DataRefTool incompatibility fix

[spearlman]

I experienced a crash, so I looked at the forum to find many such instances involving the DRT.  I removed it and sure enough, no crash.

Poking through the log, I found the following line:

2024-03-15 11:04:29 CL650[dr.c:553]: assertion "dr->value != ((void*)0)" failed: CL650/glass/heat_on

 

So I added that dataref to Resources/plugins/drt_ignore.txt.  Sure enough, no more crash on load and DRT works with the CL650.  According to DRT FAQ, that could point to some bug in CL650:

FAQ: Using DRT causes X-Plane to crash
DRT reads every dataref published by every aircraft and plugin, on every frame of the simulation. Sometimes, they haven't fully been debugged, and may crash. (If you're a developer, the best way to do this is to run X-Plane in a debugger and look at the backtrace of the crash- if you see RefRecords::update() in the backtrace, this is likely what happened.)

 

In any case, I find DRT is much more useful than the official Data Ref Editor, so I'm happy to be able to use it now.

[RonMont]

18 hours ago, spearlman said:

I experienced a crash, so I looked at the forum to find many such instances involving the DRT.  I removed it and sure enough, no crash.

Poking through the log, I found the following line:

2024-03-15 11:04:29 CL650[dr.c:553]: assertion "dr->value != ((void*)0)" failed: CL650/glass/heat_on

 

So I added that dataref to Resources/plugins/drt_ignore.txt.  Sure enough, no more crash on load and DRT works with the CL650.  According to DRT FAQ, that could point to some bug in CL650:

FAQ: Using DRT causes X-Plane to crash
DRT reads every dataref published by every aircraft and plugin, on every frame of the simulation. Sometimes, they haven't fully been debugged, and may crash. (If you're a developer, the best way to do this is to run X-Plane in a debugger and look at the backtrace of the crash- if you see RefRecords::update() in the backtrace, this is likely what happened.)

 

In any case, I find DRT is much more useful than the official Data Ref Editor, so I'm happy to be able to use it now.

Thanks for the tip! I will try that at my end too, as I also think that DRT is much more useful than the native one.

[spearlman]

Hey @RonMont,

Did this fix work for you?

[RonMont]

On 4/4/2024 at 6:19 AM, spearlman said:

Hey @RonMont,

Did this fix work for you?

I haven't tried it yet, as I have no idea how to exclude that dataref in the drt_ignore.txt (i.e. what is the format of the entry should be), plus, you are saying that that txt file should be in /resources/plugins.

I kind of suspect it should be in the /resources/plugins/datarefTool_v... folder, no?

I didn't want to mess with it without being sure.

Thanks for inquiring!

[spearlman]

It's simple.  The file drt_ignore.txt goes inside the plugins directory, not inside the DRT installation directory.  For me (on Mac), that is:

/Users/Shared/X-Plane 12/Resources/plugins/drt_ignore.txt

The file should contain a line-separated list of datarefs to ignore.  The dataref in this case is:

CL650/glass/heat_on

 

You can find some examples in the DataRefTool FAQ at https://datareftool.com/faq

[RonMont]

On 3/16/2024 at 8:58 AM, RonMont said:

Poking through the log, I found the following line:

2024-03-15 11:04:29 CL650[dr.c:553]: assertion "dr->value != ((void*)0)" failed: CL650/glass/heat_on

Thanks a lot for the information; one last question, as you did mention running X-Plane through a debugger: did you find that line above in the X-Plane log, or through the debugger?

[RonMont]

@spearlman

It works; in my case (I'm using the beta v1.8-beta42), I had to exclude 3 datarefs:

CL650/glass/heat_on
CL650/avatar/laser_pointer_lamp
CL650/avatar_self/laser_pointer_lamp

Thanks again for this tip :-)

[spearlman]

Yes, I found the errors in the X-Plane log.  Glad to hear it's working.

[marcvc]

For who it may help: in my case the problem was solved by removing the version suffix from the DRT plugin folder.
I.e. I renamed the DRT folder in the plugins folder from DataRefTool_v2.4.1 (as downloaded) to DataRefTool and no more crashes...

[spearlman]

On 4/21/2024 at 9:25 AM, marcvc said:

For who it may help: in my case the problem was solved by removing the version suffix from the DRT plugin folder.
I.e. I renamed the DRT folder in the plugins folder from DataRefTool_v2.4.1 (as downloaded) to DataRefTool and no more crashes...

It works for you, with the Hot Start Challenger 650, without configuring DRT to ignore any DataRefs?

[Pils]

On 4/21/2024 at 12:25 PM, marcvc said:

For who it may help: in my case the problem was solved by removing the version suffix from the DRT plugin folder.
I.e. I renamed the DRT folder in the plugins folder from DataRefTool_v2.4.1 (as downloaded) to DataRefTool and no more crashes...

That's because you caused DataRefTool to not load.

[marcvc]

 

17 hours ago, spearlman said:

It works for you, with the Hot Start Challenger 650, without configuring DRT to ignore any DataRefs?

No - sorry I was not clear.

I meant I had to rename the DRT folder in the plugins folder from DataRefTool_v2.4.1 (as downloaded) to DataRefTool in addition to the setting up drt_ignore.txt with the entries below. Not doing so would make x-plane crash straightaway, irrespective of the plane.

On 4/10/2024 at 5:33 PM, RonMont said:

@spearlman

It works; in my case (I'm using the beta v1.8-beta42), I had to exclude 3 datarefs:

CL650/glass/heat_on
CL650/avatar/laser_pointer_lamp
CL650/avatar_self/laser_pointer_lamp

Thanks again for this tip :-)

 

[spearlman]

And, in response to Pils, can you confirm you are actually loading the DRT plugin in-game and using it?

[marcvc]

9 hours ago, spearlman said:

And, in response to Pils, can you confirm you are actually loading the DRT plugin in-game and using it?

I sure am...

I have just started experimenting with migrating my Loupedeck setup from XMidiCtrl to Spad.Next; I really like XMidiCtrl, and it served/serves me well but I'm missing out on the more advanced features of LoupeDeck (like sending sending data back, updating what is displayed etc). That's what got me to DRT. Although the CL650 is my favorite plane, I haven't worked on it too much yet. Started off with some more simple planes I have (like the AFL KA350), to learn how Spad.Next works and how to link it to X-plane and MSFS (have done the BAE146 here).