13 réponses à ce sujet

[Fernando Melo]

We're talking with Sony but this is a bit out of the blue for us as to why it is affecting DA (this is a sony hardware update).



Could I ask if this is affecting you to include some more details...

- Are you playing Origins or Awakening disc (or DLC version)

- Which Sony region are you in

- Could you check a different title on your PS3 to confirm if this is DA only



Thank you.

[Fernando Melo]

We're continuing to work with Sony on trying to resolve why their hardware update would have this affect on DA.



From your feedback so far (and monitoring the Sony forums and other game sites) we're seeing this as a world wide (region independent) issue - so no more info on that is needed (thank you for those that provided the info).



We're now focusing people here on trying to zero in on 2 possible areas that are coming up as common threads related to the crashing, to try and narrow down the cause - I'd appreciate it if you could send us more info on your experience with these so far:



1) All games being reported as affected in some manner, and the one bluray movie I've seen reported as affected so far (Avatar), all have some type of online connection option and send data at various points to non-Sony servers. In DA's case there are updates to social, Avatar I believe sends data to their website, etc.



Some of you have reported less/no crashing if you completely disable your network connection on your PS3, or not have it plugged to ethernet cable. But not if you simply log off from PSN.



I'd like to hear more on that specifically - have you tried the above, and is it helping? Is it only a physical cable disconnect or disable of network connection in PS3 settings, and not only logging out?



Also, for DA, it normally attempts the send social data updates at save points, and level up to minimize in-game impact. If you are seeing crashes, I would like to hear from you on whether that was on/near/around auto-save points, or a manual save you made (or not related) - to see if that helps us narrow this down.



2) Some of you have started reporting that deleting pre-3.30 saves has helped. This is something I'd be very hesitant to recommend given time invested, unless we know for sure. Also, does creating a new game character help? What about creating a new PSN profile?



We have folks here now also looking at this, but if you have done any of these please let us know whether this helped.



Thanks again for your patience - it is pretty clear that despite this affecting other titles, that it has impacted on DA substantially. We're hopeful there is something we can do from our end to work around whatever was introduced in 3.3. In the meantime, please continue to send us information that will help us narrow this down.



ps. Different topic, but with respect to promo codes & expiry - please continue to redeem the codes here on the social site or within the game itself. The expiry date mentioned is related only to the code use, not the content for download. The current issue is that the content is not appearing correctly, but once that's fixed (nearly there) anyone having redeemed their code will still be able to d/l the content, well beyond Apr 30th.



Also, we won't be expiring the codes on the 30th given the recent issues.

[Fernando Melo]

Thanks for all the details so far - this is really helping us zero in on potential areas that were knocked by 3.3.



One of the challenges in tracking down 3.3 so far is that we have only been able to reproduce this on retail (home version) of PS3s - like all of you - and unfortunately that means we don't get a lot of the additional data that comes with reproducing problems on a dev kit, to help us solve an issue quickly.



In the meantime, we have to do this a little old school, and keep narrowing cases down. So I have a few more questions to help us further, or help eliminate some other edge cases. Also, I've noted that some of you have already responded to these, but i'm trying to get a sense of whether they are common or not, so every post does help.



- There may be relation to save games / saving which we're reviewing. On the PS3, DA has a system that allows you to continue playing while you are saving (note that the save icon is still going). If you wait/stop until the icon has disappeared completely, do you still experience crashes? Or are these only happening if you continue to do things while saving (moving, talking, combat, opening GUIs like inventory, etc)?



- We don't think it is related at this time, but just want to get a reality check on whether hard drive space available is a factor. Could you provide a rough estimate of free space if you're getting crashes? Also, an indication of how many DA save game slots you have on the profile you're playing with?



- Another line we're looking at is whether this is largely affecting data that existed pre-3.3. For those that added DAO only after 3.3, have you experienced crashes?



- Audio still playing seems to be a common item, and it is actually a very good lead if solid. Are you experiencing crashes where not even audio is playing? Or predominantly it is everything is unresponsive but audio continues? Does audio stop a few minutes after the crash, or keep going?



- Lastly, DA is a title that requires you to install the game to the hard drive. If you are experiencing issues on OTHER games after 3.3, are these games also installed to the hdd? Did the game require this, or did you manually choose to install it?



Thank you again.



Also, for those just jumping into the thread - if you'd like to see a recap of all posts we've made so far on a thread, you can do so by clicking on the BioWare icon under each thread.

[Fernando Melo]

arthur_fellner wrote...

what aumichael sugested really works
"Hi, The freezes seem to have stopped for me after turning off PS
Upscaler and PS Smoothing in Settings: Game Settings. It was freezing
about every 10-30min, but I've played for a couple hrs without a freeze
since turning off the settings mentioned. Just a fyi - may be worth
trying."

tried as well that, and I played for about 3-4 hours without any problems
hope this helps you as well

Interesting.  Could folks post what resolution they have their PS3 at?  Are you running HD or SD?  And what kind of physical hook-up (HDMI, composite).  And whether trying the above works for them?

