Windows crash fixes
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*sam* Posted Jul 26, 2014, 4:29 pm |
I have spent several hours going through compiler settings with a tooth comb, and have managed to reproduce and fix (at least, in my tests) the recent problems with Gladiator events and Scattered Hills events.
The problem in the Gladiator event might not be specific to Windows, and indeed might not be a new thing at all but one that just happened to rear its head now. It seems to be a code bug. The problem in the Scattered Hills event seems to be related to specific compiler settings (perhaps even a bug in the Microsoft compiler itself), so is a nastier one to eliminate. The reference playback events I have been using are: 265832 (Gladiator event) S648473 (Scattered Hills event) These were both crashing consistently for me at first, and are both ok for me now, although the Scattered Hills one seems to be less robust when using the non-debug build below. Anyhow, what I have done for now is create two versions of a temporary Windows build "version 141a" You can download it from the link below, and unzip into your darkwind folder. You will see two separate new versions of the game engine (you need to run these directly rather than thru the launcher). The larger DEBUG version seems to be slightly more robust, whereas the smaller one should be a bit smoother in terms of frame-rate. http://www.dark-wind.com/gameEngine/darkwindClient_141a.zip I would very much appreciate your feedback/testing of these, with the reference events above and generally while playing the game. Obviously client crashes are something I really want to avoid! If you can supply the event IDs where you're still getting crashes, I'll test out their recordings in my debugger. |
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Alec Burke Posted Jul 26, 2014, 5:50 pm |
I was able to view both recordings using darkwind_DEBUG_v141a.exe.
When I tried darkwindClient_v141a.exe, I crashed on viewing the Scattered Hills event. Same spot as before, when rotating the view to see the vehicles behind at the point when the tree comes into view. |
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*sam* Posted Jul 26, 2014, 6:34 pm |
Yep, that's what I saw too, on your event's recording on scattered hills. Unless I can figure out how to stop it crashing using non-debug then we'll probably have to switch back to debug build as standard (that's how it's been for years, by the way). |
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*StCrispin* ce.services.mh@gmail.com Posted Jul 26, 2014, 9:38 pm |
I've had first turn crashes trying to turn to view the enemy for as long as I can remember. I never got error messages and always figured it was a graphical issue on my machine. I've had these issues on nearly every map in the past but especially on maps between SS and Elms
I will keep an eye out for any crashes of this nature now that I know it isn't something specific to just me. |
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*StCrispin* ce.services.mh@gmail.com Posted Jul 26, 2014, 9:40 pm |
Oh, and what do you mean by "more Robust"? | ||||||
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*sam* Posted Jul 27, 2014, 12:30 am |
Less crashy. I think some, at least, of the crashes are due to bugs in the underlying game engine or due to changes I made to it. I have found a couple of them today so I'm hopeful of improving things some more by playing a bit myself. In particular, stuff related to textures is very messy and out of date in the game engine. It was written so long ago and graphics cards were quite different back then. Since changing to a more modern compiler this year, some things have gotten better and others have gotten worse. I think it's better overall though. |
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*goat starer* Posted Jul 27, 2014, 1:51 am |
i crash much less often than 12 months ago.. on the same machine |
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Bolt Thrower Posted Jul 27, 2014, 3:17 am |
I am hoping Sam can get it as stable as it was before patch 1.41. I crashed less than once a week before the patch, and it was only on event exit. |
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*sam* Posted Jul 27, 2014, 8:38 am |
I discovered the cause of some event-exit crashes yesterday, which I'm very hopeful of being able to fix. Particles running amok after the 3D world has ceased to exist.. in fact, I recall quashing some similar particle-related bugs years ago.
