re: Game freezing since the patch today.

[Zep]

I have had a few freezes, game stops entirely and I need to end task.

 

This is new behavior starting today.

 

What info do you need?

5950, rx6900, 128gb should cover the basics.

[GM Impervium]

Well, I think we can safely say it isn't a RAM issue. =O

Depending on which launcher you're using, try to re-verify your install. If using HCLauncher, under the play button, hit the three dots, and select "Verify". In Tequila, I think the reverify button is in the options menu.

Your computer can clearly handle anything CoX throws at it, but, just to be safe, also try returning your graphic settings to default, then bring them back up to a level you like once you're stable. Specifically, we've been seeing some issues with the experimental cel shading setting, so start there. Otherwise, if using HCLauncher, go into options and check "Reset graphics on next run". Make sure to UNcheck this after launching the game, or before your next session, as it will continue to reset your settings.

Let us know whether or not any of this helps.

[Zep]

Thank you,

 

I just verified, no issues detected. 

 

Other steps I can do after work. 

[Zep]

Oh, and I have checked out the cell shader a time or two but do not, as a rule, use it.

[agentx5]

18 hours ago, Zep said:

I have had a few freezes, game stops entirely and I need to end task.

 

This is new behavior starting today.

 

What info do you need?

5950, rx6900, 128gb should cover the basics.

 

Does the crash handler let you upload your game info?  It's supposed to do that, and the HC Devs have found it to be really helpful 

 

Does this happen with any other applications (don't think it does or doesn't, you need to try to stress test it with anything else)

 

Graphics card driver version, make, and model?

From what your wrote, I'm guessing it's and AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and a Radeon RX 6900 XT?

[agentx5]

5 hours ago, Zep said:

Oh, and I have checked out the cell shader a time or two but do not, as a rule, use it.

 

Eww... Cell shading... 🤢  To each their own, I know some people like it, even if I can't truly understand why...

[Zep]

2 hours ago, agentx5 said:

 

Does the crash handler let you upload your game info?  It's supposed to do that, and the HC Devs have found it to be really helpful 

 

Does this happen with any other applications (don't think it does or doesn't, you need to try to stress test it with anything else)

 

Graphics card driver version, make, and model?

From what your wrote, I'm guessing it's and AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and a Radeon RX 6900 XT?

 

GPU Driver 22.10.1

 

No crash handler. Either COx Locks up completely or my system locks up completely. 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Zep

[Zep]

I've reset the graphics options. We will see how it goes.

[SeraphimKensai]

Sounds like an issue I had tonight. I had 3 accounts going and was getting crazy lag. Somehow a recent Nvidia update untoggled a few settings in my Nvidia display settings and was pointing back the the integrated gou as opposed to using my dedicated card.

 

I resolved my situation, hopefully yours is as easy to resolve.

[Zep]

So far so good. Seeing other posts about random crashing so we will see.

 

For my system no igpu to worry about on the desktop, I do have one in the laptop, but dont typically game on it unless away from home. 

 

With all the recent Windows updates and Amd Adrenaline it is hard to know where to look. Hopefully enough people will post for the common factor to be identified.

 

Win 11 22h2 build 22621.675, GPU Driver 22.10.2, at the time of this post.

 

I did have a near miss yesterday, perhaps related, I loaded the game and selected Indomitable and the game hung, completely non-responsive, after about a minute I got a couldn't load db server type message and everything was working again. This make me wonder if the other hangs are also db server issues except the client didnt stop waiting for a response.

 

[WanderingAries]

What does Task Manager look like when loading the game? You may need to use windowed mode for that to help (but that could also change the result).

[Zep]

5 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

What does Task Manager look like when loading the game? You may need to use windowed mode for that to help (but that could also change the result).

I have two monitors.

 

Pushing ready in the launcher almost instantly gets me to the login screen. Also doesnt seem to get COH over 0.1% cpu usage either.

 

After entering my pw and clicking login.

 

On character selection I go as high as 1.8% cpu but mostly .3% to .6%.

 

Character load got me up to 6.1%.

[Zep]

On another thought given the age of the client, except perhaps/maybe for the physics, I expect the code is a single thread and everything is running on a single core, Or perhaps it has multiple threads, I've seen it cross 6%  cpu and 1/32 = 3.1%

[WanderingAries]

14 hours ago, Zep said:

On another thought given the age of the client, except perhaps/maybe for the physics, I expect the code is a single thread and everything is running on a single core, Or perhaps it has multiple threads, I've seen it cross 6%  cpu and 1/32 = 3.1%

 

OH, this one I know. It Was single thread (I think) early on, but was upgraded to multi-threaded when CPUs started putting more than 1 core on them. There's a thread somewhere, but there's a World thread, GFX thread, etc. If you click on the arrow next to it in that screen, then you'll see what I mean.

 

On 10/22/2022 at 2:45 PM, Zep said:

I did have a near miss yesterday, perhaps related, I loaded the game and selected Indomitable and the game hung, completely non-responsive, after about a minute I got a couldn't load db server type message and everything was working again. This make me wonder if the other hangs are also db server issues except the client didnt stop waiting for a response.

