PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

Message

dosuser · #1 Post by **dosuser** » Fri Dec 06, 2002 7:25 pm

PATCH 3 is now available. After investigation I think I have determined the remaining cause for some crashes when trying to save the game. <a href="http://www.agsforums.com/patch3.zip">ww ...  (477 KB) Unzip it into your KQ2 directory (default directory is: C:\ Program Files\Tierra\KQ2VGA), overwrite the file when prompted, and double-click the ACWIN.EXE file to run the game (NOT KQ2VGA as normal). Installing the patch will reset your options chosen in Setup, so you may need to run Setup again first if you need Letterbox resolution for example to run the game. Your current save games will unfortunately not work with the patch so you will have to start over. There appear to be three main bugs that are causing problems: 1. Crash when trying to save the game. 2. Random hard freeze in various places. 3. Save game names get corrupted and then cannot save (may be related to bug 1) PLEASE INSTALL THE PATCH BEFORE REPORTING ANY FURTHER PROBLEMS so that we can establish whether it fixes anything or not. I apologise for the problems some of you are having; however please bear with us because random freezes are the hardest bug to track down, since there are very few leads to go on. As you know, the game was run through 3 beta phases, but none of the beta testers had these issues. If you are getting random freezes, try going to the game setup and changing the digital sound driver to "Default WaveOut device". This has been known to fix freezes for some people. I would however like to know what the *earliest* point in the game anyone has had a freeze is. Some people said it happened the first time they talked to the Merchant - has anyone had a crash earlier than that? When reporting a crash, can you please also include what operating system and DirectX version you are running. Similarly, if these solutions fix the problems for you, please say so to let us know. If the errors continue for you after installing the patch, it would be appreciated if you could zip up one save game from before the problems and one once the problems have occured in case they can help in tracking down the problem. Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub57.ezboard.com/broyalquestfor ... >Anonymous Game Creator 2</A> at: 12/9/02 8:12:40 pm

fov · #2 Post by **fov** » Sat Dec 07, 2002 10:45 pm

do we need to double-click ACWIN.EXE to launch the game every time, or just the first time after the patch is unzipped? -emily edit to say: okay, i just installed the patch and had the game freeze up on me at an early point. i had changed my direct music settings to WaveOut Device. i started a new game and did only these things (SPOILERS!): -got the net -went to possum's house and looked in the mailbox -spoke to possum -entered the screen with hagatha's cave a few times so i could see the batman egg -caught the baby bird and set it free with the swans -took the feather -went to town and talked to merchant (i clicked a few inventory items on him to try to make the game freeze up, but it didn't) -went over the bridge and talked to the door of destiny -picked up note about curios -went back to town and talked to merchant the game froze up in the town, AFTER i spoke to the merchant (no dialogue pictures were up). it happened after i selected the note from my toolbar and was about to click it on the merchant. same "repeating note" bug i have had before. i didn't save any games before this happened, but i can try to duplicate it if that would be useful. -emily Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub57.ezboard.com/broyalquestfor ... ums>fov</A> at: 12/7/02 5:08:47 pm

dosuser · #3 Post by **dosuser** » Sat Dec 07, 2002 11:49 pm

Thanks for the detailed information. Please could you try the new Patch 2 above, because I believe I may have isolated the problem. You will need to launch ACWIN.EXE every time, running the normal KQ2VGA executable will run the original version of the game. This new patch 2 should also reduce save game sizes and fix the screen being blank if you restored a game in the sharkee area.

