[Tutorial] Fixing MyLevel

RoelerCoaster · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 15:31 Post subject: [Tutorial] Fixing MyLevel

I guess some mappers can relate to this: you cannot open Mylevel of your map anymore, or import anything into it. In this tutorial I will show you how to fix this problem for two different causes.

Cause 1: Broken texture
Symptoms: The map can be opened in UnrealEd and in UT, however:
- Opening MyLevel in the texture browser crashes UnrealEd
- Importing anything into MyLevel crashes UnrealEd
- Navigating in the 3D view of UnrealEd may completely freeze the editor
- Playing the map with software renderer crashes UT (perhaps some other renderers as well)

Cause: A corrupted texture in MyLevel, often caused by copying brushes/actors from other maps

Solution Goal: remove the texture from MyLevel.

Solution:

New Solution (since 10/11/2016)
Summary
The main reason that UT crashes is because the SoftwareRenderer does not like these corrupted textures.
So we first have to make sure this renderer is not used anywhere in the editor where the texture may appear (3D viewport, Texture browser).
Then we can attempt to remove the texture.

Steps

Open your UnrealTournament.ini, and look for the section that says

Code:

[Engine.Engine]
Find the value

Code:

WindowedRenderDevice=<value>

This is the renderer that the texure browser uses (credit)
If the renderer is set to

Code:

SoftDrv.SoftwareRenderDevice
change it to another renderer:

D3D 7

Code:

D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice

D3D 9

Code:

D3D9Drv.D3D9RenderDevice

OpenGL

Code:

OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice
Save the ini, and open UnrealED
Right-click the top bar of the 3D viewport and select Direct3D
Open the map
Open the texture browser in MyLevel
You may see one or more textures that are completely black (while they should not), or look corrupted.
Go to Tools > Replace Textures in the main editor window.
On the left hand side, enter the corrupted texture (highlight it in the texture browser and click on "set").
On the right and side set a different texture, preferably a texture that does not yet appear in your map
Click on replace. This replaces all references to the corrupted texture, even on hidden surfaces or in actors.
Repeat this step for every corrupted texture.
NOTE: UnrealEd has a bug that once you close the Replace Textures tool, you cannot re-open it. If this happens, save, close UnrealEd and re-open it.
Rebuild and save the map.
You can now change back the renderer of both the 3d view-port and that of the texture browser if you want.
This may be useful to verify if the map has been fixed, as the map should not longer crash using the software renderer.

Old Solution

Download WOTGreal Exporter from here
Open WOTGreal Exporter and find the corrupted texture(s) (see screenshot)
Open UnrealEd.
Right-click the top bar of the 3D viewport and select Direct3D
Open your map.
1. . If you know where the corrupted texture is located in your map, go there in the 3D view and select the surface.
  Please note that UnrealEd will NOT display the actual corrupted texture, it will just pick some random texture and draw it on that location.
  In the picture below, the floor contain the corrupted texture, but it is displayed as some wall texture from some texture pack.
2. . If you do not know where the corrupted texture is located in your map, do the following:
  - Select a random surface in your map
  - Type the following command in the UnrealEd console:
  
  Code:
  
  POLY SET TEXTURE=MyLevel.<Texture name>
  
  Where <Texture name> is the texture we discovered in step 2
- The corrupted texture is now applied to your selected surface. Keep this surface selected.
Right click the surface and do Select Surfaces > Matching Texture (or do Shift+T)
Now apply a different texture to the selected surface, preferably a texture that does not yet appear in your map:
Rebuild the map and save (perhaps under a different name to be sure)
We have now removed all visible references to the texture, but it is possible that invisible surfaces still carry the texture.
Now enter the following command in the UnrelED console:

Code:

TEXTURE CULL

NOTE: this command clears ALL the invisible surfaces from textures. This shouldn't bee a problem, but just that you know.
Again rebuild and save the map.
Do the above steps for every corrupted texture discovered in step 2.
When finished, close UnrealEd and reopen it again
Open your map
You should be able to open mylevel again and import textures.
You also may want to change back the renderer in the 3D view port to Software (See step 4)
You can now try to re-import the textures that went corrupt in MyLevel and apply then again at the correct places.

I followed the above steps for every texture, but there are still corrupted textures in MyLevel:
It may be the case that a texture is bound to an actor (eg an icon). What you have to do then is find the actor that uses the texture, and remove it, or change the texture reference.

Unless you know exactly which actor it is and where it is located, it is quite hard finding the actor. The only way I know to do this is doing it brute-force, so checking every actor until you find one that uses the texture.

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Cause 2: Broken sound
Symptoms: Completely unable to open the map in UnrealED or UT (crash)

Cause: Corrupted sound in MyLevel. So far I have only seen this caused by copying a sound from the MyLevel of one map to another.

Solution Goal: remove the sound from MyLevel.

Solution:
The trickiest part is to open the map. After that you can simply delete the actors using the sound, or replace the sound by another sound.

To open the map:

Download WOTGreal Exporter from here
Open WOTGreal Exporter and find the corrupted sounds(s) (see screenshot)
Find a map that has exactly the same sound(s) MyLevel'd, and open it. If you copied the sound from another map, then open this original map.
If you cannot find a map, then I don't know what to do, you are on your own, sorry.
Now, without closing the editor, open your own map. It should open without crashing now.
Once the map is opened, locate the actor(s) using the broken sound, and remove the sound.
Save the map and close UnrealEd.
Re-open UnrealED and your map. All should be working again.

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These methods work for me, and I hope this tutorial helps out some people.

Alchemist · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 17:02 Post subject:

Roel UT god. Appreciate the time you put in for this!

RoelerCoaster · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 07:16 Post subject:

Noticed I forgot a step at the broken sound fix. Updated the tutorial.

Vandora · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 13:48 Post subject:

Thanks, I've not seem to come across any problem like this before but I'll be sure to keep this in mind if it have happened to me. Smile

p-a-w-e-l · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 18:54 Post subject:

Epic job Roel but not too late for that though? Razz

P.E.R.N · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 22:32 Post subject:

Pawel u are really negative since 1/2 years about BunnyTrack stuff.
You did some good stuff in the past, so you should sherish a job done late or no (furthemore when the job is well done and took time like Roel just did).

If u are too sad, just leave no ?
If u stay, fine, but try to be more positiv please.

irridium77 · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 14:10 Post subject:

I can see alot of time went into this turorial Smile

Great work Roel!

The gods forsee a long and happy afterlife for you, with 40 female virgins and as much UT as you can handle.

p-a-w-e-l · Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2016 18:06 Post subject:

RoelerCoaster · Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 13:31 Post subject:

I found a different solution to the corrupted texture problem while messing around with some stuff, which I think is a bit easier to apply.

Start post updated.

CULPRIT · Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 15:26 Post subject:

ah very nice, ive been hesitant to try using mylevel in case such a thing happened. You have thrusted some confidence this-a-way. Smile

Many thanks!

Moonspell · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 07:51 Post subject:

I agree with all Smile

CULPRIT good eyes to see you Smile

Hugs

SO1 · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 01:01 Post subject:

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