Project Zomboid reyFix2

⚔️ Conflicting Mods

1. TV & Radio ReInvented 🔗 by tealera
2. Better Sorting 🔗 by ChthonicKnight

🤝 Acknowledgements

• Shurutsue
• Sir Doggy Jvla
• Albion
• from the PZMC (Project Zomboid Modding Community) Discord

🏞️ The Bug 🚨

• ✔️ SinglePlayer
• ✖️ MultiPlayer (New Host)
  • ✔️ Only TV & Radio ReInvented
  • ✖️ 2 Mods ➡️ TV & Radio ReInvented + Better Sorting
• I disabled all other mods.
  

📝 Same Reports from others

• Steam Official Bug Reports Page
  1. comment #43 🔗
  2. comment #40 🔗
  3. comment #39 🔗
  4. comment #04 🔗

If, you are feeling exhausted ➡️ See TL:DR in every page

• I wrote this thingy, like a story of bug hunting investigation. Linear TimeLine + Sharing Experience in sorted order

---

🔍 Pin-Pointing

1. Vanilla TV Names are like ValuTech Television in B41

2. BetterSorting mod changes the name to Television - ValuTech

   • Both in SinglePlayer + MultiPlayer
   • This is done via
     • BetterSorting\media\lua\shared\Translate\EN\ItemName_EN.txt
     • BetterSorting loads it by "some" script "somewhere" along the way.... 🤔

3. TV ReInvented

   • Modifies Vanilla Implementation of ISRadioWindow (reimplements parts only)
     • 🛠️ prerender()
     • 🛠️ readFromObject()
   • Both has
     • local checkName() [not Vanilla]
       • which checks getItemNameFromFullType() against "smth shady"

       ---

📜 Glossary

• InventoryItemFullType = e.g. Radio.TvBlack (B41) = Base.TvBlack (B42 ReWrite)
• InventoryItemFullType = ItemID
• InventoryItemFullType = getItemNameFromFullType()

• Radio.TvBlack = Unique Identifier for all ValuTech Television in B41

  • like, yk there are mods than can change
    • name
    • category
  • but Radio.TvBlack won't change
    • it's more like an Unique Static ID for the "Asset"

• "smth shady" = nameD in here

  function ISRadioWindow:readFromObject( _player, _deviceObject )
      local function checkName(name)
          return nameD == getItemNameFromFullType(name)       -- here "name" = "Radio.TvBlack"
      end
  
  -- REYNEP suggests a rename
  function ISRadioWindow:readFromObject(Player, IsoObject_Radio)
  

  ---

🕵️ Investigation

• Right Hand Side = getItemNameFromFullType() = Pretty Consistent

  • BetterSorting Enabled

    • SinglePlayer = Television - ValuTech
    • MultiPlayer = Television - ValuTech
      • New Host = Television - ValuTech
      • Old Host = Television - ValuTech

  • BetterSorting Disabled

    • SinglePlayer = ValuTech Television
    • MultiPlayer = ValuTech Television
      • New Host = ValuTech Television
      • Old Host = ValuTech Television

• So, our problem must have been with the LHS

• nameD

  • BetterSorting Enabled

    • SinglePlayer = Television - ValuTech
    • MultiPlayer = ValuTech Television 🚨
      • New Host = ValuTech Television 🚨
      • Old Host = didn't test

  • BetterSorting Disabled

    • SinglePlayer = ValuTech Television
    • MultiPlayer = ValuTech Television
      • New Host = ValuTech Television
      • Old Host = ValuTech Television
        • here, I was supposed to get an error 🚨 as per FAQ 🤔
          Old Hosted Servers initially started without TV & Radio Inventory aren't supposed to be working

• 🚨 = is where the issue is....

🚴 TL;DR

🤔 So, What issss really nameD?

-- UnModified Code from `Radio & TV ReInvented` + Added LineGaps only
function ISRadioWindow:readFromObject( _player, _deviceObject )
    self:clear();
    self.player = _player;
    self.device = _deviceObject;

    if self.device then
        self.deviceType = 
            (instanceof(self.device, "Radio")           and "InventoryItem" ) or
            (instanceof(self.device, "IsoWaveSignal")   and "IsoObject"     ) or
            (instanceof(self.device, "VehiclePart")     and "VehiclePart"   );
            
        if self.deviceType then
            self.deviceData = _deviceObject:getDeviceData();
            self.title = self.deviceData:getDeviceName();
        end
    end

    if (not self.player) or (not self.device) or (not self.deviceData) or (not self.deviceType) then
        self:clear();
        return;
    end

    local nameD = self.title

    .
    .
    . -- Function goes on

• Summary

  local nameD = _deviceObject:getDeviceData():getDeviceName();
  

😵‍💫 What do we do now?

