AMD Phenom II x4 925@ 2.8ghz
Ati Radeon HD 5770 1gb
8gb DDR3
650W Antec psu
Windows 7 64-bit
20" widescreen @ 1600x900
I was.experiencing some aweful hitching and crashes on the ground with the default "quality" setting. And, as others had discovered, it was dynamic lightings fault.
After reading the forums alll day at work I went home and played around. I now run the game at max settings 1600x900 and dynamic lights turned ON, the primary settings attributing to crashes seem to be Max Shadowed Lights and Max Lights per Object, as well as the fps limiter and particles being processed on the GPU as well.
I enabled FPS LIMITER of 60fps, Auto stabilize framerate ON (not the permanent Framerate Stabilizer) and disabled GPU accelerated particles to free up some processing power. I also disabled Soft Particles as I don't see the difference in anything and the framerate noticibly improved with it off. Max shadowed lights I can run 3 (highest) with little to no hitching, 2 lowers it to almost none. Same with Max Lights per object set to 4. No graphical crashes yet, games runs smooth as silk except for a hitch evry now and then. Reducing Lights Per Object to 3 further reduces hitches to almost none. However, at the highest setting of 5 the hitching approaches crashable levels, so i had to quickly down that back to 4, with 3 being the best. I used the ingame /fpsgraph 1 command to monitor hitch frquency which is expressed by elongated purple lines.
Also, my CCC settings were Balanced with Catalyst AI disabled and the AA filtering set to Multi, which is the middle setting if I'm not mistaken. Also I did not use Vertical Sync, it just performed lousy with this on.
gotta say dynamic lighting is very pretty and DOES significantly add to the overall immersion..
I played at those settings for about 4 hours last night mix of ground and space missions. No crashes untill then end of my playtime on the VERY first borg ground mission you get as RA 3 in Gamma Orianis. It was the dreaded D3D 2D texture lock. It was my firstt time encountering it, and it happened after the shield was dropped and we were fighting inside the base. I just quit playing cuz it was bed time, so I haven't hopped backiin to see if it was a random crash or at that spot specifically.
I hope this helps others get a little more sparkle out of this game. Now if they would just make the shadows stop flickering and "moving"!!
PS I wrote this out on a G1 phone, please excuse the grammar lol
Mindless speculation, though I don't suppose it would be considered max settings if it's not maxed. Though it's really alot easier to leave everything on max and leave dynamic lighting off till they ever get a fix for it. Vertical sync helps with tearing, which is lines appearing horizontally on the screen that looks exactly like it sounds. As for "AA filtering set to Multi, which is the middle setting if I'm not mistaken", haven't a clue what you're talking about. Less you meant antialiasing, in which case you'd just be forcing it to 4x which in some cases may or may not work, at any rate there's already AA and AF options in game so no need to force it.
Mindless speculation, though I don't suppose it would be considered max settings if it's not maxed. Though it's really alot easier to leave everything on max and leave dynamic lighting off till they ever get a fix for it. Vertical sync helps with tearing, which is lines appearing horizontally on the screen that looks exactly like it sounds. As for "AA filtering set to Multi, which is the middle setting if I'm not mistaken", haven't a clue what you're talking about. Less you meant antialiasing, in which case you'd just be forcing it to 4x which in some cases may or may not work, at any rate there's already AA and AF options in game so no need to force it.
Though I somehow doubt this solved the crashing.
Wow, the first time I try and post a little advice on here someones gotta come along and call me mindless... nice to meet the community!!
It did run fine, through multiple missions space and ground, and dynamic lights appear smoothly without a problem. I could tell when it was getting ready to crash before, it would stutter really bad a few seconds before, it didn't do that for the 4 hours I was playing. The AA setting I was referring to was in the Catalyst Control Center, not in game, and its not an option for 2x, 4x or whatever, its Super-sampling, Multi-sampling and on other lower setting. I would be more specific but I'm not in front of my computer right now.
Anyway, I guess I should feel special I got a response...
