Paragon Chat 0.99i Beta!

Codewalker · August 02, 2015, 06:15:28 AM

Quote from: MaidMercury on August 02, 2015, 05:46:26 AM
yep...XP user here, first time in weeks Paragon Chat won't launch even after revalidating pigg files. CoH is indeed installed in Folder, not sure why says complete installation required.

It's saying that because starting with 0.98b I'm compiling the release build with Visual Studio 2015. Upgrading to that version resulted in significant improvements to the optimizations for both code size and speed.

IN THEORY, I'm using the target settings to create Windows XP compatible builds. However, apparently Microsoft broke the _stat() function in the C runtime library sometime between 2008 and 2015, and it always returns failure on XP (but not on Windows 7). Since Paragon Chat uses that to test for the existence of directories and files, it completely lost the ability to know that it's installed correctly on XP.

Of course this was really annoying to debug, as VS2015 won't run on XP, and neither will its remote debugger target. I also can't use the VS2008/2010 remote debuggers because in the same version that they removed XP compatibility, they also changed the protocol making it unable to talk to old versions... Thanks Microsoft </sarcasm>

Anyway, it should be fixed in 0.98c. That might fix Macs as well if the same thing is affecting them, but I have no idea what level of OS Wine emulates.

Blackshear · August 02, 2015, 02:32:52 PM

Quote from: Codewalker on August 02, 2015, 06:15:28 AM
Anyway, it should be fixed in 0.98c. That might fix Macs as well if the same thing is affecting them, but I have no idea what level of OS Wine emulates.

It is, and thank you. I know us XP holdouts are irritating to deal with, but your efforts are appreciated.

FloatingFatMan · August 02, 2015, 06:34:23 PM

Quote from: Codewalker on August 02, 2015, 06:15:28 AM
However, apparently Microsoft broke the _stat() function in the C runtime library sometime between 2008 and 2015, and it always returns failure on XP (but not on Windows 7). Since Paragon Chat uses that to test for the existence of directories and files, it completely lost the ability to know that it's installed correctly on XP.

Of course this was really annoying to debug, as VS2015 won't run on XP, and neither will its remote debugger target. I also can't use the VS2008/2010 remote debuggers because in the same version that they removed XP compatibility, they also changed the protocol making it unable to talk to old versions... Thanks Microsoft </sarcasm>

Typical MS boneheads... :/

Neutron-Star · August 02, 2015, 08:35:21 PM

Looks like the new version fixed the issue for me on the Mac.
Thanks!

extropymine · August 03, 2015, 02:57:30 AM

I am having a different issue which started only today. When I launch, the progress bar gets to Initializing XMPP when I get a message that "paragonchat.exe has stopped working" and it crashes.

EDIT: nevermind, it was no longer defaulting to running as administrator. Run As Admin and it's fine.

Eventine01 · August 03, 2015, 05:03:07 PM

Quote from: extropymine on August 03, 2015, 02:57:30 AM
I am having a different issue which started only today. When I launch, the progress bar gets to Initializing XMPP when I get a message that "paragonchat.exe has stopped working" and it crashes.

EDIT: nevermind, it was no longer defaulting to running as administrator. Run As Admin and it's fine.

I had this problem. After a few tries, I managed to switch my "Check for new versions:" from "Automatically install all upgrades" to "Notify when a new version is available." Fixed it for me. However, running as administrator does not work for me.

extropymine · August 03, 2015, 11:15:39 PM

Quote from: Eventine01 on August 03, 2015, 05:03:07 PM
I had this problem. After a few tries, I managed to switch my "Check for new versions:" from "Automatically install all upgrades" to "Notify when a new version is available." Fixed it for me. However, running as administrator does not work for me.

Okay, this problem actually persists for me. I thought that Run as Admin was the solution, but I think it just happened to randomly work yesterday. Today, I had to launch PChat five times before it didn't hang and crash. There wasn't anything I did differently during those five attempts, so something random is in play.

Nyghtshade · August 03, 2015, 11:53:05 PM

I have the Paragon Chat launch window hang up fairly frequently, since the launch of 0.98a. It seems to get half-way through the 1st green-bar load, freeze up, and then give the error message. Usually if I close it and open it again (through the Tequila Launcher each time), the 2nd time it generally goes ahead and completes the launch. No idea why it does it - I thought at first it was just my older PC - although I am running Windows 7.

Eventine01 · August 03, 2015, 11:56:08 PM

Quote from: extropymine on August 03, 2015, 11:15:39 PM
Okay, this problem actually persists for me. I thought that Run as Admin was the solution, but I think it just happened to randomly work yesterday. Today, I had to launch PChat five times before it didn't hang and crash. There wasn't anything I did differently during those five attempts, so something random is in play.

I've noticed the crash happens usually when I reach the "Initializing XMPP" stage of launcher loading.

