CTD in Battle

**Streen15** · October 31, 2009, 02:15 AM

I was having a fantastic time playing as the Germanic tribes for a good 45 minutes. My first battle was one of the most intense experiences I had in a TW game for a LONG time. All of a sudden, after about 20 minutes in battle, BOOM, get a CTD. What files would you guys need in order to help diagnose my problem? This is not the first time a CTD occurred to me using this mod. In fact, as far as I can remember almost all longer battles ended in some kind of CTD - although I only played 2 battles that I can remember. I reformatted my computer since, so I wasn't able to play much with the mod.

The only other modification to the game I made was added music. This should be unrelated to my issue, however. Drivers are fully updated, just got done reformatting my computer. I am playing the game through steam. I am crossing my fingers this does not have to do with my issues. Please help! I was having such a fun time, but I fear for another CTD

PC Specs:

9800GT Nvidia
2.4ghz intel dual core
4gb ddr2 800 RAM
Windows XP

**Streen15** · October 31, 2009, 03:38 AM

As an update, I tested to see if this was a persistent error by running custom battles. It definitely crashed each time. It took about an equal time for each battle before it crashed. I am running all my settings on Ultra (with the exception of Unit Details which is set to high). Each time, my game runs with some lag, but nothing too bothersome - and I don't think it would cause a CTD either way. If there is a log file which would help you guys figure out a potential cause for my problem, just let me know. Campaign seems to run fine, it's just in the heat of battle that I seem to always crash

.

P.S. Is there any chance this could be caused by a memory leak? I don't know why it would. I play Empire Total War with Darthmod, which means I am playing with armies consisting of 300-men units. I never get a CTD from those games. Perhaps there is something else running in this game that causes me to crash. It was, afterall, not made for dual-cores to begin with ...

**Paedric** · October 31, 2009, 05:55 AM

I believe it is your music, since it starts to CTD at about the same time each battle.
Revert back to the original music and see what is happenig.

Also, remember, the RS Team isn't responsible for any CTD if you have change the mod.

**Brusilov** · October 31, 2009, 07:11 AM

The first thing to do is to ensure that you have the -show_err switch on the shortcut target - this can output an error message if the problem is trapped by the game.

The fact that the game appears to crash in longer battles is an indication that it may be a graphical problem. The way to prove this, as a test, is to lower your settings considerably, and then fight the same battle again. If you complete the battle then it's an indication that your graphics card is struggling.

You could experiment with turning down the vegetation level as this is a known killer of graphics cards.

It's always possible that there could be a problem with a specific unit in the battle. Recently I had a CTD during beta testing - the game would do an error-less CTD just when two armies met. I experimented with various units thinking it was something to do with one of the units. It turned out to be caused by the general having the missile attribute without having any missiles.....

However, with RS1.6 I am sure that if there was a problem with a specific unit we would have heard about it by now - especially as I don't think any units have changed since RS1.5.

You could post the army compositions.

So long as you are playing an unmodded RS1.6 game you can always supply a save game and someone may be able to play the battle out.

Edited: I noticed that you're playing the game through Steam. Can you supply some screen shots on how you've set up your game to play with RS? Over at the RTW Eras tech support (and here) we get a number of questions on how to play mods with Steam. I will be able to add the details to the RTW Eras tech Help and acknowledge where the details came from. My understanding is that all switches etc need to be set up in Steam. Thanks.

**Streen15** · October 31, 2009, 12:59 PM

I realize this is a crappy image, but I have everything installed in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\rome total war gold.

RS Setup: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...5/RTWSetup.jpg

You mentioned using a switch. So far, I have been running RS simply through the steam launcher, which as far as I know uses the RTW.exe (When I click RTW Gold, it gives me the option to play either RTW or Barbarian version, i opt for RTW as BI does not work). I deleted the RS.exes displaying on my desktop as soon as I noticed they did not work with steam. How would I go about adding that switch you mentioned?

I will try turning down the settings and see if that helps. I tested the battles with different unit compositions, so I don't think it has to do with that. I will test that too. One thing I was thinking about last night was that I manually turned on glints in the game. Could this be a reason to crash? I am not sure if RTW was ever meant for glints - perhaps there was a bug mentioned a long time ago that glints cause crashing. Either way, I will turn them off and turn settings drastically down to see if it fixes. If it does not, I will post a save game.

Thanks for the quick support so far, I'll have an update soon.

**Brusilov** · October 31, 2009, 06:22 PM

I've turned on glints in the game manually as well and have not suffered any problems on the system that I am using at the moment (it has a 9800GX2). Although I've only played a few custom battles with RS1.6 to get screens for the launch - I'm doing beta testing and getting screens for RSII. I guess glints would increase the demand on your card anyway.

As for setting up switches - check out this thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...52#post6224952 It appears as if Magnum482 uses the switches along with Steam and how it's done is described in the thread. I had a guess (a correct one as it turns out) where the switches could be in Steam and that is posted there as well.

