Plugin Crash to Desktop when using certain VFX Overhaul mods

[Junjou_Laina]

Hello,

Users are experiencing crashes to desktop with no error message when using my VFX overhaul mods via Heliosphere. I went to test this out myself and got the same result. However, using the versions that I have available on Ko-fi yield no crashes whatsoever. The versions being uploaded to both Ko-fi and HS are the exact same file.

The mods (that I know of) that are causing the issues (and their respective Ko-fi counterparts):
Floral Blitz: Heliosphere / Ko-fi
Eikonic: Heliosphere / Ko-fi
Pilfer: Heliosphere / Ko-fi

Let me know if there's any other information needed. Appreciate any help or insight that can be provided!

 

[anna]

Unfortunately, after investigating Floral Blitz, I have determined that regardless of whether installed via the PMP from Ko-fi, the PMP from Heliosphere, or directly via the Heliosphere plugin, the files installed on disk are all exactly the same and the JSON files are equivalent.

Do you have any specific instructions to reproduce a crash?

 

[Junjou_Laina]

Unfortunately I don't. I don't personally use Heliosphere, so the process that I went through to get the crash was first disabling Floral Blitz via Penumbra and then installing Heliosphere via the method laid in the guide on the website. As soon as I downloaded and installed Floral Blitz from HS, enabled it in Penumbra, and then redrew my character, it crashes directly to desktop with no error message. Trying to select my character during log in would incur the same crash. The only way I was able to log back in was disabling the HS version of Floral Blitz before selecting my character.

 

[anna]

I can't reproduce this issue at all. Floral Blitz works great for me (and is a very neat mod).

My best guess is that you and the other people who experience crashes all have some setting/environmental factor in common. A bad Penumbra root (too long), weird FS at your Penumbra root, some setting in Penumbra, FS corruption, who knows.

If possible, try...

1. installing from Heliosphere
2. opening the mod in your file explorer
3. renaming its folder from hs-Floral Blitz... to something much shorter
4. rediscovering mods in Penumbra
5. enabling the mod

If you still crash, it's not due to path length, but if that stops the crashes, I would be curious to know your system information, since it would be caused by path lengths, which shouldn't be possible.

 

[Junjou_Laina]

I think that worked

The original folder name was something really long:
"hs-Floral Blitz (Floral Overhaul Mod for DRK)-3.9.9-7508e0ee38ce420aa031c368f888b5dc-c957ab903f094d33b2bdb3e5b050229a"

I shortened it to
"hs-Floral Blitz"

and I didn't crash to desktop. What system info do you need?

 

[anna]

I probably don't need system info. After talking with Otter, it seems like certain files (PAP, specifically) don't have the logic in Penumbra that enables arbitrary-length paths, which would explain why this only seems to be an issue with animation mods.

I'm working on a new feature that will shorten the name dramatically (in this case, it would become hs-Floral Blitz (Floral Overhaul Mod for DRK)-3.9.9-EY7), which should work around the issue for most users. People with Penumbra root folders set to a very long path could end up going past the allowable path length and triggering the crash, but that should be a very rare case.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention and helping me figure it out!

 

[anna]

Update: I just released 4.0.0, which makes the Heliosphere mod directory names much shorter. It also adds a warning when it detects a PAP file with a path that's too long, so everyone should know if the crash is going to happen. It should be much rarer, now, though, about as often as it would happen on Ko-fi. You shouldn't need to warn people about using Heliosphere for your mods now!

 

[Junjou_Laina]

Thank you for the fix! Sorry it was never brought to your attention previously. I mentioned it last year on the HS discord server, but I think that was before these forums existed. Glad it's solved now though, appreciate your help!