Odd Happenings with Prefabs

[Vanguard]

Ok I finally remembered to NOT reopen HD after it's messed up my prefabs.

Normally, what it likes to do is just randomly unload the prefabs and then go "neener!!" as I reload them all.

This time, it decided to not unload them (per sae') but it just didn't show them in the prefab tab.

Specifically, I'd loaded the various Prefabs from DC (Offense, Defense, etc). I closed out HD, did some other things with my PC (keep it clean folks :) ) and then reloaded HD. I selected "Open character" and the program just sat there for a couple of seconds and then nothing. I had to Open Character again to get it to load the character. Then, I loaded the Fire/Heat Prefab from USPD and then went to the Powers tab, then prefab. The only thing that was there was the USPD one. But according to the "Unload prefab" the rest of them were still loaded.

Weird . . .

Anyway, here's the trace.txt Dan as well as the character (although I don't think it was the character since there's nothing there but stats, some skills and a perk).

[Simon]

You're running out of memory on the system -- which means that some of the prefabs that you're loading are HUGE and should be split up into smaller prefabs so that you can load them individually (as needed).

The good news is that under v3, the application will warn you about this....and take some steps to prevent the error (trying to unload prefabs, etc. before the error occurs). You'll also be able to increase the memory available to HD a lot easier under v3, if you simply must have all of the prefabs loaded at once.

[Vanguard]

Um, Dan . . . I've got 2 gig of RAM, I *can't* be running out of memory. There's nothing loaded in the background and the only Prefabs that I have open are the ones that come in the character packs.

Or do you mean that HD is running out of memory that's alloted to it? The thing is, I've had this problem when there's just 1 prefab loaded.

Could it be that java just doesn't like to play with my OS? (which is XP Home if that helps any).

[Simon]

Um, Dan . . . I've got 2 gig of RAM, I *can't* be running out of memory. There's nothing loaded in the background and the only Prefabs that I have open are the ones that come in the character packs.

Or do you mean that HD is running out of memory that's alloted to it? The thing is, I've had this problem when there's just 1 prefab loaded.

Could it be that java just doesn't like to play with my OS? (which is XP Home if that helps any).
HD is running out of the memory allotted to it (I have it set to take up to a maximum of 64MB). You can increase this amount by playing with the HeroDesigner.flt file (that's the configuration file for the launcher)....but doing so takes you into the realm of "Unsupported Changes" ;)

[Vanguard]

Ohhhh . . ok, I understand now. Wasn't exactly sure what you meant.

As for "unsupported changes" I think I'll just wait until v3 where the changes ARE supported. :)

Am I correct in thinking that if I just load an unload prefabs as needed that it's unlikely this will happen again? What about large character files, will that cause HD to choke as well?

[Simon]

Ohhhh . . ok, I understand now. Wasn't exactly sure what you meant.

As for "unsupported changes" I think I'll just wait until v3 where the changes ARE supported. :)

Am I correct in thinking that if I just load an unload prefabs as needed that it's unlikely this will happen again? What about large character files, will that cause HD to choke as well?
1. Loading prefabs only as you need them has always been the recommendation. I don't know what prefabs you're using, but they're EXTREMELY large. As in "at least several hundred abilities or so" -- that is a remarkably bad way to design a prefab.

2. While it is conceivable to run the application out of memory with a large character, you'd be talking about a character with roughly 10 times (or more) the number of abilities as Dr. Destroyer. Even then, I'm not sure that you'd swamp the app (which gives you an idea of the size of your prefabs)

[Vanguard]

Well, the prefabs I'm using are all the Character Pack prefabs.

Ok then, until v3 hits the market (and probably even then) I'll just load/unload prefabs as needed.

Thanks for taking a look at the trace.log and letting me know what's going on. :)

Appreciate it.