APCD really annoyed me last night!

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AJ Allen
Posts: 170
Joined: May 12th, 2020, 9:43 am
Location: Victoria Australia

APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by AJ Allen »

So, I was doing some work on a course, it's a completed one but adding some bits and pieces, few new ponds bunkers etc. Anyway, there was a custom texture I didn't want so I deleted it. Did get a message that it was used on the course but as I was going to replace it with something else that shouldn't have mattered, or so I thought. But seems I was wrong! When I looked at the course, every single texture and seam blend was screwed up. I mean every single one.

APCD for unknown reasons had taken every single texture and seam blend in my list and replaced each one with random ones. Many of them textures I have never used. Like...fairways might be dry grass, and a rough to fairway seam might be something like concrete and dirt, with a different alpha like a divots one.

You would think closing and reopening without saving would fix that... nope. Neither did opening up a previous version of the course, not even one saved on a different drive. I can actually play the course and it's as it was before this happened. But open that course in APCD and I have the whole list of screwed up textures. Even if I open it in a new APCD install. So I have resaved it with a different name so I can keep the un-corrupted version, even if I can't work on it.

So I'm not really asking if anyone knows how to fix this... it's a BIG job to go thru and fix every texture and seam blend. Not helped by the fact that it's hard to actually remember names of many of them to find them and put them back. I'm just venting lol :wallbash:

Maybe I will just redo all the textures with brand new ones rather than trying to replace with what I had. That way I can do a good clean-out of the stuff I don't use, get a better naming convention for all the seams, delete duplicates etc etc. Just looking on the bright side of it.
:rofl:
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Lez Marwick
Posts: 109
Joined: July 26th, 2020, 4:27 pm

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by Lez Marwick »

Try moving your user.lib out of the APCD folder and then load your course. This should generate a new user library and hopefully will restore everything to how it should be, providing that you use a course saved before the problem happened.
my APCD designs - Ackerton Cross, Anakena Beach, Battley Peak, Elsham Woods, Fairview GC, Margaret's Bay, Masson Moor GC, Mowsbury Golf Club, The Dustin Trophy, Upham Hall Golf Club, Yarlswood Golf Club, Zeitsbergen
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AJ Allen
Posts: 170
Joined: May 12th, 2020, 9:43 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by AJ Allen »

Lez Marwick wrote: September 15th, 2020, 9:24 am Try moving your user.lib out of the APCD folder and then load your course. This should generate a new user library and hopefully will restore everything to how it should be, providing that you use a course saved before the problem happened.
Didn't know that would help, but I'm prepared to try anything lol. Thanks for the tip, I will post back to let you know if it worked. I think I probably saw on one of your videos that if you remove it, a new one will be automatically generated, I will see what happens. Thanks!
Cheers, AJ
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Adelade
Posts: 1359
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 10:24 am

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by Adelade »

Yeah seems strange that a new install of APCD wouldnt open a save before the incident correctly, perhaps you saved over the old user.lib to the fresh install? Or didnt open a save before the incident? What you describe otherwise makes sense to me, as it would be how APCD is expected to work (Im not defending how APCD works, just that the it does) when the user.lib is altered, just not the part about a fresh install.
Finished Courses - Main: Amedal (fictional), Nine Bridges (real)
Other: Austin, Sheshan, Kauri Cliffs, Le Golf Nat. Updates: Whirlpool, Royal Lytham, Royal St George's, Chicago, Chambers Bay, Munchen Nord E
Working on: 2 fictional courses + a couple things...
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AJ Allen
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Joined: May 12th, 2020, 9:43 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by AJ Allen »

OK, that worked. Thanks so much Lez, you have saved me a huge amount of re-work, I really appreciate it. I see my new user lib is 20 something mb compared to 68 on the old one.

Adelade, when I say a fresh install wouldn't work, I wasn't quite correct. What I should have said, was that I would get the "loading triangles" message, that you get when opening a new course. But, the load wouldn't progress past that point, even after doing reboots of everything. If a course won't load after 20-30 min then it's not going to load eh? And I tried it a few times.

But all good now, and I feel better not having to redo all those textures and blends. It would have been a massive job, especuaially since not only were the textures all random, so were all the properties, such as a fairway being dry grass and lie icon of sand, stuff like that.

I have no idea how so much went so wrong so quickly. :scared:

Cheers, AJ
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Danny D
Posts: 1110
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 1:09 am
Location: SE Missouri

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by Danny D »

AJ Allen wrote: September 15th, 2020, 8:28 am So, I was doing some work on a course, it's a completed one but adding some bits and pieces, few new ponds bunkers etc. Anyway, there was a custom texture I didn't want so I deleted it. Did get a message that it was used on the course but as I was going to replace it with something else that shouldn't have mattered, or so I thought. But seems I was wrong! When I looked at the course, every single texture and seam blend was screwed up. I mean every single one.

APCD for unknown reasons had taken every single texture and seam blend in my list and replaced each one with random ones. Many of them textures I have never used. Like...fairways might be dry grass, and a rough to fairway seam might be something like concrete and dirt, with a different alpha like a divots one.

