Is there a crashlog to view when the game randomly crashes?

[crowbars82]

Hi there!

Is there a crashlog to view when a map randomly crashes?

I'm playing through "Penny Dreadful 2: All The Way Up" using the new 2.04 Dark Mod Update and there are so far 2 specific locations that sometimes makes the game crash to desktop when walking/swimming through them.

 

Understandably this map was published before 2.04 came out so I appreciate that older maps might be knackered sometimes.

The first crash in this map is near the start of the map, sometimes the game crashes to desktop when walking down to the gate:

 

And the second is in the sewer area, swimming around the corner passed the light on the right wall:

 

 

The only thing I can offer for help is this:

 

 

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: TheDarkMod.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.1
Application Timestamp: 577eb87e
Fault Module Name: gamex86.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 577eb8a4
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0010b440
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Does anyone know of any good hints and tips to help look/debug these issues when they arise?

 

I have DarkRadiant installed and have been looking at the maps to see if there is anything that could cause this.

 

Much thanks!

 

Crowbars82

[freyk]

Is there something logged in darkmod.log?

Edited August 28, 2016 by freyk

[crowbars82]

Hi Freyk,

 

Nothing was in the Darkmod.log, so I set the darkmod.ini to output all errors, warnings, debugs, info and changed the 0 to 1 on most LogClasses.

 

The problem is that it appears that the game does not have a chance to actually log anything when this particular crash occurs.

 

I opened the map in DarkRadiant and found that there are various VisPortals used around the map, this particular VisPortal has a flag called "shop_skip", which I assume is used as a function when first loading the map to skip the shop screen? From what I can see, every single VisPortal used in this map has this flag, so I doubt this would crash the game.

 

 

I have tried all kinds of things, such as the "(Nvidia) Disable Threaded Optimizations" fix, "(Nvidia) Disable the Streamer Service", (Nvidia) Disable Index Buffers, playing with the Graphics Settings, changing all sorts of stuff and nothing seems to fix the crash at these particular 2 points of crashing in this map, so my guess is that it is some kind of problem with running this map under Dark Mod 2.04.

 

I will try to reinstall Dark Mod 2.03 and play the map to see if it crashes again..

[nbohr1more]

Did you delete the mission and try downloading it via the in-game downloader?

 

As I recall, there was an original revision and an new version was released near the end of 2.03.

[crowbars82]

Hey Nbohr1more,

 

I did indeed do this. When I realised 2.04 was out, I deleted absolutely everything and started all installs from scratch. I always get the missions from the in-game downloader now, this menu is such a great addition (even if you have to selected each mission individually for download)

 

I believe that the crash problems are something to do with a particular event within this mission. I restarted it, and was able to travel through the particular areas started above without crashing, it seems that "something happens" during gameplay that can cause these areas to become crash-zones...

 

I tried running without sound as well, but my quicksave will not load when using seta s_noSound "1".

 

Will keep testing!

[crowbars82]

It could also be something that occurs when quicksaving/quickloading... I've experienced this before, back before The Dark Mod was standalone where I had saved my game in a certain mission and I could re-load my game at will and all would be great, but when I closed The Dark Mod and loaded my save the following day, the save was corrupt.

[nbohr1more]

Well, as a safety measure, there is now a new "com_numSaveGames" argument that you can increase the number of savegames with.

[crowbars82]

It is useful to know the com_numQuickSaves command, thanks Nbohr1more!

 

Okay, I've just spent the last however long replaying Penny Dreadful 2: All The Way Up and I've got to say the Penny Dreadful series are absolutely fantastic! Hats off to Melan and Bikerdude on these.

 

This time round I made sure that I quicksaved, turned off Dark Mod and restarted my computer as well so that I would have the full "loading a quicksave from a fresh-boot" scenario and that error I had with not being able to pass certain areas did not happen again.

 

Although I did blackjack a guy so hard he went through the wall and his model only stayed in the map as his hand were coming through the floor. I felt empowered.

 

Next up: "Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail"...

[AluminumHaste]

How much memory do you have in your computer?

 

A c0000005 is a general protection fault when a program tries to access areas of memory that are off limits.

Stale pointer perhaps?

[crowbars82]

Hey AluminumHaste,

 

I've got 8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz according to Speccy, and I've upped the video ram to "seta com_videoRam "2048"" for a laugh. I think have a notion as to what was causing the issue... it could be totally not this, but a random guess sometimes works:

In Penny Dreadful 2: All The Way Up the player starts with nothing, the guards are scripted to drop a sword so you can collect it. I've noticed that once a guard has been alerted and they have drawn their sword, if you knock 'em out, they not only drop their own normal sword (cannot collect), they drop the collectible sword too. I think the collectible sword possibly fell out the map and caused the area to crash the game when approached. I knocked out some guards by dropping a crate on their head because they had an anti-knockout helmet on, and the body kinda bashed into the floor and the ragdoll got trapped and started flailing about like it does. I heard a crazy clanging noise and guess it was the sword falling out the map maybe?

 

This could be completely wrong, but I may also be onto a winner with solving this crash issue. I have no idea however, haha!

 

Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail is absolutely massive. Loving it...

Edited August 29, 2016 by crowbars82

[AluminumHaste]

com_videoram should not be set any higher than what you currently have on your video card.

[crowbars82]

Aye this is true, I've got 4GB on this GTX 960, but set Dark Mod to 2GB usage as GPU-Z shows 1.5GB used when Penny Dreadful 3 is fully loaded, and it is a massive map indeed.

 

Thanks for the advice though dude! I've learnt all I know by fiddling with too many numbers and breaking many things, haha!

 

I found a sneaky secret yesterday, when setting seta tdm_door_control (experimental fine-tune door opening mechanic) to "1", you can open locked doors! Cheeky. Hopefully this will be considered because it really adds to the game, being able to open the door a tiny bit to peek in

Edited August 30, 2016 by crowbars82

[Bikerdude]

GPU-Z shows 1.5GB used when Penny Dreadful 3 is fully loaded, and it is a massive map indeed.

Crucible of Oemn's is of similar scale if you haven't played that yet.

[crowbars82]

Crucible of Oemn's is of similar scale if you haven't played that yet.

Whoa! This looks gargantuan. 320.9 MB! This will definitely be approached, most likely a full weekend, stock up food, phone off, curtains closed... you know the score.

 

What I've been doing over the years is playing through the mission as they were released. But also as some Dark Mod mechanics and things have been updated, I really don't mind replaying through the list again to see if they play differently.

 

Of course now we're on 2.04 and low and behold I've done St. Lucia, Outpost, on the Chalice of Kings now. I did have to have a look at some of the latest releases and I have to take my hat off to you guys! The level design is off the chain!