Mindless speculation, though I don't suppose it would be considered max settings if it's not maxed. Though it's really alot easier to leave everything on max and leave dynamic lighting off till they ever get a fix for it. Vertical sync helps with tearing, which is lines appearing horizontally on the screen that looks exactly like it sounds. As for "AA filtering set to Multi, which is the middle setting if I'm not mistaken", haven't a clue what you're talking about. Less you meant antialiasing, in which case you'd just be forcing it to 4x which in some cases may or may not work, at any rate there's already AA and AF options in game so no need to force it.
Though I somehow doubt this solved the crashing.
instead of coming into the thread empty handed shooting down other people suggestions and thoughts, why dont you try and add something positve to the thread instead of being a negative ninny for no reason....if anything was mindless it was your reply.
Anyway back on topic, i have been playing the game for the last 5 hours and had one crash to desktop in all that time, and thats been with DL on and most of the setting you had taked about in your post.....so there may be something to this.
instead of coming into the thread empty handed shooting down other people suggestions and thoughts, why dont you try and add something positve to the thread instead of being a negative ninny for no reason....if anything was mindless it was your reply.
Anyway back on topic, i have been playing the game for the last 5 hours and had one crash to desktop in all that time, and thats been with DL on and most of the setting you had taked about in your post.....so there may be something to this.
Oh and im running the same card, 5770 1gig.
I like intelligent, well mannered people!!
well im glad its helped someone else. And the game does look noticeably better with it enabled.
When you crashed to desktop, what was the error? Was it that D3D thingie about the 2D texture lock? thats the only one i received but i'm gonna blame it on the mission =D
I'm no computer tech or programmer, but it seems the Dynamic Light process is "crowding" the ATI GPU. When you take some strain off of it, especially making particles process on the CPU, it seems to run alot better. Who knows!?
im gonna play a bit tonight as well, see how it does its thing
well im glad its helped someone else. And the game does look noticeably better with it enabled.
When you crashed to desktop, what was the error? Was it that D3D thingie about the 2D texture lock? thats the only one i received but i'm gonna blame it on the mission =D
I'm no computer tech or programmer, but it seems the Dynamic Light process is "crowding" the ATI GPU. When you take some strain off of it, especially making particles process on the CPU, it seems to run alot better. Who knows!?
im gonna play a bit tonight as well, see how it does its thing
Try to reduce max FPS to 30 as well, and see if you notice a difference. I am curious to see how it works for you. I have it maxed now and no skipping at all.
well im glad its helped someone else. And the game does look noticeably better with it enabled.
When you crashed to desktop, what was the error? Was it that D3D thingie about the 2D texture lock? thats the only one i received but i'm gonna blame it on the mission =D
I'm no computer tech or programmer, but it seems the Dynamic Light process is "crowding" the ATI GPU. When you take some strain off of it, especially making particles process on the CPU, it seems to run alot better. Who knows!?
im gonna play a bit tonight as well, see how it does its thing
Well when i did crash to desktop the crash report thing was always empty, no idea why, but your right, the game looks a lot better with DL on, its like walking a tight rope with the games setting at present, but just like yourself those settings seem to be just about right to play with DL on and not crash constanlty.....some more play is required though to really cement these settings.
There is nothing positive that you can add to this subject. Course the less things you have running, the less chance you have of whatever that's causing it to crash to occur. If you'd really preffer reducing your quality in other areas to run the game with dynamic lighting for longer periods before you crash, that's your prerogative. No one's going to stop you, though if want an actual fix, you'd need to wait for cryptic (who insists the problem isn't replicatable for them which is another word for them saying they can't do anything about it for now) or if the newer ATI drivers will miraculously fix it.
Supersampling and multisampling are both just antialiasing techniques, so less they've somehow changed how the CCC recently, still haven't a clue what you're talking about. Though you should note that anything over box can both lead to lower frame rates, and may cause severe blurring in some games and cards.
At any rate, 10.3 drivers are out, apparently for a while now. You're also free to try those if you wish.
No you would rather pop into threads, call peoples thoughts and opinion "Mindless" while offering nothing to the discussion....you have no proof that the OP ideas and thoughts do or dont work, but hell you dont really care about that, you saw a thread you could jump into, shoot down other opinins without adding anything of your own, and you label OTHERS as Mindless.......oh the irony.