You would think closing and reopening without saving would fix that... nope. Neither did opening up a previous version of the course, not even one saved on a different drive. I can actually play the course and it's as it was before this happened. But open that course in APCD and I have the whole list of screwed up textures. Even if I open it in a new APCD install. So I have resaved it with a different name so I can keep the un-corrupted version, even if I can't work on it.

So I'm not really asking if anyone knows how to fix this... it's a BIG job to go thru and fix every texture and seam blend. Not helped by the fact that it's hard to actually remember names of many of them to find them and put them back. I'm just venting lol :wallbash:

Maybe I will just redo all the textures with brand new ones rather than trying to replace with what I had. That way I can do a good clean-out of the stuff I don't use, get a better naming convention for all the seams, delete duplicates etc etc. Just looking on the bright side of it.
:rofl:
Another word of warning to you AJ...

NEVER EVER set the PANORAMA to be displayed in the APCD, and then do a save. When you open the PANO to view it, the APCD scrambles the seam blends much in the manner in which you described. If you do a save with the pano open and the SB's scrambled, you will save it in a permanent scrambled mode. Bottom line is to never do any changes or saves of any kind with the PANO being set to display in the APCD. It's ok to enable it and look around at it. Just don't do any saves until you disable it first.

Think back. Did you have a PANO up for viewing at any time when you were looking to make changes???

Cheers,

Dan
Completed Courses
Real Courses: The National Golf Club of Kansas City - Wakonda Club - Coeur d'Alene Resort Course
Fictitious Courses: Northern Lakes - Golfcom Tees
Southern Oaks - Hometown 9 hole real course with a fictitious back 9 added
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AJ Allen
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Joined: May 12th, 2020, 9:43 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by AJ Allen »

Hey Dan
No, I have never opened a pano in APCD. I have read the warnings for that, along with other bad things such as no reg holes. So I'm careful.

I can tell you exactly what I did. I was doing a seam blend around a new pond. The blend was mud to water, so I get a nice rough edge, rather than the straight line where the edge of the pond is.

Was giving me trouble so I created a new blend. Went to delete the old one, and got that message it's being used on the course did I still want to delete? I said yes, intending to check afterwards and put new blend in. Saved, and after that when I scrolled out, I noticed the fairway beside where I was working was wild grass. Scrolled out further, and my dry grass was sand, bunkers were some other texture, a sand that I had never even used before....scrolled out further to view whole course and it was a mess, everything wrong. Every texture replaced with a different random one, seam blends with random textures and alphas.

I had no idea that doing something as simple as what I did could create so much havoc. Thank goodness for these forums and the kind people that read and reply to the posts!

Cheers, AJ
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Danny D
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Joined: August 27th, 2019, 1:09 am
Location: SE Missouri

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by Danny D »

AJ Allen wrote: September 15th, 2020, 10:28 am Hey Dan
No, I have never opened a pano in APCD. I have read the warnings for that, along with other bad things such as no reg holes. So I'm careful.

I can tell you exactly what I did. I was doing a seam blend around a new pond. The blend was mud to water, so I get a nice rough edge, rather than the straight line where the edge of the pond is.

Was giving me trouble so I created a new blend. Went to delete the old one, and got that message it's being used on the course did I still want to delete? I said yes, intending to check afterwards and put new blend in. Saved, and after that when I scrolled out, I noticed the fairway beside where I was working was wild grass. Scrolled out further, and my dry grass was sand, bunkers were some other texture, a sand that I had never even used before....scrolled out further to view whole course and it was a mess, everything wrong. Every texture replaced with a different random one, seam blends with random textures and alphas.

I had no idea that doing something as simple as what I did could create so much havoc. Thank goodness for these forums and the kind people that read and reply to the posts!

Cheers, AJ
OK, just wasn't sure if you knew about the PANO thingy :thumbup:
Completed Courses
Real Courses: The National Golf Club of Kansas City - Wakonda Club - Coeur d'Alene Resort Course
Fictitious Courses: Northern Lakes - Golfcom Tees
Southern Oaks - Hometown 9 hole real course with a fictitious back 9 added
braden1308
Posts: 556
Joined: August 29th, 2019, 2:02 pm

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by braden1308 »

when you say you deleted the texture how did you do that? you cannot delete textures you either have to replace them or overwrite them with a new texture. If you delete a texture in the APCD it can mess up your entire user.lib which can cause the exact problem you are experiencing.
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AJ Allen
Posts: 170
Joined: May 12th, 2020, 9:43 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: APCD really annoyed me last night!

Post by AJ Allen »

braden1308 wrote: September 15th, 2020, 10:43 am when you say you deleted the texture how did you do that? you cannot delete textures you either have to replace them or overwrite them with a new texture. If you delete a texture in the APCD it can mess up your entire user.lib which can cause the exact problem you are experiencing.
Well, the list of textures, both default and custom ones. In the list called "Terrain Types" And under the options, you can select one of them and choose create new, clone or delete. I chose delete. And I assume it's because that texture was apparently being used somewhere on the course, it caused the problem. Because I have deleted plenty of them in the pas with no problem. This was the first time I deleted one that said it was being used on the course, did I still want to delete? I know now that YES is the wrong answer to that.

If Im ever in that situation again, I will make sure I replace the texture or seam blend with my new one BEFORE I delete the old one. Lesson learned.

Cheers, AJ
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