Bug Reports

ursualexy

I have these bug reports on my main only and it happens twice a day, sometimes even more, and I have them for a while already, like weeks. I could live with this but then few days ago started to get this "Server error. Try to log in again" bug with 0 ms and unable to do anything in game, in the end it worked after 3-5 relogs. This happened not only on my main this time. Till today, when I was online playing and keep getting dc to the moment when I couldn't anymore. So, I was able to log to this: http://prntscr.com/699lyq point, not anymore, could let this for 1 hour and nothing changed, kept trying and not I can't even log to the point where I can see my char list
I also tried to check if its working on other server, so I created a new char (on an account that I can't log in on Morai server- the server I play and have my chars) on Archosaur server, for example, and it worked, managed to get online there and play. How is this possible? I don't think it has somethig to do with internet. Since this last big update, things got worse and worse for a lot of people. I don't play very much, but when I do, I want to enjoy the game, not to get this .... things, over and over.
I'd also go to submit a ticket right now. I'm not sure if there was a period of time to play without bugs, problems and fail on every update and every maintenance, this is getting boring and I'm tired of it already.

EDIT: this is what i get when i try to log on Morai - http://prntscr.com/69d8ym
and this to other servers - http://prntscr.com/69dd0z

ursualexy

ursualexy wrote: »

I have these bug reports on my main only and it happens twice a day, sometimes even more, and I have them for a while already, like weeks. I could live with this but then few days ago started to get this "Server error. Try to log in again" bug with 0 ms and unable to do anything in game, in the end it worked after 3-5 relogs. This happened not only on my main this time. Till today, when I was online playing and keep getting dc to the moment when I couldn't anymore. So, I was able to log to this: http://prntscr.com/699lyq point, not anymore, could let this for 1 hour and nothing changed, kept trying and not I can't even log to the point where I can see my char list
I also tried to check if its working on other server, so I created a new char (on an account that I can't log in on Morai server- the server I play and have my chars) on Archosaur server, for example, and it worked, managed to get online there and play. How is this possible? I don't think it has somethig to do with internet. Since this last big update, things got worse and worse for a lot of people. I don't play very much, but when I do, I want to enjoy the game, not to get this .... things, over and over.
I'd also go to submit a ticket right now. I'm not sure if there was a period of time to play without bugs, problems and fail on every update and every maintenance, this is getting boring and I'm tired of it already.

EDIT: this is what i get when i try to log on Morai - http://prntscr.com/69d8ym
and this to other servers - http://prntscr.com/69dd0z

+ tried to send a ticked and/or contact the support.... and can't I'm able to log my account on www.arcgames.com/en/my/account and when I click to support the webpage doesn't work anymore.

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

ursualexy wrote: »

+ tried to send a ticked and/or contact the support.... and can't I'm able to log my account on www.arcgames.com/en/my/account and when I click to support the webpage doesn't work anymore.

Uh...your issues seem far worse than just the game. You may want to flush your DNS cache. That could potentially help.

---

For people having issues with the game crashing, be honest, are you running more than 1 game? Cause I've uncovered a little bit more into this. Basically when one of the open games read-locks the .pck files which contain the game's data, if another one is trying to access it at the same time, it will cause a particular problem with the game, where even if you close the game that is read-locking the .pck file, the game will have issues reading from said .pck file until it crashes.

This may explain why being around lots of people can be problematic. It would have to read a lot of data from one of the .pck files. However, what I don't understand is why they are read-locked in the first place. My only assumption is that the developers wanted to prevent the file from being deleted while they were reading it into memory. However, that's such a rare and unlikely case that most developers would ignore it. Not PW though. Rather, not the Angelica engine.

So, in the end, what it tells you is that you shouldn't be running more than one client out of the install folder. Maybe that's why originally they didn't allow multi-clienting. Although I'm sure it could be 100 other things...

