[4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay - In-game warning coming in a future build.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 26. Sep 21, 07:01

After further testing this is not fixed. Just had the same error with the same file occur costing me at least 15 minutes of game time.

Code: Select all

[FileIO ] 308480.74 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\jupiter_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 308480.74 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 308480.74 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 308480.74 ======================================
This is after having played for 4 hours without problem (and luckily making many saves!), having completely redownload that file, having that file excluded from anti virus and not having any X4 program files backed up by cloud storage. This time I think it triggered while flying an Asguard.

What is this texture anyway? As a guess it is the diffuse for Jupiter as seen in the background of the Jupiter sector? During that 4 hours I entered Jupiter dozens of times and Jupiter looked fine as well. If this is the case it would mean that sometimes it fails for some reason. What is special about that file? Is the texture larger than average? Or is it handled differently due to being a planet texture?

My only conclusion so far must be that either X4 has some very obscure compatibility issue with my hardware that occasionally occurs, or the trigger is extremely convoluted and something most people are unlikely to encounter and I am just unfortunate to be frequently stumbling into it (large base of operations in Jupiter).

Something I did notice this time was that I enabled the logical overview graphs to look at various station statistics. I wonder if it is an interaction with that, the stations being in Jupiter and loading Jupiter for the background while heavy combat is occurring nearby in an L or XL ship.

Moving forward I will update my graphic driver, motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers in case those help. However I do not see how that could fix it failing for just that specific file.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by alt3rn1ty » Sun, 26. Sep 21, 08:26

Imperial Good wrote:
Sun, 26. Sep 21, 07:01
What is this texture anyway? As a guess it is the diffuse for Jupiter as seen in the background of the Jupiter sector?
@Egosoft

Has Egosofts Graphic artists looked into the textures formats for CoH.

Reason I ask is at one time I looked into X4 Foundations textures and there were some (just a couple) of Planet / Asteroid textures which were pretty unusual DDS formats in there.

So unusual that Photoshops new Intel DDS plugin (Intel Texture Works) at the time, could not load them correctly. I sent privately details of the unusual files formats to the developers of Intel Texture Works and DirectXTex and eventually they resolved being able to load them. The reason they gave for a few of the formats not being included was because very few games these days used them.

The resulting updates to the open source project for that has also had knock on effects on other software (even Paint.NET with its new included DDSFileTypes plugin by null54) can now load the same ..

TLDR: So I wonder if CoH has any of these unusual DDS formatted textures, which some graphics drivers (or even the games engine itself) maybe cant handle properly?.

Edit: And apologies I can't provide any more detail of the unusual format or files involved, its a few years ago now since I was looking into them (aiming to reduce the size of some of the biggest game textures for laptops challenged in the GPU department, which were planet / asteroid type textures), and the Intel Texture Works problem was thereafter resolved, I cant find anything else where I mentioned them specifically in public (I didn't want to potentially publicly embarrass Egosoft so kept mention of them to a minimum).
I assume the game engine handles its own textures in whatever unusual format of DDS chosen by the graphics artist, but after reading this topic .. Maybe it doesn't handle all of them graciously (there are many different DDS format combinations possible).
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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 26. Sep 21, 15:47

alt3rn1ty wrote:
Sun, 26. Sep 21, 08:26
TLDR: So I wonder if CoH has any of these unusual DDS formatted textures, which some graphics drivers (or even the games engine itself) maybe cant handle properly?.
If this was the case then this would likely be a bug with X4 since if the GPU fails to ingest the texture it should still pass signature verification as the file should still be correct. Unless a shader is used to verify the texture without CPU fallback?

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Thu, 30. Sep 21, 04:40

Updated my graphic drivers. Has not helped.

However this time a different file failed. Again the file type seems similar, but this time for Mercury. It must have triggered when I went to construction view of my solar power station there.

Code: Select all

FileIO ] 338578.23 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\mercury_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 338578.23 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 338578.23 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 338578.23 ======================================
I wonder if the file is failing to load for some other reason, and because it did not load the signature check fails. The file seems to be a cloud layer of sorts as it loaded mostly transparent for me?

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 3. Oct 21, 05:12

Happened again after 3 hours of play, resulting in 10 minutes lost. There is a very strong correlation between me opening the station plan build window and this error occurring. Specifically with the planet texture, or at least that is what has been observed so far.

Code: Select all

FileIO ] 358459.75 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\jupiter_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 358459.75 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 358459.75 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 358459.75 ======================================
This time it was me modifying my Silicon Carbide factory. As I opened the window it must have triggered... I know this because I have been saving frequently before opening that window and that was the last thing I opened involving Jupiter.

Given that it is due to loading a planet's texture, I would not be surprised if it is caused by the new sector background view feature. I will try turning it off for most of my edits to see if it makes a difference.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by furirkeeper » Sun, 3. Oct 21, 10:25

Just a stupid question. Are you sure the game turns modified every time this error occurs, or have this error also happened without the game turning modified?

