brpounds
Civilian
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Crashing

Fri Jun 15, 2007 3:47 am

I have a Dell xps_gen_5
Pentium D CPU 3.00 GHz
1.00 GB RAM
Windows XP 2002 with Service Pack 2

I've been trying the Grand Campaign but the game crashes every 3 or so years.

I'd like to narrow and pinpoint the problem, but have been unable to so far.

This is after installing v1.07 as well.

buzz

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calvinus
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Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:10 am

Do as follows:
- disable logo, musics and sounds (via Setup tool);
- disable autosave (via Game Options or Setup tool);
- play at low game speed, or at least not at high speed;
- try playing in windowed mode (use always Setup tool to set this option)
- disable antivirus, if any.

Tell me if this helps.

brpounds
Civilian
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Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:20 pm

How do I get to the setup tool?

buzz

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Primasprit
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Fri Jun 15, 2007 5:36 pm

Hi brpounds!

You have a shortcut 'Setup' in the start menu \Great Invasions.
The executable 'Setup.exe' is located in the game directory.

brpounds
Civilian
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Still crashing

Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:49 pm

I finally tried all the suggestions, and the game creashed a minute into my saved game.

buzz

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Uncle Billy
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Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:12 pm

No follow up to this? I'm guessing brpounds still has the same problems?

I have a similar rig, the boxset version of the game, and similar problems, so I'm adding to this thread. The game as it is is an absolute unplayable, buggy mess, and that's with the patch, on a fresh install. And after I've turned off all the options that might cause it (autosave, sound), except full screen (no way am I playing this in a dinky, off-centered window on my computer, that's ridiculous).

Crash: blue screen of death, memory leak, window's recovering from serious error.

Crash: game freezes moving from one overlay to another, manual restart

Crash: things still move on game, animations etc., but mouse clicks don't select new things, armies never get where they are going and time doesn't actually advance, and I can't open menus

Armies often disappear when they invade new provinces (fog of war?), until I click about looking for them.

This, combined with goofy UI (can't go to main menu from game, can only exit the whole program and restart, checking messages you have to click the down arrow a million times to get to the last message--no scroll bar, no sensible 'show last message first', you can't arrange army units to display a sensible order, only a few army units shown in window but huge armies possible, multiple armies in a province are an absolute pain in the ass to sort through, etc.) should be enough for me to kick this game aside.

But this is my favorite period of history :niark: , and I like so many elements of this game I'm willing to not give up yet. I heard how buggy this thing was when it came out, I figured after so much time it must be patched up, right? Nope, but if there is something I can do to make it playable (other than the no full screen setting, that's a deal breaker) I'll do it.

Anything? Any help out there for what should have been a ground breaking game but is still an exercise in frustration over a year of patching later?

Uggis
Conscript
Posts: 7
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Crashes, lags, unplayable...

Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:58 pm

I have the exact same problems described below. I have the downloaded version, have installed both patch 1.07a and 1.07b and have experimented with the settings until I'm blue in the face (or more correctly: red :p leure: ).

It's a truly great game but what does it take to make the damned thing WORK?

Uncle Billy wrote:No follow up to this? I'm guessing brpounds still has the same problems?

I have a similar rig, the boxset version of the game, and similar problems, so I'm adding to this thread. The game as it is is an absolute unplayable, buggy mess, and that's with the patch, on a fresh install. And after I've turned off all the options that might cause it (autosave, sound), except full screen (no way am I playing this in a dinky, off-centered window on my computer, that's ridiculous).

Crash: blue screen of death, memory leak, window's recovering from serious error.

Crash: game freezes moving from one overlay to another, manual restart

Crash: things still move on game, animations etc., but mouse clicks don't select new things, armies never get where they are going and time doesn't actually advance, and I can't open menus

Armies often disappear when they invade new provinces (fog of war?), until I click about looking for them.

This, combined with goofy UI (can't go to main menu from game, can only exit the whole program and restart, checking messages you have to click the down arrow a million times to get to the last message--no scroll bar, no sensible 'show last message first', you can't arrange army units to display a sensible order, only a few army units shown in window but huge armies possible, multiple armies in a province are an absolute pain in the ass to sort through, etc.) should be enough for me to kick this game aside.