Note: This is also why anti-virus programs will cause issues; because they will read-lock the .pck files why scanning them and thus PW freaks out.

Also, I still blame clerics for these problems because they do seem to have something that constantly needs to be read into memory. Same with the Infliction genies.

Bosk - Sanctuary

Win XP machine, 2.4 gb memory. ONE PWI Client, NO Other games running (Team Speak, Excel, Chrome are common though).

Main Toon: Barbarian, Sanctuary
Activity: Standing Motionless in RoR in an underpopulated area
Screen: Minimized
Time between Bug Reports: 2 to 6 hours
Task Manager shows a distinct rise in memory usage until the program crashes when the client reaches about 1.6 GB

Shop Toon: Seeker, Sanctuary
Activity: A cat shop in West Arch
Screen: Maximized (windows mode)
Time Between Bug Reports: Never Happens (shop stays logged on for at least 16 hours)

These toons are in the same account. In fact, I have 8 toons on this account and only the two that have reawakened (Barbarian and Wizard) ever get Bug Reports.

Genies are Zeals.

I have also tried this on a Windows 7 machine with 8 GB of RAM. The same results occur only the time between bug reports might be a bit longer on the Barbarian.


From reading the posts here (THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS IN GENERAL DISCUSSION!!!) I think there could be a lock conflict being caused by my automatic backup software. If AV programs can create this problem, then perhaps something that backs up changed files can do the same thing. I am going to look at this and see what I can figure out. It still does not explain why the problem is toon specific, mind you.


<rant>

FWIW: This problem is causing a lot of grief. Before Christmas our faction had over 40 people attend a TW. Now, that number is barely 20. I spoke to a couple of people today that had just dropped in for a visit who said they had left the game because of all the Bug Reports they were getting. They were barely able to play for 2 hours before the BR screen would appear, which was so frustrating, they actually sought out a new game and are playing that now.

I know a lot of people, maybe even most of them, do not have this problem, but there are a lot of people who do. It is extremely frustrating and when coupled with all the other PWI fumbled balls lately (messed up TW times, no annual reward, no Nightshade skills, etc.) the overall effect is a loss of community. For a while in December PWI looked like it was growing with a lot of long time absent players returning. But now, not only have those people stopped coming, but a lot of players who were here all the time are disappearing as well.

For a whole year I checked in EVERY SINGLE DAY ... 100% ... and for my trouble: nothing.

But to make matters worse, a game I have been playing for over 5 years (I started just after it launched) with relatively few technical issues suddenly crashes every few hours and when I look for a solution, I am told "it's not us, it's you". Bull****! The only thing that changed was an update to the client. Furthermore, it is not "the client" that has the problem, it is the TOONS being used by the client.

If there is an incompatibility between AV software or Backup software or any other kind of software, PWI should at the very least be bringing that to the attention of the players. People just want their software to work, and while those of us with a techno-geek background might be able to figure things out, the majority of players are not going to even bother to try.

And for the other persistent issues (TW times, annual reward, NS skills, DQ replacement, etc.) an ETA would be nice. Or even just monthly progress reports indicating what is still being addressed. Even hearing "no we scrapped plans for that" would be better than nothing.

</rant>

Good Luck!

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

I've noticed the issue is present, but not as bad, on barbs. If you have a crash dump, please upload it somewhere. I really want to see it.

---

So I was analyzing the last time it crashed on me. This is quite interesting, for those who are familiar with x86 assembly.

Register edx is 8. PW tried to move data into memory it didn't own. This issue was caused by elementskill.dll.

013E1A27 89 0A                mov         dword ptr [edx],ecx

I'm currently in the process of reversing a portion of the assembly into readable human code. I want to see if there's anything in particular that is leading up to this issue where edx has the wrong address. My assumption is that after the memory build-up, it attempts to allocate more memory. Upon failing, it doesn't realize that it's failed, and proceeds to write to unallocated space.

