I could use some help. I'm at a loss for what is going on.
I know there is a string limit and I know what things go into reaching that limit.
Right now, in my map it will not let me add any new strings.
I can actually physically type in a "display text" string and hit "ok" and then save it.
Upon opening the trigger back up, the text has been deleted.
I had been keeping lots of triggers commented up until this point so I went about deleting old comments.
I have deleted over 100 comments since I was told I was out of strings.
It is still saying I am at my string limit.
Is there any way to safely delete old unused switches, I ended up naming too many while making the map.
Is there any programs that can help me look at what is going on with my strings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know I have strings available, because I have deleted lots of comments.


Thanks,

Hugel

Use any string editor as opposed to deleting the instance of the string in the map. Most editors don't check to see if deleting a comment/switch instance is freeing up a string or not.

Yes, although I'd still think that when you delete the text it would leave a string, but free up some memory, are you using SCM Draft 2?

Unless you are using really long strings, the only thing that matters is the 1024 string limit in editors (the section size limit is rarely reached).

So I guess what he really should do is use SCM Draft 2 to either recycle all the empty strings into 1, or delete them all.

Edited by: Some mod, so this isn't what I said.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 19 2007, 11:08 pm by Falkoner.

I have been trying some of your suggestions.

Uberation3 deleted a good portion of my strings that i need to keep, it also moved some of the items around on my map and made them invalid placements.

Osmap had a runtime error when I tried to use it.

I was able to delete some in SCM Draft, it did seem to free up some space, but not much.

Do you have the latest version of OS Map 2? Version i? If so, can you post the map so I can get it to LW?

What you can delete in the String Editor in SCMDraft is all there is in the map - you should be seeing all the strings in the map and if there are enough you can't delete, then you are going to be stuck with the limit.

In SCM Draft, are the strings only listed in numerical order?
The very last string in the list is 961, and there are plenty of gaps and holes between some of the other strings.

Also, is it safe to go ahead and delete location strings?
Will that free up a string or will it just rename it as Location X ?

Update to this problem:

I am able to create a brand new string with a display text trigger,
but if I copy and paste through a different display text trigger
it will not save the string and it will be missing next time i open the trigger.

Is there a max number of characters that can be saved through strings?
I've made a number of my strings quite long to save on individual strings.

I'm pretty sure the max characters is 65535, someone correct me if I am wrong, I might be one off, or way off.

What editor were you using when you made the strings?

I'm working in Xtra

If you use SCM Draft 2 your strings will recycle(any strings that are the same will only take up one string spot) I'd switch to that and stick to it.

Mapstats has shown me that I have 63000 Str Capacity currently out of around 62000....
If I read that right, I have more characters in my map than I should be able to.
This is bad news for my map, but I thought of a work around to be able to complete it.
I'm going to go through and # all my locations with single and double digit characters names.
This should free up between 5-15 characters per location.
Just think...once Starcraft2 hits we shouldn't have to worry about all these tiny little arbitrary limits in our map making abilities.

Yeah, if you're hitting the character limit, it is supposed to be 65535 bytes for the string section, but that's one byte per character plus one (or two) bytes to delimit the string - I can't remember which.

To be hitting the byte limit with less than 1000 strings, you must have some really long strings. What is taking up all that space? The best solution is probably to find a workaround for whatever paragraph-size strings you have.

The problem here is that you are hitting the string limit. Staredit-based editors (ie: X-tra) will not save strings you create if there are too many. I suggest simply using SCMDraft 2 and increasing the string limit in the settings. Odds are you have not reached the character limit, and SCMDraft 2 lets you use more strings that Staredit. Note this may create backwards compatibility problems with Staredit-based editors.

Yes, I do have lots of very long strings.
From the get go on building this map I knew that the string limit was rather low,
so I went with longer strings in the form of paragraphs for quest updates and such.
Guess they added up to break the actual character limit.
I went through and renamed all 254 locations into a 2 letter code.
It actually freed up 3000-4000 character, some of my locations were very descriptive.
I'm sure I'll reach the character limit again before I finish all my required strings.
I'll have to go back in and trim some down I guess.

Ewwww... comments, In my opinion they slow you down... I can glance at a trigger and know almost immediately what it does, plus I don't have to double click and sort through conditions, actions, and players for troubleshooting.

I suggest using a single word or short phrase for locations, followed by a number if there are many of them. For example:

Spawn[1], Spawn[2], EnemySpawn[1], EnemySpawn[2], etc. etc.

As for comments, I would not suggest using them if you are planning on a map with a lot of strings.

Yeah, like Esponeo said, the string number limit is not a hard limit, but rather an editor enforced limit. My guess is Blizzard did that figuring that no set of 1200 strings could exceed 65535 characters (a bit naive, but still), so they could better explain the string limit to the average user. The character limit is a section bytesize limit, and there's nothing you can do but work around it.

Quote from Esponeo

I suggest using a single word or short phrase for locations, followed by a number if there are many of them. For example:

Spawn[1], Spawn[2], EnemySpawn[1], EnemySpawn[2], etc. etc.

As for comments, I would not suggest using them if you are planning on a map with a lot of strings.

How about Spawn1, Spawn2, etc.. Saves 2 bytes/string