Guest · #4 Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 9:19 am

With the patch applied, the digital music glitches badly (pops and clicks). I suppose this has something to do with the digiwin config value? I took the patch back off because it made the sound unbearable.

dosuser · #5 Post by **dosuser** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 10:04 am

ah, yes sorry, the patch has set the sound to WaveOut - if you get popping and glitching, run Setup and change it back to DirectSound. Keep using the patch though.

philthethrill101 · #6 Post by **philthethrill101** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 1:11 am

I'm having trouble downloading the patch. I click on the link and then I get a blank screen. I tried right clicking and choosing save, and I get an error message that says trouble downloading c<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... ohwell.gif ALT=":\"> ags\patch2.zip, a connection with the server could not be established.

dosuser · #7 Post by **dosuser** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 1:16 am

Seems to work fine for me... maybe the server was temporarily down, all I can suggest is to try again now.

philthethrill101 · #8 Post by **philthethrill101** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 9:55 am

The patch worked great. I played the game the second time through and I had no trouble saving and the game never locked up. Thanks.

chultquist · #9 Post by **chultquist** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 11:59 am

Before patch 2, KQ2 seemed to freeze up & crash quite a lot. After getting patch 2, I thought all my troubles had gone away... until... *possible spoilers* once i've been to the graveyard, gotten rid of the ghosts & checked out the grave with "a 1st, 2nd & double of nothing", i go back into the castle. i hear a door close as a sound effect, and then whenever i walk into another room (e.g. library or dining room), the game crashes. it _does_ provide the following useful info though: exception 0xC0000005 eip 0x00432AA2 program pointer +6 aci version 2.52.459 gtags (1,2) the above dump is for trying to access the library. if i go to the dining room, the only thing that changes from above is the eip, which is then 0x004329FE your suggestions on fixing this would be appreciated!!! (and just to check that i haven't done something stupid: i've got patch 2, and am running acwin.exe)

chultquist · #10 Post by **chultquist** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 1:13 pm

With regard to my above crash problems: if I instead completely avoid the castle and go back to the _other_ graveyard, almost all is well. I manage to get back to the count, get the 3rd gem, but as soon as I try to leave the castle (by walking out the front door), I get _another_ crash. This one with the following details: eip: 0x004329FE (the rest of the details are the same as my above crashes) This also happens (with same eip etc) if after getting the gem from the count, I go downstairs to his coffin. Crash happens as I try to enter the "coffin-chamber". As above, this is with patch 2 and by running acwin.exe

Veggita2099 · #11 Post by **Veggita2099** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 9:45 pm

Glad I read the readme file in the zip, I can't stand to lose my savegames at this point. I am not having a problem with save game crashes though. I have a problem with the sound and speed of this game. I have it set to the lowest resolution, and I have tried it with, and without, the optional digital music pack. I feel like I am trying to run this game on a old 486 is it so slow. Actually the gameplay is ok it is the cutscenes that are so horribly slow. I am at the trial to get the 2nd gem and it takes at least 15 minutes to go through it due to the slow speeds.

edsegio · #12 Post by **edsegio** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 12:12 am

I had no problems before the patch. Afterwards I had a system freeze while I was digging graves on the island. It happened after a while in there. Rebooted and picked up where I left off, everything was good. that's it!

dosuser · #13 Post by **dosuser** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 1:34 am

chultquist: eek ... thanks for the save game you sent, I believe I have isolated the problem causing that crash now. Sorry guys, but there's yet another patch, Patch 3 (link in first post), which should solve this problem. Unfortunately due to the nature of the fix I cannot make it compatible with current save games from patch 2... but hopefully someone who was experiencing problems will have the time to try this out <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /smile.gif ALT=":)"> edsegio: were you using patch 1 or 2?

chultquist · #14 Post by **chultquist** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 12:53 pm

Is there absolutely no way we can get the savegames compatible with patch 3? Even some hackery where we manually go and hexedit the savegame file? Having to do _everything_ again ('specially when I've gotten _so_ close! All 3 gems!) *sigh*

dosuser · #15 Post by **dosuser** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 1:54 pm

Unfortunately the reason for the crashes was that some vital information was not being saved - this is why they are not compatible, since the save games from earlier versions don't include the necessary info. I understand how frustrating it is when this sort of thing happens, all I can do is apologise.

chultquist · #16 Post by **chultquist** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 2:09 pm

Ah well, guess I'll just have to do it all over again then... And if it _still_ crashes (somewhere right near the end), I'll just be forced to use the trident to turn your PC to stone (or something like that ;-P) Will let you know your fate ASAP!

cyberfox · #17 Post by **cyberfox** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 10:01 pm

It still crashes then I am trying to interact with the merchant.