It is mindless speculation first off, he's still crashing. Second, anyone should know just because you did A and B stops happen, that does't mean A stopped causing B, especially when you've only done it for a few hours. Course you're more than free to tell Cryptic to implement this cause at the very least, myself, and at probably a couple others would get a decent laugh at the chain of events that happens next. It'd be the same as Toyota going off and telling everyone, "Hey, we've figured out how to fix the gas pedal from sticking, and best of all you don't need a recall at all! Just follow these simple steps, press the gas pedal only for a second for every 5 seconds you drive!"
As for yourself, I'm free to use whatever term I deem accurate, just like I could mindless speculate that you're a complete moron. Likewise, that would be quite mindless seeing as how you've somehow found your way to a computer and figured out how to operate it, least to a minimal degree. It also is speculation since first off I have no facts that you're a moron, nor do I have anything to support that you're not. Well, lets just leave it at there's enough evidence to support either one. That's what speculation is.
As for the problem at hand, you could try the 10.3 drivers like I've said before, if that doesn't fix it wait another month or should cryptic ever release an actual fix use that. Though toying around with your setting to fix a crash doesn't really help fix it.
Well, we are not talking about a permanent fix here. Just a band-aid for the time being.
Still have not heard if anybody tried what I did by limiting FPS to 30. I have had dynamic lighting settings to max now for a few days on this, and not a single skip or crash.
It is mindless speculation first off, he's still crashing. Second, anyone should know just because you did A and B stops happen, that does't mean A stopped causing B, especially when you've only done it for a few hours. Course you're more than free to tell Cryptic to implement this cause at the very least, myself, and at probably a couple others would get a decent laugh at the chain of events that happens next. It'd be the same as Toyota going off and telling everyone, "Hey, we've figured out how to fix the gas pedal from sticking, and best of all you don't need a recall at all! Just follow these simple steps, press the gas pedal only for a second for every 5 seconds you drive!"
As for yourself, I'm free to use whatever term I deem accurate, just like I could mindless speculate that you're a complete moron. Likewise, that would be quite mindless seeing as how you've somehow found your way to a computer and figured out how to operate it, least to a minimal degree. It also is speculation since first off I have no facts that you're a moron, nor do I have anything to support that you're not. Well, lets just leave it at there's enough evidence to support either one. That's what speculation is.
As for the problem at hand, you could try the 10.3 drivers like I've said before, if that doesn't fix it wait another month or should cryptic ever release an actual fix use that. Though toying around with your setting to fix a crash doesn't really help fix it.
Bingo, i knew you were here trolling the thread, its just nice now to see that verified by your own reply, but i do love the irony of your replies, they are brilliant, throwing around words like moron when just reading your replies is enough proof of who, what and where.......im loving it.
Oh and just for your info i DO have DL on with all setting maxed and with frame limit to 60, soft particales off,max shadows 3,......hell that no doubt throws a spanner in YOUR so called advice, or lack of it since you decided to grace up with your presence in this thread.
No run along theres a goood chap and troll elsewhere, and let the adults discuss this.
Well, we are not talking about a permanent fix here. Just a band-aid for the time being.
Still have not heard if anybody tried what I did by limiting FPS to 30. I have had dynamic lighting settings to max now for a few days on this, and not a single skip or crash.
Well i have managed to leave it at 60 with everything else maxed apart from soft particles and shadows at three, and the game has not crashed once, how much memroy do you have on your card, i wonder if that 1gig i and the OP has makes a diffrence to DL , i just moved up from a 512meg card and the crashing has definatly dropped and the game has become more stable........although i might just have jinxed myself by saying that..:eek:
Well i have managed to leave it at 60 with everything else maxed apart from soft particles and shadows at three, and the game has not crashed once, how much memroy do you have on your card, i wonder if that 1gig i and the OP has makes a diffrence to DL , i just moved up from a 512meg card and the crashing has definatly dropped and the game has become more stable........although i might just have jinxed myself by saying that..:eek:
My card is a Crossfire ATI 4800 series with a gig of memory. I can keep the particles and everything. I found that this was the only thing I had to change.
Bingo, i knew you were here trolling the thread, its just nice now to see that verified by your own reply, but i do love the irony of your replies, they are brilliant, throwing around words like moron when just reading your replies is enough proof of who, what and where.......im loving it.
