1.3.1 BETA patch to address freeze and audio issues

[Electric_Kola]

Thanks guys, PSG / Mass driver slowdown is gone now, overall performance is up (especially in home sectors / roid sectors)

Two things I noticed while flying around a few minutes ago:

1. Kh'aak Cluster in Pirate sector south of Ceos Doubt still sat at 0

2. Asteroid Disco Light show with pirates firing BPACS and HEPTS nearby:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9673/blueroid0rd.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9421/orangeroid1iw.jpg

Specs: P4 3.0ghz HT, X300 SE 128MB (dont ask) 512MB DDR2, 160gb SATA HDD, onboard soundmax digital sound

Framerates normally at 40fps or so, drops to about 10 in roid/home sectors

[Malakie]

**5.Other
**Stations randiomly disappear


I do not think this is a bug. At first I thought it was but then I started to actually read the Bulletin board system and found that stations are dismantled, blown up by terrorists etc etc and sure enough when you read one of those and then check the sector where that station used to be, it is now gone. Sometimes the owner just dies and the station is torn down.. There are a number of BBS messages that I have seen in regard to stations being taken out of sectors.

Malakie

[Malakie]

Weapons and freezes all gone still, game has been running since the w/e now, 24 hours a day. Biggest problem now is the lack of performance, runs fine unless in a heavily populated 'roid system. Ore Belt, Savage Spur is welcome to the slideshow. Even when docked in Ore Belt the menu takes an age to get through, sometimes several presses of the return key are needed just to register.
Any idea when the new patch is due? And will it be compatible with the beta saves?
Would be bloody annoyed if they aren't given the time I've given this to test and report back... and numorous others have as well.

I have noticed the same change in my system now with the beta patch.. Ore belt seems to really slow down all of a sudden. Navigating menus is very sluggish. Something definately changed in the beta patch for ore belt.

Malakie

[Pendel]

To my earlier post about not beeing able to hire a mammoth... This problem no longer persists. After I reloaded my game (shut it down completely and reloaded) I had no problem hiring any TLs... It was possible with any race... So it must have been a little bug which was fixed by itself I guess...

[flammable]

i just started playing the in game missions after i built my trading empire a ore min silicon mine 4 trading ships and not one game freeze i then directed my effort to the story line ive got up to the part where i just rescue the girl from the pleasure dome ever since my game lasts no longer then 5 mins without a complete game freeze and i have to restart my computer ill give the patch a go but here are my system specs if they help

amd 2.8 2.0ghz
1 gig ddr ram
gigabyte motherboard GA7N400 PRO 2
GAMECUBE X800 PRO AGP 8X 256DDR3
(not running anti aliasing or xtras just 1024X768)
USEING ONBOARD SOUND (no EAX)
19" LCD SAMSUNG
WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 2
all hardware has latest drivers
running X3 1.3

[yeebok]

The game runs a treat on my PC:
P4HT@3.0, 1Gb 400Mhz RAM, AudigyII and ASUS Nvidia 6600GT/128Mb [AGP8x] 17"LCD, 5.1 surround, EAX and all else (eg Glow, AQC) on at 1280x1024 (native LCD res). Running X3 v1.3

The only time I get hiccups, I have one asteroid that displayed like its texture was inside its shadow (umm that makes no sense but it's the only way I can describe it .. and it's only happened once), and always get a nice slowdown from PSGs.

Is the patch worth the risk of losing savegames just for the PSG problem ? Basically once the pirates get a PSG out I may as well leave the sector but places like Ore Belt are smooth as the baby's bottom..

Anyone got any ideas ?

[Judge Mental]

I've been testing the patch for the last couple of days and can now report on my preliminary findings:

My system is an Athlon XP 3000+, Radeon 9600XT 256mb, 512 mb ram, onboard sound (Nvidia), Omega drivers based on ATI 5.12, and a 120gb IDE hard drive (7'200 rpm). She's getting old, but I love her like one of my own children!