The 8 I believe comes from it allocating past a 32-bit memory limit. Though I'm reversing it just to make sure I've got it right. In case you're slightly confused, this xkcd comic should give you a brief hint. http://xkcd.com/571/

allanabesha

how do i make this bug dump?

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

allanabesha wrote: »

how do i make this bug dump?

When the game crashes, while the report window is still up, go into the install folder of PW and then into the folder called "logs". In there you should see a file titled "ec_build2378.dmp". That is a crash dump file. When the report window is closed, the dump will be deleted automatically.

sondok

I've noticed it too. I know my computer is old but this past week I've been having them more frequently.Just this morning I went to log off my sb and log onto my EA and I had a report bug.Usually it's only if I'm tabbing too much from the game to my browser.

mechabeastmc666

There are no bugs in perfect world. the game is in a perfect state right now thanks to the hard working devs/GMs and support staff. The the new expansion was a smash hit and delivered exactly what players were looking for. It's moves like this that help pwi become the largest MMo company with amazing title after amazing title,

Also,Just a friendly reminder: you all that you can leave the forums and purchase gold by pressing "Back to game news" then at the top next to the arc bar, Press Charge. The 50, and 100 gold options have a generous bonus however it's most effective by ordering 100 multiple times, if you are having problems charging gold because of the daily limit, all it takes is a ticket to the dedicated support staff and they will increase your daily limit to fit your gaming needs. You may be the one buying the gold, However if you ask me, we should be the ones Thanking perfect world for allowing us to do so.

allanabesha

mechabeastmc666 wrote: »

There are no bugs in perfect world. the game is in a perfect state right now thanks to the hard working devs/GMs and support staff. The the new expansion was a smash hit and delivered exactly what players were looking for. It's moves like this that help pwi become the largest MMo company with amazing title after amazing title,

Also,Just a friendly reminder: you all that you can leave the forums and purchase gold by pressing "Back to game news" then at the top next to the arc bar, Press Charge. The 50, and 100 gold options have a generous bonus however it's most effective by ordering 100 multiple times, if you are having problems charging gold because of the daily limit, all it takes is a ticket to the dedicated support staff and they will increase your daily limit to fit your gaming needs. You may be the one buying the gold, However if you ask me, we should be the ones Thanking perfect world for allowing us to do so.

lmao... are you serious???? no amount of event cold or free hyper stones can fix this.. u say nothing's wrong well you're just one of the lucky people who havnt got the problem happen to u yet, but tell that "the game is in perfect state right now" to the Hundreds of people having this problem.

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

mechabeastmc666 was being sarcastic allanabesha.

allanabesha

just got time to play again, will be sending in the bug dump.. but noticed something weird today.. on my main's account under "function" there's pwi link. in there there's pwi radio and all new nonesense ive never seen before.. i went on other alts and it's not there... also the new classes "bar" that builds their stuffies my main got this.. so i'm guessing there's bad/mismatched files ???????

allanabesha

http://www.filedropper.com/ecbuild2378

bug dump

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

Confirmed. What I am experiencing is the same bug causing the crash for you. A large allocation of memory occurs from pck files being read-locked. After you reach the maximum amount of memory the program can ask for, it asks for more, fails, and then proceeds to try to write to memory is doesn't have access to. So, all I can say, for now anyways, is that this bug is not really fixable by us, easily. I could spend a few days attempting to patch the problem, but, meh. I feel like at some point I'm violating the ToS unintentionally. I don't really want to do that.

JullieTTe - Lost City

SweetieBot can you report server status?

SweetieBot - Lothranis

JullieTTe - Lost City wrote: »

SweetieBot can you report server status?