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by peteran » Sun, 3. Oct 21, 11:12

furirkeeper wrote:
Sun, 3. Oct 21, 10:25
Just a stupid question. Are you sure the game turns modified every time this error occurs, or have this error also happened without the game turning modified?
I don't think there's any way to except to play the game with debug log visible to spot this. It is a good suggestion, but in my game I haven't ever seen either the error message (and I frequently check any log messages in-game) or my game going modified.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 3. Oct 21, 17:00

furirkeeper wrote:
Sun, 3. Oct 21, 10:25
Just a stupid question. Are you sure the game turns modified every time this error occurs, or have this error also happened without the game turning modified?
When I notice modification occurs I check the log file and that event has happened, always. It also matches what the devs describe as a possible cause, a file signature verification failure. I also have checked the logs after sessions where it did not occur and no such error has been recorded in them. As such I am fairly confident the event coincides with X4 turning modified.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by furirkeeper » Sun, 3. Oct 21, 18:07

Imperial Good wrote:
Sun, 3. Oct 21, 17:00
furirkeeper wrote:
Sun, 3. Oct 21, 10:25
Just a stupid question. Are you sure the game turns modified every time this error occurs, or have this error also happened without the game turning modified?
When I notice modification occurs I check the log file and that event has happened, always. It also matches what the devs describe as a possible cause, a file signature verification failure. I also have checked the logs after sessions where it did not occur and no such error has been recorded in them. As such I am fairly confident the event coincides with X4 turning modified.
ok, good to get this confirmed.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by humility925 » Tue, 5. Oct 21, 19:46

It's was happen when I was in a Jupiter with riding Katana, I recall (I was let pilot fly ship for me at a time), so no riding or flying "L" for me, but was in Jupiter, equipment dock, I recalled while steam online is on but download should be off, but at time somehow discover that steam download workshop was on, not off where I knew I did turn it off before than.

Ever since I keep checking by Esc to ensure there no trick modifying before I quick save game. I was kind of paranoid ever since, by way I did played this game steam offline, so far nothing modifying game after many day and hours since that issues. I can't figure how or what is cause, but I still blame on steam unplan little upgrade and somehow it's turn download workshop on, when it's was set off as I had no need for it when I don't want to mod saved game at all.
Had a compassionate when you able... :)

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Tue, 5. Oct 21, 23:40

That does not apply to me. I have not subscribed to any steam workshop mods, ever. The only addons listed are the official DLCs.

I am also kind of paranoid now, constantly pressing ESC to check for modification...

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by peteran » Sun, 10. Oct 21, 09:47

It seems I'm not spared either as my game turned itself modified. :evil:

This is after 15.5 in-game days since 4.1 went public and my total game-time in Steam is at 2153.1 hours.

It's not a coincidence that the number of people reporting gradually increases, but a serious bug introduced with 4.1 that needs to be fixed ASAP!

Since I had HWiNFO64 running the whole time, I see two things that concern me.

The first is the physical memory load which started falling as soon as X4 was closed.
Image

The second and more serious is SSD temperature and it was at hovering around 74 until I closed the game.
Image
The number of writes or reads hasn't risen dramatically, so more airflow to the motherboard is required.
Or maybe just dusting off the filters is enough.

Edit: Yes, the filter was in serious need of cleaning and I also went through the fan settings and noticed my industrial exhaust fan was completely turned off.

:o

Those two changes lowered the minimum drive temperature by eleven degrees and it shouldn't overheat. Although I'm not certain 81 degrees is actually overheating since Drive Temperature 2 shows the temperature on the die, IIRC. The first one is the airflow temperature and it's dropped by eight degrees.
Last edited by peteran on Sun, 10. Oct 21, 11:36, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by furirkeeper » Sun, 10. Oct 21, 10:07

I think it would be interesting to see statistics of what systems people experiencing this problem are running on. But I don't know how to set that up or what statistic would be interesting. To not drown in information perhaps cpu-brand, gpu-architecture, system-memory, gpu-memory could be a good start. I am far from a systems expert so perhaps this is pointless.
In any way, if we could for example see that all who experience this since version 4.0 or perhaps version 4.1 are running with the same "system component" then it could help narrowing this down.
Perhaps.
Isn't there a poll feature in this forum? It is just the problem of collecting a set of statistic and making it easy to interpret that could make this problematic.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 10. Oct 21, 12:09

Unless posters are having the exact same issue as the OP with specific texture files involved, then a hardware comparison by disappointed posters who don't really know why their game has become modified (eg cooking their SSD ? ) could be rather pointless and just confuse and conceal the problem being reported here.
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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by furirkeeper » Sun, 10. Oct 21, 12:22

Alan Phipps wrote:
Sun, 10. Oct 21, 12:09
Unless posters are having the exact same issue as the OP with specific texture files involved, then a hardware comparison by disappointed posters who don't really know why their game has become modified (eg cooking their SSD ? ) could be rather pointless and just confuse and conceal the problem being reported here.
That is a good and valid point. My thoughts are that if this in fact has become more common with 4.1 then the majority of the people reporting will likely have the same problem. The game turning modified seems to have been much more uncommon prior to 4.1, which could be a good reason to limit this poll to people only experiencing this since the release of 4.1. As with all statistics it is good to treat with some skepticism, but could give an indication of what is the cause.
I will leave it to someone who would know what to ask and what to do with the results to decide if this is a good or bad idea.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 10. Oct 21, 16:41

