Suggestions for Running SCMDraft

[Krazy]

See: http://starcraftgalaxies.blogspot.com/2010/04/suggestions-for-running-scmdraft.html

[tipereth]

SCMDraft crashed on me and the autosave was corrupted. Score!

[Dem0nS1ayer]

Oh, my god I just figured this out like an hour ago.  Damn you, Krazy, I wanted to be the hero. 

[Legion]

After much experimentation, I have reached many conclusions about using SCMDraft, some based on suggestions by others, others based on just what I've noticed.  After you read the first few of these, you might want to just use X-tra or something.  But if you do need to use scmdraft, these I think are some good tips:

-Always use "Save As".  Yes, if you're a save-hog, this is a pain in the ass, but honestly, the "quicksave" feature basically doesn't work, and will in all likelihood, even if it doesn't crash the program, partially corrupt the map file.

-Disable sound.  Do this by going to "Options" and then the second to last item.  Yes, hearing things explode as you delete them is cool.  However, I have not had scmdraft give me a "something bad happened" upon opening a map since disabling this feature.

-Turn off auto-save.  Go to "Options" then "Profile Settings..." then under "Global Settings" uncheck the box next to "Enable Autosave".  Maybe you use this feature, if so, don't.  But, if you have any sound files embedded in the map itself, every time it autosaves you're looking at a multiple megabyte file that you'll probably never have to use (especially if you follow the other tips here).  Also, it's really annoying when it happens while you're busy in the middle of triggering.

I originally thought that the problems I was having were related to the size of the file or using unusual units like disruptor webs, but after doing the above three things, I have had almost no problems with staredit crashing regardless of filesize.

-If you DO get a partially corrupted file, open the map in staredit and then save as.  Because of this, you'll probably want to disable the "place buildings/units/doodads anywhere" features in the options menu toward the beginning of your map so that you don't get hundreds of "could not put unit there" errors in staredit.  It's always a good practice to keep things as close to staredit's style toward the beginning of your map in case you need to open it in a different editor, in my opinion.

Hope this post helps!

Dunno how, but I only just stumbled upon this topic.  Thanks SO much, Krazy.  I immediately turned all of that BS off in SCMdraft.  I kept reopening the map in StarEdit to save it because of SCMdraft's shitty save option.  Thanks!

[omega20]

I also have to add something here; when adding sounds via SCMDraft, I personally prefer importing them as Uncompressed.  Although it will inevitably increase the overall size of your map, this is one way to avoid the "Sound is there but it won't play" bug.

Because of that I add the sounds via StarEdit/X-Tra Editor.

Anyways, my version of ScmDraft seems to work perfectly (except by sound editor and that fucking 'Trigedit' window that keeps always opening saying 'Something bad happened, would you like to save a diagnostic file? 'YES'/'NO''. Keeping it untouched makes the editor to work well). It's that strange? (Everything I read about ScmDraft is that it's really buggy, something that don't happens to me).

[Meta]

I only realized the autosave feature was lagging my comp to hell when I checked my SCMDraft directory and it was like 1 Gig worth of useless backups.

Does anyone have any clue as to how properly import sounds and compressing them?

[AngelSpirit]

[imgwh 640x480]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8193/scmd.png[/imgwh]

End of story.

I myself have never had any problems with the quick save however, and use SCMDraft for ALL my needs.  So far, it has not let me down.

[Rocco]

Lol at getting bored on SCMDraft.

[imgwh 640x456]http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k323 ... city11.jpg[/imgwh]

[Legion]

[imgwh 640x480]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8193/scmd.png[/imgwh]

End of story.

I myself have never had any problems with the quick save however, and use SCMDraft for ALL my needs.  So far, it has not let me down.

Really?

It's giving me runtime errors all the time.  Or if not that, then it's OOPS SOMETHING BAD HAS HAPPENED!!!

Seriously, Rocco, that looks way cool.  You could make a mean RPG map with those.

[Rocco]

Haha, I just spent like 1 hour each copying them from other maps only to realize I could copy terrain itself.

[Rocco]

Nah, I found other maps with those terrain building thingys, and copied them (like by hand not copy&paste) only to realize I could've copied and paste, wasted like 3 hours.

[Church]

[imgwh 640x456]http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k323 ... city11.jpg[/imgwh]

Wow! That's a really cool city. You should make an RPG or something with it! That would be cool.

[me=Jim_Raynor]makes note to self to use SCMdraft more so can do that [/me]

[Rocco]

I can give you guys all those terrains

[Legion]

Okay, I've run into a major problem.

You all know the error message "Something bad has happened! Would you like to save a diagnostic file?".  Well I used to only get it every few maps I opened, but now it's right there, every time I want to open a map.  The program is useless now.  At one point I was working on a map, and I had the error message and I didn't press YES or NO because that crashes the program.  Then I opened another map I was working on and I suddenly had TWO "Something bad has happened!" messages.  Then it crashed.

What's wrong with it?  I downloaded the latest version, reinstalled it but nothing helps.

Edit:

I know that Scmdraft is a buggy program to begin with, but I haven't found anything that allows for illegal placing and has that neat zooming function.  I'm running it on Vista, so I guess that limits my options.

[Legion]

Hmm, I usually had constant "Something bad has happened!" prompts when the backupDB.scmDB file (in the same directory as the SCMDraft.exe) breached 1 GB.  After I disabled auto-saving, the problem was solved entirely, since the file didn't grow in size.

I see.  Weird thing is, whenever I uncheck Enable Autosave it's right back to being checked the next time I open the Profile Settings... panel.