Have you tried the v141a test versions? Any feedback on them would be useful. |
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Grimm Sykes Posted Jul 27, 2014, 10:16 am |
Is this what causes oil puddles to carry over from one event to the next? They don't do damage, but upon starting events many times there would be oil slicks and explosions caught in freeze frame left over from the last event. |
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*Longo* Posted Jul 27, 2014, 1:40 pm |
Ive used the nonDEBUG one in about 3 scouts, all on GW and SS maps, and only crashed once exiting the loot phase. | ||||||
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Necrotech Posted Jul 27, 2014, 6:08 pm |
That is a map caching issue I believe. |
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*sam* Posted Jul 27, 2014, 7:35 pm |
I found two separate things that were causing crashes when exiting back to the lobby, and have definitely fixed at least one. |
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Alec Burke Posted Jul 27, 2014, 9:21 pm |
Sam,
I forced another engine update today and was able to do a couple of scouts as well as view the Scattered Hills recording without any crashing. Nice work. |
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*sam* Posted Jul 28, 2014, 12:02 am |
Great! |
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*Longo* Posted Jul 28, 2014, 10:19 pm |
Im using the newest patched in update, and am regularly crashing upon exiting the looting phase. Havent had any issues crashing in event or entering an event however. | ||||||
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*Bastille* Posted Jul 31, 2014, 1:38 pm |
now using 141a DEBUG
after that scout we had today S649644 I crashed on loot exit Bad maxCoord |
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*sam* Posted Jul 31, 2014, 1:46 pm |
I have just confirmed that one of the main loot-exit crashes is fixed :-)
(won't be patched in until next week though) |
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*Bastille* Posted Jul 31, 2014, 3:36 pm |
woot | ||||||
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*StCrispin* ce.services.mh@gmail.com Posted Aug 1, 2014, 5:05 am |
Still crashing like crazy
S649784 ---Crash on Turn 81 for no reason while adjusting camera view ---On reload, immediately crashed while trying to adjust camera view ---reloaded and didn't change camera view... then on turn 86 I tried turning camera. Crash ---Reloaded, tried to turn camera, Immediately crashed again ---Turn 87 Crashed again ---Reloaded. Crashed upon entering ---Reloaded, Crashed upon entering Now I cant even enter event to save my car that was at 345m. Scattered Hills, |
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*StCrispin* ce.services.mh@gmail.com Posted Aug 1, 2014, 5:20 am |
Using 1.141a Debug I was able to rescue my bug-stranded car but now I keep getting a message that says:
"A Decal Manager isn't out properly to the BINS" Then the lobby crashes |
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*SmokeyKilla* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 8:12 am |
after the new patch earlier today client crashes all the time before during and after events.....b4 the patch it rarely crashed | ||||||
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*sam* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 5:00 pm |
There hasn't been a patch in about a week..? | ||||||
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*Brunwulf* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 5:26 pm |
My client 'end of event' crashes a LOT less than ever before- and a have only had 1 scout event not start properly in a while.
Just a small thing tho SAM- when I open DW client from the desktop, I login with username and password and the client screen opens, but nothing comes up until I enter my password again. This doesn't happen when I run the client from the DW folder in the X86 folder. Just wondered if you know about this? (could totally be a problem on my comp- but wanted to let you know) |
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*The X Man* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 5:45 pm |
I have had this same issue happen to me every time until I started running the client in Administrator Mode. |
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*Brunwulf* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 6:44 pm |
Yes- I just tried it, and right clicking the icon and running it in Admin stops the problem.
SAM- are you aware of this as it might be something you need to hammer home to new players? Much love, Brun. |
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*SmokeyKilla* Posted Aug 1, 2014, 7:46 pm |
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*StCrispin* ce.services.mh@gmail.com Posted Aug 1, 2014, 8:58 pm |
My recent problem was in administer mode
So last night I added the workaround files that Sam offered in the Zip files (I assume "working copy" files that are his current partially modified builds) The current issue I have is the thing about the Decals Not Out to the Bins that crashed the client from lobby at random times for no apparent reason. That build ONLY runs in admin mode and doesn't offer any other mode. |
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Bolt Thrower Posted Aug 5, 2014, 2:10 am |
I can run Scattered Hills now, but the client crashes on wilderness event exit about 50% of the time. Used to be less than 10%. | ||||||
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*sam* Posted Aug 5, 2014, 9:48 am |
Is this the darkwindClient program, or the darkwindLauncher program, that you run in admin mode?
