HELP!!! AM Crashed and Lost All My Hotspots! :`( [SOLVED]

[3dgamer]

I was on the last leg of coding for my main frame which has a lot of coding work and when I went back to the frame after I created an item-on-item event, AM stated that it could not locate the hotspots in the frame and asked me to remove them. When I said "no", it loaded the frame but all the hotspots with all the codes are now gone!

The Windows error message states:

"'Unable to load C:\Program Files\Adventure Maker...dark_room_init_001.fme' Control array element '1' doesn't exist"

It just existed prior to doing the item-on-item event, so what happened? And this is the second time this has happened this evening, except the other one was just a test project. Does this happen often in AM? I did a good amount of coding over the past couple of days so I lost a large chunk of it and will have to start all over [I did a back-up the other day so I will see if that at least will open without crashing. But I am very reluctant now]

I was hoping to get finished with this project by this weekend but now I don't know.

Is there any way to recover from this?

Please help.

TIA

PS - Oh, btw, I wanted to upload the actual screenshot of the error message but there was a forum warning stating that the forum has reached its limit for attachments and to contact the forum administrators. So that's what I am doing.

[mercedes]

Hi 3d Gamer..

Take a look at this thread..this has happened to me more than enough times..and i account it to this...It's not happened to me since ..

http://www.adventuremaker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4626

The control element one is now there cause there is no hotspot/frame for element to display so to speak.. Exit right out of AM and re-open it and it should go away ..The frame should reload at that time..

Sorry that happened to u.....I know its very frustrating..and there is no way to recover it..Not to my knowledge..
If there is something that's not clear..feel free to post back..

The forum has reached it's limit..GM needs to up the limit[Hopefully that can be done:)]Its at its max which is 200mb ..For now u will have to post images or attachments to free file hosts..like Media Fire..

Peace

[Lyberodoggy]

Concerning the file limit, I d suggest we deleted our older uploads to temporarily give some space to the forums

[3dgamer]

Hi 3d Gamer..

Take a look at this thread..this has happened to me more than enough times..and i account it to this...It's not happened to me since ..

http://www.adventuremaker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4626

...

Thank you, Mercedes, for the tip. I will definitely start using the right-click method to edit my frames because I do see a similarity in the things you shared in that thread and what may have happened last night.

Thankfully, I was able to restore some of my old files back to get parts of the frame working again. It seems as though the *.fm2 and *.fm3 were the main culprits, but I replaced all frame files associate with the problem frame, just in case. I still have work to redo, but at least it is not totally from scratch.

I think one of the problems may lie with AM's autosave because it doesn't allow for the user to abandon a second instance opened by accident by double-clicking. I think if we could just save projects on our own, then this just might be avoidable.

I guess now I need to come up with a good "save back-up" routine. [It's ironic that I was just about to the save my folder last night right when this happened. ] I think that with the way AM is acting, I will have to save according to folder dates and save many iterations, just in case; I wouldn't want to use the overwriting approach, just in case I got a bad "hit" and didn't know it.

Well, it's off to code and redo code. Hopefully I can catch up soon. Again, thanks for the help!

[Imari]

Just FYI, I just received a similar error message, but do not appear to have lost any hotspots and everything, but the one frame affected, works.

My message was - "Control array element '1' doesn't exist." This is on a hotspot used for inventory action and that just has the code StopVideo on the frame. Luckily, I just read your post the other day, so I have a back-up.

[3dgamer]

Wow, that was close, Imari.

Yes, my frame and hotspots that crashed recently involved inventory items too, with a similar message. I think actually that's the only time when I have noticed a severe crashing problem; all incidences involved inventory items.

Interesting...

Cya

[mercedes]

Actually i have a custom inventory going, with no items[Just hotspots]....and i still received message.. but i'm sure its because of doubleclicking too quickly..In other words..probably doubleclick--twice..Since i've went to Right-clicking and hitting "Edit" knock wood-- its never happened again.. I believe it's in the way frames are "edited" especially if AM thinks another instance is open at the time of Edit...You are able to edit..but then when u go to open the next day...is when the errors occur..I just so happened to have noticed it right away the last time..Being as it happened right after i was editing my frame..~

Adieux~

[Imari]

In the words of Zork's Grand Inquisitor, "Save, save often...."

[3dgamer]

Actually i have a custom inventory going, with no items[Just hotspots]....and i still received message.. but i'm sure its because of doubleclicking too quickly..In other words..probably doubleclick--twice..Since i've went to Right-clicking and hitting "Edit" knock wood-- its never happened again.. I believe it's in the way frames are "edited" especially if AM thinks another instance is open at the time of Edit...You are able to edit..but then when u go to open the next day...is when the errors occur..I just so happened to have noticed it right away the last time..Being as it happened right after i was editing my frame..~

Adieux~

Oh, I'm not denying that it is related to double-clicking too quickly. It is related. What I am noticing is that it seems that the frames that had inventory in them seem to be most susceptible to the double-clicking issue. Whenever I double-clicked too quickly on a frame containing inventory items, it seems that is when this error happened.

The good thing is that since I have been using the right-click method that you mentioned earlier, I haven't encountered this problem. So that is a sigh of relief.

In the words of Zork's Grand Inquisitor, "Save, save often...."

There are some lines I remember from the older ZORK games, but for some reason I don't remember that one. Do you remember what scene that one come from?

Cya.

[Imari]

In the graphic game, Zork Grand Inquisitor, there are parts of the game where you are out of doors and loud speakers constantly say stuff like "I am the boss of you" and "save, save often".

I love Zorkish stuff....

[3dgamer]

Okay, I definitely remember, "I am the boss of you!" And I do remember the loudspeakers. Maybe because I did save often in the game, that phrase didn't have as much impact. Probably if I were caught with not saving often and had to do a whole bunch of stuff over again, then I would have remembered it more easily. But now I'll probably be mulling the game over in my mind trying to recall that right scene where that phrase came from.

Yeah, I do like certain Zorkisms. Although I have to admit, Zork Nemesis was thumbs down for me. To dark, dreary, and depressing, if you ask me. I'm glad they changed back to being a bit more whimsical in Zork Grand Inquisitor. However, IMHO, they never quite went back to their true light-hearted, whimsical atmosphere of previous games.

I find it interesting, though, that Return to Zork pre-dated Myst by a few months (I think I actually played it after Myst). However, when all is said and done, Myst rules as the first true point-and-click graphic adventure game in gaming history. The few lines it had were definitely memorable:

"Bring me the blue pages!"

But Zork definitely has some zingers!

Cya