The cause of crashes/freezes/low performance has been found

[calvinus]

Hello,

following the frequent crashes and freezes reported by brpounds (see here), I did some investigations.

In fact, version 1.07 was quite stable and it sounded very strange so many people were claiming such serious problems.
So I compared the game performances of version 1.07 before AgeOD market launch with the copy-protected version that can be downloaded from AgeOD's site.

Well, here the result: I'm really confident the copy-protection caused a general and major downgrade of game performance, bringing also freezes and crashes.

So I applied a "less invasive" level of copy protection, tweaking a bit the protection tool. Then I sent to brpounds a trial version and... puff... everything started working much better! The game was running again smooth, fast and fine, with no crashes nor freezes. The cause was found.

I hope such a news will be welcome for you. A patch will be soon available. It should fix the performance drop-downs that you, customers of the AgeOD version, are now suffering from.

My apologizes for this inconvenient. At least I'm happy the reason was not inside the game itself...

Thanks for your patience,
Calvinus.

[Primasprit]

Hello,

following the frequent crashes and freezes reported by brpounds (see here), I did some investigations.

In fact, version 1.07 was quite stable and it sounded very strange so many people were claiming such serious problems.
So I compared the game performances of version 1.07 before AgeOD market launch with the copy-protected version that can be downloaded from AgeOD's site.

Well, here the result: I'm really confident the copy-protection caused a general and major downgrade of game performance, bringing also freezes and crashes.

So I applied a "less invasive" level of copy protection, tweaking a bit the protection tool. Then I sent to brpounds a trial version and... puff... everything started working much better! The game was running again smooth, fast and fine, with no crashes nor freezes. The cause was found.

I hope such a news will be welcome for you. A patch will be soon available. It should fix the performance drop-downs that you, customers of the AgeOD version, are now suffering from.

My apologizes for this inconvenient. At least I'm happy the reason was not inside the game itself...

Thanks for your patience,
Calvinus.

Thats great! But what copy-protection? Did I miss something? Or did you mean the protection by the unique serial number?

[calvinus]

Yes, exactly the unique serial key protection. Indeed it's not a simple unique serial key protection tool, but it affects the whole game... at least I discovered so, considering the major loss of game performances! In fact, I was wondering like you that the copy protection was to affect only that part of the game where the serial key is checked!

[jimwinsor]

If this manages to solve the graphics issues some of us have been having as well, I'll be happy as a clam!

[Pocus]

Depends on the options you check when you use the program (that we won't name here!)

[Anguille]

You mean the copy protection within the patch 1.07? If i have 1.06d i don't it?

[demarcroix]

You mean the copy protection within the patch 1.07? If i have 1.06d i don't it?

It's only for those who bought & downloaded the 1.07 complete version directly by AGEOD: so you don't seem to be concerned!

[calvinus]

It's only for those who bought & downloaded the 1.07 complete version directly by AGEOD: so you don't seem to be concerned!

Yes. Patch 1.07 does not contain any copy-protection. It's for the Nobilis version.

This problem affects only AgeOD version, sold by download, that contains a serial key check copy protection.

[Anguille]

Ok...thanks for clearing up...now i can patch!

[clausewitz]

I have downloaded the new patch that was supposed to fix the copy protection-related stability issues attached to the download version that I too had been suffering from, but when I installed it, it informed me that my serial key was invalid and I could not run the program. Going into the setup menu, the serial key line is entirely blank. I don't think I received a serial key of any kind when I originally downloaded the game, and if I reinstall just the plain download version, it runs fine. What on earth am I supposed to put into the serial key slot in the setup menu to make this game run?

I can't believe that the patch that was supposed to make the game playable has actually made it totally unplayable, rather than mostly unplayable.

[Franciscus]

I have downloaded the new patch that was supposed to fix the copy protection-related stability issues attached to the download version that I too had been suffering from, but when I installed it, it informed me that my serial key was invalid and I could not run the program. Going into the setup menu, the serial key line is entirely blank. I don't think I received a serial key of any kind when I originally downloaded the game, and if I reinstall just the plain download version, it runs fine. What on earth am I supposed to put into the serial key slot in the setup menu to make this game run?

I can't believe that the patch that was supposed to make the game playable has actually made it totally unplayable, rather than mostly unplayable.

As far as I know, the patch to solve copy-protection related issues is not available yet. What patch are you talking about ?. If it is the one available from Nobilis, it is not needed, as the download version is already 1.07.

[clausewitz]

I am referring to the 1.07a patch that is posted on the Great Invasions website, that was put up in late June, and claims to be the solution to copy-protection related crashes. This is why I assumed it was the patch Calvinus promised, reasonably, I think.

[calvinus]

Patch 1.07a is ONLY for the GI version distributed by AgeOD via digital download. It is supposed to work only on that serial-key-copy-protected version, as expressely informed on the game web-site.

Clausevitz, what version was you playing before applying the patch?

* If you was playing with the Nobilis version, you don't need of the 1.07a patch, but at least of the Nobilis 1.07 patch.

* If you was playing with the AgeOD version, you have to type AGAIN the serial key number using the Setup tool. I hope you saved a copy of the serial key number indeed...

The game is not made unplayable by the patch!

Patch 1.07a is the patch intended to solve the drop of game performances caused by the copy-protection-tool.

[jimwinsor]

And it works too!

I just reinstalled, did not register, loaded the 1.07a patch, and THEN ran the utilities and registered...and that did the trick; it seems to have solved my graphics problems. So yeah, it looks like the new copy protection was indeed the culprit.

A big help for a future patch (1.08?) though, would be with the pausing issue. I still have major hand-eye coordination issues with that, as my laptop pause key is accessed through a Fn key. Suggestions for this problem would include 1) another hotkey ("P"?) to pause; 2) a mouse-clickable pause/unpause icon on the screen (ie, the hourglass would make a good candidate for this I think); and/or 3) autopause options for the various game messages (just like EU).

[calvinus]

And it works too!

I just reinstalled, did not register, loaded the 1.07a patch, and THEN ran the utilities and registered...and that did the trick; it seems to have solved my graphics problems. So yeah, it looks like the new copy protection was indeed the culprit.

Gooood!!! Very happy news! Indeed I was really puzzled... that damned copy-protection!

A big help for a future patch (1.08?) though, would be with the pausing issue. I still have major hand-eye coordination issues with that, as my laptop pause key is accessed through a Fn key. Suggestions for this problem would include 1) another hotkey ("P"?) to pause; 2) a mouse-clickable pause/unpause icon on the screen (ie, the hourglass would make a good candidate for this I think); and/or 3) autopause options for the various game messages (just like EU).

I kept note of all this stuff. I hope to find time to work on a new patch. Indeed I'm now very busy in another project. Let's wait and see what happens...