Evochron Mercenary 2.298 available...

Official SW3DG related announcements and news.
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Vice
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Evochron Mercenary 2.298 available...

Post by Vice »

Version 2.298 is now available for download. As usual, the installer can also be used to update older versions of the game. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmerce ... nloads.htm

This update includes the following improvements/fixes:

- Improved rendering performance for most systems.
- Mod placement options added for text chat/message log.
- Improved activation performance for the dynamic cube mapping system for planetary water (eliminating the 0.5-1 second pause on planetary descents).
- New loading mechanism applied to planet meshes and city meshes to better support systems with limited/restricted hard drive performance/functionality (ie file error 105).
- Fix for loading issue causing stored custom weapons in hangars to have removed stats.
- Updated collision system for planetary terrain to reduce overall memory use.
- Training mode can now be completed using profiles saved in other systems.
- Adjusted click ranges in configure controls menus.
- Improved lens flare masking for capital ships.
- Several minor bug fixes.

The error 105 probably won't be solved for every system with this update. If you are using a security program or data/file management/backup program that interferes with basic read/write operations on your hard drive, you may still encounter this error. The game must be able to save out data to your hard drive reliably without interference from any external programs in order for this error to not occur. So if you encounter it at all, make sure you have included the game and/or its folders in any available exception list for such programs so that they won't interfere with its critical file operations.

The terrain collision system improvements have resulted in a memory reduction of around 50-100 MB, which should help the game run better on systems with lean memory available.

The rendering performance improvements with this update should generally result in a 15-20% increase in the framerate on most systems while also providing a more stable framerate.

Edit: Updated the build number to 2.298 after making further changes to the latest version to improve framerate performance.

[Edited on 1-19-2013 by Vice]
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Post by 9T9 »

I think your dedication and programming skills are marvelous. :o

Just some words for motivation purposes.
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Post by Malix »

any chance of specifying planet/terrain data folder? I tend to keep my save-files in dropbox, but the planet-data overflooded it :P
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Post by Skodyn »

Would I be right in assuming that Steam will be updated automatically, and there's no need to worry about it?
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Post by Letoras »

From post: 156109, Topic: tid=10432, author=Skodyn wrote:Would I be right in assuming that Steam will be updated automatically, and there's no need to worry about it?
yup:D
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Post by Eleuth »

From post: 156061, Topic: tid=10432, author=Vice wrote:Version 2.288 is now available for download. As usual, the installer can also be used to update older versions of the game. It can be downloaded here:
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmerce ... nloads.htm

This update includes the following improvements/fixes:

- Improved rendering performance for most systems.
- Mod placement options added for text chat/message log.
- Improved activation performance for the dynamic cube mapping system for planetary water (eliminating the 0.5-1 second pause on planetary descents).
- New loading mechanism applied to planet meshes and city meshes to better support systems with limited/restricted hard drive performance/functionality (ie file error 105).
- Fix for loading issue causing stored custom weapons in hangars to have removed stats.
- Updated collision system for planetary terrain to reduce overall memory use.
- Training mode can now be completed using profiles saved in other systems.
- Adjusted click ranges in configure controls menus.
- Improved lens flare masking for capital ships.
- Several minor bug fixes.

The error 105 probably won't be solved for every system with this update. If you are using a security program or data/file management/backup program that interferes with basic read/write operations on your hard drive, you may still encounter this error. The game must be able to save out data to your hard drive reliably without interference from any external programs in order for this error to not occur. So if you encounter it at all, make sure you have included the game and/or its folders in any available exception list for such programs so that they won't interfere with its critical file operations.

The terrain collision system improvements have resulted in a memory reduction of around 50-100 MB, which should help the game run better on systems with lean memory available.

The rendering performance improvements with this update should generally result in a 15-20% increase in the framerate on most systems while also providing a more stable framerate.
Hi Vice,

I was wondering if in one of the new updates the terrain of the planets are more covered with random green and houses.
(no idea if this is possible). It gives the planets a much more real look.

Thanks for responding.

