Critical bug - Authors losing the ability to enter text into the Foundry (+work around!)

duncanidaho11 · May 2018

Per title, authors are losing the ability to enter text into the Foundry since we emerged from season 14.5 downtime. I'll leave it to them to post the exact circumstances and extent of their issues.

I have seen this issue occur once on my system. It hit immediately on logging into the Foundry. When I tried to create a new project, I could not enter any text. I then entered the Foundry editor and found that I could enter text in dialog and the project description. When I backed out to the Foundry project menu, the issue had cleared. It has not re-occurred since.

I'm posting hardware information below (just in case) and information about my general setup. I encourage affected authors to do the same and to provide as much detail as possible about how the issue came about and what they've done to troubleshoot it. This will help Cryptic in their investigation.

Radeon Software Version - 18.2.1
Radeon Software Edition - Adrenalin
Graphics Chipset - AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Memory Type - GDDR5
Windows Version - Windows 10 (64 bit)
CPU Type - AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor

Keyboard:
-Logitech G213
-Using Logitech keyboard management software

Other USB devices
-Speakers
-Mouse
-Wifi antenna

STO information:
-Running from application directly (not Arc or Steam)
-Not running any third party macros
-Mostly default control scheme

spiritborn · May 2018

Well I'll be in a forced retirement from the Foundry for all intents and purposes until this bug is sorted out. Though I suspect it won't be done until after ViL has launched due devs being busy with the expansion.

duncanidaho11 · May 2018

Spiritborn, could you please repost the exact description and circumstances of the bug you've encountered? Troubleshooting steps and hardware information too (that may be critical). I've pointed Kael to this thread so we can have all the information collected for Cryptic to review (it's mixed and potentially confusing to sort through in the thread where you first brought this up.)

Admiral Aaron (who wasn't able to enter text into the editor after the Foundry crashed on him, apparently spontaneously) reports that after changing projects he's now able to enter text again. His problems started in the editor (apparently) and he didn't log into the main game prior.

And for other authors who encounter this bug: before reporting please try changing projects and restart the game. We need to be able to identify whether you're permanently affected (like Spiritborn) or intermittently affected (like me, Mattjohnsonva, and Admiral Aaron).

spiritborn · May 2018

duncanidaho11 wrote: »

Spiritborn, could you please repost the exact description and circumstances of the bug you've encountered? Troubleshooting steps and hardware information too (that may be critical). I've pointed Kael to this thread so we can have all the information collected for Cryptic to review (it's mixed and potentially confusing to sort through in the thread where you first brought this up.)

Admiral Aaron (who wasn't able to enter text into the editor after the Foundry crashed on him, apparently spontaneously) reports that after changing projects he's now able to enter text again. His problems started in the editor (apparently) and he didn't log into the main game prior.

And for other authors who encounter this bug: before reporting please try changing projects and restart the game. We need to be able to identify whether you're permanently affected (like Spiritborn) or intermittently affected (like me, Mattjohnsonva, and Admiral Aaron).

First time, bought 4 new slot for my foundry projects, couldn't type a name new mission. I tried adding something to a empty description box of pre-existing mission (a bunch of blahs to be exact). After that foundry seemed to work normally, I logged to main game do Sompek, crashed while doing Sompek. After that I've been unable to add anything to any text boxes in the editor, but other text boxes seems to work just fine.

widlast · May 2018

I too just started foundry for first time, the day it was brought back up. Bought my first 4 slots just to play around and see exactly how the foundry worked and if my idea was feasible. Clicked to start new project and could not enter text anywhere to get started. in fact I had to force close the game as it went unresponsive to any input. Started back up and was able to at least get past the first screen of project title and description but at that point i had to go to bed.

Yesterday went back to try again opened the mission for editing and crashed when I went to try to fix typo in description. After restarting had to wait to verify files because an error was found.

Today back in and after loading and exiting the game 3 times I still could not type in any foundry text boxes but I could drag spawn points and other objects to a map. I went to delete the mess that not typing had made and could only confirm delete by copying and pasting the project title into the box as even there it would not accept text input. also noticed arrow keys, home, end and the like would not move the cursor in the text box. I also had to copy / paste using the right mouse menu as keyboard shortcuts ctrl-a, crtl-v, ctrl-v did nothing.

