56 réponses à ce sujet

[Dementia5]

** edit ** thought it would be apropo to rename this thread since it has become something of a living document


Saw this forum after I posted in "self-help", but might be more apropo here, so forgive the double post. I've gleaned bits and pieces trying some suggestions (see below) but I could really use some help on this.

I'm
working on a module for the community ( check my blog:
http://www.neverdarklands.net ) and have hit a brick wall with the
toolset. It's a bit frustrating and I could use any help, even if it
means a link to where to redirect my request (I've contacted tech
support at Bioware and Atari as well).

I'm finding that If the
Toolset attempts to render an area larger than 25MB, the toolset "stops
working". The module will load, but once you select an area (e.g.
"area1") it crashes. Tested with several released modules. Under 25 MB
the module renders and can be tested/played normally.

Here are my specs, it's a fairly robust system:
Intel Dual Core2 1.87 GHz Duo Processor  (subscore 4.7)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS graphics with 512 MB discrete memory (subscore 6.6)
4 GB RAM
Windows 7 OS

Here's what I've done in an effort to solve the problem:
I
have reinstalled DirectX 11, .NET client manager and uninstalled the
NVIDIA video card, just to reinstall with updated (the same) drivers. 
No change.

Also ran Toolset as administrator, disabled visual themes and ran as Win XP sp2. No change.

Here's what I found:
Under the Computer Management Center, and looking at the Windows logs, there is an application error for the Toolset directed at

NWN2_MemoryMgr_amdxp.dll

the log reads:
Faulting application name: NWN2ToolsetLauncher.exe, version: 1.0.23.1765, time stamp: 0x4a89fba1
Faulting module name: NWN2_MemoryMgr_amdxp.dll, version: 1.0.23.1765, time stamp: 0x4a89f7ec
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00006fc5


I have theories, but that doesn't mean I can develop a workaround. Or fix the thing.

Please help! I'll put you in the module... ../../../images/forum/emoticons/blushing.png

Modifié par Dementia5, 27 novembre 2010 - 03:25 .

[Olblach]

1) is the module open in directory mode?

2) does it happen even when you open a small area first then a big one or only when you open a big area when none was loaded in the toolset?

3) this thread might be related: http://social.biowar...5/index/5082905

[dunniteowl]

Install DX 9.0c off the NWN2 OC disc. I note you installed DX11, but the toolset only likes DX9. WIth some versions of Win7, there don't seem to be issues, but the first issue is usually resolved with an install of DX9.0c,

Also, isn't your video card a bit on the older side? Not complaining, just noting. Myself, I have an X1650 Pro PCIe that's about 4 years old.

Also, check your page file memory size. You might want to set it higher than you currently have it.

On an XP computer you go to control panel, System Properties, Advanced and under the Performance settings for memory there is yet one more Advanced tab and in that there is a Virtual Memory setting. In there you can set up the page or virtual memory size. I have found that this setting can make a very large difference in how well the toolset performs and module sizes especially. The optimal setting should be as high as you can make it without consuming your Hard Drive space. If you've got the space, though, setting it to around a minimum of 2048M and a maximum of 4096M makes a pretty good size. If you've got morel, than double that.

If none of that works for you, then by all means, post back and we'll see what we can do.

regards,

dunniteowl

[Dementia5]

Thanks for the quick responses. Still working on it... I also thought resizing the paging file (and moving to another partition) might do the trick, alas no change. Even set it at 3x RAM as recommended (12 Gig).

The NVIDIA chip is a little old, but prior to the minimum specs of NWN2 upon release, so I'm thinking this less likely. I am using a Gateway P6860FX.


"2) does it happen even when you open a small area first then a big one or only when you open a big area when none was loaded in the toolset?"

the latter. The first area upon loading, i.e. no other areas in the queue.

And yes, the DirectX roll-back is a good suggestion, but IIRC one cannot reverse the install for DirectX. I believe I tried executing the install from the NWN2 disks, yet Dxdiag reveals ver 11. Unless there is some way to remove this altogether?

