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Community Patch 1.60 Beta Test Release


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Hey people, some news on my end.

You know how I've mentioned using emulated surround sound a few times before right?! I tried something different, out of sheer curiosity I might say. I usually have the in-game sound options configured as 5.1 and then the surround emulated via my Xonar's Control Center. What I did was change the sound settings to "windows definitions" and leave the surround emulation off. So basically stereo through and through.

Then I took my SW that's been crashing repeatedly for a walk... an almost two hour walk! Questing, casting, teleporting, entering dungeons, zooming in/out, entering new areas, and casting FR as much as the Dark Crusaders demanded (and they're quite a few). I did all the walk between Honky Tonk Tavern and the Orcish Byway, passing by Kuferath Castle, and I even put down Gar Colossus, all in the same session! No nuisances, no crashes. Minor frame rate drop in Skook's Corner and the same while entering Baron Demorcay's hall, but other than that I can't say I've had any issues. Colour me surprised! :wow:

Now what I'm curious to hear about is what audio settings you people use, and/or if you can replicate crashes connected to the audio settings being regulated to any other option than "windows settings" in-game. We've all talked before about audio clipping and stuck soundbites, so I'd like to hear what you people think about this. ;)

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1 hour ago, dimitrius154 said:

You see, the lags and delays you report appear to be caused by an insufficient data transfer rate of the HDD. That, or some zip in the pak subdirectory is very heavily fragmented.

if I recall correctly my model has 5900RPM, SATA 6GB/s, I don't think speed is a problem, nor is fragmentation, the only reason why the game would otherwise freeze is if steam downloaded something during gameplay while my anti-virus ran a scan. It can be whatever windows reason too. I will continue to just play it normally and tell if I see any bugs, crashes or something noteworthy. As for the small freezes or lag spikes happen for me at around 1.6GB when the game starts to drop fps, it runs buttersmooth at 1.2GB, not sure if that's of any use

Edited by Recath
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50 minutes ago, Androdion said:

Now what I'm curious to hear about is what audio settings you people use, and/or if you can replicate crashes connected to the audio settings being regulated to any other option than "windows settings" in-game. We've all talked before about audio clipping and stuck soundbites, so I'd like to hear what you people think about this.

I've heard of audio crashing sacred 2 before, I can't recall where. Anyone who knows more about this should post it somewhere if it's not already on here somewhere

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1 hour ago, Androdion said:

Hey people, some news on my end.

You know how I've mentioned using emulated surround sound a few times before right?! I tried something different, out of sheer curiosity I might say. I usually have the in-game sound options configured as 5.1 and then the surround emulated via my Xonar's Control Center. What I did was change the sound settings to "windows definitions" and leave the surround emulation off. So basically stereo through and through.

Then I took my SW that's been crashing repeatedly for a walk... an almost two hour walk! Questing, casting, teleporting, entering dungeons, zooming in/out, entering new areas, and casting FR as much as the Dark Crusaders demanded (and they're quite a few). I did all the walk between Honky Tonk Tavern and the Orcish Byway, passing by Kuferath Castle, and I even put down Gar Colossus, all in the same session! No nuisances, no crashes. Minor frame rate drop in Skook's Corner and the same while entering Baron Demorcay's hall, but other than that I can't say I've had any issues. Colour me surprised! :wow:

Now what I'm curious to hear about is what audio settings you people use, and/or if you can replicate crashes connected to the audio settings being regulated to any other option than "windows settings" in-game. We've all talked before about audio clipping and stuck soundbites, so I'd like to hear what you people think about this. ;)

I've suspected it was your audio setup ever since you mentioned it but don't know enough (or anything) about it to say something.  It was the one variable that stuck out... the one thing you were doing differently from the rest of us, and only you were plagued with constant crashes.

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5 minutes ago, Androdion said:

Have you tried those Physx tricks? Have you come to any conclusion about that?

The result is, the spell fx are removed.  Just gone.  But, I'm ok with that, because to me it was too much visual noise.

What remains are the other PhysX details.  Trees that sway in the wind.  Grass that moves when you walk through it.  Ragdoll corpse mechanics (like when bodies are hurled).

A lot of what we've been doing in the last few days has been specifically to alleviate your CTD's.  Now that we may have pinned it down to audio, some of these other changes may have been overkill.

