Dungeon Master for Pocket PC / Win CE

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 11:14 pm

Sorry Paul, The message actually referred to the graphics.dat not the dungeon.dat. Kind of cross between a typo and burning dinner...

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 1:41 am

I posted a new CSBwinCE2002.rar at
dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin

The previous version had a REALLY BAD,
ugly error. I have no idea how it worked in
the emulator. I don't think it should have.
It used a Device Context of NULL and eventually
ran the machine out of resources. The new
version runs well enough for me to go kill the
first Mummy on level 1. You do not know what SLOW
means until you run CSBwin on this emulator.

At any rate, I hope that this error is what
caused the program to fail on your real Pocket PC.
Otherwise we are going to have to do some rather
tedious remote debugging until I get my own machine.
It was shipped today but I have to wait for my birthday
on April 6.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:22 am

No luck Paul, Downloaded the new exe and i've tried it in windows\start menu and from the storage card. All i get is the blank screen with the black bar and a pop up;

"Error, System Error 42, SystemError"

It appears to be a recurring error, if you ok the pop up it goes but comes back in a minute or so...

The drop down menus are there, Tools lets me see the ABOUT, File won't do anything, and Misc gives me the option to record. Do you want to try and list the files in your ppc emulator windows directory? see there is a library file or something i'm missing?

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:59 am

If I get back from work at a decent hour, I will test this at home tonight.

Im getting very excited now

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 3:04 pm

I cannot find a System Error 42 anywhere in the
program. Not sure what to make of that. But......
other System Errors (43 and 44) occur when problems
are discovered in the 'graphics.dat' file.

So I posted 'CSBwinCE10Mar.rar at
dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin

It has both the executable and the graphics file that
work for me. There should be no library or anything
missing. Such things would cause the program not
to load.

Edit-------I found the System Error 42. It happens when
we cannot determine the format of the 'graphics.dat'.
So try the graphics file that I included in the 10Mar release.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 3:50 pm

Still no luck! I downloaded the new rar from your site... not labelled 10mar, but it had a graphics.dat inside so i assume it's the right one!! It starts up to a white screen, only this time without the black bar... and i get the error 42 again! This happened from both locations.

Just thinking, there is a gx.dll (located in windows\ - hidden attribute) i had trouble with, with a game before (something i uninstalled deleted it, and it's needed for some games, not sure what it is exactly though...), can you check the file size of yours? could you possibly have a more recent version? or is it likely to be completely unrelated? Mine is 8.50kB (8704B)

Sorry this is proving troublesome Paul... Where are you running CSBwinCE2002 from? Do i need any thing else other than the exe and graphics.dat file present? I've actually just tried running it with everything in windows\start menu and the same from my storage card...

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:38 pm

I cannot find that file gx.dll nywhere.

I put in some debugging traces.
CSBwinCE10Mar_2.rar

Please be careful to tell me exactly the messages
that appear.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 5:34 pm

Ran from storage card and got the following:

Debug Graphics pop up - readnum 2
Debug Graphics pop up - numgraphic 13058
Debug Graphics pop up - setnum 563
CSBwinCE2002 application open, have to switch to it manually to see white screen (white only)...
Debug pop ups continue with and without white screen being visible (ie switched to, PPC applications are quite often just minimised if closed, rather than shut down
Debug Graphics pop up - readnum 2
Debug Graphics pop up - numgraphic 61184
Debug Graphics pop up - setnum 239
Debug Graphics pop up - readnum 2
Debug Graphics pop up - numgraphic 40972
Debug Graphics pop up - setnum 3232
Debug Graphics pop up - graphicSizes 0
Debug Graphics pop up - expSizes 0
Debug Graphics pop up - ReadGSizes 6464
Debug Graphics pop up - ReadESizes 6464
Debug Graphics pop up - SwapSizes 3232
Debug Graphics pop up - ppPointer262 0
Debug Graphics pop up - pwPointer23266 0
Debug Graphics pop up - ReadGraphics 0
Debug Graphics pop up - D6L = 3232
Debug Graphics pop up - Last at 51819946
No pop up, several single pixel sized dots visible in top left of white area of screen. System Crash - hard reset.

Repeated and got identical sequence after reset.

Reran from windows\start menu and got identical sequence after reset.

Also reran from windows\start menu\CSBwinCE2002 and got identical sequence. It did however bring up the white screen by itself this time, but either way it resulted in a system crash and hard reset.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:17 pm

Debug Graphics pop up - readnum 2
Debug Graphics pop up - numgraphic 13058
Debug Graphics pop up - setnum 563
CSBwinCE2002 application open, have to switch to it manually to see white screen (white only)...

I don't understand. What happened? After the 'setnum 563'
did it just sit there and do nothing? And so you restarted it?
Or what? At any rate, it looks like it restarted because the
'readnum 2' is the first thing it does. And it appears to have
restarted the program but continued reading the graphics
file where it left off (Not at the beginning).