I'm running the game at 1024x768, no AA, no Anisotropic filtering, Glow enabled, shaders and the other one set to High, AQC on, Post-process filter on.

Since 1.2 (I installed that the day I bought the game) I have experienced severe sound/video codec issues: stuttering, looping and just darn refusing to play. This improved greatly with 1.3, although the looping was still a problem, particularly upon entering a sector. But then the dreaded asteroids appeared and PSGs became slideshow-creating weapons. Also, I'm sure loading times increased meaning I had to save the game in a relatively empty sector unless I had ten minutes (Seriously) going spare the next time I had to load up.

I can now report that the sound issue is no more. The game runs like a dream as far as media playback is concerned. Travelling through the newer systems - Getsu Fune and the like - is a joy, now that the game runs smoothly enough to let you forget that it is a game! Music loads in much faster than before and there's hardly any pause at all when switching to the 'danger nearby' music; an issue that would freeze my system for a noticable few seconds in prevous game versions. So far there has been no looping, either. Load times seems shorter again, which is nice.

Frustratingly, I have not been able to FIND a pirate with a PSG, despite many battles with them, so cannot yet comment on this issue.

I HATE the asteroids - for me they are completely unnecessary additions to a game that most people were struggling with - TAKE THEM OUT AGAIN. I have scripted them out but hate the feeling like I'm cheating. I also miss the sheer number of Xenon. I know they were a problem , and many people were losing UTs to them and suchlike but it feels a little empty without them now.

Anyway, that's me. Congrats on the patch SO FAR, Egosoft. I look forward to the official release and the BBS upgrade you have planned.

[Pikachu]

[*]Number of Xenon ships roaming the universe has been reduced

What is that good for?????????

My universe is almost empty of them.

I've to look very hard to find some outside their home sectors.
I want more Kha'ak ships also.

[KarlHemmings]

2. .Ships **ALL RACES TANKER FREIGHTERS EXCEPT ARGON**-the tanker version off all races except argon seems to have the exact same stats as the normal freighter.

Not in my game - when looking for the Demeter Super Freighter I was able to "i" and find the stats and determine which was the one I really wanted. Ditto Dolphin and Vulture. Not bought a Split freighter yet - they will not let me at the moment. Must be something I said or did...

Back on topic - game day 3 is approaching (my problems started in early versions at game day 5) - playing as much as I can get away with. Liking it a lot. No problems to date. (I'll sort out my Split problem myself).[/quote]

[apricotslice]

New thoughts on the auto-pilot crashing issues.

Firstly, in backing out the 1.3.1 patch, I dont think the way the auto-pilot works was returned to 1.3.

I am flying a Centaur. Now I've used a script to up its speed to M5 level.

The behaviour of the auto-pilot suggests that the variable being used is the maximum speed as set by the model type, not the maximum speed actually set for the ship.

Hence in the calculations as the ship moves, the ship is not where the calculations think it is, and it piles into an object because its a great deal closer than the auto-pilot thinks. So the code that devises the auto course is using a different variable from the code that determines if the ship has hit something enough to kill it. So one part of the program thinks the course is clear of obstacles while another bit says, your about to die.

Now before anyone complains about it being my speed increase being the problem, the bbs has a story about a mad goner who increases his speed above specs. I take that as justification for doing so myself. Having done so, does not mean the auto-pilot isnt at fault. It is, since I suspect the problem that causes the collisions in most cases is that the ship is not travellign at the speed that the auto-pilot is plotting the course for, at the time another part of the codes says you about to hit something.

Theres a definnite bug in the speed usage of the auto-pilot.

That and its avoidance is still a bit to severe, and still too late in execution.

I hope this helps someone debug the problem.

[L_B_P]

Then you say that you can't nearly find any enemies, how fare are you in the storyline and have you found all sectors ?

Im done with the storyline and have been in all sectors except the 5 khaak sectors, that I don't care about. In my game it's full of pirates, alot Xexon and 4 invasion of Khaak destroyer, that I wiped out.