I'm willing to try another device driver for the 8800M GTS if I thought it would do the trick, but the website offers packages that fail to recognize the device (must be choosing the wrong driver).

And look at the time... it;s my birthday. Solving this problem would be a great present, eh?

Modifié par Dementia5, 26 octobre 2010 - 04:34 .

[Olblach]

Well then if 2) I have the same issue but it didn't reproduce since I have installed the registry fix mentioned in 3)
But then again, I'm done with area design for now, more working on scripts so I'm no 100% sure it's gone.
However you have a workaround now^^.

By the way, I have an AMD too but no NVDIA I'm on ATI so I don't think that's a GPU issue. Framework issue sounds right to me.

Oh, and happy birthday^^

Modifié par Olblach, 26 octobre 2010 - 09:02 .

[Dementia5]

Did the reg fix, no change. Uninstalled .NET and reinstalled with ver 1.1 (started closer to the "bottom") and planning on working up to 4.0...



What version do y'all recommend? V 2.0? 2.0 with sp1 or 2? Etc...



I think there is a solution here somewhere... should I consider replacing the memory dll file altogether, or is it dynamic? Thanks again.

[dunniteowl]

Don't worry about your dxdiag saying you've got DX11, you should have it with Win7. Just make sure you install DX9. I have said this before (though not to you) DX9 is not Rolling Back anything. It's a completely separate beast from DX10/11 installs and installs separately and will peacefully coexist on your computer. Just install it and make sure it completes it's install and you should be okay. I don't know if it will solve your issue with the >25MB areas and that could be a problem as many exterior areas can reach greater than 25M without batting an eyelash.

Nvidia drivers that I know will work are 196.21 and lower and I think there is a 198 or higher that solves the issues of a lower driver. Don't Use 197.13 (I think it is) as it has known issues that could actually damage your card.

Also, in the release notes for each driver, it specifically mentions which cards it actively supports. According to my search criterion (using your graphics card and Win7 32 bit OS) you should have the 179.48 Beta driver for your card. Check here: Nvidia Download Drivers.

I also note that you're using a mobile computing system. 8800M means it's a laptop or mobile computing device and as such it may not have the graphical oomph required to do the job. I note that you have 512Mb discrete ram for the video, but is that actually shared RAM from off the system mainboard?

A question I also have is: have you used this for NWN2 prior to upgrading to Win7? And did you use the toolset at that time if so?



regards,

dunniteowl

(And Happy Birthday, mine was the 11th.)

[Dementia5]

I will check the driver version when I get back tonight, and thank you for the link. Good info on DX9, I will attempt another install.



I suppose it is possible that the laptop is underpowered, but that is a prospect that concerns me, as I purchased it for development tasks like this. No, it arrived with Win7 installed; to my knowledge the Toolset has never behaved properly.



Good to have support, though. At least I feel better...

[Dementia5]

Wish I had better news to report. Did the .NET framework reg fix, cleaned out all Win 7 versions of .NET, reinstalled DX9c, and attempted to install the beta driver for NVIDIA but was told that there were no compatible drivers found for my video adapter, so went back to the 2010 driver (258.96). Resized the pagination file to 12G min and max. Ran the Toolset under .NET 1.1, 2.0 and 4.0.

From all appearances, I seem to be currently running.NET 3.5 if i can trust the "you must turn windows features on or off"screen which I am forced to set if I want to install .NET 2.0.

Even reduced the resolution to 800 x 600, but none of these attempts were successful.

When I cleaned the registry re: .NET, I actually got the Toolset to render the area for a few seconds, but the machine froze up and I haven't been able to repeat it.

I suppose I could do a VMWARE install of XP, or partition the drive for XP, but I didn't spend this much money on a laptop to have to run a 10 year legacy OS to render a game world, either. Other than upgrading the processor to a T9300 (and although I admit a duo core 1.8 GHz CPU is nothing to brag about, I can't see how such an upgrade this would solve this memory issue assuming that's what it is) I am out of ideas at this point.

