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date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 00:16:28 -0500,
group: microsoft.public.games.zone.asherons_call
back
Re: Problems persist with new AC graphical engine
"Ed Paasch" wrote in message
news:EMEFe.98142$oK.60195@okepread02...
> [...]
> Is anybody else out there suffering from the same kinds of issues? Has
> anybody found a fix or a workaround for these kinds of issues? Help!
I haven't played AC in ages. But...
Can you describe your problems with any sort of accuracy? Phrases like
"weird" and "break apart" don't really explain what's actually going on to
someone that's not sitting at your computer. What *exactly* happens?
Also, you will likely want to describe your hardware: what CPU, physical
RAM, free space on your hard drive, video card (brand, chipset, AGP or PCI,
video RAM), audio card, monitor, mouse connection (USB or PS/2?), and any
third-party applications that might be running at the same time as AC.
The first thing you should probably do is make sure you have the latest
video and audio drivers for your hardware. Also make sure you are
completely up to date with DirectX. Other than that, absent more specific
description of the problem, you may not find anyone who can help you.
Pete
date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 01:17:04 -0700
author: Peter Duniho
Re: Problems persist with new AC graphical engine
Sorry, here's some more hardware trivia for you:
Antec SLK1650 Minitower with Antec TruePower 350-watt power supply
MSI RS480M2-IL Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU (1.8Ghz clock)
1 Gigabyte (512Mb X 2) Dual Channel DDR 400 memory
ATI Radeon X800XL PCI-E 256Mb video
Gainward VIA Vinyl 7.1 sound card
Windows XP Home SP2 with DirectX 9.0c
ATI Catalyst 5.4 driver set
In addition to running the old AC client perfectly well, my PC runs a whole
slew of other games without incident including Doom 3, Unreal Tournament
2K4, Colin McRae Rally 2005, EverQuest II, World of Warcraft, and EVE
Online. The computer runs all of these DirectX 9 games flawlessly.
By graphic glitches, I mean my mouse pointer disappears and becomes a
flashing white box before the client freaks out all together. My sound also
quits working completely, some sound channels remain (crickets chirping,
background) while others drop out (no combat noises while fighting).
When I describe the client "breaking apart" what happens is the playing
screen, both game and player interface, gets frozen on a single frame that
looks all tiled and torn without vertical or horizontal sychronization.
Vertically the image is divided in to numerous thin bars all up and down the
screen. Horizontally, the textures look like smeared ink or paint as if the
frame that was frozen on the screen was still "wet" and somebody rubbed the
image at the time the screen froze.
I can't call it a crash or a lockup. The weird part is the client is still
running even though the graphics have frozen up in this manner. I can still
hear whatever background noises were going at the time of the screen freeze.
If my character was running when the freeze occured, he will continue
running until I hit Alt+F4 to shut down the client.
That describes the problem about as well as I can. It is persistent across
all servers, and not an issue with any particular AC world. The time until
I crash varies considerably depending on which part of Dereth I'm exploring.
The Eviscerator Lair dungeon, for example, causes crashes fairly quickly
while the Olthoi Horde Nest doesn't. Exploring and fighting on the
Singularity Caul isn't a problem, but walking around Yaraq causes frequent
freezes.
Anyway, that should give a better picture of my hardware and software setup
as well as a better description of exactly what happens when the graphic
engine freaks out. Since Peter Duniho and Nobody both want me to make sure
I have the absolutely latest Catalyst Drivers, I'll update from 5.4.
"Nobody" wrote in message
news:eDLSI6qkFHA.1996@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Things to check:
>
> 1. DirectX 9.0c installed
> 2. Latest video card drivers
> 3. Latest sound card drivers
> 4. Latest mouse drivers.
>
> Also some system specs would be helpful (video card, cpu RAM, sound card)
>
> "Ed Paasch" wrote in message
> news:EMEFe.98142$oK.60195@okepread02...
>> I played the open test for AC:ToD shortly before it went live to retail.
> I
>> had problems with the new client on my PC. The game engine would lose
> sound
>> and start to exhibit weird mouse pointer and graphic issues right before
> the
>> client would "break apart" graphically and I'd have to Alt+F4 to restart
> the
>> game.
