I would have loved to post this in the LB2 forums, but alas they are now Read-only. For what it is worth, I discovered something exciting that I can find no mention of elsewhere. Contained in Flyboy's site was a perfect and simple workaround to the dreaded LB2 Debrief Crash. It was staring me right in the face and I never realized it!


LB2 Debrief Crash Workaround

I felt as others had that the Debrief CTD basically killed the game. There would be no way to develop a character, play a campaign, build a squad (online or AI) or even just enjoy your magnificence after an epic mission. The crash was infuriatingly intermittent so I never knew when it would ruin a game.

After reading about the Debrief Crash on the forums it seemed as though many people had come to believe it was the USB joysticks causing the problem. So I disabled the Saitek software, I tried just running the joystick without even the profiler, I unplugged the joystick before mission end, I uninstalled Saitek Magic Bus in device manager before mission end (by Alt-Tabbing out of the game which is dangerous), still nothing completely prevented the crash. 1 out of 5 missions would fail. Even worse, the more awesome I performed in-game, the more kills I had, the more likely was the crash! In fact if I had a particularly successful kick-a$$ game, I was guaranteed to get a crash-to-desktop right before I was to see my awesome stats!

Upon further inspection (in Event Viewer), it was always 'wrapdll.dle' that would crash. This got me thinking as discussed elsewhere that it was a memory issue (would explain the intermittent occurrence . So I tried all the simple memory fixes: +G's WAC-LB2 fix and Phoenix's LB2 database fixes. I realized that the more kills accrued in-game the more the mission ending 'wrapdll.dle' would have to process and thus overstep into protected memory -- memory that might be allocated to USB joysticks hence the anecdotal evidence that these are related. Lb2 is thus unable to 'wrap-up' the mission and give a pilot his or her mission summary.

What is a pilot to do? You have the best mission of your life and it wont even be recorded or acknowledged!


SOLUTION:

RELOAD THE LAST MISSION SUMMARY PAGE -- as outlined in the Debug info/Yaw fix!
( You can find the Tweak here at the bottom )

Note: Do this before flying any other missions, ideally right after the crash brings you back to your desktop.

1.) Open up the CA.INI file in the LB2 folder and at the top of the file, add the text below:

[Backdoors]
FullOnFlightModel=1
env=c

2.) Then start LB2.

3.) Afterwards comment-out these commands by adding semi-colons, thus you may leave the commands in the CA.ini file and must only remove the semi-colons whenever the crash happens:

[Backdoors]
;FullOnFlightModel=1
;env=c


*** Important: Sometimes the game will still continue to crash when restarting this way, but eventually you will get to the Debrief Screen if you are patient and just keep trying to restart the game.

Each time 'wrapdll.dle' is invoked it takes your mission status and creates the mission debrief screen. The file 'Temp.$$$' is created when the debrief screen is active and then is deleted once the pilot clicks Accept to leave the debrief tent. Upon clicking Accept, the mission results are now added to your Campaign file, '<CampaignName>.SGM' and the 'player<#>.dat' file is updated with all of the mission stats. Even when you Alt-X to Windows mid-game, your progress up to that point is stored and can now be accessed. By adding the above commands to the CA.ini file, you can not only get your stats, but can also re-fly the mission! This is especially important if you took time designing waypoints, strike targets and complex missions, since the debrief CTD used to destroy the ability of re-flying a mission!

Note: If you intend to re-fly a mission, then you must do it before moving on to another mission or clicking Accept. If you enter the mission tent (which starts a new mission), the details of the previous mission (ATOs, waypoints, tasking, etc) are lost. Your mission results will still be available, but you wont be able to re-fly the mission using this method. This also occurs if you click 'Accept' at the Debrief Screen, since you then must pass through the mission tent to get back to the Base screen -- and this wipes out the mission, overwriting it with a new one. Don't click Accept if you want to re-fly at a later point in time. Simply Alt-X out of the Debrief Screen and when ready make sure the commands are active in the CA.ini file, then start the game. You will be brought back to the Debrief Screen (and provided you didn't click accept nor enter the mission tent) then you can re-fly the last mission.

