Error: Unable to open temporary file and RL2 disappeared

[TSXMike]

Hi everyone,

I opened a level today and edited. Then when I went to save it, it said "unable to open temporary file dle_temp.rdl.

The strange part - the next time I tried to open that level, the RL2 file was missing in the HOG manager screen. So it totally deleted the level. Luckily I have a back up.

I was using v1.12.28

Can I fix it? Because this means I cannot further edit that level, and its actually a really good one I need to keep.

Thanks

EDIT: when I say "Can I fix it," I don't mean recovering the deleted RL2. I mean to prevent that error next time I edit & save.

[LightWolf]

Something similar happened to me once. Have never been able to replicate the issue.
Backups are the only things I can recommend. If you do get the error again, use "save as" - that seems to be a foolproof recovery method in virtually all cases (including a semicorrupt level - true story).

Did you click "delete" in the HOG editor screen somewhere? HOG editor actions cannot be undone. I have made that mistake before and deleted one of my earliest levels that way. Thankfully it was one of trillions of crappy standard-cubes-only levels cluttering my hard drive rather than an actual attempt at a level.



On a side note, what is the level?

[TSXMike]

Hi LightWolf,

Good idea to save as. I didn't think of that right away. To answer your questions, I did not accidentally delete in the hog manager. I replaced the damaged hog file with a back up and tried again, and the problem was replicated. It seems to be a problem with DLE saving that specific level.

The level is actually my final level, it is complex, and it was a ton of work. I like the design. I have vents running through connecting stuff in an octagonal design. You can see into the vent structure from different parts of the level. I did lots of mathematical computing to adjust things and straighten walls out, fit textures, etc. Looks good and is arduous.

[TSXMike]

So I just tried to edit this same level in DLE 1.12.29 again, and it did this same thing - gave the error "unable to open temporary file: C:\DLE1_12_28\\dle_temp.rdl"

It also deletes the .RL2 file afterward. Again, I have a bunch of back-ups, so its not gone. Now, I noticed that it does not do this in 1.11.90. It only happens in 1.12.29 (and as seen above, says the version number in the error message). I know I didn't accidentally hit delete in the HOG manager, and the save-as idea LightWolf mentioned above didn't work. After saving as a new file with a new name and trying to open it again, the problem persisted. Note that this doesn't happen with my other levels in 1.12.29.

Really, all it means is I cannot further use 1.12.29 for this level and am thus unable to modify animated textures for it. Not a huge problem, but it does preclude some texture ideas I had.

[LightWolf]

External programs work with textures too - I always used DTX2

[TSXMike]

Ah, yes. I didn't think of the alternative of other descent level editors. My idea in this level is really just matching some animated textures to be of uniform colors around blue/yel/red keys and doors, so its not a terrible error. I just wanted to post an update since I haven't really worked on this level until last night.

[Sirius]

Could I get a copy of the level? (Assuming I didn't already ask for this... I forget now)
It isn't an error I've encountered personally, and it sounds like it's specific to this level somehow.

[TSXMike]

I found out why it does this tonight. It does it when you exceed 900 segments and try to save in 1.12.28. And its only in 1.12.28.

Here's what I did: I exceeded 900 segments in 1.12.28. When I tried to save, it gave 2 error boxes: the first error was the usual "too many segments for this level version." And right after clicking okay, another error box popped up saying, "unable to open temporary file dle_temp.rdl." So I deleted the excess segments and tried to save again, and it did not give me either error, and it did not delete the rl2 file. Version 1.11.90 used to let you exceed. It still gave the 1st error, but it didn't mess up terminally like 1.12.28 does.

So I cannot edit/make animated textures and exceed 900 segments in the same level. Maybe I can import all textures before exceeding 900, and then switch over to 1.11.90 to finish... I think.

[LightWolf]

Does it happen in 1.12.30?

[Sirius]

It probably would.

While it might be possible to handle the failure case more gracefully and not produce that second error (though to be honest I probably won't; there are more important things to fix), this is really happening because DLE was not supposed to be allowing you to save levels with more cubes than permitted by the format spec (original D2 levels cannot have more than 900 cubes or the game won't load them). Diedel requested I close the loophole, which I did in 1.12.28 I think.

[TSXMike]

Deleting files without the end-user saying to is something good programming standards do consider important enough to fix.

[TSXMike]

But anyway, I just got rid of a room and some other cubes. I don't mind staying under 900 from here. In fact, my newer levels hardly go over, and its not too big a deal to do some adjusting. My only problem is that I have a few older levels that I like a lot with more than 900 and I want to use them as is. So I guess I can leave the texture mods out and just finish those levels in 1.11.90.

The important thing is that we now know specifically what causes the error I opened this thread over

[LightWolf]

May I request that the loophole be reopened? It gets annoying when you spend forever making a level only for it to be deleted. Simply having a dialog box should be enough. I have actually had to edit in old versions because of this.

[Sirius]

Requests to change that would have to go to Diedel, not to me (I'm not going to make changes he specifically asked me not to, since he does still own the project). I don't think he'll bend on this one though.

Correcting the failed-save path is something I would be able to do, but I don't know how long it would take. Best case scenario maybe an hour, worst case several months (some things need to be redesigned).

[LightWolf]

How would I contact him?

[Sirius]

Couple of ways I can think of. One is to go through the DLE issue tracker on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/p/d2x-xl/dle-xp/
The other way is to post on the official forums on descent2.de: http://www.descent2.de/forum/viewforum.php?f=12
Just to be clear though, are you asking to make levels larger than 900 cubes, keeping in mind that descent2.exe will not be able to run them no matter what DLE says, or is this just a "stop deleting my stuff" request? The latter is probably better addressed in different ways than suppressing the error, and you don't need to jump through hoops to ask for it.

[LightWolf]

It's both.

Edit: Apparently I need a software company to sign up before I can submit a ticket?

[Sirius]

SourceForge is an OSS hub, which is often contributed to by people who work for software companies... but not exclusively, so that should be optional.