Random Crashing every now and then

[Stormwing 40]

So, as we all know, Sacred 2 tends to crash every now and then. At least does that for me. No matter modded or not. And yes, I'm using then newest possible patches, save the chatbox hotfix. OS is Windows 7 Ultimate x86. Well, just took a look at the even viewer which logs all problems in Windows, and found that the culprit was something called mss32.dll. Wouldn't make a scene but it did crash 3 times during ~2-3 hours session today, always the same faulty file.

Not a huge deal, as usually I'm able to play quite well. Save using F7 and monoliths as if there was no tomorrow but still.

Might anybody know, if there could be a way around this?

[belgarathmth 21]

I'd like to know that too, Stormwing! I have the same random crashes every hour or so and have never found a solution. It did it on U.S. Fallen Angel, and now that I've switched to U.K. Ice and Blood plus CM, it still does it.

 

In my case, the error message says "cannot connect with game client/server" or something like that. (This is in single player.)

 

It usually happens at an area transition or during an attempted telelport. Sometimes it happens when there are too many spell effects at once on the screen, so it could be a graphics card issue, or maybe it has to do with my firewall.

[Stormwing 40]

I've had the same for the transitions too. Last time was today when I was going to pay Grunwald dragon a visit. Can't really remember if I've had them with much spell effects. Never did crash when I was smashing the eyes in Blood Wood...

Also, some of the crashes come with stuttering with voice and then crash to desktop. In few occations Event Viewer listed 'em with the dll mentioned in the first post and few times just told that Sacred 2.exe has stopped.

Hopefully marcuswob or the other wizards would know something...

[locolagarto 15]

Unfortunately there is more than one reason Sacred2 crashes. And the OS version and hardware of each of our PCs makes a difference. However I can list a couple of them, and what I think the cause is.

 

1. Network instability when playing online, as well as Server instability can cause a crash. I play LAN CM-Patch a lot. And I crash far more when playing MP on Closed or even LAN with my kids over our Wireless Net than I do playing solo. And since my system is way faster and more powerful than the kids, we get a lot less lag and crashes when I host the server vs them.

 

2. Memory leaks. Sacred has a flaw that allows the program to use too much ram. (not too much for your PC, Too much for its memory manager) When the memory usage of sacred2.exe exceeds 1.5 Gb it crashes. The more you play, the more map the system loads into memory, the more likely it will crash. As in belgarathmth's example of texture update points. I have found that running at low graphics setting doesn't eliminate the problem but does prolong the time until the crash happens. Such as moving the grass slider all the way left, turning off PhysX, Weather etc,

 

I have also made entries into my optionsCustom.txt to use half the memory settings of the stock options file. This has caused loading time to slow, but drastically improved my play time. I have had nice looong sessions of a few hours without a crash on a regular basis

 

3. Having multiple windows open within the game. Such as E, F, C, all open and then hitting M. CRASH! try minimizing the number windows open at one time.

 

4. I have options in my video cards 3D set-up for prerendering frames. In theory you can determine how much your CPU renders in advance of the GPU. For my 3.4 Ghz Intel i5 750 with GTX260 graphics, I find it most stable with the max 8 frames selected. However my boys 6 year old Pentium D at 2.8 Ghz with an Identical GTX260 runs better with the setting low at 2 frames.

 

 

As for the mss32.dll error Stormwing is having. the is a Miles Audio file that is par of the sound effect engine. I am not sure if that is really the source of the error or just the poor dude that was running a routine at the time of the crash. if you think it might be corrupt you can find it online for download. just google mss32.dll

[Stormwing 40]

Thanks for heads up, Loco!

Yep, there sure are multiple possible issues out there. I guess in my case most of them stem from the memory leaks. Although, when Sacred 2 has stopped working, I'm yet to see the memory usage passing 1,2GBs. Could be also the general lack of memory in my system. (Only 2GB at the moment...)

I'll be sure to check if adding some optionscustom magic could do the trick. And track another mss32.dll for a test tomorrow.

[belgarathmth 21]

@loco: I happened to scroll down and see where you've addressed this issue before. I downloaded the memory increase utility you linked there and applied it to the Sacred .exe. I also turned off the grass details.

 

I'll have some long playing sessions this weekend. I'll let you know if it solves the crashes, or at least reduces them.

 

It might not be a bad thing to merge this thread with the other one. Also, enough people are having this problem that a sticky might be in order.

 

EDIT: Here's the other thread: http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15625

Edited April 14, 2011 by belgarathmth

[belgarathmth 21]

Good news! I just played all last evening (Friday) and all day today (Saturday) without a single freeze-up or crash!

 

I started with both Loco's 4 GB patch and the grass details turned off. After I noticed that the freeze-ups had stopped, I turned the grass detail back to full, with all the other graphics settings on "very high".

 

Still no freeze-ups! It looks like Loco's patch has solved the problem for me! Hooray!

[locolagarto 15]

Good news! I just played all last evening (Friday) and all day today (Saturday) without a single freeze-up or crash!

 

I started with both Loco's 4 GB patch and the grass details turned off. After I noticed that the freeze-ups had stopped, I turned the grass detail back to full, with all the other graphics settings on "very high".

 

Still no freeze-ups! It looks like Loco's patch has solved the problem for me! Hooray!

 

That's great news. Although, I can't take credit for the patch, I am certainly glad your gaming time is heavenly.

[desm 329]

Thank you very much Locolagarto! I tried your suggestions reducing the memory by half and grass detail on minimum and my game now runs without a single crash while before it kept crashing after 5 minutes of playing!

 

Thank you very much! Cheers!

Now I can really enjoy Sacred 2

[locolagarto 15]

That is great news! Glad your enjoying your game time!

[Fogeltje 0]

Thanks for this post. Sacred 2 has had a long crashing history on Vista and now under 7 as well for me. Although I seem to remember it did quite well on Vista in the end (can't remember what I did).

 

On Win 7 I disabled elite graphics, set the graphics to high (instead of very high), grass all the way to the left, disabled physix and weathers. It has improved stability a lot and the game still looks great...just not that great as it should. I especially loved the weather and the physix details. Crashes still occur, indeed mostly when I either am about to teleport/enter a dungeon or bring up the (mini)map and mostly it seems that Sacred 2 just chokes on memory. I downloaded the patch posted by Loco, mentioned in the thread that is linked by belgarathmth. Lets see if that improves stability in general and maybe I feel adventurous and scale up my details again. For lets be honest, I bought a monster PC, so now I want to play my games in the best settings possible and my PC should be good enough for that.

[JKtheWonderguy 3]

Alrighty,gotta try both the mss32.dll and killing the grass details.

 

90 percent of the time it crashes on me is when I load the map up.

Tried it with using the M key (which seems to work better) and with the GUI, no change

 

Permanent memory swap file, windows managed file.

Updated my physx driver for my NVidia GT460, seems to have helped a lil

 

I'll download the four gig patch tonight, see what happens, report

 

Short report:

Moved the grass details almost all the way off (one click short of being off), downloaded patch, disabled physx, optimized program for performance instead of quality.

Crashes about every four hours of game play. Large improvement. Still trying some other stuff out.

Edited May 4, 2011 by JKtheWonderguy