>>
>> Now that AC:ToD has been released, I've skipped the expansion so far. I
> did
>> of course have to upgrade to the new graphic engine in order to keep
>> playing. The problems persist, and I'm experiencing the same kinds of
>> client crashes that I experienced during open testing of the expansion
> pack.
>>
>> Is anybody else out there suffering from the same kinds of issues? Has
>> anybody found a fix or a workaround for these kinds of issues? Help!
>>
>>
>
>
date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:03:48 -0500
author: Ed Paasch
Re: Problems persist with new AC graphical engine
"Ed Paasch" wrote in message
news:FjtGe.103812$oK.23590@okepread02...
> [...]
> When I describe the client "breaking apart" what happens is the playing
> screen, both game and player interface, gets frozen on a single frame that
> looks all tiled and torn without vertical or horizontal sychronization.
> Vertically the image is divided in to numerous thin bars all up and down
> the screen. Horizontally, the textures look like smeared ink or paint as
> if the frame that was frozen on the screen was still "wet" and somebody
> rubbed the image at the time the screen froze.
If it weren't for the other problems: rendering stopped altogether, and the
mouse pointer and sound problems, I'd say this sounds like a refresh rate
issue. It's probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to check anyway. Look in
your AC video settings and make sure you've selected a refresh rate that
your monitor can handle. If you are unsure of what your monitor can handle,
set it to 60Hz.
I do note that you're using a PCI Express video card. This is still
"bleeding edge" technology, which means not only should you check your video
drivers, you should check your motherboard BIOS and motherboard drivers.
You don't describe your sound card as PCI Express, so I'm assuming it's just
a regular PCI card. When you say "I can still hear whatever background
noises were going" does this mean that the sounds continue perfectly? Or
are you hearing something that sounds like a skipping record? (I'm hoping
you're old enough to have heard a skipping record before :) ).
One silly question: can you take a screenshot? If so, does it look normal,
or does it actually look like what you're seeing?
Also, when you say "the client is still running", does that mean that you
have control over the client? That is, if your character was running at the
time, can you turn or stop your character? Could you drop something from
your inventory? That sort of thing (I'm thinking of easy tests that you
could do without having visual confirmation of your actions at the time).
Finally, and you might not want to hear this :), I think a 350-watt power
supply might be a little on the short side for your configuration. Granted,
it's an Antec so at least you know you're really getting 350 watts, but if
you've ruled out all the different software and configuration possibilities,
you might want to look into the power supply. If you want to get really
detailed about it, go ahead and write down every single component in your
computer, along with the power consumption for each (the technical specs for
each card, board, hard drive, etc. should give the power consumption). If
it's even close to 350 watts on paper, you're playing with fire. :)
Speaking of hardware problems, some other things to consider are heat, and
faulty hardware. If your house is air-conditioned, and the case is
relatively clean and free of dust, heat is probably not the issue. But if
either of those are not true, it's summer time and dust can prevent heat
dissipation even in A/C. Faulty hardware is unusual, but not unheard of, so
if after you've checked and double-checked everything, you might consider
the possibility that some piece of hardware in your PC isn't working
correctly. The video card and the motherboard are the most likely culprits
(assuming a hardware problem), but it's not impossible that other faulty
components could produce the same symptoms. The best diagnostics is to swap
one thing out at a time (and have only one new component in the case at any
given time), and see if the problem still happens. This can be a bit of a
pain for the home user; you don't typically have duplicate hardware lying
around. :) But it's still the most effective way to diagnose hardware
issues (and IMHO the only reliable way).
I realize some of the suggestions seem like they should happen in all of
your games. But that's not always going to be the case, even if it's a
problem with something other than the game. Sometimes a particular program
uses the hardware in a unique way, causing a problem to manifest itself when
no other program would.
In closing, I also want to mention that I am of course assuming you've
exhausted your resources through Turbine's customer service. Your hardware
configuration doesn't seem like it ought to be THAT uncommon; surely you're
not the only player using a PCI Express video card, for example. So if it
truly is a problem with their new game engine, I'd expect that they'd have
some information about this sort of thing. Make sure you've done due
diligence with them, to ensure it's truly not a game client problem.
If and when you do figure out the problem, please post back in this
newsgroup to explain the solution. Thanks!
Pete
date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 10:41:19 -0700
author: Peter Duniho
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