Not ranting, but really getting tired of CTDs

[Threndor]

I can't really write a ticket up as, most of the time, its hard to pinpoint exact cause; but I am really starting to get tired of the frequent CTDs I get. My machine is pretty darn top of the line and empty. (Got it right after I started playing again and haven't loaded it up with much of anything yet.) I do have the map-pack installed (still too new/back to go without!).

Some areas of noticable/repeat CTDs:
1) Wisp isle machine, I have crashed there so many times, on both biped and dragon, both using stairs and flying in. I've seen others crash at the machine as well. Another player swears there are at least 4 spots on the island that crash her too.

2) port-crashing. Hit the teleport or recall... and there's your desktop. Not all the time, but quite frequent.

3) cyclical. Sometimes, I can play for hours, CTD, and then will get multiple CTDs within a short timeframe.

I know this game is old graphics, old technology, etc, but love the community, love the crafting/adventuring mix, love how it can be much mellower than other games. This is not a threat to leave as I did sign up so entertainment money is already spent. This is more of a plea.

I would appreciate it if this issue is marked critical and dealt with as I have seen many others have it much worse than me, and this will drive people away faster than most any other reason. Even the free-account players, I am sure.

[StalePopcorn]

Hi I know it doesn't help but "works for me". I haven't had a CTD for years... the Troubleshooting Guide on the Wiki might help (was put together from forum posts and player input).

I would strongly recommend a video driver update if you are able to (you have probably already done this, but that's where I would start).

Next would be clearing your world cache.

RE: crashes in various locations on Wisp Isle, check the above link and enable some of the logging functionality. I you send these logs with a support ticket it will help immensely when the Devs are trying to track down an issue.

[Dhalin]

The only time I ever CTD, is when I attempt to minimize, or window the game (or when some stupid popup message auto-minimizes the game) and then attempt to return to Full Screen.

CTD every single time on 5 different computers, 3 different OS (XP, Vista, 7).

[StalePopcorn]

Hmmm that would be quite annoying!

I never play in full-screen mode - windowed mode only. I have always had ATI video cards, never NVIDIA. Played on XP, Vista, and Windows 7 - all good for me.

Sorry, I know that isn't very helpful. Without actually seeing the problem, it's all guesswork from here :|

[TheRock]

Hi I know it doesn't help but "works for me". I haven't had a CTD for years... the Troubleshooting Guide on the Wiki might help (was put together from forum posts and player input).


I would strongly recommend a video driver update if you are able to (you have probably already done this, but that's where I would start).

Next would be clearing your world cache.

RE: crashes in various locations on Wisp Isle, check the above link and enable some of the logging functionality. I you send these logs with a support ticket it will help immensely when the Devs are trying to track down an issue.

Haven't had a crash in years...wow you are so lucky. I just find that very hard to believe.

I believe the reason players are not posting or sending in tickets about the CTD problem is that they are just tired of complaining. It has happened to all of us. we have done all the suggestions countless times and probably still do in hopes that maybe they will get extra time that day without a crash.
Many of us have new and fast computers with auto updates and still crashes with errors and no errors.
This simply cannot be fixed or is too much trouble to fix!!
We are out in the field fighting and poof CTD, we are porting or recalling poof CTD, we are in the Doom and poof CTD, standing around chatting and poof CTD. Some crash a lot while others are less frequent.
So the crashes are everywhere....we should not have to send in a 1000 tickets because it is only for the devs to monitor any of us on any day and they will see it happening.
I would also greatly appreciate this problem put to the top of the list.

cheers

[TheRock]

Hmmm that would be quite annoying!

I never play in full-screen mode - windowed mode only. I have always had ATI video cards, never NVIDIA. Played on XP, Vista, and Windows 7 - all good for me.

Sorry, I know that isn't very helpful. Without actually seeing the problem, it's all guesswork from here :|

Sorry I have to reply here also.

I also play in window mode on a 24" monitor and always use ATI. I played on XP ( skipped Vista because of all the bugs in it) and now Windows 7 - all crashed frequently for me.

Monitoring some of us play would take the guesswork out of it

cheers

[Dracaena]

The only time I ever CTD, is when I attempt to minimize, or window the game (or when some stupid popup message auto-minimizes the game) and then attempt to return to Full Screen.

CTD every single time on 5 different computers, 3 different OS (XP, Vista, 7).

