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Messages - BlackAlpha

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1
Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Vayra's Sector 3.1.1 - GHOSTIER SHIPS 2019-12-06
« on: January 12, 2020, 09:56:37 AM »

The mod will not bug out! You can replace it by replacing the .ogg file with one of the same name, changing sounds.json to point to a different file, or you can turn it off by setting the volume to 0 in sounds.json. Like more or less everything else I design, they are both a little bit of a joke and played completely straight.

I like your mods a lot, but this joke is sadistic.  :P

It's also a bit of a pain to fix it yourself. You have to overwrite the files in Kadur Remnant, Vayra's Sector and Vayra's Ship Pack. Then, you have to edit the config file in Vayra's Sector to fix the volume. It was quite a hassle to figure all of that out.

But anyway, that track is funny the first time. But if you hang around planets/stations belonging to that faction, then it becomes very annoying. After the sixth time, in a time span of 15 minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. I suggest to replace the track with something that doesn't make your ears bleed.  ;)

2
As a workaround, make sure you make new saves often. Whenever I get the problem that you described, I always have been able to load up the previous save and then keep going. I always do a new save every 30-60 minutes, so at worst I only lose 1 hour worth of progress.

3
Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Re: Saving Time
« on: July 31, 2017, 04:05:10 PM »
@ Alex: the save Progress bar stops for a while in the first 10% for seconds (growing up with each new safe Action) after that it makes his way slowly but surely and takes more time from safe to safe.

Will try to Defrag my Harddrive before i mess up myself with other stuff.. :x

@BlackAlpha: I Allocated 8gb from my 32 i have so if it's right it should never reach the cap and that can't be the Problem itself (does everything right up from Nemo's how to do Video :D).

I use an Geforce 960gt so it should have enough (that's only what i think) :D teach me if i'm wrong with it :x but.. i will give that Thing with the Afterburner a shot.

turn off mods is a hard decision... even for the "core ones" :-/

There are many different versions of video cards. You can check how much memory your video card has by following the instructions on the following website (Dedicated Video Memory is what you are looking for):
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001307.htm

The only way to be certain you aren't going over the limit is by checking with Afterburner. I'm guessing it's mostly an issue if you have less than 3 GB.

4
Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Re: Saving Time
« on: July 31, 2017, 12:05:30 PM »
I've had this happen when:

1. I didn't allocate enough memory to Java.

2. I almost ran out of video card memory.

So, first make sure you allocate enough memory to Java. Go to the game folder, use a text editor to open the file "vmparams", then look for the parameters "-Xms" and "-Xmx", and change them to a higher number (4-6 GB is probably enough). Just make sure you don't max out your memory in Windows.

If that doesn't fix the problem, then maybe you are running out of video card memory. Install MSI Afterburner and use it to monitor your video card memory usage (turn on the overlay for memory). Make sure you don't max out your video card memory when running this game, as the game will then become unstable. You can reduce how much video card memory is used by turning off GraphicsLib shaders (it's a setting in the ini file, in the GraphicsLib mod folder) or by turning off a couple of mods.

By the way, if the issue is caused by the problems I mentioned above and you don't fix it, then at some point during saving it might corrupt your save game. So, best to try to fix it ASAP.

5
Definitely the out of VRAM crashes are culprit when you see the log like that:
2060601 [Thread-4] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager  - Saving to ..\\saves/save_BrucePeters_8215150333091730753...
2060602 [Thread-4] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager  - Saving stage 1

abrupting without any message or without throwing exceptions.
Dialing down vram mods like graphics lib will help immensely with low VRAM graphic cards. I've spent literally one day trying to find the solution to my CTDs, and you sir BlackAlpha have helped me to find the answer. I wish the game could have some better VRAM management, dropping unnecessary things from heap as soon as they aren't needed[i thought java removes any objects that is lacking reference in code], but its not as easy when you develop complex game like this. Wish i could play with lots of mods and graphic libs on my 2G VRAM card :(
Currently after i've start the game, with basically most of faction mods and graphiclib installed i peak at about 2020 mb of VRAM, and then when trying to save or load the game, it crashes.