Here's the server status:

West Coast Servers:
Sanctuary (PVE) (pwigc2.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE
Heaven's Tear (PVE) (pwigc4.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE
Lost City (PvP) (pwigc3.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE
Archosaur (PvE) (pwiwest4.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE

East Coast Servers:
Harshlands (PvP) (pwieast1.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE
Dreamweaver (PvE) (pwieast2.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE
Raging Tide (PvE) (pwieast3.perfectworld.com): OFFLINE

European Servers:
Morai (PvE) (pwieu3.en.perfectworld.eu): OFFLINE

Marking the occasion of two years of helping in the PWI forums!

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

JullieTTe - Lost City wrote: »

SweetieBot can you report server status?

Please don't do this here. Go into the maintenance thread.

allanabesha

yes please dont put out different topics on this forum, and so it's something pwi must fix?? and what do you think of minimem???

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

I don't know if Minimem can help. I'm not really sure how that program works under the hood. Although I would note that it is unlikely to be able to clean up a memory leak. What is looks like it does is attempt to restrict the amount of memory a program can use by, more or less, sleeping blocks of memory (pages). This can, accidentally, cause memory/disk thrashing. I would advise against such software. Sometimes programs also allocate memory ahead of time so that the space is there when it's needed (for it to run fast). Attempting to hold the memory hostage on the disk until it's needed is not a good idea. Try it if you wish, but the memory leak will still prevail and cause the game to crash eventually.

As for PW needing to fix it, that is a definite yes. Although, knowing PW...well, we all have hopes and dreams, right?

Poopinpanto - Heavens Tear

Never saw the 3 balls on my screen thing,ill get a random error report from time to time,no biggie all I have to do is relog.


And for you all with memory probs go download minimum and bask in its joyness!

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

NRGLG - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Confirmed. What I am experiencing is the same bug causing the crash for you. A large allocation of memory occurs from pck files being read-locked. After you reach the maximum amount of memory the program can ask for, it asks for more, fails, and then proceeds to try to write to memory is doesn't have access to. So, all I can say, for now anyways, is that this bug is not really fixable by us, easily. I could spend a few days attempting to patch the problem, but, meh. I feel like at some point I'm violating the ToS unintentionally. I don't really want to do that.

Been there, done that. You basically have to start fixing the code in the elementclient.exe file. I had started a project a long time ago, but then the Dev's and my other contacts just slowly disappeared or stopped responding, so I gave it up.

allanabesha wrote: »

yes please dont put out different topics on this forum, and so it's something pwi must fix?? and what do you think of minimem???

Yes, PWI needs to fix the code in the core functions of the client.

Minimem can help the memory expansion issue, but for the bug crashing with the package file getting locked, minimem can actually exasperate it by making more calls to the files for data as it's having to reload into RAM.

Minimem can help overall performance on low-end systems IF, it is configured properly. If it is not configured properly, it will cause more issues than it solves. If you search minimem in the technical support forum, we had a lengthy discussion on this and I was able to narrow down a "sweet spot" for the client settings in the program.

heerohex#3018

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

Been there, done that. You basically have to start fixing the code in the elementclient.exe file. I had started a project a long time ago, but then the Dev's and my other contacts just slowly disappeared or stopped responding, so I gave it up.

Yes, PWI needs to fix the code in the core functions of the client.

Minimem can help the memory expansion issue, but for the bug crashing with the package file getting locked, minimem can actually exasperate it by making more calls to the files for data as it's having to reload into RAM.

Minimem can help overall performance on low-end systems IF, it is configured properly. If it is not configured properly, it will cause more issues than it solves. If you search minimem in the technical support forum, we had a lengthy discussion on this and I was able to narrow down a "sweet spot" for the client settings in the program.

You know this makes me laugh... Form a perspective of a person that can fix things. its really stupid for them not to accept that you are able to help... Even more important U play the game... One day I would like to see this game BUG free... Really unless PW gets it this will not happen with out the support or help from players...

Sylen I really think you make a difference to this game along with many other people and deserve a Thank You!

Sweetiebot please give SylenThunder - Sanctuary 10 points for ongoing work supporting this Community & Game.

