Finalalert 2 - no image of new units [Solved]

Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

I am rebuilding my mod, but I don't really remember from many years ago - why in FA2 new units don't show (as visually) when placed on the map.

They do appear on the units list and they can be added to a map, but there's no image in the editor. The unit is there, settings can be set to it, but it's completely invisible.

Is this a known thing or did I miss something ?

G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

That means either your art.ini entry is missing/unreadable or you don't have the artwork in an ecacheXX.mix that it reads.

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Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

ArtMD is fine, since all units show correctly in-game. Adding the .inis into a mix does not make any difference.

Arts are in an ecacheNN.mix which is in the game folder.

FA2 points to the right .exe path.

Can I make Finalalert force-read that ecache ?

G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

Depending where your game is located on your drive, like under c:\Program Files\* then FA2 might not have permission to read it.

I keep my game in c:\cc-ra2 for that reason, there's no issues with permissions.

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Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

Mine in on a different path also. No permission issue as far I as checked; the units are being read, just their art part isn't.

Other things tried:

- moved game to drive C (and updated .ini path)
- moved FA2 inside game dir(extra bug: map texture not showing)
- compatibility mode

Nothing worked, but I think I just figured it out (while writing the above):
I saw the marble.mix file in the FA2 dir and put a few unit .shps there. The .shps added to that .mix do show.

Not tested with voxels yet.

So, to conclude, looks like FA2 does not read the EcacheNN.mix files.

G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

Sounds even more like a permissions bug, which ver Win?

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Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

Win10, up to date.

Tried on a different system, same OS, same behhavior.

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Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

On your new units, try to remove all Image= keys from rules.ini and art.ini and let them work via the [ID] directly.

IIRC the Image key is a common issue why the FinalSun based editors don't show units.

Also make sure it's not some kind of testmap which adds these units locally as well. The editors (at least FinalSun, not sure about FinalAlert) are also buggy when it comes to map added stuff.

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E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

This topic could be moved to Mapping Discussion subforum.

Both RA2 and YR use ecache*.mix, so that you can have mix file like ecachemyshps.mix which is accessible to both RA2 and YR. But FA2 uses ecache##.mix for RA2 maps and ecachemd##.mix for YR maps.

Also FA2 exclusively expects some filetypes to be in ecache(md)##, modders used to end up creating duplicate mix files for FA2, renaming a copy of expandmd## to ecachemd##. In my patched version of FA2, ecachemd is renamed to expandmd, so that it can read from expandmd## itself as most modders use expandmd## for mod content.

So if you are using original FA2, rename a copy of expandmd## (in ypur case it would be ecache##) to ecachemd##. If you are using the patched FA2, use expandmd##.

Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

I found a way to make this work. Just adding all shps and vxls in the marble.mix will make FA2 show them.

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Overmind · AA Infantry **Joined**: 05 May 2022

Just a note as update: on the newer FA versions everything is correctly read, so there's no need to infuse everything in marble.mix anymore.

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