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Flix, I performed a fresh installation as described in your initial post, including adding CM 150 and then the CM160 patch with the GME. The game crashes in about three minutes and sends me to the start screen, giving me an error indicating that I should check my network settings. Do I have to remove the old installation completely, even eliminating it from the registry first? Also, there have been so many additional suggested tweaks since the initial post I am unsure if the problem could I missed something.

:dntknw:

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I recognize that bug.  That's not a crash, btw, if you're just sent back to the start screen.  That suggests to me an error in the scripts.  Have you made any other changes?  No other mods?  No files leftover in the install folder from the previous installation?

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So you didn't experience any crashes due to regular use of Physx? When I turn it on it really takes a toll in performance, but if that trick can act a bit like the trimmed ET (as in using the same bells and whistles but with better performance) then it should prove to be valuable to many users and not just me. ;)

I'm sorry if I made you guys run around in circles, it was just today that I went on and changed the only thing in the in-game options that I hadn't changed before. But like I said better performance is never a bad thing, and even more if there are people using older (I.e. slower) PCs.

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12 minutes ago, Androdion said:

So you didn't experience any crashes due to regular use of Physx? When I turn it on it really takes a toll in performance, but if that trick can act a bit like the trimmed ET (as in using the same bells and whistles but with better performance) then it should prove to be valuable to many users and not just me. ;)

I'm sorry if I made you guys run around in circles, it was just today that I went on and changed the only thing in the in-game options that I hadn't changed before. But like I said better performance is never a bad thing, and even more if there are people using older (I.e. slower) PCs.

I'm going to keep Elite Textures Trimmed and physxExt.zip with the dummy.txt inside and hardware PhysX turned on.  So it has been fruitful.  There's a lot more stuff behind the scenes, that I haven't even posted yet, and now likely won't need to.

 

13 minutes ago, Hooyaah said:

I cut all of the other mods files out and moved them to another drive. I did leave the files in the App Data/Local/Sacred 2 folder. Do those need to go?

Cut, or copied?  Did you actually uninstall/reinstall the game and patches?  That is the definition of a fresh install.

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2 hours ago, Recath said:

I've heard of audio crashing sacred 2 before, I can't recall where. Anyone who knows more about this should post it somewhere if it's not already on here somewhere

I think it was from the sound of the leech effects. 

I remember when the game first released the specific sound for the leech effect was a huge driver for me and was thrilling to hear, just couldnt get enough of it

 In almost the next patch that came out they targeted the leech noise (argh!) and stated that it was connected to game stability.. I remember being angry and posting a few rants about this online in the Sacred International Forum...but we never got that leech sound effect back

:(

 

gogo

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It may be because I basically cut the Sacred 2 folder from my drive and pasted it into an external drive for storage. I didn't actually "uninstall" or deactivate the existing mods first. For this reason: It's difficult remembering how to reinstall the mods that I use currently with the undressed Mods in the right order using the GME so that it all works properly. I wanted to run the new patch and test it out for a while and then put the game back without the patch until the final release and then add the mod back in. I suppose I will just wait until the official CM 160 is released because I am still working on the Seraphim and Dryad skins and cannot do so if I cannot view them in the game.  Oh, by the way, I like the new GR2 file for the High Elf because the inner thigh looks more natural, but there are lines when armor is removed piecemeal, although not so when all the armor is either present or when completely absent.

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Steve, the "new" High Elf model is that same one you and I rejected for the undressed Mod last year.  It's new to the CM Patch but Pesmontis made it almost 2 years ago.  It's improved but it's not perfect.  Just stick with the vanilla Elf model for the undressed Mod.

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1 hour ago, dimitrius154 said:

Well, if anyone would be so kind to make a list of obnoxious(which are, actually, likely to cause slowdowns) PhysX effects, I can devise a less blunt fix.

I think it's mostly related to Area of Effect spells (I can think of Raging Nimbus as an example) or highly "intensive" spells which have extreme animations in comparison to Physx being off (I.e. Glacial Thorns). But alas I can't compile such a list because I've never played much with Physx turned on due to it crashing so often.

54 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

I think it was from the sound of the leech effects. 

