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Author Topic: Game permanently freezes randomly  (Read 3536 times)

REYNAULD

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Game permanently freezes randomly
« on: December 10, 2019, 09:48:41 AM »

I have been playing Starsector for a while but since a few weeks, my game randomly freezes permanently. Usually it happens in a fight but can also while I'm just exploring.
It is a real problem due to the random factor, which have made me lose a looot of saves...
Any help would be appreciated !
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2019, 10:03:00 AM »

Hi - sorry about the trouble! A couple of questions:

1) Can you clarify what you mean by "freezing" - do you mean the game pauses and then resumes, or does it crash, forcing you to re-launch it?
2) If it's a crash, immediately after the crash, what's at the end of starsector.log? Does it give you some other kind of error message? Are there any hs_err_pid<some numbers>.log files somewhere under the Starsector/ folder? They might also be in starsector-core.
3) Are you running with any mods?
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REYNAULD

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2019, 03:48:59 AM »

Sorry for taking so long I forgot I made this post ^^'
So,
1) when saying that the game freezes permanently, yep I mean that it crashes, it doesn't resume
2) I just played for a while just to see it crash again to be able to give you a fresh feedback, and after a good search, I didn't find any .log file, except the starsector.log one
But starsector.log doesn't seems to have any error un the last lines :/
3) I do play with a few mods, but it happened before I started playing with mods (I am not sure about that thought, it's been a long time since then)
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2019, 12:52:10 PM »

Hmm. Not much to go on, unfortunately, but - a couple of general-purpose things to try, individually, or in combination:

1) Running with your anti-virus disabled
2) Running the game in administrator mode
3) Running the game in compatibility mode for Windows 95, XP, or 7
4) Turning off any other programs you might have running at the same time, especially to do with video capture or playback
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REYNAULD

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2019, 07:14:36 AM »

Ok I will try all this !

But the thing is that I can play 10/40 minutes with nothing bad happening and then suddenly it will crash... It's just so strange, as it's never in the same situations
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2019, 08:53:36 AM »

Yeah, that's weird and that's what's making me think it's some kind of interaction with something on your system. Heck, it could even be something like bad ram.

... actually, this gives me another idea - next time it crashes, check in the windows Event Viewer for any warnings/errors that happened at the same time. That could give some idea as to what exactly is happening to cause this.
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Schwartz

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2019, 08:35:58 AM »

If you mean a total screen freeze, that can also be related to 1) graphics driver issues / aging graphics card or 2) dying harddrive.

Especially if it is repeating and the game used to be fine some time ago, but now it isn't, you have to consider that some part of your hardware may be failing.
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TiberQ

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2019, 01:53:15 PM »

I also experience random freezes, the last couple of weeks.
1)no hardware failing
2)plenty memory
3)yes i do run whit mods
4)running without anti-virus is not gonna happen
5)no error log

In my case, the game resumes after about 5 to 10sec waiting, no cpu or memory usage during this time, especially by the game (windows Event Viewer)


The freeze event i could replicate however;

I got a colony that is a moon (as in orbiting a bigger planet) inside a system whit clouds.
When the clouds have moved faster than the planet(s) or vica versa, resulting in the colony being either in or out of the clouds since last time system was loaded. The game freezes.
So i assume it has something todo whit the preload of that system that needs to be adjusted, to spawn / despawn the clouds, around the planets in question.

Hope this helps o7
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2019, 09:25:02 PM »

Hi - this seems like a different issue; the OP is talking about a crash, while in your case it's a freeze that the game recovers from. Based on what you're saying, it sounds like it could be a mod-related issue. The only loading the game does when you jump into a system is if the background changes, but it wouldn't render anything while that's loaded, so if you're seeing clouds and the planet out of sync, that sounds like... probably? not a vanilla issue.
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Mordodrukow

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2020, 10:32:47 PM »

I dunno if it count as random freezes, but i have similar issue: the game starts to microfreeze (for 1 second or something...) every 8-10 seconds (cant say more precisely) after 1-2.5 hours of playing. I can restart it and it helps for another few hours.

Looks like it is some sort of memory problem. When i had 2 or 3 faction mods (on the top of "core 3", radar and speed up... and anime girls portrait pack, lol :D), the problem was pretty rare. In my last run i had like 7 mods and it starts after few hours of playing as mentioned above. Also: looks like it happens faster if i use "load" option more often. Around 10 times or little less during this period.
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2020, 08:59:10 AM »

Yeah, this sounds like a mod memory leak issue and properly belongs in the modded support/bug reports section. However: what you probably want to do is increase the memory allocation for the game by editing the vmparams file; see here:

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8726.0

That *should* get around the problem.
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Mordodrukow

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2020, 12:37:42 AM »

Did it, but encountered new problem (not quite sure if it really new, because i returned to the game after a few month break, and it looks like, i v taken it just because i had this error before): for some reason game CDT during saving. Sometimes it saves well. But sometimes it starts saving, then all sounds disappear and it shows me a message that java ceases to function.

Not sure that it is connected with memory allocation changes, because i saved backup file before modifyng anything.

I m using Win7 64x. Have 16gb ram, but my frind said, that only 8 of them are in use because of some build restrictions (something with motherboard, i guess... we talked about that like 5 years ago, cant remember all the details). So, i v allocated 4gb. Also, using geforce 660TI (it says: 2 gb vram).

CDT happens in the same system: i v destroyed AI nexus, saved (success), then trying to fly and take control over sensor array, encountering 2 AI fleets, destroying the biggest, saving (crush here). Trying to reload and save before the battle just to check if it works - still crush. Never tried to leave the system yet.

Will try to update the mods later. If it will not help, will have to start new game, i guess... This one was really overloaded: used a lot of factions, big sector size and also set maximum density (up to 6 colonies per system + few stations). The strange thing is: i had memory leak problem, but never (may be few times) encountered any crashes, so, i guess, it is some problem with current sector developed after some time.
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2020, 09:56:34 AM »

Can you take a look here? Some possible solutions:

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=17398.msg274207#msg274207
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Mordodrukow

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2020, 11:49:50 AM »

Tried "false" setting. It helped once (also had 3gb allocated memory during that attempt), but then the game CDT from main menu when i tried to reload the save. I guess, my computer is just too old...

Hadnt tried to disable any of Lib mods, because almost every content mod demands libs to work. And my graphic driver is up to date.

Also: tried to start a new game. Disabled 2 faction mods (so, DMic, Shadowyards, Sylphon, and Ship&Weapon pack left. Also Nex. All updated). The game crashes (at the very start) if i m trying to enable "random core worlds" setting. I mean: it allows to do that, but crashes during sector generation. At the same time: it works perfect if this option is disabled.

But my previous run (the one with freezes) was generated with random words. And that run worked some time (i got 2 colonies and pretty big capital fleet already). So, i guess, there were no errors, but they appeared during the run...
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Alex

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Re: Game permanently freezes randomly
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2020, 12:03:25 PM »

Hadnt tried to disable any of Lib mods, because almost every content mod demands libs to work. And my graphic driver is up to date.

Per the instructions in the linked post, you can turn off GraphicsLib while keeping it enabled in the launcher for compatibility with mods that require it - so, I'd definitely give that a shot.

(This issue should be gone-around in the next release, btw; I think it relates to the progress-bar-rendering code, of all things, and that will function differently.)
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