The game truly hates alt tabbing and that is pretty much a guaranteed crash about 50% of the time. My work around is switch to window mode if I need look something up on the forums or wiki. Though lately with the building I have been running windowed and dual logging so not so much of that type of crashing for me. I get crashes more likely with recalling/portaling or lag induced crashing from too much time at Laghundell. Aughundell is just awful for me and many of my friends on lag, which in turn sets things up for crashes. And I have seen friends crash a lot more then me. One who has trouble is in Australia and the others are States, so don't know what the rhyme or reason to it is.



Dracaena

[Marynah]

I've been getting some/a lot of ctd's on wisp isle too. I have 2 sound cards, and for a while I thought that was it. Long story short, it wasn't. Tonight, I dropped my option for graphic detail from the 1st notch up from lowest, down to lowest. Now the Brights don't draw in until I am real close, But I didn't ctd. More time is needed to know if this fixes it for me. I have a GE Force 9400 GT and a dual core processor sporting 4 gigs ram.

[Amerelium]

I'm not experiencing any CTDs, but something else - quite often (well, not exactly 'often, but you know what I mean) I get extreme server lag. LAndscapes load, but it takes 2 minutes to cast a spell, and mobs don't show up. Though, strangely, at the same time the crafting database is fine.

A quick relog fixes it though, so not really that much of a problem, but it's a bit annoying...

[StalePopcorn]

Haven't had a crash in years...wow you are so lucky. I just find that very hard to believe.

Not sure what to tell you, but it's true. Admittedly I have only just got back into playing again after 12 months off, but even prior to that, for *years) - no CTD. I rarely play more than 2 hours at a stretch though, I turn off in-game music (I like my MP3s and all other graphic settings are set to "max".

Some of these issues (like Wisp Isle) sound like there might be a problem with the world data. I remember other players CTD due to missing assetts or sections of the game. For that, I can only suggest you enable the logs as per the Troubleshooting guide, in particular the "Events and Errors" section. These log files are designed to log anything that goes amiss in the Horizons.exe application.

There are other log files that might help diagnose the issue as well. I haven't updated that Wiki page for quite a while, so I'm hoping the information is still current.

If you see something in those log files that looks "wrong", cut-and-paste the info in this thread - someone might know how to solve the issue.

[TheRock]

I have played for several hrs also and no CTD. I have seen friends crash 4-6 times in that amount of time also. Very annoying some days.
If this was a isolated problem..yes I would go all out and monitor this until the culprit was found. I would bet if all the posts here about crashing were put in one post, it would take days to read them all ...probably longer lol.
I will end on saying that I will be long gone before the CTD will be fixed. I have about 5 months left on my sub this round. See what happens by then.

cheers

[Yfelvik]

Greetings,

I'm one of the support staff here and handle a lot of the technical tickets / interface with the developers on technical issues.

We've got a knowledge base article that is still drying (created fresh today to centralize CTD trouble shooting steps).
https://support.istaria.com/index.ph...ode=view&id=56

Please note that you should be using the new Java launcher, as we are quickly phasing out support for the .NET launcher. You can upgrade to the new launcher by visiting the page below and running the launcher upgrade:
http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/download

A number of the CTD described above sound more like networking issues. Even though we can't resolve networking issues, we can certainly help diagnose what is happening and provide suggestions on ways to minimize.

The support system is just a few clicks away and we'll do our best to help or forward information to the developers so they can further investigate / fix an issue.

Yfelvik

[Chasing]

A number of the CTD described above sound more like networking issues. Even though we can't resolve networking issues, we can certainly help diagnose what is happening and provide suggestions on ways to minimize.
Yfelvik

If you consistently get Error 91 or 106 error messages, then that is network related.

If its a CTD without an error message, then its something in the software (aka client) that is causing an exception that isn't being caught and killing the client (which may or may not be network related, however I would tend to lean towards that it may be something else).

As well as the suggestions on the support article, I would suggest you look for a dmp file in the logs folder, if there is one send it in via a support ticket.

Please be aware that the bulk of the time we encounter lag, its not really server lag. The vast majority of lag people encounter is internet related lag.

If objects are downloading, the lag is because the client is downloading the objects from the server, the server will be pushing the objects out at the same rate as it does for everyone else.

The way I understand it, is that while world cache is downloading, other things such as mobs or players etc have to wait. *disclaimer* could be wrong with this point, I've never looked at it that closely, however I know a lot of the world cache issues are being addressed with the alpha client.