Did you try turning off the GraphicsLib shaders in the ini file? That did the trick for me. I added even more mods and have 40 of them - I think I'm running almost all available mods - and I peak around 1600 MB, which is pretty good as my video card has 2 GB. By the way, after an hour or two, the Java's RAM usage goes up to like 8 GB for me. So, if you run as many mods as I do, you may need to set the Java RAM to at least 8 GB (although, maybe Java merely reserved that RAM but didn't really need that much). I've been running the mods completely stable for like 6 hours.

6
Bug Reports & Support (modded) / Re: strange glitch :(
« on: July 31, 2017, 06:22:06 AM »
Assuming you have enough RAM and have allocated enough to Java, this issue might be related to the following:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=12637.msg217703#msg217703

Ever since I drastically reduced my video card memory usage, I haven't had this graphical glitch anymore on save/load. It seems like this game doesn't play nice when you (almost) use up your video card memory.

You can install MSI Afterburner to monitor how much video card memory you are using.

To work around the problem, you can disable a bunch of mods to reduce the amount of video card memory you are using. The biggest difference comes from disabling the GraphicsLib shaders in the mod's ini file, you can then still use the mod for other mods that require it. If it then still is using too much video card memory, you'll need to start disabling mods.

7
Yeah it's kind of hard to verify that when I have an 11 GB card...  But I doubt it's that simple.  We're chasing symptoms rather than the root cause, I think.

True, most likely it's the game's fault, not the mod's.

8
Uploading now. It'll take a bit, I'll edit the post with the link when done.

E: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4W9L0RBmcddOXNIeC1xWktBblU Here's the mod folder. FWIW, I have a smaller Nex game going with slightly less mods that just did the same CTD. I'll upload that save too if you like.

E2: Actually, here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4W9L0RBmcddRWUyZ0hoUHdLT0E This is the save I mentioned in the first edit. Something I did notice that might be contributing to the crash is that there's a pirate base very close to some non-pirate markets, and so many fights have broken out that tons and tons of scavenger fleets keep spawning.

I don't think it has anything to do with the pirates or scavengers or fights. I did a couple of new campaigns where immediately upon starting, I went to the planet I started at, I spent like 10 minutes setting up my loadout and doing a simulator battle, I bought some crew/supplies/fuel, then I tried to save and it crashed.

After others mentioned it, I did some testing with video card memory and it does seem to be related to that. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor my video card memory. My video card has about 2 GB of memory. When I start a campaign where it uses over 2 GB, then shortly after starting the campaign it crashes during saving. If it uses less than 2 GB, then it seems to work fine. The way I get it to 2 GB is by launching tons of mods. I tried enabling/disabling different combination of mods and it doesn't seem to be related to any particular mod.

From my testing it doesn't seem to matter what mods you use or what you do in game, you just need to get it (close) to the limit of your video card memory.

The best workaround that I've found so far is to disable the GraphicsLib shaders (in the mod's ini file). That saves about 500 MB and then you can still use tons of mods.

EDIT: I wasn't able to come up with a combination of mods where I can get close to the limit of my video card memory and have GraphicsLib disabled. So, I couldn't rule out that the problem isn't caused by that mod. It would be ideal if somebody with less video card memory (like 1 GB) could do a test without that particular mod, to see if that mod is to blame or not - ie. load up so many mods that you hit the video card memory limit, but do not run GraphicsLib, start a new campaign, then play for about 30 minutes and see if it crashes at some point during saving.

EDIT2: Here are the mods I used: http://www.mediafire.com/file/rlxjdclkcwvrrdg/mods.rar
Also, I'm now a few hours into a new campaign with the GraphicsLib shaders turned off and there are no more problems.

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