#18 Post by **Anonymous Game Creator 2** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 10:40 pm

Which patch? Patch 2 or Patch3? Did you double click the acwin.exe file to run the game after the game was patched? If so, what exactly did the error message say? Please try to provide as much details as possible. Thanks.

cyberfox · #19 Post by **cyberfox** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 11:07 pm

Well, the game doesn`t crash it freezes. There is no error message the game just freeze when I tried to give the pearl to the merchant or when I talked to him after I have droped fool`s gold into the fountain. Without any patches it freeze at the screen north of the "town" sign, when i tried to get the hammer out of the tree. I did all according with patchinstall.txt. P.S. It was with patch 3 installed. OS: Windows XP Pro DirectX version 8.1

dosuser · #20 Post by **dosuser** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 2:00 am

Does anyone else still get the freeze with the merchant, when using patch 3?

ccr · #21 Post by **ccr** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 10:45 am

I know that this isn't really usefull in debugging, but by saving and restarting the whole game often (save/exit/start/reload) the crashes don't occur. Seems very much like some nice little buffer or integer overflow somewhere to me. Also if you by chance save just before crashing, the savegame may become corrupted. (I also tried KQ2+ on DOS AGS and same bugs occur there.)

Zeus · #22 Post by **Zeus** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 5:22 pm

i am NOT SURE, but i FEEL that the overflow happened in the string which holds the name of the savegame. The string was null at first whenever you saved games less than the maximum slots. When you saved the maximum number of save games, and you had to perform the replace function (replace "old save" with save name "new save", the string did not had the name "old save" but it had been initialised with forbidden values either the pointer or the string, depends on the implementation. however this is an estimation cause i do not have the source code to see the problem. And the other thing that does not make me feel sure is that this happened to my machine.Perhaps different results of the same bug may indicate a different - usually more general- source of the problem. but i believe that it was fixed the bug. I had tried patch 2 and it seemed ok . .what patch did you try ?

chultquist · #23 Post by **chultquist** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 11:19 pm

Patch 3 has definitely helped me (your life is spared for now, dosuser ;-P). At least, I can now get back to the mainland after collecting the 3rd gem. Right now, am mentally stuck with something else though so can't say if the patch works to the end... *am stressing my brain thinking*. Will report more once I (eventually) make it to the end.

dosuser · #24 Post by **dosuser** » Thu Dec 12, 2002 12:44 am

adventurer76: that's right, the bug was to do with script strings getting corrupted when a save game was restored. That's what patch 3 addressed. chultquist: hehe, I'm glad it's working for you <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /smile.gif ALT=":)">

edsegio · #25 Post by **edsegio** » Thu Dec 12, 2002 1:38 am

I was using patch 2. I finished the game and no problems since. hope this helps.

PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

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Re: ?

Patch causes digital music to glitch

Re: Patch causes digital music to glitch

Re: Patch causes digital music to glitch

Re: Patch causes digital music to glitch

Re: Patch causes digital music to glitch

A crash with patch 2 installed :-/

Follow-up on game crash...

Re: Follow-up on game crash...

FREEZE AFTER PATCH

Re: FREEZE AFTER PATCH

Argh... not all over again!!!

Re: Argh... not all over again!!!

~sigh~

It still crashes.

Re: It still crashes.

Well, the game doesn`t crash it freezes.

Re: PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

Some insights

Re: PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

Working much better :-)

Re: PATCH 3 NOW AVAILABLE: SAVE GAME CRASH FIX

FREEZE AFTER PATCH