If im lucky I sometimes have 20 sec and rarely 2 min to do something on my owne else I can only sit there and helping my ships, if they get into troubles. I have 20 UT lvl 25, 60 Centaur and 5 Titans that patrolling the univers.

[Jsangster]

The Beta patch has fixed a number of problems for me

I can now play my original game, where i had UT's and several complexes again without getting the "sound loop to a crash" bug

i no longer go into some sectors and have the black screen bug

psg weapons fire no longer causes a lag fest

although i would still point out that the autopilot still needs adjustment, i still continue to lose ships if i dont follow the "landing lights on my way out of a station, and sometimes, just because im in a sector ill lose a freighter that was just going about its business.

so id say the autopilot still needs work, everything else looks good though

[Dr.Sid]

MDs are fixed for me. Thanx !

I found one strange bug in this version. When I use zoom there is some problem with object drawing priority (z-buffer). For example I shoot (AHept) against an space station (which is far far away outside AHept range). I can of course see bullets (plasma clouds) in front of the station. But when I zoom on them (alt key) they vanish behind the stations (and still can be seen thru 'holes' in the staion). It look like either bullets or objects have some bug in z-buffer settings whez zoomed. Without zoom everything is just fine.

My specs: P4 2.4, 1gig, W2K, ATI9600SE 128M

[tuatha]

CBJ - Is there any word on whether the performance problems in asteroid-filled sectors will be fixed in the full patch? Couldn't see any mention of it in this thread.

And also, are there any plans to enable your UT's to avoid sectors controlled by enemy factions? Sorry if it's been asked before, I couldn't track down the patch request thread. People in the scripting forum don't seem particularly keen on creating a plugin for this... tbh though I'm not keen on messing round with community scripts anyway, always feels like cheating.

[CBJ]

All the available information about the patch is in this thread. If it isn't here then it isn't available.

[tuatha]

Ok... but the UT thing would be very nice *grumbles*

[Alkali]

Okay so when will this be made a proper patch OR can someone tell me if the savegames will be compatible with a future patch - SO wanna play 1.31 but not if its all gonna be lost!

[X-it]

Okay so when will this be made a proper patch OR can someone tell me if the savegames will be compatible with a future patch - SO wanna play 1.31 but not if its all gonna be lost!

It already says in the first post that savegames may not be compatible with the final patch, which is why I haven't installed this beta.

[B-O'F]

Hi,

1.3.1 Beta has fixed the PSG and MD problems for me, can actually fight while they are going off.

Unfortunately there is one BIG slowdown, when the Xenon fire a certain type of missile at me (sorry, I didn't get around to asking them what it was). It goes into slideshow mode, you see a yellow circle with a red rim that occupies about two thirds of the screen for quite a long time...

As I am cheating to check out the effects of the beta, with the God Mode, and a modified Xperimental Shuttle, it doesn't kill me, but it doesn't help my machine.

I also have the less asteroids script, but some of the asteroids cause a slight slowdown when rendering (noticed when you turn towards them) most sectors are ok.

I also notice that when docking, the main menu shows a Readtext for a while before it puts up the station name etc.

Also in Spring of Belief, the Station Debris shows up in the best buy/best sell as a good place for engine tuning etc. - but you can't get in.....

Xenon, Pirates, and Civilians are plentiful, and I am playing as Humble Merchant, not the plot.

System is Targa Visionary PCX 3200, with Pentium 540 (3.2GHz), 512MB RAM, ATI All-In-Wonder X600 Pro with 128 MB. Sound is on-board. Bought recently as my old machine couldn't even start X3, and I wanted to play....

Thanks,
Boron - Ol Fh'art

[speeduk]

Hi. What file does the beta patch use for ship specs? I edited the tships file in 05.cat but the changes do not affect my game after the beta patch. If I edit 05.cat the game still uses default settings.