I strongly believe the issue, at least in my case, is related to the 4.10 added sector/environment background feature for the station planner window. Since defaulting to that having that setting turned off (no sector background, like pre 4.10) and only turning it on when I am first planning a station (low exposure) I have yet to encounter a planet texture failing verification. Of course due to how infrequently it occurred before it could be luck, but the more I play without it happening the more likely it seems to be the case.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Thu, 14. Oct 21, 10:56

Even with sector environment models turned off it still happened... Although it is happening less frequently.

Code: Select all

[FileIO ] 414472.40 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\jupiter_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 414472.40 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 414472.40 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 414472.40 ======================================
This time it was possibly caused by the lower right com portrait loading Jupiter. I commed a pilot to give them a seminar.

Again I find it highly suspect that only planet textures are throwing this error. Something about them must be prone to causing this...

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by buds » Sat, 16. Oct 21, 10:07

i had this happen twice on 4.0. The first time i'd already saved a few times and so I started a new game. The second time I was going through those anomalies, one came out in scale plate green and i went to save and the escape menu said (modified) so I didn't save. I re booted and reloaded earlier save and have been playing for a while since with no probs (now on 4.1). Each time I of course verified the game files and have never modified any egosoft game ever. I have also switched to a new HDD now, the old one wasn't throwing errors (im in linux) but I have a feeling it was dodgy.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by Imperial Good » Thu, 21. Oct 21, 09:50

A user on discord called "veryinky" sent in a log file with the following error.

Code: Select all

[General] 363420.21 ======================================
[FileIO ] 363420.29 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\jupiter_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 363420.29 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 363420.29 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 363420.29 ======================================
[General] 363420.64 ======================================
This matches the error that occurred in most of my cases.

I have been trying to purposely recreate the problem on demand, or at all, so far without any luck. I have forced Jupiter, and various planets, textures to load hundreds of times without error, even under extreme situations such as while riding around the highway loop. It seems that whatever the cause is, it is not a chance to error on loading the texture but rather some other sequence of events results in the next loading of the texture encountering the error. What this sequence of events is I am not sure yet.

Although speculation, such a random cause could be the result of dangling pointers or similar errors that can corrupt parts of memory, which would explain why gzip is throwing an error, but not why it is always planet diffuse textures that error and not other random files. It might also be possible to deduce another cause by tracing the flow of logic required to log those errors in that sequence. However at this stage it seems unlikely to be able to capture it in a debugger to know for sure.

If the cause cannot be found, the best alternative would be to implemented a warning prompt the instant X4 is marked as modified due to such verification failures, also listing the file or cause that triggered it. This will at least limit the damage to players and might also help track down the required sequence to reliably reproduce the error.

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Re: [4.10] X4 "Modifying" Itself During Gameplay.

Post by furirkeeper » Thu, 21. Oct 21, 10:07

Imperial Good wrote:
Thu, 21. Oct 21, 09:50
A user on discord called "veryinky" sent in a log file with the following error.

Code: Select all

[General] 363420.21 ======================================
[FileIO ] 363420.29 File I/O: Failed to verify the file signature for file '.\extensions\ego_dlc_terran\assets\textures\environments\planets\jupiter_4k_diffhq.gz' (error: 13)
[General] 363420.29 ======================================
[=ERROR=] 363420.29 CheckGzipHeader() not a gzip source buffer, magic bytes don't match!
[General] 363420.29 ======================================
[General] 363420.64 ======================================
This matches the error that occurred in most of my cases.

I have been trying to purposely recreate the problem on demand, or at all, so far without any luck. I have forced Jupiter, and various planets, textures to load hundreds of times without error, even under extreme situations such as while riding around the highway loop. It seems that whatever the cause is, it is not a chance to error on loading the texture but rather some other sequence of events results in the next loading of the texture encountering the error. What this sequence of events is I am not sure yet.

Although speculation, such a random cause could be the result of dangling pointers or similar errors that can corrupt parts of memory, which would explain why gzip is throwing an error, but not why it is always planet diffuse textures that error and not other random files. It might also be possible to deduce another cause by tracing the flow of logic required to log those errors in that sequence. However at this stage it seems unlikely to be able to capture it in a debugger to know for sure.

If the cause cannot be found, the best alternative would be to implemented a warning prompt the instant X4 is marked as modified due to such verification failures, also listing the file or cause that triggered it. This will at least limit the damage to players and might also help track down the required sequence to reliably reproduce the error.
I am guessing you have also tried being in some busy sector and calling a crewmember/pilot in jupiter to sort of stress the texture loading in the background. I have had times when I call people and I never get to see them since the texture doesn't load at all. Though this did not cause a modified game at those times that I know of.

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