Wish I the foundry had some official guides or help because even simple items like how to go from one map to another do not seem straight forward, but not being able to type there may be also other errors that make it seem harder to design then it is.

spiritborn · May 2018

It seems that Alt-tabbing out of the Foundry to desktop and back in seems to fix the issue for now, though you might have to do that each time you start the foundry to it's not a permanent fix but it allows to you do your missions.

duncanidaho11 · May 2018

widlast#3003 wrote: »

Wish I the foundry had some official guides or help because even simple items like how to go from one map to another do not seem straight forward, but not being able to type there may be also other errors that make it seem harder to design then it is.

Right now map transitions don't work in editor preview mode. Published missions are fortunately A-Okay. The thing to do here is test maps individually. It makes it harder to get a sense of flow and pacing, but it's a work around to the bug.

Also, for Cryptic we can confirm that alt-tabbing clears the issue. We also think the trigger is simply opening the Foundry without having done that, but I haven't been able to test that specifically tonight.

marty123 · May 2018

A temporary fix for this is to start typing into an external source, i.e. word document or notepad and it will allow you to type in the foundry again

javaman1969 · May 2018

I tried foundry editor twice in the past 24 hours. I cannot edit my mission description or my dialog.

duncanidaho11 · May 2018

Again, it's merely going to another program or desktop that clears the text-entry bug. Alt tab or hit the windows key, then you should be able to enter text again.

This could be mechanically related to the issue we saw during the last massive downtime. Then, we had an error message that would come up on loading a map preview. We could acknowledge and continue but mouse camera rotation was glitched after (wrong speed and it was bounded by screen extent when it should) for both that preview and when you resumed editing. Alt-tabbing cleared it immediately. Later Cryptic fixed the error pop-up and the associated control issue became moot (no more trigger.)

So, the glitch here may have nothing to do with text entry but it could just be that something small is being interrupted during the initial foundry loading process and (as a secondary consequence) keyboard controls aren't being registered properly. They are when coming back to the Foundry from another program.

spiritborn · May 2018

I can confirm that alt-tabbing does work as workaround at this moment and to me it does seem that it's indeed triggered by something while loading the Foundry, though I've not done any testing on it to know the details.

duncanidaho11 · May 2018

spiritborn wrote: »

though I've not done any testing on it to know the details.

We can say though that the error happens while the Foundry project list is being initially loaded (after hitting the create content button in the character select screen.) Loading a mission in the Foundry editor doesn't seem to trigger it (just tested.) That's probably as specific as we can get with this (we're not going to be able to dig under the hood on our end.

)

javaman1969 · May 2018

Confirmed: if you hit [alt] plus [tab] you can start writing text again. I don't know why it work and I don't care, but it does.

chritmarsh · May 2018

I have this problem nearly every time I log into the foundry. I've found a simple solution. Press alt+tab and find literally any where else on your computer to type something. Any program or app will do. Anywhere on your system (aside from the foundry, obviously) that will allow you to type text will work. Go there, quickly type a few letters, then alt+tab back to the foundry and bam- it's fixed.

I see some users are posting that just pressing alt+tab is enough on it's own. I've honestly not yet tried pressing them without typing text somewhere else, so I cannot attest to whether or not it works, but it's logical to assume it will.

spiritborn · May 2018

chritmarsh#4963 wrote: »

I have this problem nearly every time I log into the foundry. I've found a simple solution. Press alt+tab and find literally any where else on your computer to type something. Any program or app will do. Anywhere on your system (aside from the foundry, obviously) that will allow you to type text will work. Go there, quickly type a few letters, then alt+tab back to the foundry and bam- it's fixed.

I see some users are posting that just pressing alt+tab is enough on it's own. I've honestly not yet tried pressing them without typing text somewhere else, so I cannot attest to whether or not it works, but it's logical to assume it will.

It is I tried it a first time I heard of as frustration with this bug had caused me to have minor burnout with STO, but the work around works even without typing.

Critical bug - Authors losing the ability to enter text into the Foundry (+work around!)

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