You may find that the reason RTW BI does not work is that you need to include the -mod:BI switch (I think). I know that's not needed if you run the RTW BI exe - but I am not sure how it's set up in Steam (and I'm not going to add my RTW to Steam to find out).

**Streen15** · November 01, 2009, 02:38 PM

Okay, I did it by opening steam, right clicking properties, going to the general tab and then set launch options. All I did was add '-show_err' without the quotations. Is this correct? I still get the choice between running BI and RTW when I double click the game. Is this correct? I don't understand how this could be related to my crash, but I am hoping for the best. I will also try turning graphics to a crawl and see if that solves it.

----------------------

UPDATE: After having modified the switch as you detailed I still am witnessing crashes. I have yet to decrease the graphics settings to a crawl, but somehow I am beginning to wonder if the changing weather is causing my computer to crash. This crash seems to occur at the same exact moment each time. Could this be caused by some sort of event which takes place on the battlefield? For instance, does RS change the battle from day to night if it lasts longer? Perhaps this change causes a crash? Am I crazy, or does any of this make sense? I will get back to you as soon as I turn my settings to absolutely minimal and try to play through the battle. I somehow doubt it is a graphical related issue, because if so would it not crash toward the beginning of the battle instead of the end when all the units are almost dead?

**Streen15** · November 01, 2009, 11:20 PM

More bad news. I received a CTD just a while ago while sitting on the campaign map. I wasn't doing anything. I just was sitting there and I came back later and it froze on me. I am beginning to lose hope that I can play this game

... It crashed as I was also testing out the game on lower graphic settings. I completely turned off shadows, turned down grass and environment as low as possible. I got through the battle, but I wasn't sure if it was because of the graphical settings or not.

Something is simply not working with my game. I do not think it is a graphical-related issue. Is anyone running this on steam without any crashes? I am really depressed right now about my situation

**Brusilov** · November 02, 2009, 03:22 AM

Adding the switch will not stop any crashes. As I posted previously the only affect of the switch is to output an error message if the problem is trapped by the program. Typically, this is things like 'file missing' messages but there are other types of diagnostic messages as well. The effect of having the switch is that these messages will be output while if the switch is not in place there is no chance of a diagnostic error message.

The fact that you managed to get through a battle probably implies that it's a graphic card problem - maybe overheating? This is especially true if it's a battle that's previously CTD.

With the CTD on the campaign map - was the game really just idle or had you pressed 'end turn'? This problem may be separate to your battle CTD. Was anything running in the background on your PC? I'd start to look at the services that are running using msconfig. It's possible to stop some services from running although you need to look them up on google before stopping them. You could try something like IOBIT's 'Game Booster' software which can put your PC in 'game mode' by closing down many Windows services: http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Have you set the campaign and battle resolution to the same? Is this resolution the same as the 'native' resolution of your screen?

The other thing to do is some 'housekeeping' on your system: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=100384

**Streen15** · November 02, 2009, 03:45 AM

I appreciate all the help you have given me. I fear there's nothing else I can do. I just got done reformatting my computer, so there is little-to-nothing as of right now running in the background. I have always optimized my system before playing any game. RTW is the only game that I get CTDs from. I play Empire Total War with Darthmod which -really- ups the system requirements by having 300-450 unit squads. Because of my experience with other games, I highly doubt it's an overheating issue. In fact, my temps are all stable. I installed a zalman about a year ago to prevent just that.

As far as the Campaign goes, yea, I'm pretty sure it was idle. I cannot say with 100% certainty, as I walked away after I hit the button. I will try again and see if it happens, although I am running out of options. Everything else you suggested I have been doing for years with video games. This is all very frustrating. Anyway, thanks for all your help, but I think there's nothing I can do that I haven't done already.

**Brusilov** · November 02, 2009, 03:50 AM

So the campaign CTD wasn't just with the game at idle - especially depending upon which button you pressed before you walked away. Was it the 'end turn' button? The RTW engine still has some inherent bugs in it and it's a matter of tracking them down.

We can only help you if you supply enough detail - otherwise we're just guessing.

**Streen15** · November 02, 2009, 11:35 AM

It was the End Turn button yes. I save every other turn or so, but I don't quicksave. I always delete the old save file and create a new one.

**Brusilov** · November 02, 2009, 01:02 PM

OK, so it didn't happen while 'you were sitting on the campaign map' - it's somehow tied in with 'something' that happens during the AI turn......

The only way to try and track down exactly what is happening is to do the following:

1) Edit your preferecnces.txt
2) Change FOG_OF_WAR:TRUE to FOG_OF_WAR:FALSE (so you can see the whole map - I may have got this around the wrong way)
3) Change LABEL_CHARACTERS:FALSE to LABEL_CHARACTERS:TRUE
4) Change CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA:SKIP_AI_FACTIONS to CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA:FOLLOW_AI_FACTIONS
5) Launch RS and press end turn
6) Watch the action and see what is happening that is causing the crash

If a character (captain or general/family member) is getting stuck try to move them or kill them using the various cheats - I've never managed to get them to work on my UK keyboard though.