I posted CSBwinCE10Mar_3.rar
I added some more trace. Please reboot the device and run
it from Windows/Start Menu ONLY ONCE. Multiple runs tend
to confuse me. We can try to fix those things later.

Debugging hardware I have never seen at a distance of 6000
miles is a bit of a challenge.

Edit.......Also, you never saw the System Error 42?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:05 pm

Let me tell you what happens when I do it on the
emulated Pocket PC.

I do Soft Reset
Click on Start
Menu pops up. I click on 'Programs'
I click on 'File Explorer'. Find Windows/Start Menu
I see wCSBwinCE2002 and graphics
Click on CSBwinCE2002
Readnum 2. Click OK
Numgraphic 13058. Clicxk on OK
Setnum 563. Click on OK.
D6L 1126. Click OK
alloc1 1126. Click OK
graphics sizes 2300490. Click OK
expsizes 0. Click OK
ReadGSizes 1126. Click OK
ReadEsizes 1126. Click OK
SwapSizes 563. Click OK
ppPointer 262 0. Click OK.
pwPointer23266 0. Click OK
Readgraphics 0. Click OK.
D6L=563. Click OK
Last at 270643. Click OK
Now I see the Windows explorer page.
Click on the 'X' to close explorer.
I see the 'Presents' screen from Dungeon Master.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:27 am

Hmm... well i put the exe and dat in windows\start menu and used explorer to navigate there and clicked exe...

I got the same messages as you until;

alloc1 1126

then it went back to;

readnum 2
numgraphic 61184
setnum 239
D6L 478
alloc1 478
readnum 2
numgraphic 40972
setnum 3232
D6L 6464
alloc1 6464
graphicsizes 2295152
expsizes 0
readgsizes 646
readesizes 6464
swapsizes 3232
pppointer262 0
pwpointer23266 0
readgraphics 0
D6L = 3232
Last at 51819946
Sysetm crash!

And no error 42 this time or with the last exe.

Hope this helps Paul...

So where are you from if you're 6000 miles away? or is that just a guess based on an assumed time difference? Anyway, i'm from London... and i'm out of the office all day tomorrow so i won't be able to test anything until tomorrow night, but good luck - hope my test helps in some way!!!

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 2:16 am

I posted CSBwinCE10Mar_4.

Here is what I see: The numbers in brackets will
be different for you. I need to know what they are.

allocated [1769480]
readnum 2
numgraphic 13058
setnum 563
D6L 1126
alloc1 1126
size 1126
T1 alloc [2760368]
SetFwd [2760368]
Clear [2759242]
return [2759242]
graphicSizes [2759242]

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 8:36 pm

Ok, downloaded and ran from windows\start menu it followed you list of pop ups for the italic items and i carried on;

allocated [1310728]
readnum 2
numgraphic 13058
setnum 563
D6L 1126
alloc1 1126
size 1126
T1 alloc [2301616]
allocated 1310728
size 1024
T1 alloc 2310708
SetFwd 0
Clear 2309684
return 2309684
size 5100
T1 alloc 2309672
setfwd 2309672
clear 2304572
return 2304572
size 1460
T1 alloc 2304560
setfwd 2304560
clear 2303100
return 2303100
size 1460
t1 alloc 2303088
setfwd 2303088
clear 2301628
return 2301628
readnum 2
numgraphic 61184
setnum 239
d6L 478
alloc1 478
size 478
t1 alloc 2301616
allocated 1310728
size 1024
t1 alloc 2310708
setfwd 0
clear 2309684
return 2309684
size 5100
t1 alloc 2309672
setfwd 2309672
clear 2304572
return 2304572
size 1460
t1 alloc 2304560
setfwd 2304560
clear 2303100
return 2303100
size 1460
t1 alloc 2303088
setfwd 2303088
clear 2301628
return 2301628
readnum 2
numgraphic 40972
setnum 3232
d6l 6464
alloc1 6464
size 6464
t1 alloc 2301616
setfwd 2301616
clear 2295152
return 2295152
graphicsizes 2295152
size 6464
t1 alloc 2295140
setfwd 2295140
...
and it's still going, do you want me to give you the rest of the pop ups until something significant happens? I can resume from that point easily so it's up to you if you want anymore...
Hope it makes sense to you!!!

Post by **Gambit37** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 8:54 pm

While I'm very interested in seeing CSB Win on the pocket PC, wouldn't this debugging stuff be better in a private conversation? You can shoot me if I'm wrong.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:17 pm

Ahhhhh... I get it! Your wife/partner/spouse/other (delete as applicable) is jealous of the time you've spent reading & rereading the debugging comments!

I think Gambit37 may be right Paul... at the rate this is going aswell, it might be one HUGE thread by the time we're done!!! You want do to do this by e-mail or on the private messages on this forum?

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:37 pm

At least what is currently here shows others who might try the programme and experience errors how Paul wants it reported

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:49 pm

do you want me to give you the rest of the pop ups until something significant happens

Nope. I intended that you only supply what I supplied.
But I think I am happy that you provided more

It will be awhile before I get back to you. It is a
puzzle.