An interesting side note: using this method and accessing the debrief screen, each time clicking "Accept" causes the player.dat file to be updated as though you have just completed the mission. All the AI pilots also have their stats (kills/flight time/etc) updated. This method could be used to artificially boost pilot scores and AI Rating, potentially giving one a stellar squad of lethal AI pilots. (I did not test this possibility, but noticed the stat increase each time I re-ran the debrief screen and clicked "Accept")

~Victor1_9er

P.S. A HUGE Thank You is due Flyboy for keeping his site alive! I never would have been able to play this sim again if not for site!

Hardly anyone is playing LB2 anymore, so this seems rather moot. But for anybody who is interested...

By experimentation with the above Workaround, I uncovered a method to fly ANY mission from ANY part of a Dynamic Campaign without having to export the Mission as a single .MIS file. There is no need to export or copy the mission out of LB2. You can design the Mission from within the Mission Planner (setting up waypoints, loiter times, strike targets, etc) and then share the mission with someone else with all of this unique planning intact or keep it saved for yourself to fly or re-fly at a later point in time.

This is accomplished by using the 'Debug info/Yaw fix' to get back to the Debrief Screen of that Mission. This requires that you save the 3 files that contain the Mission Planning, the 3 files that contain the Mission Results, the player.dat file and the Campaign.SGM file.

Here is a list of the 8 files that must be copied and saved per Mission:

NAME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TYPE . . . . . . . . . FOLDER
================== . . =========== . . ===============
Player<#>.dat . . . . . . . . . . Pilot File. . . . . . . \Longbow2\Pdata
<CampaignName>.SGM. . . Campaign File. . . \Longbow2\Missions
campmis.iff . . . . . . . . . . . . Mission File . . . . \Longbow2\Missions
Temp.$$1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mission File. . . . . \Longbow2\Missions
enigma.dat . . . . . . . . . . . . Mission File. . . . . \Longbow2\
Cntrl.dat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Result File. . . . . . \Longbow2\
fresults.dat . . . . . . . . . . . . Result File. . . . . . \Longbow2\
msnreslt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Result File. . . . . . \Longbow2\


Mission Re-fly Save Instructions:

1.) Before Starting LB2, Copy and Save your Player file and Campaign File:

Player<#>.dat
<CampaignName>.SGM

Note: This must be done before each Mission you wish to save, since these files change as the Campaign progresses.

2.) Start LB2, Enter a Campaign, use the Mission Planner to design the Mission, and Fly the Mission as normal. After the Mission Ends, but **BEFORE** clicking Accept at the Debrief Screen, Press Alt-X and exit to the Windows desktop then Copy and Save these 6 files:

campmis.iff
Temp.$$1
enigma.dat
Cntrl.dat
fresults.dat
msnreslt

Note: if you don't Alt-X but instead click Accept you are brought to the Mission Planning area where a new mission overwrites the one that was just flown. This erases the old mission and it will no longer be available. You are delaying adding the Mission results to your Campaign but don't worry they will be added in the following step by using the 'Debug info/Yaw fix' to return to the Debrief Screen.

3.) Edit the CA.ini file with the 'Debug info/Yaw fix' to reload the last Mission Debrief Screen, then Start LB2 to enter the Debriefing Area. Now finally update the Campaign and Pilot Stats by Clicking Accept at the Debrief Screen, then Exit the Game.

Note: Your last Mission has now been added to your Campaign and Pilot file which have both been updated accordingly.

4.) Edit the CA.ini file and remove the 'Debug info/Yaw fix' to return to the Base screen when LB2 is started next.

Note: If you don't remove the 'Debug info/Yaw fix' then you will be forced to click Accept a second time at the Debrief Screen which updates the Campaign and Pilot file yet again, potentially corrupting them with bogus data as if you had flown the mission again.