I remember when the game first released the specific sound for the leech effect was a huge driver for me and was thrilling to hear, just couldnt get enough of it

 In almost the next patch that came out they targeted the leech noise (argh!) and stated that it was connected to game stability.. I remember being angry and posting a few rants about this online in the Sacred International Forum...but we never got that leech sound effect back

:(

 

gogo

It's funny that you mention the leech life sound effects because my SW is wearing the Malevolent Champion set which adds "+%LL from opponents" to my toon, plus Frenzied Rampage is modded for Vampire (LL effect), so that may be it after all.

Edited by Androdion
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The optimized physxExt.zip is available at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5yMxfzmPZ4_XzRIcDVTb1ZTQXM

Features:

1. Lingering leaves, twigs, etc. have been removed. I mean, who the hell vetted those?!

2. Spell particles don't linger on the ground, eliminating unwanted visual noise and, probably, enhancing stability. 

Edited by dimitrius154
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3 hours ago, gogoblender said:

but we never got that leech sound effect back

Hmm, the sound for the effect is enabled codewise and it does play ingame. Sound resource ID 2085, path: soundhq.zip\fx\spells\generic\lifeleech\generic_lifeleech_l.ogg  It's very subtle though, you probably can't hear it.

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1 hour ago, Androdion said:

Did a quick 5-10 minutes run with my Ice HE and my mage staff SW, both worked out fine with that file and the custom settings. I guess I'm leaving Physx on for now. ;)

Worked well for me too.  No crashes.  Tried all the characters that have PhysX on their spells. 

 

4 hours ago, gogoblender said:

I think it was from the sound of the leech effects. 

I remember when the game first released the specific sound for the leech effect was a huge driver for me and was thrilling to hear, just couldnt get enough of it

 In almost the next patch that came out they targeted the leech noise (argh!) and stated that it was connected to game stability.. I remember being angry and posting a few rants about this online in the Sacred International Forum...but we never got that leech sound effect back

I found that SFX.  The audio file is still in there (generic_lifeleech_l) and it's still scripted ("FX Generic Lifeleech").  It's a low, steady, whooshing kind sound.  Plays fine.  They must have replaced the sound itself.

 

I fixed my broken Frost Flare.  It was some leftover remnants of D2F in the "particle" folder that were making it bug out.  Back in action now.

59cff88fb4fca_sacred22017-09-3013-52-18-46.thumb.jpg.b415cd65c5b88ce3c26896ad8522166f.jpg

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Did another hour, went overboard with killing mobs by FR and travelled quite a lot. No crashes. I don't think I've ever had the game run this stable, which is a remarkable feat considering that I'm running it with both ET and Physx, plus AA and AF from the Nvidia CP. Kudos to our in-house programmers! :bow:

Now the question is, what remains to be done before the final version of this beta?

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General testing, mostly.  It would be most helpful if people would just kind of comb through the changelog and verify whatever they can.

XP per Kill stacking - no reports on how this has been received

Item stacking - is everything stacking correctly?  Runes, trophies, potions.  Got a report on MantisBT this week that 4-Leaf Clover trophies weren't stacking anymore.

Travel Agents and new "portals" - any issues?  Should I change the icon from the old ship icon to my new design, since many of them are neither ships nor captains?

Quests - Faust - need to check it's behaving properly.  Arena fighting quests got rescripted by Marcus - these need to be verified that they're working well.  The quest "The Usurer" (Thylysium, Shadow Path) also previously got lots of complaints - need to check it's behaving well.

Buff slots and potion slots available when shapeshifting and mounted on horses - working OK?

Those are the main ones that need testing.

Dmitriy is still trying to hammer out a way to get the spikeshield VFX (granted to minions by SW's Reflective Emanation) to no longer cause low FPS - right now we just have the FX removed entirely.  So, internal testing for that is ongoing.

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14 minutes ago, dimitrius154 said:

Two variants - difficulties differ, or that consumable's classification has been altered.

Apparently the guy got two right in a row, fresh character, same difficulty, same gameplay session.  They stayed separate.  I told him to try dropping and picking up again but no response yet.  I don't know if they ever stacked since I don't think I ever found one.

http://www.frankrentmeister.info/mantisbt/view.php?id=1260

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Checked the code again - should stack, if difficulty levels match.

26 minutes ago, Flix said:

Apparently the guy got two right in a row, fresh character, same difficulty, same gameplay session.

I'm not so sure. He should check the difficulty levels.

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