Thanks. Yes, I tried exactly that

Code:

---

 

if(plBiped01_entity._health__003 != NULL)
{

//do something here with player health plBiped01_entity._health__003

}

 

---

The game starts up OK but immediately after loading I still get a W1501 error message saying that plBiped01_entity._health__003 is an empty pointer. If I click OK on the error message the game proceeds perfectly. This doesn't seem logical to me.

Anyhow it got me thinking that the issue only comes up in the first game loop. I added a counter to check for the first game loop and no empty pointer error!

Code:

---

 
if(loop_count > 1)
  {
  //do something here with player health plBiped01_entity._health__003

  }

 

---

And it worked! I'm relieved I've solved the problem but still don't understand why the checking for the NULL pointer didn't work.