Report, edit, etc...Posted by T.s.u.k.a.s.a on 2004-09-01 at 18:10:06
[SIZE=7]I have often pondered the reasons for unused, disabled and other units crashing Starcraft. I have investigated this matter on my own. CONTRARY to what many say, the crash is not caused by a graphics error. The game actually crashes due to a procesing error in Starcraft. This is caused by an overload. This deserves an explanation. In order to minimize lag and make gameplay more efficient, Blizzard made players only process what's on or very near their screen. That is why a crashing unit dosn't crash everyone (including comps 
) AI's never crash, no matter what units they control, because AI's don't process anything the way human players do. They process only the basic stats. (Hitpoints, armor, shields, mana, etc.) Human players process other things as well such as:graphics, flags,etc. In order for the units that are in the game not to be removed for no reason, they all have a player. So why aren't the doodads removed, well that's simple. The doodads are always being processed as well as the terrain. They are processed by your computer. Your computer processes them a very small amount (enough not to crash from crashing units.) I have met a situation where units are removed in a map. I didn't save a picture or replay of it. I know of only a few things that crash the game for everyone without being processed on your screen. One of which is the Drone crash. When the drone starts morphing to a Hatchery, you tell it to burrow right before the button dissapears. If you see the drone your game will crash. The drone also causes a 'shockwave' that crashes the game for everyone else after a few seconds. I have hypothesized a reason for this. The Drone 'confuses' your computer. The computer thinks: "That the drone is a building so I should remove the Drone." At the same time, it's thinking: "Hey, I can't remove the Drone because the designated Drone to be removed is burrowing, so it can't be that one." Normally, the game should do one of the following: 1.Have the Hatchery be built and remove the burrowed Drone. (probaly would't hapen) 2.Start building a Hatchery right over the burrowed Drone. (more logical and more likely) However, Starcraft has to remove a Drone because it's script says so. Because it can't find a solution being processed by you (it turns to your screen and any unit you have first), so it turns to the other players and processes it for them (and you if you avoided the first crash). However, it dosn't process it using your screen, it processes through your screen. (Meaning like you saw the crashing Drone but you actually didn't) Since you processed the Drone, your game has an overload and crashes. Most crashes are caused by an overload. Some overloads are caused by a lack of data such as the unused structures. The structures lack a piece of data needed to be processed correctly. When something on my computer crashes, I have the options of seeing why. So I did. It told me about the graphics. The graphics were normal. Just a Scout without a following shadow sprite. I'm no computer wiz, so most of the stuff was Greek to me. However, I understood that the units was lacking data. The flags were: 000000000000000 (unsure of the number of zeros) All units have at least some flag data. 000000000000000 is the same as nothing. There are also other areas that lack data as well. I am sure of one thing, it wasn't a graphics error. BTW, the unit was an Unused Command Center.
So in conclusion:
1. Crashes are data overloads, not graphics errors.
2. In most cases. your game will only crash if a crashing unit is processed on your screen.
3. The lacking of data also causes crashing.
) AI's never crash, no matter what units they control, because AI's don't process anything the way human players do. They process only the basic stats. (Hitpoints, armor, shields, mana, etc.) Human players process other things as well such as:graphics, flags,etc. In order for the units that are in the game not to be removed for no reason, they all have a player. So why aren't the doodads removed, well that's simple. The doodads are always being processed as well as the terrain. They are processed by your computer. Your computer processes them a very small amount (enough not to crash from crashing units.) I have met a situation where units are removed in a map. I didn't save a picture or replay of it. I know of only a few things that crash the game for everyone without being processed on your screen. One of which is the Drone crash. When the drone starts morphing to a Hatchery, you tell it to burrow right before the button dissapears. If you see the drone your game will crash. The drone also causes a 'shockwave' that crashes the game for everyone else after a few seconds. I have hypothesized a reason for this. The Drone 'confuses' your computer. The computer thinks: "That the drone is a building so I should remove the Drone." At the same time, it's thinking: "Hey, I can't remove the Drone because the designated Drone to be removed is burrowing, so it can't be that one." Normally, the game should do one of the following: 1.Have the Hatchery be built and remove the burrowed Drone. (probaly would't hapen) 2.Start building a Hatchery right over the burrowed Drone. (more logical and more likely) However, Starcraft has to remove a Drone because it's script says so. Because it can't find a solution being processed by you (it turns to your screen and any unit you have first), so it turns to the other players and processes it for them (and you if you avoided the first crash). However, it dosn't process it using your screen, it processes through your screen. (Meaning like you saw the crashing Drone but you actually didn't) Since you processed the Drone, your game has an overload and crashes. Most crashes are caused by an overload. Some overloads are caused by a lack of data such as the unused structures. The structures lack a piece of data needed to be processed correctly. When something on my computer crashes, I have the options of seeing why. So I did. It told me about the graphics. The graphics were normal. Just a Scout without a following shadow sprite. I'm no computer wiz, so most of the stuff was Greek to me. However, I understood that the units was lacking data. The flags were: 000000000000000 (unsure of the number of zeros) All units have at least some flag data. 000000000000000 is the same as nothing. There are also other areas that lack data as well. I am sure of one thing, it wasn't a graphics error. BTW, the unit was an Unused Command Center.So in conclusion:
