Steam updates to 386 fine (as usual), Port client does not...

2/29/2016 4:58 PM
Title: Steam updates to 386 fine (as usual), Port client does not...
Reproduction Rate: 100%
Blocker? YES
Details: Began the respective updates today (Steam client/Port client) and both went without a hitch (ie. no errors).

When I crank up the Steam client I see that we're on patch 386.
When I crank up the Port client it's seems to be happy to be in 385.
Shutting it down and starting it up again doesn't nudge it into updating.
It thinks 385 is right.

If I look in it's folder, I see a file named 386.start.
I am guessing that it may see that and think it's at 386 (which it clearly is not).

This is NOT the first time that I've had this issue with the Portalarium client.
Never a problem with the Steam client...

Could someone there on the dev team kindly give me a hand figuring out what the Port client issue is in this regard?

User Specs:
OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (8) System RAM: 12287
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPU RAM: 4007
SotA.EarlyAccess.Win.64.386.Date.02.28.16
Area: VillageIslandVariant3
Loc: (74.7, 208.0, -486.4)

 

We have had several more updates since this was reported on Monday. Can you confirm if this is still an issue you're observing between Steam/Port clients for the most recent patches?

 

Since my only recourse was to uninstall, reinstall and cross my fingers (and I added that cross my fingers because the Port client has had issues updating many times in the past), that's what I did.
Since uninstalling, the Port client has successfully acquired the 388 version.
I would LOVE to know why the Steam updater NEVER has issues in this regard, while the Port updater continually has these issues....

 

@Attenwood
On Wednesday, updating the Port client from 388 to 389 went perfectly, no problems. Used the client last night - all was good.

Today, the patcher said that it was updating the Port client from 389 to 390 .
When the update finished, here is what I saw (this happens a LOT, and NOT just to me):



When I hit "Retry", it opened the Port client - and this is what I saw:



Now, my Port client opens every time to 389 and thinks it's good....

So, ONCE AGAIN, I'll be forced to completely uninstall the Port client in order to get the latest version.
Unless someone there can tell me how to tell it that it's behind.....

This happens ALMOST every time the Port client updates, and it is incredibly annoying.
If someone there thinks that the problem is on MY end, I'll be MORE than happy to discuss it.

 

Forwarding to our most intrepid of developers to investigate. Thank you for the update.

 

Hello, I'm sorry for the trouble! I have seen issues like what you describe. There are a couple of things it could be, some of which we may be able to find and fix, and some of which may be external factors.

A few questions and things to try...
* Are you running any 3rd party antivirus or firewall software, besides Microsoft products that come with windows? For example, AVG, Norton, Malwarebytes etc. If so, try disabling these while patching, to rule out any interference.
* Any chance that you are running the game client while patching? For example, minimized the game, and then re-opened the launcher with the game in the background, and it tries to patch and fails?
* On the next patching failure, could you send me your logfile? You can find it here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Portalarium\Shroud of the Avatar\Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher_Data\output_log.txt It is important to get a copy of it after the error occurs, before restarting the patcher (which would wipe the log file.)
* If you really want to try something to fix it, or try and provide more info, you could check the Security properties of the following folder : C:\Program Files (x86)\Portalarium\Shroud of the Avatar - in explorer, right click, select properties, and the Security tab, and see if the group "Everyone" has all of the "Allow" permissions checked (except for Special permissions). If not, you could try changing them to this.

There is an open issue that I plan on working on soon, which is on a patching failure like this, it does not recover very well (requires a reinstall.) However, on this type of failure, I should be able to essentially delete and re-install the game in the patch client, without any other user intervention. It is supposed to do this, but I have noticed that it doesn't in some cases. Of course, it would be nice to find out what is causing the patching failure to begin with.

 

Hmmm, another curiosity is that the launcher seems to be selecting the 32 bit version of the game to launch for you, instead of the 64 bit version, even though it looks like you have a 64 bit operating system.... This may be a very good clue.

When you uninstall the game, have you verified that the install directory is deleted or empty?