This is hardly the longest thread. When this little problem
is solved we can simply delete the thread and start with
the next problem. We hardly need it for historical purposes
and I was hoping that someone else might jump in and try
it on a slightly different model.

Edit: I bet you meant [1310278] on the first line??????
Edit again: OOOOps. I see you skipped the ones that were
identical. Sorry.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:16 pm

Edit: I bet you meant [1310278] on the first line??????
Edit again: OOOOps. I see you skipped the ones that were
identical. Sorry.

No, the list above was absolutely everything line for line from the pop ups on my ppc. The first 8 lines/pop ups (italic) were the first 8 lines from your list, but with my numbers in the [] as you asked for...

and the first line was "allocated 1310728" - i've just reran it to double check the number too!!! 1310728 not -278

Hope that doesn't confuse things too much ?!?!

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:11 pm

Things are confused. Especially me. I am trying to
do about 4 things at once. One of the things is filling
out my income tax forms......39 pages of them.

The program clearly gets to a spot in the memory
allocation routine and then resets. Why? I do not
know. Very puzzling. It must be getting some sort
of error interrupt like an out-of-bounds memory reference.
I will think on it for a while. Thanks for all your help.
This will get fixed. Have faith.

Can andyboy_uk try it and see what happens to him?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 1:41 am

I have good news for you. My Pocket PC arrived today
and I am going to get an early biorthday present.

Mine does very much the same as yours. A little
different, probalby because it is CE2003 operating system.
But it acts pretty much the same. So we just cut 12,000
miles off the debugging round trip. And a few minutes, too.

I will keep you informed.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:24 am

Happy Early Birthday Paul!!!

Just thinking about what you said re: memory allocation... could that have anything to do with the ppc memory, the memory is all RAM but it dynamically allocates a proportion to running programs and storage, you can actually manually adjust the split with a slide bar... (start bar - settings/system/memory)

My ppc has 64MB o RAM, 16 is reserved for the OS, so i have 46 free to split between storage (not my storage card) and running apps. I was just wondering if the dynamic storage/running aps thing could be causing the trouble...

On another note... if you like rpg's as i guess you do, you might like http://eqpocket.station.sony.com/ i've played the 1st 2 episodes, it's got great graphics and a nice little plot, the npc interaction is basic but fair and the combat is quite nifty, gets a bit hair raising at times?!?!

Post by **Lunever** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 3:51 pm

Gambit:I don't think there is any harm in using this forum for Pocket-DM developement. After all, that's what a forum is made for and Paul might actually find someone who might join the debugging conversation.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 6:18 pm

OK. I have found the basic problem. I cannot imagine
anything worse happening.

The Atari insisted that 32-bit values be aligned on two-byte
boundaries. The PC doesn't care except that performace
suffers a bit. BUT THE XSCALE PROCESSOR DEMANDS THAT
THEY BE ON FOUR-BYTE BOUNDARIES. AND

THE PROGRAM DOES NOT CRASH WHEN AN
EXCEPTION OCCURS. IT SIMPLY PROCEEDS WITH
BAD DATA!!!!!!!!

Oh, my God. Simply finding the causes of the exceptions
is going to be a monumental task. Fixing them is going to
be a task. Fixing them without breaking the Windows version,
the macintosh version, or the Linux version is going to be
delicate work.

The good news? Once fixed it will improve performance for
everyone. Perhaps a half percent. What a good deal.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 6:47 pm

Hey, nice going Paul!!! so we can expect a fully working version by what, Monday?

Good luck with it all!

How is the birthday present going? enjoying it? obviously getting lots of use out of it already!!!!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:50 pm

If you look very closely though, you can see Paul secretly rubbing his hands at the challenge...

Or maybe it's crying...

*squints* Is that even Paul? 6000 miles is so far away

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:24 pm

I must say.. this is a phenomenal venture. I have to admit a temtation to get one of these little toys if this works out.. though I doubt I would.. the temptation is still there all the same. please be sure to post more screens if it does work. Especially if you can get conflux II working on it.. since that would mean portable DM with NEW DUNGEONS TOO!.

Would certainly make the rest of us more jealous!

moo

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:51 pm

if this works out

Oh, it will work out. It ill run anything that CSBwin will
run because it will be CSBwin.

Paul secretly rubbing his hands at the challenge..

It ain't no secret. Would you believe adrenaline for
debugging?

copperman · Post by **copperman** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 12:40 am

Here's one for the mix, how about RTC for WinCE ? Does CE have the components to make this possible ?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 2:58 am

If you are a doubting Thomas (no, not you, Tomas! I know
you have the faith.) you should chck out CSBwinCE10Mar.rar
at dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin.

What a treat. The doors open and they make noise!
A long way to go yet but the project is clearly feasible.
It may not be the the beginning of the end but it is the
end of the beginning.

Edit::: I forgot to say.....the files must all go in
\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:52 am

@Kaspian -- probably more work than George would care to attempt I think. Don't forget that RTC is 640 x 400 and the PPC is 320 x 240.....