1. Crashes are data overloads, not graphics errors.
2. In most cases. your game will only crash if a crashing unit is processed on your screen.
3. The lacking of data also causes crashing.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Mini Moose 2707 on 2004-09-01 at 19:45:09
How does disabling doodad state cause an overload? 
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Nozomu on 2004-09-01 at 19:53:56
It overloads because it tries to load nonexistent data, and so pulls the data from somewhere else in StarCraft.exe. Sometimes the data works in-game, but often it changes the disabled unit in a way that can't be processed correctly. Depending on the unit your game will crash when it tries to load the graphics data, and sometimes data will be pulled that just crashes the game automatically because it wasn't meant to be processed that way.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by LegacyWeapon on 2004-09-01 at 21:34:43
well, at least someone did their hw
now we know why sc crashes! FUN! FUN! FOR EVERYONE!
now whats the point of knowing it
now we know why sc crashes! FUN! FUN! FOR EVERYONE!
now whats the point of knowing it
Report, edit, etc...Posted by EzDay281 on 2004-09-01 at 23:10:13
WHAT USE?
Use it to progress in things like preventing crashes due to stupid annoyances and bypassing "safe"map hacks.
Use it to progress in things like preventing crashes due to stupid annoyances and bypassing "safe"map hacks.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by greenreaper on 2004-09-02 at 20:39:36
Sometimes SC doesn't crash..sometimes when you start the game the SC screen turns black after the briefing...like placing a P13 map revealer for example...
Report, edit, etc...Posted by LordVodka on 2004-09-03 at 22:43:39
so if disabling units etc. then how would u go about fixing it?
Report, edit, etc...Posted by synd][cate on 2004-09-04 at 00:36:01
A reason not to read starters post in 5 words or less.
Google: How to use paragraphs
Engineers are bad at english; however you my friend, have no excuse.
Google: How to use paragraphs
Engineers are bad at english; however you my friend, have no excuse.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Staredit.Net Essence on 2004-09-04 at 16:14:28
mmm i see thats why it crashes when i create too many units huh...damn that musta taken a while to type(i didnt actuelly bother reading it im just guessing whats in it 
)
)Report, edit, etc...Posted by NerdyTerdy on 2004-09-04 at 19:54:56
Well damn I always just thought of it as don't look at this and it's ok to look at this .
.Report, edit, etc...Posted by Staredit.Net Essence on 2004-09-05 at 06:59:41
omg i bothered to read this...so thats why stacking too many units crashes it...
Report, edit, etc...Posted by T.s.u.k.a.s.a on 2004-09-05 at 21:22:15
Disabling a unit crashes Starcraft because the game has a processing overload. This happens because the game processes the none-exhistent data only when it enters the are of you screen, thus causeing an overload.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by synd][cate on 2004-09-09 at 01:51:14
QUOTE(T.s.u.k.a.s.a @ Sep 5 2004, 08:22 PM)
This happens because the game processes the none-exhistent data only when it enters the are of you screen, thus causeing an overload.
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[right][snapback]66518[/snapback][/right]
Lets recap, your starcraft "overloads" when it is given too little information.. maybe you can revise your sentence so it actually makes logical sense?