SweetieBot - Lothranis

heero200 wrote: »

Sweetiebot please give SylenThunder - Sanctuary 10 points for ongoing work supporting this Community & Game.

heero200 awards 10 points to SylenThunder - Sanctuary!
SylenThunder - Sanctuary is now in 1st place for March 2015 with 10 points (89 points overall).
heero200 can still award another 20 points today.

Check this thread for the current high scores and to learn how to award points to others.
Commemorating 2 years of talking on the forums!

mulier

dont know if ppl brought it up already - only been reading first 2 pages - problem with memory gettingtoo full --> i had same problem using a client i manually patched some time ago, w/o arc .... sounds stupid, but after a clean arc install of pwi and altering the exe again, to not reuire arc to run .. i am not getting anymore overflow errors.

my explanation : patching didnt fix the bug, only clean reinstall can.



on a sidenote - the overfow would mainly occur when im alt tabbed - something that makes no sense to me xD

xpookyx

More of the same...

And Sylen always giving the same answer (or almost), to a server side issue, trying to tell us to do lot of things that wont solve the trouble, cause trouble is not on our side.

I have 24 chars, some on same account, some on separate account.

ONLY 2, AND ONLY THE SAME 2, have the trouble. Wizz disconects after 2 hours ALWAYS and archer do it after 4.

No matter if im botting, grinding, questing, morai, primal, main map, catshop, reflection.
No matter if i have 1 client or 10 open.IT ALWAYS DISCONECT, AND ALWAYS THE SAME CHARS, AND ONLY THE SAME CHARS.

I use Afom firefox pluging to manage memory, and my client never is over 600mb of memory, so its not an overflow.

I can be 7 days logged on the other chars with no trouble.

This began with the update, when suddenly, hundreds of players began to have the same trouble. On the same chars, after the same ammount of time.

Seriosly Sylen, HTF can it be a client trouble??

If it was a client trouble. It wouldnt have started, ON A SPECIFIC DAY

If it was a client trouble, iT WOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED TO A HUNDREDS OF PLAYERS SIMULTANEOUSLY.

If it was a client trouble, Memory trouble, DX trouble, DNS trouble. IT WOULD HAPPEN TO ANY CHAR. NOT ALWAYS ON SAME CHARS AND ONLY THE SAME CHARS AND AFTER THE SAME AMMOUNT OF TIME.

So really, with all respect, i know you try to help, but sometimes its better to say "Its a pwi trouble i will talk to them about it, than trying to explain a thing that cant be defended with arguments that dont explain the issue in anyway.

And ty for all your efford, dont missunderstand me, but not always things are solved with a "Read my sticky". I would try all you say in that sticky if it was only me who had that trouble. Its usefull on specific trouble for 1 char, but its absolutly useless when hundreds of chars are having the same issue since the same day.

(For example can be usefull for the guy here who had lots of disconnects in minutes, because its a specific problem for that user only, but not for the case we are talking)

But for a hundreds of people issue at the same time, "Read my sticky" is not the valid answer we need, cause all things in that sticky are about client side troubles, and a hundreds of people issue CANT be a client side trouble.

Regards

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

xpookyx wrote: »

More of the same...
long-story short....

With your particular issue, it could be localized to your client, or to the unique UI settings for those specific characters.

there's a hundred other things it could be too. Some would be on the server, some on your client, or your PC, or your local network, or other software you have running, or the internet, or sunspots, or snow/fire/rain/tornados/squirrels/microwaves/whatever.

The problem is, that you are all too swift to just up and blame the server, or up and blame the core product (client), without taking into account the literal thousands of other variables that could possibly cause the issue.

I point to my sticky for two reasons.
1. It has a wealth of troubleshooting that will resolve the majority of issues people post about.
2. It has exactly the details listed that I need for you to post so i can help you dig out the source of the problem when the basic troubleshooting doesn't work.

