[EM] CTD on planetary descent, Windows 8... *FIXED*

[Teksensei]

specs..
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
4 gig memory
GeForce GTX 560, driver 310.90
No sound issues

Reinstalling the game doesn't fix the problem every time, sometimes it does so that's not 'the fix'. I use this system totally for gaming, and Evochron Mercenary is the only one that has given me any problems at all. I've went through complete hardware diagnostics, cpu, memory, video card, drives (SMART status, and surface), mb... all pass. I've went through an exhaustive process of eliminating software, and services one at a time... with no luck. I debug peoples machines every day, and why this is happening just escapes me entirely.

[Vice]

I've submitted the issue to Nvidia to see if something in drivers might help. But the problem is pretty intermittent (as you encountered), only on Windows 8, and apparently, only on Nvidia hardware. The problem appears around basic file loading operations, although it could be related to something with trying to place the loaded mesh files into video memory. So it may either require a driver update from Nvidia or a Windows update. It may also help if you report the issue to Nvidia with your system configuration as well here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/driverqual ... rance.html

Did you try the Windows 7 compatability mode?

Oddly, my Windows 8 test system had the same problem a few weeks ago, then it started working fine and hasn't had a CTD in about 2 weeks now. Can't explain that either, seems to be a very peculiar problem.

When/if things change on that OS for the game, I'll post new information in this section of the forum.

[Edited on 1-8-2013 by Vice]

[Maarschalk]

The 4 Gig of memmory might be on the skimpy side for Windows 8 to work with the game. You need atleast 2 Gig of continues free memory and maybe when you descent onto a planet which is memory intensive use might crash the System!....There seems to be issues with Windows 8 for this game that Vice is still working on!
Did you try to play the game with everything Graphics wise on the lowest settings?....

And Hi Teksensei, welcome to the game and froum!.....Hope to see you out there some time once you get it working!.....

[Edited on 1-8-2013 by Maarschalk]

[caidicus]

As Vice asked, are you running with Windows 7 compatibility enabled?

Find the evochron mercenary exe file (either in your steamapps/common folder or in your default install folder for the game ie:C:\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary), right click it, click on the compatibility tab and select "run this program in compatibility mode for" after which you will click the drop down box and select Windows 7.

This method helped me overcome this error, and I'm now able to run the game in full graphics and AA, whereas without compatibility mode, my client seemed to run out of memory when approaching planets.

If you have success with this method, please say so on this thread so others can also benefit from your findings.

[Edited on 1-8-2013 by caidicus]

[Teksensei]

Hello Vice, all...

After a cold boot with all standard services, and Windows Defender active I got a successful planetary landing with Windows 7 compatibility enabled. I didn't try that before, my bad (embarrassingly enough). Sometimes it's the simplest thing. It did lag a couple of times (I think it was a texture load), but pushed on through.

On a side note, 4 gig is fine for gaming on Windows 8. Crysis runs at 45-60 fps for me here.
The only game that gives me any other lag at all is Mechwarrior Online, but setting GPU at max with NvidiaInspector clears that up (darn adaptive power thing).

Right now it looks good. The game is fantastic, and I look forward to enjoying it.