nicked on 23/1/2024 at 07:37
PSA - Windows 11 users - as of January 2024, it seems that FMSel has stopped working. See below for original post and full details. If you're affected, the fix is to uncomment
no_unload_fmsel in cam_mod.ini.
Original post:
So out of nowhere two days ago, FMSel has stopped correctly loading the Thief 2 or Dromed apps (Windows 11). Anyone got any ideas what I can try? Can Angelloader be used for Dromed? I've never used it. Currently my only other option is to manually overwrite a different Thief install for each mission. Would rather avoid that if I can.
Here's what's happening:
With fm activated in cam_mod.ini, FMSel opens and shows me the list of missions. The app itself seems to run fine. I've also tried running as administrator, and added it as an exception in my antivirus, and tried temporarily disabling antivirus and malware scanner and running it. No difference in behaviour. As soon as I select a mission and click Edit FM (in Dromed) or Play FM (in Thief), FMSel instantly closes. No errors, no background processes left running, no clues at all. When doing this, the log is painfully short. It's as if FMSel simply thinks I clicked Quit.
Code:
: PID: 9604
: CPU: arch=x86-64 , fam=586 , cpus=24
: SIMD: SSE=3 , 3DNow=0 , MMX=1
: OS Version: 6.2.9200
: Desktop resolution: 1920 x 1080
: Virtual desktop resolution: 3840 x 1080
: -----------------------------------------------------------
: Command line: "C:\Thief2\Thief2.exe"
: -----------------------------------------------------------
This is occurring for all Thief installs on the computer, T1 and 2. Nothing has changed on the PC, it's just stopped working out of the blue.
If I comment out fm in cam_mod.ini, Thief or Dromed load straight away and work fine, absolutely normal functionality. But of course they're then not using the correct folder structure. So something is going wrong at the point of FMSel trying to open Dromed.exe or Thief2.exe itself. I have no idea how to troubleshoot that.
elymmit on 23/1/2024 at 07:44
Interesting, this happened to me the other day. I tried a full reinstall and just tried to load through FMSel but still nothing however I can get the game to run normally. I made the move to AngelLoader and it works but have no idea about Dromed. I wonder if there was an update on Windows that caused this.
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nicked on 23/1/2024 at 07:46
Yeah I'm inclined to think Windows has changed something, since it's globally affecting all Thief installs.
vfig on 23/1/2024 at 13:50
Quote Posted by nicked
So something is going wrong at the point of FMSel trying to open Dromed.exe or Thief2.exe itself. I have no idea how to troubleshoot that.
irrelevant technical detail, but fmsel does not launch dromed.exe or thief.exe itself; instead they launch and then load fmsel.dll, wait for it to do its thing, and then unload fmsel.dll and continue running the game/editor. so something is happening here within the newdark exe that is causing it to abort. it sounds like a crash—the absence of a crash dump suggests maybe not; though it is possible that newdark runs fmsel before the crash-handling machinery is set up.
it is odd that it works with angelloader and not fmsel, because angelloader is using the same api (and its own dll) for communicating to thief/dromed which fm to run.
one thing you could try is enabling no_unload_fmsel in cam_mod.ini to see if that makes a difference.
nicked on 23/1/2024 at 13:50
OK well I appear to have resolved the issue by uncommenting no_unload_fmsel in cam_mod.ini - thanks vfig.
baeuchlein on 23/1/2024 at 16:13
Sly question: Do the .EXEs load the DLLs, or do they tell Windows to load the DLLs? If the latter is the case, we can smell already that a Windows change/update might have happened there and cause this problem.
vfig on 23/1/2024 at 16:53
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
Sly question: Do the
.EXEs load the DLLs, or do they
tell Windows to load the DLLs? If the latter is the case, we can smell already that a Windows change/update might have happened there and cause this problem.
i suppose you can say they ask windows to load the dlls. but youre barking up the wrong tree. dll loading and unloading is a deep fundamental feature of the operating system and isnt going to be changed suddenly by a windows update (because if it did, it would break every program ever). in addition, the issue is happening after the dll is already loaded. speculating on exactly what the cause is is a little bit pointless without data (e.g. a crash dump), but most likely this is just due to a bug in newdark or fmsel that only happens very rarely due to the state of memory, other running processes, etc.
is_it_rats_or_apes on 23/1/2024 at 17:54
Exact same thing with me. I tried to start the game today like I did the days before. Not working. Uncommenting no_unload_fmsel did it.
downwinder on 23/1/2024 at 18:25
my fmsel for thief 1/g works fine and my newdark loader for thief 2 is fine
fortuni on 23/1/2024 at 19:25
Quote Posted by vfig
most likely this is just due to a bug in newdark or fmsel that only happens very rarely due to the state of memory, other running processes, etc.
Hopefully you're right, but this issue has now been reported 3 times in as many days. Would you advise everybody to uncomment their no_unload_FMsel? Apart from preventing this crash are there any other potential issues by uncommenting no_unload_FMsel?