But this is my favorite period of history :niark: , and I like so many elements of this game I'm willing to not give up yet. I heard how buggy this thing was when it came out, I figured after so much time it must be patched up, right? Nope, but if there is something I can do to make it playable (other than the no full screen setting, that's a deal breaker) I'll do it.

Anything? Any help out there for what should have been a ground breaking game but is still an exercise in frustration over a year of patching later?

Uggis
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Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:47 pm

Still no answer?

Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:10 pm

Thats is it! I'm deleting this piece of c**p from my harddrive. There's 15 Euros I'll never see again... You should delete the following from the game's website:

WARNING: this video game published in 2005 does not guarantee any compatibility with Windows Vista; it works on the other hand perfectly under Windows XP.

It simply isn't true and you should know that. That means you are willfully misleading potential customers and that is illegal in most countries.

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demarcroix
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Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:12 pm

Uggis wrote:Thats is it! I'm deleting this piece of c**p from my harddrive. There's 15 Euros I'll never see again... You should delete the following from the game's website:

WARNING: this video game published in 2005 does not guarantee any compatibility with Windows Vista; it works on the other hand perfectly under Windows XP.

It simply isn't true and you should know that. That means you are willfully misleading potential customers and that is illegal in most countries.


Keep cool guy! :cool:

This game works even on my laptop with Vista and I installed it before with my previous laptop under XP. With both it works fine. :)

You should ask directly Calvinius here: he was the software developer of this videogame and can give you advices in order to make it work.

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PhilThib
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Location: Meylan (France)

Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:08 am

Please also specifiy all the specs of your machine, that would help solve the matter. :indien:

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calvinus
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Official answer about Windows Vista compatibility

Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:26 am

First of all, my apoligises for my silence.

Second, take this as on "official" answer about Vista compatibility. What I can say, without going into technical details, is that the "Map Engine" of Great Invasions has been developed using Direct X 8.01 inner functionalities and, to my knowledge, Windows Vista requires Direct X 9.0 libraries at least, that seem not to be 100% compatible with some of the functionalities used by the "Map Engine" of Great Invasions.

(For instance, original intentions of Microsoft was to guarantee/require only Direct X 10! That would mean NO COMPATIBILITY with the "past" at all... Then somebody realised this would have been a great mistake, so here the reason why the Dx9...)

Anyway, this was our very first impression, with the very first releases of Windows Vista.
In fact, following the updates of this OS, some guys started reporting me that they were successfully playing Great Invasions with Windows Vista. Then, such people increased with the passing of time.

Well, I do not know which ones updates exactly allowed this backward compatibility, and mainly I do not know if Great Invasions is now really 100% compatible with Windows Vista. What I can tell you is that we cannot guarantee any compatibility with Windows Vista. Stop.

In order to have a 100% Window Vista compatible Great Invasions, the graphic engine is to be completely reworked. This requires resources.

So, potential customers are not "willfully misleaded", as Uggis wrote, because they know what unhappy consequences can arise, and they buy the game on their risk.

On the other hand, it's true that many customers reported crashes and/or freezes, even with XP.
I alwais gave the same responses, such as:

- Disable or Uninstall antivirus and firewalls (mainly Norton Antivirus and Zone Alarm, the "worst" ones)
- disable logo (via Setup tool, expecially if your DivX codec is not supported by Windows Vista)
- disable musics and sounds if you have low RAM (via Setup tool);
- disable autosave (via Game Options or Setup tool);
- play at LOW game speed, or at least not at high speed;
- try playing in windowed mode (use always Setup tool to set this option);

Indeed, game works fine with 1GB RAM, no nasty antivirus / firewall, playing at low game speed, as reported by many customers. Sorry if stressing your attention towards antivirus and firewalls, but the reason of so frequent and premature crashes is to be searched in resident programs.

My apologises again,
Calvinus.

Uggis
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Apologizing for my outburst

Tue Nov 27, 2007 12:32 pm

Allright - I'm calm, I'm calm!