Oh and just for your info i DO have DL on with all setting maxed and with frame limit to 60, soft particales off,max shadows 3,......hell that no doubt throws a spanner in YOUR so called advice, or lack of it since you decided to grace up with your presence in this thread.
No run along theres a goood chap and troll elsewhere, and let the adults discuss this.
You knew I was trolling the thread because for whatever reason I needed to explain what mindless speculation meant after your constant trolling, so I best explained it in terms that you could understand best? Do you perchance have precognition or were your previous trolls just to incite an reponse? Though if it'll really make you happy, I'll recant my previous statements, since by now if anyone's actually been reading this and still decides doing this is the same as fixing the problem that's really up to them. As for yourself, please conduct your future posts in a more civilized manner rather than resorting to constantly antagonizing others.
^^Are you still here, now if your finished adding nothing to the discussion i hope thats the last we will hear from you.
Now we can get back on topic.
Now i dropped my frame rate down to 30 and enabled soft part and again the game ran without any crashing for 5 hours with DL on.....so thats intresting.
^^Are you still here, now if your finished adding nothing to the discussion i hope thats the last we will hear from you.
Now we can get back on topic.
Now i dropped my frame rate down to 30 and enabled soft part and again the game ran without any crashing for 5 hours with DL on.....so thats intresting.
Thanks for the feedback on that. I have no idea why that works. I am not a technical guy, but I have tried about every combo I could think of lol.
Thanks for the feedback on that. I have no idea why that works. I am not a technical guy, but I have tried about every combo I could think of lol.
Sorry it took me a while to respond, I ignored this thread after that rude post.
Anyway, I tried max with 30fps set... It still stuttered when starting fights, felt like the game was gonna crash. Moving the max shadowed lights from 5 to just 4 resolved it almost entirely. However in the Infected STF (and the others) I just turn DL off, the game wants to die when we're all firing on hordes of borg. And I didn't wanna risk crashing on my team, I was the medic
I've finally given up on DL. I like my smooth framerates with no hitching. I could spend hours tweaking video settings which I have. Ide rather just play. Its one setting I can live without just now.
I hope to see it resolved, I'm sure I'm not the only one that bought a new computer and a $200 video card to play this game on max
I may try the 30 FPS more time tonight. Also, to the rude guy, I keep my drivers up to date. Currently using 10.3.
Comments
Though I somehow doubt this solved the crashing.
Wow, the first time I try and post a little advice on here someones gotta come along and call me mindless... nice to meet the community!!
It did run fine, through multiple missions space and ground, and dynamic lights appear smoothly without a problem. I could tell when it was getting ready to crash before, it would stutter really bad a few seconds before, it didn't do that for the 4 hours I was playing. The AA setting I was referring to was in the Catalyst Control Center, not in game, and its not an option for 2x, 4x or whatever, its Super-sampling, Multi-sampling and on other lower setting. I would be more specific but I'm not in front of my computer right now.
Anyway, I guess I should feel special I got a response...
instead of coming into the thread empty handed shooting down other people suggestions and thoughts, why dont you try and add something positve to the thread instead of being a negative ninny for no reason....if anything was mindless it was your reply.
Anyway back on topic, i have been playing the game for the last 5 hours and had one crash to desktop in all that time, and thats been with DL on and most of the setting you had taked about in your post.....so there may be something to this.
Oh and im running the same card, 5770 1gig.
Try and see if that works for you as well.
I like intelligent, well mannered people!!
well im glad its helped someone else. And the game does look noticeably better with it enabled.
When you crashed to desktop, what was the error? Was it that D3D thingie about the 2D texture lock? thats the only one i received but i'm gonna blame it on the mission =D
I'm no computer tech or programmer, but it seems the Dynamic Light process is "crowding" the ATI GPU. When you take some strain off of it, especially making particles process on the CPU, it seems to run alot better. Who knows!?
im gonna play a bit tonight as well, see how it does its thing
Try to reduce max FPS to 30 as well, and see if you notice a difference. I am curious to see how it works for you. I have it maxed now and no skipping at all.
Just curious.
Well when i did crash to desktop the crash report thing was always empty, no idea why, but your right, the game looks a lot better with DL on, its like walking a tight rope with the games setting at present, but just like yourself those settings seem to be just about right to play with DL on and not crash constanlty.....some more play is required though to really cement these settings.
