Limitations and troubleshooting

Limitations

• Paladins 8.1 (Win64 and Win32) and OB57 (Win32) are the tested versions. Engine signatures and engine-core layouts are pinned per client; other versions may work but are untested. On a version where a signature fails the log says which one, and nothing hooks.
• Win32 panics end the game. The 32-bit DLL is built with panic = "abort" (its toolchain cannot unwind Rust panics), so an internal runtime fault closes the game instead of being logged. Lua errors are unaffected on both clients.
• Maps cannot grow. map:set replaces the value of an existing key; inserting keys would need the engine's set re-hash.
• Spawning follows engine rules by default: bStatic and bNoDelete classes (lights, static meshes) return nil. tempest.spawn(..., { force = true }) lifts the two flags around the call.
• dllimport parameters are what UDK allows: int, float, byte, bool, string and structs of those. For object references give the function a stub body instead of dllimport; tempest.native handles both.
• Address hooks need the signature. memory.hook sees integers unless a position is declared f32/f64; floats past the fourth argument come from stack slots. On Win32 the hook also needs the calling convention (opts.conv), and every hook on one address must declare the same one. Handlers run on the calling thread, not necessarily the game thread.
• Input covers keyboard, mouse buttons and wheel. No gamepad.
• Numbers are doubles (LuaJIT). Addresses and object pointers are exact, but memory.read_u64 of arbitrary data loses precision above 2^53 (use ffi for 64-bit arithmetic), and tostring prints a large address in exponent form: format addresses with %x.
• UI widgets are only valid inside a draw handler (immediate mode). The Win64 client renders with D3D11, the Win32 client with D3D9; both are supported.
• No DLL unload. The runtime stays until the game exits; scripts reload, the DLL does not.
• One runtime per process. If several mods ship the DLL, the first one loaded runs everything and the others log that they are idle.

Troubleshooting

The log is %TEMP%\tempest-scripting.log. The console window shows the same lines. Both are settings in <game>/ChaosGame/Config/tempest.toml ([runtime] log and console); the environment variables TEMPEST_SCRIPT_LOG=<path> and TEMPEST_SCRIPT_CONSOLE=0 override them.

symptom	what it means
no log file at all	the DLL was not loaded; check the launcher's [inject] line and that the mod is enabled
xor signature not found or any ... signature not found	wrong game version, or the executable changed
GNames never became readable	the anti-cheat key table did not decode; game version mismatch
GEngine still null; running scripts anyway	the game took more than two minutes to load the Engine package
ProcessInternal unresolved	script-function hooks are off; only engine events hook
cannot hook native X: has out params and GPropAddr is not resolved yet	retried automatically once the game thread runs; a later line says (deferred) when it succeeds
GPropAddr probe found nothing	out-param natives stay unhookable on this build
[mod] handler for X failed: ...	a Lua error in that mod's hook; the call itself still ran
memory.hook: cannot detour 0x...	the address is not a relocatable function entry (mid-function, jump target, too short)
X has no Lua implementation (tempest.native); returning zero	a dllimport function ran before (or without) a tempest.native handler for it
[mod] hook #N on 0x... failed: ...	a Lua error in an address hook; the original function ran instead
address hook on 0x... panicked; running the original	a runtime bug in the hook path; the game call still went through, please report the log
X has no property \Y``	typo, or the property only exists on a subclass; check obj:class():path() and obj:prop("Y")
no game window yet; will keep looking	key bindings wait for the game window; normal during startup
waiting for d3d9.dll or d3d11.dll to load	the UI hooks poll for the renderer; IDXGISwapChain::Present detour live follows
[mod] draw handler #N failed: ...	a Lua error in a ui.on_draw handler; logged once per distinct message, the UI keeps running
imgui assertion failed: ...	an internal ImGui assertion, logged instead of aborting; please report the log
another Tempest.Scripting instance already runs	a second mod ships the DLL; harmless
game folder unknown ...; using defaults	the DLL was not injected from <game>/Binaries/Win64 or Win32; set TEMPEST_GAME_DIR
[hot] <file> changed (<mod>)	hot reload noticed a save; the mod reloads after the quiet period
[config] [mod] wrote defaults to ...	first run of a mod that calls tempest.config; edit that file
[VEH][crash] ACCESS_VIOLATION ...	the game faulted; the address and the last script line before it narrow it down

Useful checks from the DLL console or lua in the game console:

=tempest.status().notes            -- anything that failed to resolve
=tempest.status().subscriptions    -- every hook, with its owning mod
=tempest.status().native_hooks     -- natives currently hooked
=memory.hooks()                    -- address hooks, with their owning mod
=ui.stats()                        -- UI frames built vs rendered (ui_status in the game console)
=tempest.local_player()            -- nil outside a match
=tempest.local_player():prop("Pawn")

Reporting a problem

Attach the log from the start of the session (tempest-scripting.prev.log if the game was restarted since), the mod's scripts, and the game version. The resolve lines at the top identify the build; the last lines before a crash identify the script.