Why can't I use any hair? (1 Viewer)

[Wemox50]

So I've noticed that I can't use any hair. I have a bunch downloaded but when I activate them, nothing happens.

Modding > Hair > Select Hair.png > nothing happens. It used to work, and I haven't changed anything since last time it worked. Just stopped working all of a sudden.

 

[stuntcock]

So I've noticed that I can't use any hair. I have a bunch downloaded but when I activate them, nothing happens.

"Nothing happens" usually means that the game has thrown an exception. You don't see them by default, because Flash catches and hides them (in order to preserve the integrity of the user experience).

If the error is occuring consistently (i.e. it cannot be resolved by simply restarting the game) then the exception is presumably being thrown by something in your $INIT$\Mods folder. Therefore we'll need to identify and fix (or remove) the misbehaving element before you'll be able to resume normal gameplay.

If you download the Flash Player projector content debugger and run it (double-click the EXE) then you'll be able to open Loader.swf within the window and play the game as usual. If an exception occurs, then it will be presented to you in a popup window. Screenshot (or copy-paste) this error message and we'll attempt to figure out what's going wrong.

Once we've fixed this problem, you can go back to using your normal Flash player. The debugger application is not needed for day-to-day activities, but it's a good idea to hold onto it ... just in case you run into another problem in the future.

Modding > Hair > Select Hair.png

Please share one of the misbehaving Hair.png files. This is probably a code issue, but it's (barely) possible that something on your PC has modified or corrupted the PNG files.

Please try to load other custom content - such as SWF hair mods, PNG backgrounds, charcodes, and TXT dialogue files. Do any of them work? Is this a general loading problem, or does it apply only to PNG hairstyles?

I haven't changed anything since last time it worked.

Many people facing technical difficulty will assert that no changes have been made, but what they mean is that they did not intend to cause a problem. Here's the classic example.

User's version of events:

• I was just browsing the internet
• My computer stopped working

The complete story:

• I was just browsing the internet
• I saw a flashy banner ad which promised to speed up my computer
• The ad prompted me to install some stuff, so I did
• The stuff turned out to be malware
• My computer stopped working

As a general principle, I'd encourage you to instead mention anything that you have done recently. Even if it's as innocuous as "I saved a few characters" or "I downloaded some new hair files" or "I'm currently trying out a new SDT bundle which was shared by one of our cool Dialogue writers". Even irrelevant stuff may eventually prove to be important (e.g. "I've recently switched to a different Internet Service Provider" or "I bought a new SSD and moved all of my HDD files onto it"). If someone is attempting to troubleshoot your problem, then your information can help steer them towards the most relevant area (e.g. character folders, Settings files, SWF file versions, security policies, etc).

Alternatively: let's assume that you have done literally nothing. In that case, the error was probably triggered by a change in your PC (such as a mandatory security patch which Microsoft installed without your permission). Therefore you ought to describe your PC (hardware, OS, Flash version, SDT version, etc) so that we can look for possible patch issues and complications.

Bottom line: you're unlikely to get useful help by telling us "The game is broken. I didn't break it. Pls fix kthxbye."

 

[Wemox50]

Yea I wasn't expecting to just come in and immediately get help. I was looking for a reply that would tell me what to do (because I have no clue myself, really) so there's no need to be snide :)

Do you still want me to upload one of the png files that aren't working? Because NONE of them work. My SWF files work, but that's it (I only have SWF and PNG files) I haven't downloaded any new files since last time I tried.

Last time I tried, it was like half of them worked and the other half didn't. Then a week later, they stopped working.

I mean, I haven't really done anything like you mentioned.
Gamer version is 1.21. Are there any newer versions that work better? the game seems a bit laggy for some reason

I downloaded the adobe flash thing, and everything works in there. But not in my normal browser (chrome, newest version)

 

[stuntcock]

I was looking for a reply that would tell me what to do

Your post does not need to be perfect, but you should always put in some effort. Show that you've made some attempt to investigate the problem independently, and that you respect the time of the other forum members. This applies regardless of whether you're reporting a bug, or seeking tech support, or asking someone to draw a custom hairstyle.

I get annoyed when I see someone make an initial low-effort post. I understand that you're trying to start a conversation; you don't want to waste time by writing up a complete report if there's a very simple solution. That's okay! But this game is many years old and there's a lot of resources and information available. If you can't find any matches by Searching, then your problem (or suggestion) is probably something new and interesting. Therefore your idea deserves a decent writeup, so that we can investigate it properly.

