as its fighting against what Max expects? Such as you showed in your video regarding my models and the Navmesh generation. Just a thought......

[Kasseyus]

If the level has a lot of custom assets and scripts, it may be that something is being introduced that is causing an issue with the engine.

In cases such as this, I would usually try to re-create the bug, in an effort to isolate the specifics that is causing the crash. Is your current project using the new project system?

[mav3r1ck198-1]

It.might be, however in the initial example above, with images, that wasn't the case..nothing had been added, it simply crashed during a save.

This has happened to different levels across various projects. As I overwhelmingly use custom assets/textures and scripts, with no debugging capability built in, it will always be difficult to identify the root cause.

For now, regular saves to the backup folder mitigate the issue to a certain degree. I've not set dared to move my existing serious game to the project system. Once particles etc are fixed I will be more confident in doing so.