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*sam* Posted Aug 5, 2014, 9:49 am |
I have figured out 2 major causes of crashes on event exit, will be patching in the next day or two. Hopefully this will help a lot. |
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*The X Man* Posted Aug 5, 2014, 10:21 am |
I hope your new patch will resolve this problem. All weekend, I crashed exiting the loot screen on every scout. I don't stress on it because the event has ended. Yes, it is an inconvenience to keep re-logging in, but having a new computer allows for a very quick reconnect. | ||||||
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Bolt Thrower Posted Aug 5, 2014, 2:53 pm |
I used to just click and get a Login GUI, and then the client would appear already connected. Now I have to run as Admin. It doesn't come up with the GUI login, but I get a new picture that says Darkwind is launching (or something) that I didn't used to get. Then when the client comes up, my username is up and I have to type in my pw. This is after a clean install into the My Documents folder. Also, the first dozen times or so that I logged in, it didn't seem to want to remember sounds settings or F2 and F3 key settings, but that seems fixed. |
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*sam* Posted Aug 5, 2014, 5:19 pm |
Yeah, that's the new Launcher (replacing the old one which included its own lobby and login stuff). I have figured out how to get the game client itself to request admin access automatically.. will see if I can also do so for the launcher. | ||||||
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*Boonwolf* Posted Aug 10, 2014, 8:53 pm |
"De-Bug" is back my last scout crashed on entering and exit of event. It has been super stable until today. | ||||||
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*sam* Posted Aug 10, 2014, 9:41 pm |
Yeah it crashed on me too, once. I definitely fixed 2 of the main crashes, but not all of them. I'll keep playing the game with my special debug build and hopefully will catch the remaining problems when they happen to me. | ||||||
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BoosenVoonder Posted Sep 14, 2014, 3:24 pm |
Didn't want to start a new topic for this, especially since this is about Windows crashes anyway.
I am having game crashes every couple of minutes (sometimes even within a minute after starting the game), basically rendering the game unplayable for me. Strangely enough, I did have a stretch of about an hour or so last night when the game was stable. Currently, I have no idea what it could be (I made sure to update my drivers, Java, Visual C++ Runtime Package, I tuned down the settings, I played via Steam and outside of Steam after downloading the game manually, but so far nothing helped). This happens on both my desktop and my notebook, both running on Windows 7 64bit. My desktop specs are as follows: Operating System MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 CPU AMD Phenom II X4 945 RAM 4,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz (9-9-9-24) Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A785TD-V EVO (AM3) Graphics SyncMaster (1920x1080@60Hz) AMD Radeon HD 5670 (Sapphire/PCPartner) Audio AMD High Definition Audio Device Unfortunately, I couldn't find an error/crash log to post. I also tried running the game with the executables provided in the first post of this thread (including the de-bug version), both to no avail. I would really love to play this game, but I am at a loss what the problem might be and how I could possibly fix it. 
Any constructive ideas would be most welcome. Update: Installed the game on my MacBook, same problem. I am starting to think my router/modem might be to blame, but I have no idea what the problem could be. I even set up my desktop as DMZ, manually forwarded port 28000 (TCP and UDP) and disabled the hardware firewall. I also changed the port at the log-in screen. Still nothing. Update II: Seemingly, my first theory about the internet/router/modem acting up was wrong. My game also crashes if I just stay in the log-in screen... Update III (hopefully final): The past few days the crashes have been much rarer and I was able to play full races without a problem. I am still not sure what caused the abundance of crashes before, but it seems to have vanished. I would still like to find out what the problem actually was, but right now I am happy to be able to play the game. 
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