Workaround for sporadic CTDs in 1.3[.1]

**LtChambers** · July 05, 2009, 01:31 PM

I am fairly certain the new multithreading changes are causing problems for a lot of players. They seem to have some unhandled race conditions which lead to the seemingly random crashes. They're not literally random, but because they depend on the threads interleaving a certain way they're pretty much impossible to predict.

I don't know if anybody with a single core system is having CTDs from this. It seems less likely because no two threads are ever running at the same time (they must take turns). But there seems to be a workaround for multi-core system - set CPU affinity of the Empire.exe task to a single core. You can set process affinity in Task Manager. After you start the game, alt-tab back to desktop, press Ctl-Shift-Esc, go to the Processes tab, find Empire.exe, right click on it and go to "Set Affinity...". Then check a single core out of the available checkboxes. This seems to have cured my sporadic CTDs on my C2D-E8400/GTX260/4GB/Vista-x64 system.

**irishron** · July 05, 2009, 03:41 PM

I think you are right. Correst me if I'm wrong but it sounds like the first cpus Intel released with multiple piping.

**mandalore9** · July 05, 2009, 04:00 PM

Personally, I would rather have my one ctd every few hours than a slower game running only on one core, but that is just me.

**LtChambers** · July 05, 2009, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by mandalore9

Personally, I would rather have my one ctd every few hours than a slower game running only on one core, but that is just me.

Yeah, you're right. I just got done with an hour and half of battle - two big battles - as the enemy engaged me on their turn...and then it crashed. Before the workaround, I wouuld get through 15 minutes before it crashed. You're right, a faster frame rate with a 15 minute crash would be much better. That way I wouldn't lose an hour and half of my life before screaming at the game and doing something less futile.

**YD23** · July 06, 2009, 09:54 PM

Would not this work a bit better?

Multithreading can be turned off using the preference.empire_script.

Here is how if you would like to know.

Go to this folder:

Code:

  C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts

and open this file: preference.empire_script. CTRL+F ans search for:

Code:

multithreaded

Set it to false instead of true to turn it off.

Cheers.

P.S. The App data is hidden by the way, to show use folder options in control panel.

**LtChambers** · July 06, 2009, 11:22 PM

Ah, when I first saw you post that I thought the variable had to do with 3d models, but rereading it I reckon it's using the word in same sense as 'mode'. So yeah, not creating extra threads in the first place would be better than forcing multiple threads to use a single core.

**ergie** · July 07, 2009, 02:53 AM

Originally Posted by yelowdogg23

Would not this work a bit better?

Multithreading can be turned off using the preference.empire_script.

Here is how if you would like to know.

Go to this folder:

Code:

  C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts

and open this file: preference.empire_script. CTRL+F ans search for:

Code:

multithreaded

Set it to false instead of true to turn it off.

Cheers.

P.S. The App data is hidden by the way, to show use folder options in control panel.

This method doen't seem to work in my system, but setting affinity to core 0 in task manager works. Weird...

**pajomife** · July 07, 2009, 05:39 AM

My CTDs happens in the battle maps ,preceded by a sound mute,this suggestion fits in my CTDs?

**ergie** · July 07, 2009, 05:59 AM

If it's a sound related issue, I'm afraid no, but you've nothing to lose if you try.

I initally thought that my problem was a sound issue because it happened the same at you. Sound mute and CTD or BSOD. (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...12#post5491312), and finally it was not, it was a multithreaded problem. So try and pray

**pajomife** · July 07, 2009, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by ergie

If it's a sound related issue, I'm afraid no, but you've nothing to lose if you try.

I initally thought that my problem was a sound issue because it happened the same at you. Sound mute and CTD or BSOD. (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...12#post5491312), and finally it was not, it was a multithreaded problem. So try and pray

This solve your problem?
And is better close the CPU 0 or 1 ? Then we restart the game?

**LtChambers** · July 07, 2009, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by pajomife@iol.pt

This solve your problem?
And is better close the CPU 0 or 1 ? Then we restart the game?

I choose CPU 1 but it shouldn't matter much. All background tasks on your OS will be automatically given to the idle core. And no, you definitely do not restart after changing the priority. Unfortunately, you have to apply this fix every time your start the game, because the default affinity is for all cores. If there was a command-line flag I knew of to launch with affinity already set, I'd say use that - but I know of no such flag.

**ergie** · July 07, 2009, 06:26 AM

yes, has solved my problem; This is exactly what I did:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...14#post5523614
The downside is that you lose the performance gains by multicore CPUs

**ergie** · July 07, 2009, 09:28 AM

Yes, there is one, at least in Vista and probably in windows 7:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/
Anyway I haven't tested in my home-PC. At work (dual core+vista32) it works. But the problem here is that empire.exe is launched from STEAM, not directly, I'm afraid.

**LtChambers** · July 07, 2009, 07:39 PM

I tried "start /affinity 1 D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\empire total war\empire.exe" but I think that gets routed through steam so the affinity doesn't take effect. I also tried imagecfg and didn't have any success with that either.

**pajomife** · July 07, 2009, 08:29 PM

And this solution don't take effect to me to,maybe I play one or two battles without a crash but they still appear.
After 1.3 or 1.3.1 my game completely broke,in 1.2 I paly more the 50 battles with no CTDs,now I cant play the game.
CA don't have any excuse,at least they should us roll back the game,if this is the future of TW games,Steam and other forced stuff ,its a pity.

Edited :Still give me those error.

Nome do Evento de Problema: APPCRASH
Nome da aplicação: Empire.exe
Versão da aplicação: 1.3.1.0
Carimbo de Data/Hora da Aplicação: 4a43ce26
Nome do Módulo com Falhas: Empire.exe
Versão do Módulo com Falhas: 1.3.1.0
Carimbo de Data/Hora do Módulo com Falhas: 4a43ce26
Código de excepção: c0000005
Desvio de Excepção: 00d1bf30
Versão do SO: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
ID de Região: 2070
Informações Adicionais 1: 8d13
Informações Adicionais 2: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311
Informações Adicionais 3: 8d13
Informações Adicionais 4: cdca9b1d21d12b77d84f02df48e34311

**LtChambers** · July 08, 2009, 09:00 AM

You're sure you set the affinity every time you started up the game?

**commander_25** · July 18, 2009, 01:25 PM

Hello Guys,

i have tried this and it worked!! I have no CTDs in Battles anymore

Thanks for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings

commander

**deathsai** · July 18, 2009, 07:40 PM

I have done this and I get a few less crashes, but my game still crashes an hour or two in. It happens on the campaign map and on the battle map, and with Darthmod, IS, and vanilla. I have an i7 and I've set it to only use core 0 every time I start up, as well as the preferences fix. Still not working.

**Skyline Pete** · July 18, 2009, 09:22 PM

I'm not lowering the performance on a machine that should destroy Empire, I guess I'll go back to playing something else like I have been for the last 3 weeks. Try again CA.

**Hans-Wurst** · July 19, 2009, 03:29 AM

Hi Guys,

thx for the workaround. It works somewhat..but i still get crashes in real time battles. Never get them on the strategical map though, with or without workaround. It all was more stable in 1.2.

This game, im sorry to say is a big mess in technical terms. You may think about gameplay and such in a different way, all depends on your taste. But presenting such a horrible programmed piece of software to the customer is cheeky at least.

I did pull my conclusions from that Sega and CA and though im can just speak for me, i hope that many others will do that too.

I look foreward to the next patch, hoping it will give me a working product again.

System:
Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz
Palit GTX 275
4 gigs of RAM
Win Vista 32bit
most important piece: able user