MTW2: Kingdoms mod CTDs

[Landil]

Hello,

I have a long-standing issue that I have not been able to resolve myself and while I do not expect anyone here to give the answer either, I think it is at least worth a try. The issue is with the as of yet unreleased M2TW: Kingdoms mod that I am a developer for: Dominion of the Sword, and originally arose in August 2012. At that point the mod had already been installed on my computer for several months and I had so far encountered no real problems with it. One day, when a new version of the mod had been released (we use Sourceforge coupled with TortoiseSVN to enable quick data transfer between the team) and I updated to that version, things went to hell. While the game would still start up normally, I was getting CTDs at random whenever I tried to start a campaign or load a save game, which showed either "Unspecified Error", or "Fatal Graphics Error" followed by "Unspecified Error". These occur seemingly at random, both in the sense that sometimes the game would simply load without trouble rather than crash (the ratio seems to be about 3 failures per 1 success) and that the crash would occur at a random moment during loading (sometimes instantly after clicking play, sometimes just before the game should have been finished loading, often somewhere in between). Even more strange is the fact that is doesn't seem to matter what graphical settings I choose, whether its on the lowest or highest possible settings, whether its fullscreen, windowed, widescreen, various options turned on off: it all results in the same situation of random CTDs.

Of course, I instantly started checking what could be wrong together with my colleague developers. I reverted the mod folder back to earlier versions, but this didn't help. I checked for possible missing or corrupted files, but nothing turned up. None of the other members of the DotS team have encounter this problem either. So I did full manual reinstallations (with registry cleaning and all that) of M2TW, Kingdoms, DotS, TortoiseSVN and audio and graphics drivers. The vanilla campaigns still worked fine, but even after that, the problem persisted. I then tried a hundred other things I'm not all going to list (including spending a lot of time on this subforum seeing if someone had found solutions to problems similar to mine). In the end, this turned out to all be in vain as well, so I decided to wait until I got my new PC, which I was planning to buy.

I bought that new computer earlier this month, and its running smoothly. With shiny new hardware and everything getting a clean installation I was hopeful that when I was to install DotS again, everything would be fine this time around. Guess I was wrong...

So with that long story done, here's the information I have regarding the problem I'm facing and requesting help with:

• The mod is still showing the same symptoms after a fresh installation on a brand new system.
• The problems are caused neither by the vanilla game nor by the mod (as the same mod functions perfectly fine for the rest of the team).
• All hardware except my graphics card and my monitor are new. These two were also around, however, during the months before August last year when the mod was running just fine on my old system.
• All drivers and Windows programs that might affect M2TW (graphics drivers, audio drivers, directX 9.0c, .net Framework, etc.) are up-to-date.
• The issue is not caused by my Firewall or Anti-virus, I have checked that.
• UAC is off and the game is installed outside of C:\Program Files.
• DxDiag is included below.

Please feel free to ask any questions.

Cheers,

Landil

[Larkin]

This is heartbreaking to read if it is delaying DotS. It seems like you've tried everything, but I wonder if you have neglected some of the simplest fixes (especially for the "Fatal Graphics Error") which is to make sure you're running it as the administrator, and to kill the advisor.

Other than that, there has to be something wrong with your install of it. You said you backed it up to previous versions and had the same issue, did you go multiple versions back or just to when it was last working? You could in theory check every single file that changed to look for signs of corruption, but that would take forever.

You could look at other team members' installations to see if there are any notable differences, or perhaps install it not onto a brand new system but one that already has Kingdoms on it to see if it has the same effect. Perhaps take the mod from another member and see if theirs works on another system if yours does not, seeing as they haven't had this problem.

Indeed, it could be something as simple as a problem with your Kingdoms - if you're operating off the old disc, it could be scratched etc by now. Perhaps it's worth a Steam purchase (I don't know how that would affect the modding of it) to see if things change. But it sounds to me that there's something corrupt in your DotS version that is unique to you and you just haven't/can't detect it.

I understand these suggestions aren't what you're looking for and I'm sorry I can't be of more help, I hope someone else will. Good luck!

[irishron]

I don't how much these will help but I do see a few things.
1. www.realtek.com.tw has newer High Definition Audio codecs than yours. May worth an update.
2. This game has shown a dislike for wireless keyboards and mice. Some have had better luck with Microsoft's Intellitype and Intellimouse drivers but if you decide to try it, set a Restore Point first.
3. It maybe worth trying it with a wires mouse and keyboard to see if it goes away if you have them laying around or can borrow them.
4. Have you checked www.intel.com to see if they have newer chipset drivers?

[Landil]

This is heartbreaking to read if it is delaying DotS. It seems like you've tried everything, but I wonder if you have neglected some of the simplest fixes (especially for the "Fatal Graphics Error") which is to make sure you're running it as the administrator, and to kill the advisor.

Neither running it as administrator (which I always do) nor in compatibility mode makes any difference. The advisor is also off.

Other than that, there has to be something wrong with your install of it. You said you backed it up to previous versions and had the same issue, did you go multiple versions back or just to when it was last working? You could in theory check every single file that changed to look for signs of corruption, but that would take forever.

I have installed it multiple times in various directories through various methods without result. It doesn't matter what version of the mod I try, it will generate exactly the same problem every time.

You could look at other team members' installations to see if there are any notable differences, or perhaps install it not onto a brand new system but one that already has Kingdoms on it to see if it has the same effect. Perhaps take the mod from another member and see if theirs works on another system if yours does not, seeing as they haven't had this problem.

I have compared my mod folder with that of fellow team members, with the result that there doesn't seem to be anything missing.

Indeed, it could be something as simple as a problem with your Kingdoms - if you're operating off the old disc, it could be scratched etc by now. Perhaps it's worth a Steam purchase (I don't know how that would affect the modding of it) to see if things change. But it sounds to me that there's something corrupt in your DotS version that is unique to you and you just haven't/can't detect it.

The mod does work with the Steam version for other members of the team. I might try it as a last resort, but I'm not spending money until I'm certain that this can't be fixed otherwise.

I don't how much these will help but I do see a few things.
1. www.realtek.com.tw has newer High Definition Audio codecs than yours. May worth an update.
2. This game has shown a dislike for wireless keyboards and mice. Some have had better luck with Microsoft's Intellitype and Intellimouse drivers but if you decide to try it, set a Restore Point first.
3. It maybe worth trying it with a wires mouse and keyboard to see if it goes away if you have them laying around or can borrow them.
4. Have you checked www.intel.com to see if they have newer chipset drivers?

1. Downloaded it, the same anomaly still occurs.
2+3. The Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard and G9x Gaming Mouse both connect through a USB 2.0 cable, they're not wireless. Is the DxDiag saying otherwise? Also, even if they were wireless, the mouse and keyboard I used on my previous system were both USB 2.0 cable-driven as well, and were there both when the mod functioned correctly and throughout the period from August onwards when I had this problem.
4. Yes, there haven't been any driver updates since I installed the latest ones on my PC earlier this month when I had just bought it, apart from the realtek one.

[irishron]

Does vanilla crash?
Do any of the four original campaigns crash?
Have you tried an earlier version of your mod?

[Landil]

Does vanilla crash?
Do any of the four original campaigns crash?
Have you tried an earlier version of your mod?

As I have already answered in the original post: no, no and yes (multiple times).

I'm currently discussing the issue again with the team, particularly to see if it has anything to do with CPU or RAM usage. If nothing results from that, I'll probably try another complete reinstallation.

[irishron]

If CA's works, then I'd have to say it's the mod.
I wish you luck figuring this out with your team.