Fingeres crossed.
Supersampling and multisampling are both just antialiasing techniques, so less they've somehow changed how the CCC recently, still haven't a clue what you're talking about. Though you should note that anything over box can both lead to lower frame rates, and may cause severe blurring in some games and cards.
At any rate, 10.3 drivers are out, apparently for a while now. You're also free to try those if you wish.
Then by all means dont participate in the thread, is that so dificult.:rolleyes:
As for yourself, I'm free to use whatever term I deem accurate, just like I could mindless speculate that you're a complete moron. Likewise, that would be quite mindless seeing as how you've somehow found your way to a computer and figured out how to operate it, least to a minimal degree. It also is speculation since first off I have no facts that you're a moron, nor do I have anything to support that you're not. Well, lets just leave it at there's enough evidence to support either one. That's what speculation is.
As for the problem at hand, you could try the 10.3 drivers like I've said before, if that doesn't fix it wait another month or should cryptic ever release an actual fix use that. Though toying around with your setting to fix a crash doesn't really help fix it.
Still have not heard if anybody tried what I did by limiting FPS to 30. I have had dynamic lighting settings to max now for a few days on this, and not a single skip or crash.
Bingo, i knew you were here trolling the thread, its just nice now to see that verified by your own reply, but i do love the irony of your replies, they are brilliant, throwing around words like moron when just reading your replies is enough proof of who, what and where.......im loving it.
Oh and just for your info i DO have DL on with all setting maxed and with frame limit to 60, soft particales off,max shadows 3,......hell that no doubt throws a spanner in YOUR so called advice, or lack of it since you decided to grace up with your presence in this thread.
No run along theres a goood chap and troll elsewhere, and let the adults discuss this.
Well i have managed to leave it at 60 with everything else maxed apart from soft particles and shadows at three, and the game has not crashed once, how much memroy do you have on your card, i wonder if that 1gig i and the OP has makes a diffrence to DL , i just moved up from a 512meg card and the crashing has definatly dropped and the game has become more stable........although i might just have jinxed myself by saying that..:eek:
My card is a Crossfire ATI 4800 series with a gig of memory. I can keep the particles and everything. I found that this was the only thing I had to change.
Yeah, I will do anything to not crash out on ground. I hope that we can locate this problem together and maybe get a fix for it going.
You knew I was trolling the thread because for whatever reason I needed to explain what mindless speculation meant after your constant trolling, so I best explained it in terms that you could understand best? Do you perchance have precognition or were your previous trolls just to incite an reponse? Though if it'll really make you happy, I'll recant my previous statements, since by now if anyone's actually been reading this and still decides doing this is the same as fixing the problem that's really up to them. As for yourself, please conduct your future posts in a more civilized manner rather than resorting to constantly antagonizing others.
Now we can get back on topic.
Now i dropped my frame rate down to 30 and enabled soft part and again the game ran without any crashing for 5 hours with DL on.....so thats intresting.
Thanks for the feedback on that. I have no idea why that works. I am not a technical guy, but I have tried about every combo I could think of lol.
Sorry it took me a while to respond, I ignored this thread after that rude post.
Anyway, I tried max with 30fps set... It still stuttered when starting fights, felt like the game was gonna crash. Moving the max shadowed lights from 5 to just 4 resolved it almost entirely. However in the Infected STF (and the others) I just turn DL off, the game wants to die when we're all firing on hordes of borg. And I didn't wanna risk crashing on my team, I was the medic
I've finally given up on DL. I like my smooth framerates with no hitching. I could spend hours tweaking video settings which I have. Ide rather just play. Its one setting I can live without just now.
I hope to see it resolved, I'm sure I'm not the only one that bought a new computer and a $200 video card to play this game on max
I may try the 30 FPS more time tonight. Also, to the rude guy, I keep my drivers up to date. Currently using 10.3.
Any other input?
Here's hoping...
Yeah... I wonder what the silence is all about.
All I can say is.. It looks like I am going to be forced to buy a Nvidia card from here on...forever or whatnot.
I just get tired of dealing with all the BS that goes with ATI these days.