linked objects disappear

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

hi people

big problem, small question (for the fast living people):
why are the linked group objects disappearing after starting the main.blend file the second time

details:
our team finally got our game prototype together.

the game is composed of multiple blend files and linked groups in those blend files.

everything runs perfectly, collision objects are working, actions are working, global variables are shared, in short: everything is fine, smooth and perfect…

except:

when i start the main.blend the SECOND time after linking and adding groups, some of the groups disappear. they are shown in the 3d viewport but as soon as i start the gameengine they vanish. after quitting they are shown in the viewport again.

since one other group in the same file is actually shown, i cannot explain what goes wrong here. are there any known problems with groups i should be aware of?
first i suspected, that the invisible collision objects in the group are buggy and let the whole group disappear, but i tested and thats not the problem.

i tested, debugged my code, tested, debugged again and so on and so forth, but i wasnt able to get it to work.

since all of the added groups are created using the same python function and no ifs are inside of it, i really cant explain why this happens. even if i just group, link and add the objects without manipulating them afterwards they vanish.

please help, this is a BIG problem until 2.5 is stable enough to actually use it in a game i am stuck with this and i would really need to solve it (we will try to have the demo ready next month, its going to be a commercial multiplayer online game (not a mmorpg, something small) and i really have to digg into the server code instead of the objects…

the only thing that keeps me relaxed atm is the knowledge, that the game will not be available until next spring and that till then blender 2.5 should be stable enough.
BUT the demo should be ready in about two weeks (and is doable by our team till then) and i guess blender 2.5 will not be ready in two weeks or even in a month. :smiley:

thanks for helping,
greetings
manarius

2

The best is to provide a simplified demo blend, that shows the error. While you prepare this you might resolve the issue already. If not the blend would might make it easier for us to help you.

3

hi

i just posted the same answer in another thread.

i guess unfortunately my problem is not reproducable,
since i NEVER encountered that problem before last friday and used linking since my blender noob days about a year ago. (not that i ever managed to raise my status above noob till today :D)
i guess it will not be possible to supply a blend file and because of that
my question is:
are there ANY generic bugs involving linked groups that are known to anyone and solvable?
does/has anyone else have/had the problem of disappearing groups before?

i will try to recreate the groups out of the source file the grafic artist gave me and look if it still happens, but this takes about 1 hour total because of the logic and is a pain in the a–, especially since i dont no if this will happen again in the future.

greetings
manarius