Nyghtshade · August 04, 2015, 01:35:28 AM

OK, now I'm unable to log in at all with the Paragon Chat screen. Instead of saying "automatically updates", it says "external updater in use", and since it crashes in mid-launch, I have no way to click on that and change it back to 'automatic updates".

I'm running Windows 7. How do I fix this, please?

Codewalker · August 04, 2015, 04:49:43 AM

Derp. It was a race condition in the text for the status bar. Most of the UI code doesn't bother with locks because it's not necessary for message queue posting or integer variables that are atomic and are harmless if they're not perfectly synchronized between threads. A string that might get changed or even set to a null pointer (when loading is finished) on the other hand...

The race has actually existed for a while, but got worse once the text painting code got fancier. I'm not sure why it generally seems to hit Windows 10 harder, but it could occur in any OS.

Quote from: Nyghtshade on August 04, 2015, 01:35:28 AM
I'm running Windows 7. How do I fix this, please?

Update to 0.98d and see if that helps. You might have to launch it a few times if it keeps crashing during the update, but you should get lucky eventually and it'll make it all the way through. If all else fails, you can manually download the latest version.

Mistress Bloodwrath · August 04, 2015, 06:05:25 AM

Well, well, well... My compliments to the hard workers that managed to pull this off. I'm currently downloading the whole thing through Tequila (since I never did the i24 beta), so I might stop in from time to time while I'm bored. Never did get very much opportunity to RP with my characters (spent most of my time leveling them, ha!).

Cheers.

Nyghtshade · August 04, 2015, 01:03:32 PM

Quote from: Codewalker on August 04, 2015, 04:49:43 AM
Derp. It was a race condition in the text for the status bar. Most of the UI code doesn't bother with locks because it's not necessary for message queue posting or integer variables that are atomic and are harmless if they're not perfectly synchronized between threads. A string that might get changed or even set to a null pointer (when loading is finished) on the other hand...

The race has actually existed for a while, but got worse once the text painting code got fancier. I'm not sure why it generally seems to hit Windows 10 harder, but it could occur in any OS.

Update to 0.98d and see if that helps. You might have to launch it a few times if it keeps crashing during the update, but you should get lucky eventually and it'll make it all the way through. If all else fails, you can manually download the latest version.

That fixed it! Loaded first time, thanks! You and your team are wonder workers. :D

Eventine01 · August 04, 2015, 06:08:06 PM

Quote from: Nyghtshade on August 04, 2015, 01:03:32 PM
That fixed it! Loaded first time, thanks! You and your team are wonder workers. :D

Fixed it! Thanks.

MomentaryGrace · August 07, 2015, 06:52:20 PM

Apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere but I just saw a message in the chat window while in PC that I haven't seen thus far, and it seems interesting:

QuoteYou are seeing pop-up errors because you have Access Level (1) or you are on a QA server. These will not be seen by customers.

This mean anything?

Arcana · August 07, 2015, 07:17:46 PM

Quote from: MomentaryGrace on August 07, 2015, 06:52:20 PMThis mean anything?

Sounds like either a small bug regarding how Codewalker is enabling certain features within Paragon Chat, or someone's testing 0.98e.

Codewalker · August 07, 2015, 07:44:23 PM

It's an artifact of having to fake access level 1 to get the developer menu to work at all. That's what I'm abusing for mapmenu, since opportunities to customize the UI in the client that don't involve extensive hacks are extremely few and far between. However the menu doesn't work at all and instead completely locks out all input (it doesn't draw the menu or process input, but still steals focus) if the client doesn't think that you have accesslevel.

Paragon Chat passes a command-line flag to the client telling it to suppress those messages, and it appears to work for almost all of them, but occasionally one pops up anyway.

MomentaryGrace · August 08, 2015, 05:20:01 PM

Quote from: Codewalker on August 07, 2015, 07:44:23 PM
It's an artifact of having to fake access level 1 to get the developer menu to work at all. That's what I'm abusing for mapmenu, since opportunities to customize the UI in the client that don't involve extensive hacks are extremely few and far between. However the menu doesn't work at all and instead completely locks out all input (it doesn't draw the menu or process input, but still steals focus) if the client doesn't think that you have accesslevel.

Paragon Chat passes a command-line flag to the client telling it to suppress those messages, and it appears to work for almost all of them, but occasionally one pops up anyway.

Good to know! :D

Nyghtshade · August 09, 2015, 03:36:08 AM

Lately when doing /whoall, I'm seeing some players listed as ***Invisible*** Reason: Missing proxy (unknown reason). Does this refer to the invisibility bug?

Arcana · August 10, 2015, 04:50:19 AM

Quote from: Nyghtshade on August 09, 2015, 03:36:08 AM
Lately when doing /whoall, I'm seeing some players listed as ***Invisible*** Reason: Missing proxy (unknown reason). Does this refer to the invisibility bug?

To a bug, likely. In the patch notes for 0.98b when support for the /whoall command was added it was explicitly stated to show debug information whenever someone could not be displayed.