(because I have no clue myself, really)

You're posting on the Help board. There are three stickied posts on this board.

• One of them advises you to use the Flash Player Projector (instead of Chrome).
• One of them provides a troubleshooting flowchart and advises you to use the Flash debugger tool.
• One of them explains that your post may be arbitrarily deleted if it lacks substance, and advises you to Search for answers.

Would these suggestions have completely fixed your problem? Maybe not. But they would have enabled you to make a more informative first post (e.g. "I can load the hair files in Flash Player but not in Chrome.").

Yes, I'm being rude to you. But I'm doing so in order as a reminder that this is not normal behaviour for either of us. Since you're new, I'll help you to solve this problem. But I hope that you'll become more self-sufficient (e.g. performing your own Search operations) so that this sort of conversation won't occur again.

I'd be happy to see you sharing new gameplay ideas, or providing constructive criticism of mods, or submitting in-depth bug reports, or just congratulating some of our artists for their great work. But if you ignore the forum rules and resources, then I'll continue to reply with copy-pasted FAQ stuff and rudeness.

It's entirely possible that the newbie resources are poorly located; that they aren't visible or obvious enough. If you have any suggestions for how to help people discover them, then please share those ideas (in this thread, or via PM, or whatever).

Do you still want me to upload one of the png files that aren't working?

No, that won't be necessary. You've confirmed that the PNG files work correctly in Flash Projector; the misbehavior is specific to Chrome.

Gamer version is 1.21. Are there any newer versions that work better?

There are new versions. 1.21.1b is the latest version of SDT. But we strongly encourage people to use a Loader bundle instead, because they offer more features without the hassle of manually installing a dozen mods.

Newbie Guide
Getting Started with SDT

It's unlikely that your Chrome problem will be fixed by upgrading to a newer SDT version, or by switching to a Loader bundle. There may be a Chrome extension which is intercepting image files (e.g. for virus-scan purposes, or for remote mirroring, or whatever) and therefore preventing SDT from loading them.

I downloaded the adobe flash thing, and everything works in there. But not in my normal browser

Are you willing to play SDT in a Flash Player Projector window? Or do you intend to get it working in Chrome again? If you don't care about Chrome then there's no need to go further; we can leave the thread as-is. If you want to fix it then we can proceed.

chrome, newest version)

Please be specific whenever possible. "Newest version" is ambiguous. If I visit this thread a week later, then the newest public release of Chrome might have changed. If you're on Linux or Mac then your newest version of Chrome may be different from my own (Windows 10 x64). The safest option is just to copy-paste whatever shows up when you visit chrome://version/.

Last time I tried, it was like half of them worked and the other half didn't. Then a week later, they stopped working.

This information could be useful, because we can examine the Chrome patch history to look for something which might conflict with SDT loading mechanisms. But the timeline is very vague ("last time I tried" could be months ago) and so we don't know where to begin looking. If you can provide your current Chrome version (along with OS and hardware information), a rough estimate of the progression (date for "everything works normally", date for "half of hairs stop working", date for "all hairs stop working"), and a list of Extensions that you're running ... then I'll look into it.

I can't reproduce the problem on my own PC (Chrome 52.0.2743.116; Flash 22.0.0.209), so I can't proceed unless you provide more information.

 

[Wemox50]

I did mess around with it before making a post. I tried searching for a few things about hair not working, but nothing came up. Tried changing the image types into jpg, swf, reinstalled the game, re-installed the hair mods, messed around in the game for a long time trying different settings.

So even if my post seemed super low effort then it really isn't. I mean yea, the text I can is low effort but it's not like I didn't try fixing it on my own.

Besides, this entire website is a giant mess and is so uncomfortable to use. I mean that's just my opinion but I try to avoid this place like the plague. I honestly have more luck just googling a hair mod than searching here.

 

[sby]

if everything works in the flash projector, but doesn't work with chrome's pepper flash player. i would blame the pepper flash player

don't know why you would use a browser anyway, should run considerably better in flash projector 10 or 11 (the flash player version when the game was put together)

 

[Wemox50]

I didn't know about the flash player at all :) but yea it's definitely more smooth.