The biggest issue is the utter lack of the end user to put any time into doing anything other than posing and whining.
I imagine that if I took the time to tally the posts over the past year, a full 95% of them are just people whining around, and merely 3% actually bothered to troubleshoot the issue or ask for help. Now, those numbers are just off the top of my head, but they are very likely going to be surprisingly accurate.

Also keep in mind.... I work full time providing IT support for one of the largest companies in the world, and I still spend my free time out here trying to help you guys as much as I can. Because I care about the game, and I honestly want to do what I can to make your personal experience better. It's my hobby, I guess you could say.

xpookyx

Sylen, if hundreds of users, start to have the same trouble, the same day, at the same hour. Cant be a client side trouble.

Is it a miracle? All of us fu.cked the same thing on our computers, at the same moment?

And if it is a client side trouble, Why only affects the same chars and not the others? And why after the same amount of time?.

And if my settings are causing the trouble, its still would be a server side trouble, cause it mean that server is unable to handle some of the options themselves implemented in the game.

I tried with default settings for all, and still the same.

I dont believe in this kind of miracles...

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

xpookyx wrote: »

ONLY 2, AND ONLY THE SAME 2, have the trouble. Wizz disconects after 2 hours ALWAYS and archer do it after 4.

No matter if im botting, grinding, questing, morai, primal, main map, catshop, reflection.
No matter if i have 1 client or 10 open.IT ALWAYS DISCONECT, AND ALWAYS THE SAME CHARS, AND ONLY THE SAME CHARS.

Disconnects? It is not crashing? If so, your issue seems entirely different from what everyone else has been talking about...maybe.

Anyways, unless many people are disconnected at the same time, this is typically a problem with your system, network card, router, modem, or ISP. Every so often, maybe every 2~3 weeks, PW will kick off several thousand people at once. This is a server connection issue, that or a part of the server crashed and reset.

xpookyx wrote: »

I use Afom firefox pluging to manage memory, and my client never is over 600mb of memory, so its not an overflow.

Do you understand what an "overflow" really is? There are 3 different main types of overflows in computing. This is heap filing up. If Afom is anything like that Minimem program, like I said in my other post, this will not stop a memory leak. To understand a memory leak, I'd need to explain how software works, and that would take a lot of work. I suppose I could link to Wikipedia. Those memory manager programs merely store away blocks of memory to keep a piece of software's footprint size low. After the game reaches its limit, the game will still have issues.

Anyways, this issue you're having could very well be the exact same issue as everyone else. However, because of your Afom program, your game, instead of crashing, is just disconnecting. Try to run the game without it and see if just those characters crash. Then, if you could, write back here and say if they did, and no one else did. I'd like to know where they were when they crashed and how many people were around (approx.).

xpookyx

Crash, my client Crash, i wrote Disconnect but i mean Crash.

And again, if it is a trouble on my computer, why hundreds of people is having this issue since the update.
And why chars on same acount doesnt have the same trouble.
And i tested it on another computer with no afom, and same trouble.
My game never goes over 600mb.
And why only 2 chars of 24, and why ALWAYs same chars.

In your post, you dont answer any of the most important questions.

NRGLG - Heavens Tear

xpookyx wrote: »

Crash, my client Crash, i wrote Disconnect but i mean Crash.

And again, if it is a trouble on my computer, why hundreds of people is having this issue since the update.
And why chars on same acount doesnt have the same trouble.
And i tested it on another computer with no afom, and same trouble.
My game never goes over 600mb.
And why only 2 chars of 24, and why ALWAYs same chars.

In your post, you dont answer any of the most important questions.

First off, I'm not a PW developer. I can't necessarily answer all of your questions. Second, I glanced over anything that was irrelevant to the problem.

Since you said, "disconnect," I assumed you meant the disconnect message. If you are having the crashing, why don't you go ahead and read the entire thread. I gave more than enough information on this a bit ago. In fact, I gave incredibly specific information on what is happening. It is, more or less, un-fixable by us.