• Well, the next best thing to do.... will always be....
  • to check "What exactly is getting passed in?"
  • well, fortunately in lua / kahlua, we can just do
    • print(class-object-instance)

  • it's like a based principle that we should always follow

🧐 What exactly is getting passed in?

• Turns out, after I did the print()

  zombie.iso.objects.IsoTelevision@747bfeba
  

  • This is what i got on the debugMode CommandConsole

  • *Note:- as i clicked on the TV inside a room in Zomboid / or / RightClick ➡️ Device Options
    

  • Functions / Member of this lua class is listed here

    • https://projectzomboid.com/modding/zombie/iso/objects/IsoTelevision.html

🚴 TL;DR 🧢 Under the Hood

return nameD == getItemNameFromFullType("Radio.TvBlack")

• basically translates to

return zombie.iso.objects.IsoTelevision:getDeviceData():getDeviceName() == getItemNameFromFullType("Radio.TvBlack")

• So 🚨 the bug, basically breaks down to the fact that
  • these don't have the same value
  • that is, in Multiplayer
  • that is, when BetterSorting is enabled

🤔 So, How do we fix this issue now?

• Well, Technically speaking, we shouldn't even be comparing "NAMES" like "ValuTech Television" or "Television - ValuTech" in the first place 💁‍♀️

  • For what it's worth, a player could just rename a goddamn TV - or - any object, really!
    • *saying "goddamn" with a smiling face 😊
    • *inside DebugMode 🥴 but still 💁‍♀️
      
  • but, yk what's great? 😄
    • The "Item Type" right above the "Name" inside the image above
    • which is = Radio.TvBlack right now
      • that's clearly smth that's not changable
      • it's like a Constant Unique Identifier 💁‍♀️
      • heck,
      • you are even using that to pass on to the function getItemNameFromFullType("Radio.TvBlack")
      • if you've read the glossary part,
      • yk that, i called it
        • InventoryItemFullType

• So, why compare the "Name" when we already got the Constant Unique Identifier 💁‍♀️?

• So, from now on Constant Unique Identifier = InventoryItemFullType

---

Why InventoryItemFullType? - you might ask

• it's because of #1

  getItemNameFromFullType("Radio.TvBlack")
  

• #2

  zombie.inventory.InventoryItem:getFullType()
  

  • https://projectzomboid.com/modding/zombie/inventory/InventoryItem.html#getFullType()
• so,
  • its pretty clear that, zomboid devs are calling Radio.TvBlack = FullType
• but,
  • FullType of what? ➡️ an inventoryItem

---

🚴 TL;DR 📜 So, What's the Solution?

• Well, we should just check

  • Constant Unique Identifier
    = Radio.TvBlack (as of B41)
    = Base.TvBlack (B42)
    = InventoryItemFullType
    = Not Changable in even DebugMode

  • instead of,

  • "Name"
    = "ValuTech Television"
    = "Television - ValuTech" (BetterSorting)
    = anybody can change in DebugMode

(DocStrange) ☝️ 1 Last Problem

How to get InventoryItemFullType from IsoObject?

• That I couldn't do right away. 💁‍♀️
• Everything above, took me ~6hours with the help of PZMC (Project Zomboid Modding Community) Discord
  • I really couldn't have pulled this off without the help of
    • Shurutsue
    • Sir Doggy Jvla
    • Albion
  • From around 6p.m. ➡️ 1a.m. (with a break of dinner)

• Got Tired ➡️ Fell Asleep

• Woke up around 7:30a.m.
• Started working on this one last problem ➡️ finished around 11a.m.
  
• The "Eureka Moment" was probably around 9/10a.m. 💁‍♀️

function ISRadioWindow:readFromObject( _player, _deviceObject )
    ...
                       _deviceObject:getProperties():Val("CustomItem") == "Radio.TvBlack"
            -- which would translate into
    zombie.iso.objects.IsoTelevision:getProperties():Val("CustomItem") == "Radio.TvBlack"
            -- we would ideally / essentially be comparing
                                                       "Radio.TvBlack" == "Radio.TvBlack"   -- or
    ...

🚴 TL;DR Gist Link

*https://gist.github.com/REYNEP/f40d54acd64332dfb81e52ad4f176c97

🛠️ Refactoring Suggestions, Patch v2

🛠️ This Patch should AutoFix 1 other issue

• Old Save MultiPlayer = Doesn't Work
  1. comment #15 🔗
  2. comment #14 🔗
     • Now these last two reports were happening also because of how checkName() function is implemented by TV & Radio ReInvented

• However, I Couldn't even generate this issue, i tried, 💁‍♀️
  • creating a vanila server first,
  • Equipping, Adding to Inventory, Spawning a few TV + Radio + WalkieTalkie
  • Reloaded with TV + Radio ReInvented mod (not my fix, made sure your one from steam)
  • It was all working just fine....

📜 Findings / Conclusions