Thank you again

[Fernando Melo]

Fernando Melo wrote...

arthur_fellner wrote...

what aumichael sugested really works
"Hi, The freezes seem to have stopped for me after turning off PS
Upscaler and PS Smoothing in Settings: Game Settings. It was freezing
about every 10-30min, but I've played for a couple hrs without a freeze
since turning off the settings mentioned. Just a fyi - may be worth
trying."

tried as well that, and I played for about 3-4 hours without any problems
hope this helps you as well

Interesting.  Could folks post what resolution they have their PS3 at?  Are you running HD or SD?  And what kind of physical hook-up (HDMI, composite).  And whether trying the above works for them?

Thank you again

Quick follow-up - looking more at this internally we're not sure this is related (but send in your results nonetheless). 

HOWEVER, if you are running the PS3 higher than 720p, could you try to change the settings to 720p and see if that has any effect (e.g. are you crashing less frequently?)

Thank you

[BW_Lee]

Hi there DA forumites.



Do any of you have a few minutes to check something out? Try creating a new PS3 profile with no Trophies unlocked, play DAO for a bit and see if it has any effect on the crashes/freezes?



Probably unrelated, but it would be worth checking into to cross it off the list, so if anyone doesn't mind donating a few minutes and posting back here, it would be much appreciated.



Thanks!

[BW_Lee]

Realiststyle wrote...

BW_Lee wrote...

Hi there DA forumites.

Do any of you have a few minutes to check something out? Try creating a new PS3 profile with no Trophies unlocked, play DAO for a bit and see if it has any effect on the crashes/freezes?

Probably unrelated, but it would be worth checking into to cross it off the list, so if anyone doesn't mind donating a few minutes and posting back here, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

23 m 16 s in, no problems yet.

Were you encountering problems with it in ~23 minutes when you were playing on your profile that had Trophies unlocked? I mean is it any different with the new profile?

[BW_Lee]

lagunaloire wrote...

um... i tried starting a game w/ a new profile no trophies unlocked, i be able to play 4-5 hours. i continue it the next day it freeze after 30 mins. I reboot it, then i be able to play w/o freezing. no freezing w/ over 10hrs of my gameplay, havent play online, im just afraid that it will affect my gameplay.

So leaving your PS3 on, then continuing the next day on DAO causes freezes, but they are resolved when you reboot?

[BW_Lee]

Tatalya12 wrote...

Answers to dev questions:
All my crashes were on a new mage, wearing boring starter stuff except for the three equipment pieces from Dragon Age: Journeys.
None of them were while I was doing anything other than walking around and/or moving the camera- not in a menu, not in a store, not in combat, not talking to anyone, not saving, not autosaving, not leveling up.

I'm plugged into the tv with an hdmi cable, running 1080p, Upscaler and Smooting turned on.

Hi Tatalya!

Can you do me a favor (if you have the time), and try the same thing, but with a fresh PS3 profile, with no saves or trophies attached to it? Let me know if it has any effect? Thanks a lot, it can help narrow down the issue.

[BW_Lee]

Realiststyle wrote...

BW_Lee wrote...

Realiststyle wrote...

BW_Lee wrote...

Hi there DA forumites.

Do any of you have a few minutes to check something out? Try creating a new PS3 profile with no Trophies unlocked, play DAO for a bit and see if it has any effect on the crashes/freezes?

Probably unrelated, but it would be worth checking into to cross it off the list, so if anyone doesn't mind donating a few minutes and posting back here, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

23 m 16 s in, no problems yet.

Were you encountering problems with it in ~23 minutes when you were playing on your profile that had Trophies unlocked? I mean is it any different with the new profile?

In an effort to recreate the problem I played both times using a trophies account and non trophy account using a female elven mage.  The spot where it froze for the trophies related game was in the first room right after talking to Jowan while randomly walking around.  The follow game in which I created a completely new account I have been able to get to the point where I walked Duncan to his room.

Does it consistently freeze in the exact same spot on each profile? Jowan convo w/ Trophies, Duncan's room w/o Trophies?

[BW_Lee]

Alright, there doesn't seem to be any connection to creating a new profile then. Thanks for the help guys, it's much appreciated.

[Fernando Melo]

Thanks for your patience with all of this.



Since this happened, we've pulled additional programmers from the main game teams to help on this and have been running several parallel investigations non-stop to find potential solutions from our end, as well as continuing to work with Sony for both dev support and other options.



Thanks to the great feedback on here and from those folks we've been in contact with directly, the team now thinks we've been able to find a code-side workaround from our end to patch DA to play nicer with firmware 3.3, which was one of our investigation threads.



At this time I still don't have a date estimate for a DA patch with this fix however, and unfortunately we do not believe there is a manual workaround for this (one of the other threads we're investigating).



We are currently testing this proposed code change as I write this, and if successful the next step will be for it to go into EA's publisher side certification testing. They are aware of the importance of this and will give this priority in the queue of titles/patches across EA. And once that clears, it will go into Sony cert testing.



Sorry, wish I had better news to offer already - but progress is being made and I'll continue to update as we know more.

[Fernando Melo]

Just to let you all know that the patch has gone through EA Cert and has now made it to Sony's hands! I don't have an official release date estimate yet, but with a little bit of luck we may still see it late this week. I'll update you when we know more.



The upcoming patch addresses:

- The high rate of crashing on firmware 3.3.

- The issue where redeeming codes was no longer showing the free download items.

- Adds the trophies for the upcoming Darkspawn Chronicles DLC



Once again, my sincere thanks to all of you that posted on here and helped us track this down.



F.