 

This makes me think Networking actually, but I wouldn't put it past the changes in 22H2.

[Zep]

The Graphics reset seems to have solved another long standing annoyance I have had.

 

All of my characters were at a slightly different scale for the UI, despite the numbers being set the same. And everytime I switched characters I would have to fix the location/size of the ui windows. Specifically the buttons I have set up for powers.

[Zep]

Woke up early and decided to work on my Merc/Electric Master Mind.

 

Atlas Park is stuck at:

 

Task Manager:

 

That's an awful lot of ram for COH. Some sort of memory leak on zone load? 

[EmperorSteele]

Dumb idea, but if you're comfortable with messing with your hardware, remove all but one of your ram sticks (make sure to keep the stick in slot 1 seated). If you can get into the game fine and everything runs good, then put all the ram back and try again. If not, or if the game acts up again after putting everything back, try to isolate the ram stick or slot that's acting up.

 

I mean, I doubt it's a hardware issue, but at least this way you can rule it out. 

[Likara]

On 10/19/2022 at 7:04 AM, GM Impervium said:

Well, I think we can safely say it isn't a RAM issue. =O

Depending on which launcher you're using, try to re-verify your install. If using HCLauncher, under the play button, hit the three dots, and select "Verify". In Tequila, I think the reverify button is in the options menu.

Your computer can clearly handle anything CoX throws at it, but, just to be safe, also try returning your graphic settings to default, then bring them back up to a level you like once you're stable. Specifically, we've been seeing some issues with the experimental cel shading setting, so start there. Otherwise, if using HCLauncher, go into options and check "Reset graphics on next run". Make sure to UNcheck this after launching the game, or before your next session, as it will continue to reset your settings.

Let us know whether or not any of this helps.

Thanks for this! Was getting freezes in the base editor, turned out to be the cel shader.

[Number Six]

On 10/23/2022 at 5:36 PM, Zep said:

On another thought given the age of the client, except perhaps/maybe for the physics, I expect the code is a single thread and everything is running on a single core, Or perhaps it has multiple threads, I've seen it cross 6%  cpu and 1/32 = 3.1%

 

There's four threads of any significance: main thread that runs the game, render thread that actually renders the 3d graphics, physics thread, and audio thread. Typically only the main thread and render thread see significant CPU time, though the physics thread can under some circumstances. There are a few others like the threads responsible for loading textures, saving options and map fog of war to disk, etc, but those never use a lot and are only background threads so that they don't impact the main loop.

 

Unfortunately for those of us with AMD graphics cards, their OpenGL drivers often end up CPU-bound in the render thread processing the very large amount of draw calls the game makes. Nvidia drivers tend to handle it a bit better, but the current AMD GL drivers assume that games use more modern techniques to reduce draw call count since that was a big focus of game optimization in the late 2010s. COH does a little bit of that and at least tries to group up things with similar textures or shader modes, but not go to the lengths that the drivers are built to expect.

[Zep]

8 hours ago, Number Six said:

 

There's four threads of any significance: main thread that runs the game, render thread that actually renders the 3d graphics, physics thread, and audio thread. Typically only the main thread and render thread see significant CPU time, though the physics thread can under some circumstances. There are a few others like the threads responsible for loading textures, saving options and map fog of war to disk, etc, but those never use a lot and are only background threads so that they don't impact the main loop.

 

Unfortunately for those of us with AMD graphics cards, their OpenGL drivers often end up CPU-bound in the render thread processing the very large amount of draw calls the game makes. Nvidia drivers tend to handle it a bit better, but the current AMD GL drivers assume that games use more modern techniques to reduce draw call count since that was a big focus of game optimization in the late 2010s. COH does a little bit of that and at least tries to group up things with similar textures or shader modes, but not go to the lengths that the drivers are built to expect.

 

Thank you!

 

Should I place any hope in COH having an OGL upgrade? 🙂

[Zep]

Got another freeze tonight. Grabbed  a screen shot of my task manager with an interesting result.

 

To think about it: My 5950x has 16 cores, 32 threads. That means each core is 3.125%. 14.7 is then 4.7 cores maxed out. 

 

Not sure, what, if anything, this might mean with the COH code. 

 

Any logging I can do to hopefully catch this in the act?

 

Oh and I was on my Electric/Electric Dominator and the sound of combat, my Gremlins vs the COT continued for a while.

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Zep

[Zep]

And again today - same character 'Nikoli Tesla' same mission "Liberate the Library of Souls" and in the same room. 

 

 

[Zep]

The freezes do seem to happen on COT or Arachnos missions - though more often COT.

 

The crashing seems to have become more frequent after updating to the GPU driver 22.10.3. My laptop is on an older driver version so I am installing coh there to see what happens. 

[Zep]

I was able to complete on my Corsair Voyager a1600.Laptop.

 

New install ultra default settings.

 

gpu driver 21.40.56.02

[Zep]

Would a dxdiag help?