Game Crashes...?

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 28 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Though it is possible and we can't rule out entirely yet, I don't think the hak file is the root cause of these issues. The hak file at this point only contains files which give us much greater selection in terrain textures and placeables. No scripts are introduced via the hak. The only 2DAs modified are those which are commonly used in most other PWs which are not confirmed to be causing any problems. Multiple new maps and many more in progress are dependant upon the new textures and placeables, so its unlikely we're going to pull it unless its absolutely confirmed to cause problems.

Which Tweak Guide did you use? The NWN2 one or the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion? If one applies TweakGuides Tweaking Companion thoroughly (reading and applying every part, downloading and installing the recommended software tools, etc), they might spend 8 - 10 hours in order to do it the first time. Though will also likely be surprised at how much it improves their system performance, especially in regard to any internet or intense HD applications. In my case, before I discovered and used this guide, I couldn't play NWN online at all; It helped tremendously.

Your pagefile is curently set to what size? Is it completely defragmented into one continuous piece?
Have you defragmented using multiple defragmentation programs? Using only one will usually not get optimal results.

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My override directory is empty.

Just to be sure, have you checked both override directories?
(There is one in your installation directory and a second in your MyDocuments directory)

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The graphic artifcacts are weird. Most of the time, they look like persistent rays of light coming off objects.

Can you embed a ss of an example of this? Then perhaps some other DEX players can verify whether or not they have also experienced this same symptom.

What is the Mfr and model video card you are using?

Have you downloaded the Less Obtrusive Spell Buffs override hak? This one has helped many PW players tremendously, and probalby in particular those who were having graphic related symptoms. It is one override hak which we do recommend.

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it played fine on dex back in April/May, which was before the .hak pak

There had been some patches since that time, one in particular that created new issues for many players was 1.06.980 (this current patch).

Have you tried other PWs for any significant amount of time and not noticed any of these same problems? If so, which PW(s) (so that I can find out what they have and don't have).

Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2007

The attached screenshot was taken seconds before I crashed. Fortunately, after I took the screenshot, I switched to my desktop so when the game crashed, my system didn't lock up.

I followed your link to the Tweakguides and followed the NWN2 Tweakguide. My system is well-maintained. My pagefile was already on its own partition. I increased the pagefile size to 4092.

Pretty sure this isn't a defragmentation issue. Both override directories were empty. My video card is an ATI Radeon X1900 GT.

The less obtrusive spells buff (I downloaded the second one, which was v1.5 I think), seemed to decrease the number of graphic artifacts, but the graphic artifact (the line in the screenshot) still crops up right before the game crashes. I don't know if this makes a difference, but my crashes occur in the absence of an area transition.

I haven't played NWN2 since May. I haven't tried any other PW's lately because I prefer PvP, but back in May I tried a few other servers, and I had no problems with artifacts/crashing. Maybe this is just an issue with the latest NWN2 patch.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 28 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Thanks for posting the ss. Anyone whose had this condition shown in the screenshot, can you let us know if you still get it occasionally (or routinely), or if not, what you may have done to fix it?

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My video card is an ATI Radeon X1900 GT.

Anyone else use this particular card, and if you are and not getting the symptom shown in the screenshot above, can you please tell us what driver you are using?

I'm searching around for more info related to that particular make in Bioware forums now. Some players have noted that using the current OMEGA driver with their ATI cards works better than the ATI driver, so might want to try that.

Which version of directx9c do you have (though 9c is the rev number, there are many different versions of 9c, normally identifiable by date when you download them). Though usually newer is better, some players have reported issues when upgrading to a newer from an older version of Directx9c. Thats why I haven't upgraded since the one released in April 2007. There have been at least one or two revs since then, but after reading what other players were reporting, I figured if it wasn't broke, I wasn't going to fix it.

I assume you’ve already used Task Manager to identify everything you have running, and minimize these programs and services(?).

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I followed your link to the Tweakguides and followed the NWN2 Tweakguide. My system is well-maintained. My pagefile was already on its own partition. I increased the pagefile size to 4092. Pretty sure this isn't a defragmentation issue.

I’d insure that that pagesys file is in one continuous fragment (it likely isn’t if you just increased it). For defragmenting, I use the default Windows Defragmenter, and then to move the unmovable files and get everything onto one continuous fragment, I use pagedfrg.exe. Though not sure how having it on its separate partition would affect it (I’d think that the partition itself may be fragmented).

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Both override directories were empty. The less obtrusive spells buff (I downloaded the second one, which was v1.5 I think), seemed to decrease the number of graphic artifacts, but the graphic artifact (the line in the screenshot) still crops up right before the game crashes. I don't know if this makes a difference, but my crashes occur in the absence of an area transition.

Are there possibly any other consistent conditions when these occur? Do these always occur in Loftenwood for example?

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I haven't played NWN2 since May. I haven't tried any other PW's lately because I prefer PvP, but back in May I tried a few other servers, and I had no problems with artifacts/crashing. Maybe this is just an issue with the latest NWN2 patch.

It may be. 1.07 beta is out so hopefully we’ll see 1.07 soon.

In the mean time, I’ll spend some time browsing for clues. Sorry we couldn’t fix this one immediately. You might want to post in the Bioware Technical help forum, they seem to be pretty responsive there.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewforum.html?forum=116

Above Average Joined: 17 Feb 2007

Actually, I am experiencing occasionally some graphics twitches too.

Only in Loftenwood and sometimes in tangle.

It only happen recently.

It not consistent but very rare.

E.G. Black Smoke instead of the faction aura at the feet on myself mostly but other factions too. Or Square spell effects.

Nforce Geforce 7600 GT

Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2007

still having same problem. here's another screenshot. happens within a couple minutes of logging in. always in loftenwood. haven't even tried going to another region. directx looks to be up to date, based on date of files. i use msconfig to disable all but the important boot-up files. have been using msconfig for a couple years and playing games for much longer than that. i have a phat system with 2 gigs of ram, a dual core processor and an asus m2n32-sli mobo. very frustrating. don't have enough time to keep this up. maybe i'll check back in a couple months to see if any DEX updates or NWN updates or ATI updates fix the problem.

Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2007

My video card heatsink was severely choked with dust bunnies. At some point, part of the card got fried, but it was only noticeable under certain conditions in demanding 3D applications. Thanks for helping me attempt to solve the problem.

Now that I have a new video card, I need to pick up MotB so I can play again. Was there a character vault wipe? If so, is any of the xp from wiped characters creditable toward new characters for the same account, or did everyone have to start fresh?

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:17 am

Due to motb there was a complete wipe.

Makes sense to do so seeing many builds would have been ineffective.