Weird Error Message

Howdy, I keep getting this error message when I try to run the map I've been working on. HL2 will start to the point of the "Loading" screen, then abruptly quit, taking me back to Hammer and displaying this error message:

"the instruction at '0x241f94f7' referenced memory at '0x0d7af3fc'. The memory could not be 'read'.
Click on OK to terminate the program. "

I've tried quitting and restarting, but to no avail. This does not happen in other maps either. I tried running it with the console on, but it stalls out so quickly that I don't have time to copy or get a screen shot.

I think this might have something to do with my changing the walls in my map to entities, but I'm just not sure why or how to fix it [I am a bit of a n00b.]
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

First of all, this is an error with your memory. The engine can
apparently not read something out of the memory and thus gives an
error. ('0x241f94f7' and '0x0d7af3fc' are places inside the memory)

You already said a bit about the possible solution:

I think this might have something to do with my changing the walls in my map to entities

Change them to normal brushes and see id it works. I guess you tried to
make them into entities to save on compile them/possible beter
rendering ingame. My best guess is that in this way you've screwed VIS
calculation up.

Change them to normal brushes and see id it works.

yes, i think that that is what i need to do!
however, [and this is probably something really obvious] i can't seem to figure out how to untie the wall brushes from the entity. i know Ctrl + T will work to attach a brush, but once a brush entity is created, how does one change it back to just a brush?

thanks for the help!

In the right panel of Hammers interface, there are two buttons next to
each other. Tie to World, and Tie to Entity. I guess you know which one
to use for making entities world brushes again... :smile:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

rainbow_lazer said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<div class="quotetext">Change them to normal brushes and see id it works.

yes, i think that that is what i need to do!
however, [and this is probably something really obvious] i can't seem to figure out how to untie the wall brushes from the entity. i know Ctrl + T will work to attach a brush, but once a brush entity is created, how does one change it back to just a brush?

thanks for the help!</div></div>

Crt-shift-W I believe, but CP's method is what I use alot.

</div>

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Posting And You

Ok, 3 days later, did it work?

Just to shed some light on that error, it's a permission error. It's saying the memory it's trying to access wasn't allocated by that program ... or at all maybe.

So ... yeah ... goof on Valve's part. Go VC++ I can be almost certain that it's a library function's problem. (there's some case that they, obviously, didn't check for and when doing whatever action with that brush ... which causes an error ... causes some pointer to reference memory that doesn't belong to the program ... thus the error. If it were on Linux it'd just say Segmentation Fault. And if you were running an Earlier version of Windows you'd get the blue screen)

Not that many people here know what in God's name I'm talking about.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

so the message should be more like, "you've done something that we forgot to make a real error report for, so here's a generic error instead"?

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i eat paint

No. There should be no error message ... period. It's like ... error checking WITHIN the code. The user should never know about it.

That error is from HL2 ... Windows would give that "the program had to be terminated error". They probably made a case that cleaned up the program if anything 'illegal' happened and with a developer's message so they could figure out the problem.

Chances are this is a case they never came across while testing ... or didn't bother testing for.

OR, like most software developers, they didn't test a lot of possibilities. I mean, no one likes doing test cases, so a lot of companies don't do them, which is bad.

I really can't explain more without um ... you having knowledge about how it all works. Since, what I'm saying, sure enough, is easy to understand, the WHY is the thing most people get hung up on, since they don't have any knowledge of the technical side (which is perfectly fine).

So, I guess, in addition, I'm purposefully making this post longer, just for you, Fishy.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

:S I'm getting this error message myself. Any ideas on what I should do? I can't seem to figure out what you're saying crono.

What did you change last?

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Why snark works.

AFAIK it's from when I compiled a map. CS:S works fine if I join a server, but if I create my own then it comes up with this. I'm re downloading it at the mo to see if it works. System files are ok, and the steam check says everything is ok.

This has happened to me (barring the specific memory locations) when I use materials that don't exist (models, most especially, but only when I use them ('E' or I/O)), and using materials improperly, such as non-sprites as sprites. It was a real...hassle to track down the first time it happened, but it's happened multiple times, and it's always had the same answer (for me, anyway).

Also, I think Zeus hit me with one of his lightning bolts, I may have actually understood what Crono was saying!

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Probably because I said it over a f**king year ago. :rolleyes:

This is all valve has to say on the matter.

But, what I was saying is that there's some instruction trying to read or modify something that doesn't belong to it (or data a pointer is pointing to has been deleted, then the pointer is being used without re-initialization)... Just ignore what I'm saying if it makes no sense, because there's nothing you can do if it's what I think it is.

If you're sure it's a problem with your map, specifically, check for all the errors you can as well as refreshing the source sdk and all that usual stuff.

I think Zeus hit me with one of his lightning bolts, I may have actually understood what Crono was saying!

Holy s**t.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I've been to that link, and done a lot of what it's said, i'll try and verify the gcf cache files tommorow.I'll seee if downloading HL2 and CSS to my other HDD works.

? quote:
This is all valve has to say on the matter.

BIOS settings? lmao! Not that, theoretically, it could be anything but why can't they admit that 90% of all times it's just a programming error.

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Why snark works.

I don't know. Probably because any decent programmer knows to go through and check to make sure all your dynamic memory is allocated and deallocated properly and releasing a professional product that doesn't is very embarrassing.

But then again, maybe this is the answer they got from MS and the error is being caused by a Windows or DirectX library. (Which I think is a little more likely, valve has spent a lot of time with this code and is optimizing it almost constantly)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Whoa! October 18th, 2005
Oops :shocked:

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

I think it is the update that has caused this. On another forum that I go on a number of people have had this error since the update. I've done most of what valve have asked in thier answers apart from taking out the ram and using one stick at a time.

Right, i've changed around my memory these ways:

1st. Mem stick 1 by itself (didn't work).

2nd. Mem stick 2 by itself (didn't work).

3rd. Both mem sticks in bays 3 and 4, then started up steam in offline mode - worked. However, it doesn't work when online!