 

@BurningToad

Of course I am, but in the past I've disabled it and the issue persisted (and both the launcher and the client have been given Allow permissions in my security product - BitDefender.)

No chance ( I'm an IT person, btw - 30yrs worth).

I'll be happy to - (I remember reading somewhere here that you guys got it automatically - apparently not)...

All are checked.

Before I uninstall (AGAIN), BurningToad, could you please tell me what the updater looks for client side, that is somehow telling it that it is the correct version ?
It has to be looking at my system to determine whether or not an update is required, what is it looking at ?????

 

It is looking at C:\Program Files (x86)\Portalarium\Shroud of the Avatar\Shroud of the Avatar_Data\gameversion.txt to check what version you of the game you have. However, the issue is that if this file is patched, but then something else in the patching process fails, the whole client is considered to be in a bad state. It is supposed to recognize this (with a "patchstart) file in the base folder, but I've noticed that there are issues with that recently. So, trying to modify this file to be the correct version, or the one it failed on, will trick the patch client, but your game client is likely still in a bad state, since our patching system is purely a delta system from one version to another, and has no repair mechanisms.

Instead of uninstalling yourself, you could try changing the contents of this file to something with an invalid patch path, such as 1 instead of 390. It should then delete the game for you, and try to update you again from zero.

We did used to get patch client log information automatically, but we currently do not, which is another thing to address.

 

Have you tried exiting steam completely and running it as administrator?

 

@BurningToad
Today's update to 391 went without a hitch... Go figure.
Went from thinking it was at 390 (when it was actually at 389) to 391.

Please keep this bug open.

Unless you've done something to fix the issue, it will no doubt raise it's ugly head again and this will be a good starting point.
I will post here after every patch between now and when we move to R28 at the end of the month, and let you know how they went.

 

@BurningToad
The March 4th update from 391 to 392 went without incident.
The March 7th update from 392 to 393 has the same old issue.
It got to the very end (see pic) where I was met once again with the "Could not apply patch".
When I hit "Retry" (see pic) it looked like all was fine, but when it loads - it loads 392 and thinks it's good there. (Tried it 3 times to make certain).

The SotA.pid file ( C:\Program Files (x86)\Portalarium\Shroud of the Avatar ) has the single entry 393.
There is also the 393.start file (same folder as above) which also contains the single entry 393.
The contents of the output_log.txt file is included below the pic...........



Contents of the output_log.txt:

*** Removed since it was not needed***

 

@BurningToad
*** Follow-up on our PM conversation**

I will uninstall/reinstall.
When I get the "Retry" I'll immediately stop and find the file you need.
I'll be as happy as you will when we finally find the culprit ...

 

@BurningToad
I uninstalled, downloaded the launcher and went thru the entire process again.
It failed (put me at the "Retry" or "Force Launch" window).

I have saved the output_log.txt file to a different location and have it for you. Should I send it to support@portalarium.com or what?

 

@BurningToad
Uninstalled completely and reinstalled.
The process took me to Patch 393 and works fine - as usual after an uninstall/reinstall.
We'll see how the next patch does......

 

I still don't know what is causing the root issue (fails to patch because the file it is trying to patch is somehow different from what it expects.) However, today I did make a few changes to the patch client to fix how it handles this patching failure. It should now correctly detect the failure, and try to re-download the game. I will release this new version of the patch client for the QA server tomorrow sometime.

Additionally, related to patching, I have been working on some extensive changes to our build process. One of the side effects of these changes is that it should speed up patching and potentially reduce failure cases. For example, currently, every patch, we have to patch every single game file (which is 900+ files right now.) After the changes, we should see many fewer files change per patch. However, I still have a ways to go on this, so these large changes will likely not be seen until R29.

 

Any news on things like the change log and news being inside of the patcher or displayed as an in-game popup (actually probably the better solution since steam users don't use the patcher)?

 

I will wait till tomorrow night and try "fresh" again, and see how it goes........

I've wondered why it seemed like "everything" was updated each patch....
Happy to hear you're addressing that issue as well......