Eric
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Post by Rusty »

I have just done a clean install of 2.298, on my Win7 64bit system with 12GB memory, but am getting a CTD at the very begining of the game when I try to reconfigure my Talon ship. the CDT displays the following error message: Runtime Error 7018 Could not load 3D object at line 83961

Can you help please?
Many Thanx
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Post by Vice »

Yes, this support thread offers troubleshooting steps and solutions for media loading errors in the game: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6595

I would suggest you start with the game's cleanup routine, then proceed to the other steps if that doesn't work. If it turns out to be a security program that interfered with the game trying to load files, make sure you have the game included in any exception list or gaming mode it may provide so it will help prevent it from happening again in the future.
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Post by Busch »

b2.298 onboard and flying really well! Planets and cities and water, oh my! :D:D A veritable plethora of planetfalls for the high-speed, low-drag, crash-test inclined. [me :)] And not a one of them bolo'd.
All planetary aspects (SP/MP) are smoother than a.....silk! Smoother than silk - Yes Sir! The tweaks for the frame rate/rendering/memory issues are revealing a lot more fine object detail on my lash-up. Or so it appears anyway. Wow! :cool::cool:
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Post by waybryson »

From post: 156260, Topic: tid=10432, author=Rusty wrote:I have just done a clean install of 2.298, on my Win7 64bit system with 12GB memory, but am getting a CTD at the very begining of the game when I try to reconfigure my Talon ship. the CDT displays the following error message: Runtime Error 7018 Could not load 3D object at line 83961

Can you help please?
Many Thanx
I had something a lot like this happen to me. I found that the problem related to my launching the game in full-screen mode when my screens weren't locked into an eyefinity display group. Try running the game in "optimized" mode. This worked for me--though it cuts my GPU in half because ATI crossfire won't work when a program is running in windowed mode.

On that note, I am looking forward to seeing how this latest patch improves performance. I would get terrible screen tearing after the last patch--regardless of settings--whenever the game was run in full-screen.

I hope this helps :-)
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Post by Rusty »

Thanx for the reply waybryson. I've checked and the game is already running in optimised mode, although I only have one screen to worry about. Funnily enough though I have two Nvidia cards running in sli but I've played Legends and Mercenary before and never had this problem. It only seems to be this version and something in my computer it doesn't like.

I've read the thread that Vice pointed me to and have sent him the files he requested although I carried out all the tests and advice but it's made no difference. :(
Maybe the files I sent him will show up something. :)
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Post by Vice »

Indeed, it appears to possibly be something else on your system. Thanks for the files, I've sent a reply with a suggestion to check mod files.
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Post by waybryson »

Last quick comment. You might try disabling SLI. I assumed the problem was the game being set to full-screen. Perhaps the problem was Crossfire, which simply couldn't be an issue when running in windowed mode. So you might try disabling SLI and seeing if it helps. Crossfire never gave me any problems prior to the update. So there very-well could be a negative scaling issue or the like. The game is incredibly well-optimized, so you ought to still get good performance. The game runs like butter for me with 4X AA, 8x anisotropic filtering, and Vsync on all three screens with only a single card. On that note, well-done Vice. Well-done.
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Post by Rusty »

It would appear that my problem has been solved. It looks like the ctd's were caused by a corrupted game installation possibly caused by a badly downloaded game file.

An un-installation, deleted sw3dg folder, deleted z8888evo folder (mentioned in an error message) re-downloaded game file and re-installation of the game sorted the problem.

Everything is running fast and smooth with no more CTD's.

Just mentioning this in case it may help someone else.

My thanx to tech support for all their help. :)
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Post by zex »

v2.298 is an excellent and very stable build! No problems at all with stuttering framerate!

Thank you so much for your excellent support and game :)
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Post by Munshine »

+1 indeed :)
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Post by haloterm »

I have just recognized that the Evocron expansion was released a while ago, and happily many patches seem to have solved most of the issues that such a big step usually brings.

I am very impressed how much Evochron has evolved -- I especially like that the planet's scale seems bigger, more believable while landing. I also like the improved interface (font and clarity). Now I'm going to explore what else has been added (gameplay-wise) :D

Thank you, Vice, for the great work on the expansion and the patches! And esp. thanks for making that expansion free -- I was expecting to pay at least some fee (as expansions for most games are not for free). So double-thanks!
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