To Re-Fly a Saved Campaign Mission:

1.) To Re-fly an old Mission (complete with any waypoints, strike targets, loiter times and and other complex missions elements you may have created in the mission planner), Copy the 8 files back into their respective folders, and add the 'Debug info/Yaw fix,' to the CA.ini file. LB2 will now be tricked into going back in time to this point in the Campaign. You will be brought to the Debrief Screen of that older Mission as if you had just completed it. Your Mission stats and summary are visible and you may now re-fly the mission and carry on with an entirely new Campaign path if you didn't like how the last one proceeded.

~

Of course you could always share a single Mission file exported using Missioneer Plus, but it preserves only 3 waypoints per flight and you must manually recreate the lost waypoints to duplicate what was in the Mission Planner. This method lets you share individual Missions within the broader context of an entire Campaign. It also allows you to preserve intact Mission Planning from within LB2 which is especially intriguing if you spent a long time designing a complex set of objectives from within the game.


~Victor1_9er

Well some of are

Will give it a go tonight

Hello postman, awesome! Have fun and I hope it works for you. I was starting to think I was the only one still messing around with LB2. Since I found the way to deal with the Debrief crash thus keeping my campaign going and now a way to save my favorite missions permanently, I've been on an LB2 high! lol

I think it would be awesome if I constructed a really great mission in the Mission Planner then sent it to someone else to see if they could load it and get to the debrief screen and re-fly the mission. I'm flying the Azer2000 campaign which makes things a lot harder, so unfortunately I can't share my mission unless the other person also has installed the Azer2000 patch. I can always uninstall it though. Let us know if you have success going back to a saved mission.

~Victor1_9er

Victor1 seems to be working, great stuff! don't want to jinx it, will give a campaign a full go this weekend and let you know how it went

postman

I absolutely loved this sim. There was nothing like flying through valleys only to fly right into a couple of hinds and running for your life!

Still rates as one of the most imersive sim's I have played, I keep going back to LB2 not saying the new sim's are not excellent, they just don't "feel" the same

I couldn't agree more with you both! I still love this sim and go through phases where I get really into it again.

The debrief crash sadly used to cause me to not want to play it once it ruined a few missions. Using the above workaround I've managed to overcome at least 15 instances of the crash where it would have messed things up for me. I'm so happy to have a way to deal with it once and for all.

And I'm really happy to be able to save mission planning from some of my favorite missions. I've saved 5 or 6 missions so far and have been able to successfuly go back to all of them and re-fly them just as a test. Experimenting with Debug info/Yaw fix really opened doors for tweaking things!

~Victor1_9er

This is a very easy workaround..too good to be true
I tried and it seems to work.
I have a question though, should someone could answer and is still enjoyng lb2

Unless I want to do something different than campaigns. is there any problem in keeping those lines uncommented in CA.ini


[Backdoors]
FullOnFlightModel=1
env=c

If I understand correctly, it will always start from last mission in which I clicked 'end mission' in game.
Should it NOT crash, it will lead me to next mission
Should it crash I start again and click accept and go to next mission.
When I start again LB 2 in following afterwards I will start directly form debriefing of last flown mission, wheter there was a crash or not. As a matter of fact I am only skipping main screen
Is it right or I misunderstood?

Hello Canadair, yes you are correct that it will always bring you back to the end of the last mission, skipping the main screen. From my own notes I recall that each time you click Accept, your completed mission stat goes up as well as your other pilot stats (flight time, etc). The same happens to the AI pilots in your unit. I never experimented to see if keeping those lines permanently in the CA.ini file (thus clicking Accept more than once for a mission) caused problems with the Campaign. I don't have LB2 on my current laptop so I cannot experiment. It would be helpful if you gave it a try and then reported back here what the results were. For example I would love to know if doing it your way does not change anything other than artificially inflating the pilot and unit stats. Let us know if it works!

~Victor1_9er