7.10 (538965) CTD Issues

[zeroepix]

Just to be clear, no change has been made in the current game version since CBJ's last post above and so the issue that you helped to identify has not been fixed yet.

For the devs' information, was it a fresh vanilla gamestart with the new rig or did you carry on from prior saves made with the old rig(s)?

Hi Alan, thanks for the info.

It was the same old saves I'd moved over, but all the os/etc were fresh installs on new hardware. They actually worked well for a while but then started grinding to a halt after a couple of days. To trigger a CTD in this quicksave all I have to do is keep repairing the engine I was working on for a few seconds.

I also learned about the "-debug all" flag, which was interesting. I'd suspected the crashes were happening whenever the Xenon ran into my laser farm (now with added defense platform), and the last three debug files show them preparing for just that each time, and then CTD. I once teleported to a ship in the area just before the expected crash and there was a blinding flash of white from somewhere and the game hung instead of crashed. That was kind of cool.

I am patiently waiting to see if it is something the devs can help with. Heck I'm a coder myself and I love this game so much that I'd even try to debug it myself if I could. I could be way off track, but it appears to me to be an especially difficult-to-pinpoint threading-related issue, and those are always the most interesting to solve.

Anyway, unless EGOSOFT are hiring, the only thing I can think of left to try is self-destruct that entire area near the gate and see if the invasion proceeds as planned. If I discover that it does, I'd be fine just starting a new game and not overdo concentrated defense like that.

[zeroepix]

Okay, so I selected all the laser towers in Hatikvah's Choice I (about 1500ish), deactivated them, and the game didn't CTD where I expected it. A Xenon K warped in, and the defense platform destroyed it...so I guess that was the problem?

EDIT:Ack...was feeling good about discovering that, but the game still crashed a couple minutes later :'(. Crashdump had the same error...however when I reloaded the new quicksave I made after the previous tick-of-doom, it's not crashed at the same point. Yay random. It feels a bit like playing in a minefield right now, but I can see a lot of xenon ships teleporting in to their death, so maybe it depends on what they're targeting or something. I better start picking them up and selling them.

[Alan Phipps]

It's sounding a lot like too many instances to be drawn at once such that the available graphics hardware/driver isn't coping well - number 2 in my list of 3 previously reported potential causes posted above.

[zeroepix]

It's sounding a lot like too many instances to be drawn at once such that the available graphics hardware/driver isn't coping well - number 2 in my list of 3 previously reported potential causes posted above.

Yes I agree, I don't know why it took me so long to just try that one. The game ran fine for several hours afterwards. I think I thought it would be harder than it actually was; disabling them was easy. Picking them up one-by-one, however, appears to be the only way I can salvage them. Is there a shortcut for "collect all deployables" I might be missing?

I still wonder if it's something that the devs have any interest in addressing (I know there are always many pressing priorities). Those laser towers are great support...and ships can carry 250+ so I figured the engine could handle many more times that.