When I turn off my Internet connection, my Zonealarm firewall and my anti-virusprogram and run the game in windowed mode, it seems to work. Problem is, no matter what I do, I can't see the bottom part of the UI, meaning I can't click on some buttons. Any advice on how to fix this?
When NOT playing in windowed mode, the game ALMOST works (crashes but not nearly as often, doesn't freeze up as often either), provided I turn off the other stuff.

About the stability setting - I have found no explanation for this in the documentation and so I don't know what this can do for me. I've tried ALL settings at some point but haven't noticed any difference in game performance. If my computer is a 2.4Ghz Pentium, with Windows XP, 512 MB RAM and a Geoforce 6200 graphics card, then what is it? "Fast", "Very slow" or what?

Uggis
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Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:47 pm

To clarify a few things...

Tue Nov 27, 2007 12:39 pm

In all fairness, I'd like to clarify a few things...
I suspect many potentil customers peruse these forums and I don't want anyone to miss out on a terrific game because they read what I wrote.

The basic concepts and overall design of Great Invasions IS PURE GENIOUS. To simulate such a chaotic timeperiod by using a few simple concepts like ageing, different stages in a society's development, administrative points and logistical points, is awesome! The gameplay is easy to learn, well balanced and FUN!
The game is a very good example of what creative thinking can achieve and for an historian a must!
I would love to see AGEOD revisit this period some time in the future, this time with the resources to do it right.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am in the process of founding a Hunnic kingdom in Egypt....

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calvinus
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Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:21 pm

Uggis wrote:When I turn off my Internet connection, my Zonealarm firewall and my anti-virusprogram and run the game in windowed mode, it seems to work. Problem is, no matter what I do, I can't see the bottom part of the UI, meaning I can't click on some buttons. Any advice on how to fix this?
When NOT playing in windowed mode, the game ALMOST works (crashes but not nearly as often, doesn't freeze up as often either), provided I turn off the other stuff.


Indeed Uggis you got the point. Now I explain the problem, trying to use no technical terms.

Anti-virus and firewall (resident) programs, and in theory most resident programs, FREQUENTLY generate popup windows, alerts, onscreen animations etc. etc. THAT CAUSE the game application "loose" the focus from the fullscreen mode. This causes the graphic engine of Great Invasion crashes and the behaviour is always so: the DirectX engine tries to "resize" the 3D environment, fails, the game freezes and then crashes. In some PC is terrific, because the whole OS seems blocked...

This problem is known. For this reason, the windowed mode has been supported. And for players that have 1024x768 monitors (where windowed mode hides the bottom part of the UI), the 800x600 resolution has been provided: launch the Setup tool and select the 800x600 resolution.

This is a trick, I agree... and the 800x600 resolution is not so nice, I understand.

This is why, for instance, I TOTALLY REWORKED the Graphic Engine of the current SECRET project I'm currently working on, where we will have a Game Engine that is 100 times more stable than Great Invasions, a Graphic Engine that allows Alt-Tab and Alt-Enter key combinations, that DOES NOT CARE absolutely of the noisy antivirus and firewalls, etc. etc.

In fact, I approached a solution quite similar to that adopted by Pocus in his AGE engine (a maximized window with no boundaries and no caption).

I would like to put all these innovations inside Great Invasions, but now I have no time for that, sorry... :p leure:

But I promised to myself to do that.

Thanks a lot for your patience.
Calvinus.

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calvinus
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Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:25 pm

Uggis wrote:About the stability setting - I have found no explanation for this in the documentation and so I don't know what this can do for me. I've tried ALL settings at some point but haven't noticed any difference in game performance. If my computer is a 2.4Ghz Pentium, with Windows XP, 512 MB RAM and a Geoforce 6200 graphics card, then what is it? "Fast", "Very slow" or what?


Stability settings... well it's a very technical stuff... let's say it's a "delay" that I introduced to avoid "collisions" between threads in shared resources access. :8o:

In simple words, it avoids the real time engine risks a crash when playing at high game speed on a fast PC...

Set it freely at 3 (average PC, I guess...) and play at low game speed: the first three speeds (very slow, slow and medium) should be ok.

You will soon realise that the best one is "slow", mainly because the amount of events and decisions to take sometimes overwhelmes you! :sourcil:

In fact, the game speed represents the ratio for converting real time into game time, i.e.: 1 minute = 1 month. If you play at high game speed, you have the following DISADVANTAGES:

1) you miss most of the game flow, you are not able to take decisions in time, you get soon confused;
2) AI mostly suffers from same problems like you! And this is a very bad thing... :grr:

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calvinus
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Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:36 pm

Some side notes and tips about antivirus and firewalls:

- these programs often notify automatic updates (both available, or downloaded or to be installed) through popup windows. This "noisy" activity makes the game unstable and mostly causes crashes.
- these antivirus and firewalls are often difficult to be disabled, because they require a lot of settings management (especially Norton Antivirus and Zone Alarm), so that it becomes almost mandatory to uninstalle them!
- most firewalls block multiplayer gaming for Great Invasions, unless customized accordingly.

Uggis
Conscript
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Thanks!

Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:49 pm

I thought I tried the 800x600 setting... hmm... will try it again and see what happens. A good thing the game is so interesting, or else I wouldn't go through all this trouble to play it.

SECRET project, you say....? :niark:

calvinus wrote:Indeed Uggis you got the point. Now I explain the problem, trying to use no technical terms.

Anti-virus and firewall (resident) programs, and in theory most resident programs, FREQUENTLY generate popup windows, alerts, onscreen animations etc. etc. THAT CAUSE the game application "loose" the focus from the fullscreen mode. This causes the graphic engine of Great Invasion crashes and the behaviour is always so: the DirectX engine tries to "resize" the 3D environment, fails, the game freezes and then crashes. In some PC is terrific, because the whole OS seems blocked...

This problem is known. For this reason, the windowed mode has been supported. And for players that have 1024x768 monitors (where windowed mode hides the bottom part of the UI), the 800x600 resolution has been provided: launch the Setup tool and select the 800x600 resolution.

This is a trick, I agree... and the 800x600 resolution is not so nice, I understand.

This is why, for instance, I TOTALLY REWORKED the Graphic Engine of the current SECRET project I'm currently working on, where we will have a Game Engine that is 100 times more stable than Great Invasions, a Graphic Engine that allows Alt-Tab and Alt-Enter key combinations, that DOES NOT CARE absolutely of the noisy antivirus and firewalls, etc. etc.

In fact, I approached a solution quite similar to that adopted by Pocus in his AGE engine (a maximized window with no boundaries and no caption).

I would like to put all these innovations inside Great Invasions, but now I have no time for that, sorry... :p leure:

But I promised to myself to do that.

Thanks a lot for your patience.
Calvinus.

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calvinus
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Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:22 pm

To my knowledge the project is SECRET.

Does somebody already know what game will be??? :grr:

Uggis
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Just heard a rumour...

Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:29 pm

..probably incorrect. Good P R 2 keep it a secret until you are sure it will be finnished.
Looking forward to whatever you guys design after ACW and the new Nappy game.

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calvinus
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Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:04 am

Incorrect! :niark:
No P R 2 game...

Rufus08
Civilian
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I don't know what to do? :(

Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:55 pm

Hi Guys,
I have just recently bought this game because i was looking for a roman empire building type game to play on. Anyway i think it was 3 years into the game that it crashed and this error message came up. I have looked on this forum for the patches and i found the new 1.07 patch for ageod. Anyway there are loads of other pathces and i don't know what to do. Anyway i read ugis post and it kinda put me off on the game and patches because he mentioned blue screen of death, which is a no no for me. Anyway, is there a way to fix this crash and if so could anyone tell me how.

Thanks

Rufus

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Tecnócrata
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Location: The Land of Thieves.

Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:41 am

Sorry for rising this again, but... If the origin of crashes is an old graphic engine, could the solution be some form of DirectX 8 emulation?
[SIZE="3"][font="Book Antiqua"]I told you that we'll meet again here. The Place Where There Is No Darkness.[/font][/size]

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