NWN2_MemoryMgr.dll is still waving a flag at me in the application log. Wish I could download the dll file somwhere and swap it out, but I suspect it is dynamic with use and specific to PC configuration. Could attempt reinstalling the toolset (anyway to do this without having to reinstall NWN2 and both expansions?)

Modifié par Dementia5, 27 octobre 2010 - 04:37 .

[dunniteowl]

Sadly, no, there is no way to reinstall just the toolset. Can you play the game at all on this machine? Have you even tried to see if the game will play before attempting to use the toolset?

Some folks have reported issues with the toolset not starting until they play the game for at least 5 minutes. I have no idea why that would make ANY difference, but it beats sacrificing an 8 year old or a chicken at midnight and such.

We may have to take another tack on this. I checked the performance specs on the card and the machine and you should be able to rock and roll with this, possibly with some of the settings turned down a bit. There's just gotta be something wonky going on here. I'm sure we're all missing something really simple, so think about that for a bit. It's almost always something we thought we already checked and didn't or didn't do properly and thought we did that's the underlying root cause.

Maybe you could step back a bit and create a chronology of events for yourself that goes from, "Everything was definitely working fine at this point," and then find the simple little changes that might have caused the issue to crop up. And from there, maybe it can be narrowed down to a small range of a few things to check out and test.

best of luck and sorry we're not more help at this point,

dunniteowl

[Dementia5]

I think you have convinced me to keep the machine, the problem lies elsewhere.



Thankfully, the game proper plays just fine. I'll do as you suggest and fiddle with my module in real time (yes, I can load my creations and test the area, just can't render with any futher placeables or what-not without violating the memory limit).



Clearly, this means something to me and if you go to my NeverDarklands.net blog you can see why. I've put a fair amount of energy into making this come to life and I'd like to see it through. There are some other gameplay



I guess the next logical step is to (sigh) reinstall NWN2 + expansions. Will this overide my HAK and OVERIDE directories?

[NWN DM]

Drag/drop those directories somewhere and save them that way.

[Dementia5]

Do you mean reinstall in a different directory?

[dunniteowl]

No NWN_DM means grab your Hak Directory and Modules Directory and move them somewhere else prior to reinstallation. Then you can merge the files back once you get all your other ducks in a row. Plus, it's a GREAT! idea to have backup files just in case the Corruption Creature Catches You. This close to Hallowe'en, you can never tell what will crawl up from the slime

of a dark

Scottish Loch.



dunniteowl

[Dementia5]

From a tip on my blog:



Microsoft incorporated a new security feature from Windows XP SP2 and onward that is called DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Many programs that dynamically generate code do not tag the memory allocated as being executable memory, so DEP catches it and terminates the process, throwing 0xc0000005 as the exception code. Thankfully, it is possible to add exceptions to DEP so that it will allow some programs to do whatever they want when it comes to memory management.



Thanks for the effort; It was a good theory, but after evoking the DEP changes in performance management you suggested there is still no change.



I have since changed the affinity to a single processor, and the priority to High and Real Time.



I changed the properties of the Toolset launcher to run in XPsp2, sp3, and every other Windows version down to ’95. The Toolset would not even load on Windows versions under XP.



Will attempt to reinstall the NWN2 package, and updates next. I do not believe it is a hardware or driver issue, at least in terms of performance; the specs seem to jive with minimum requirements and other user’s platforms in this community.

[kamalpoe]

back up your modules directory, because uninstalling nwn2 deletes it.

[Dementia5]

I am beginning to suspect that the Toolset is not designed to run well on Windows 7. Does anyone else have issues like these outside of XP?



If anyone would care to donate their copy of:



NWN2_MemoryMgr_amdxp.dll

NWN2_MemoryMgr.dll



I may be able to draw some comparisons if I can crack open the files.

[Shallina]

I have no trouble at all on windows vista, and many people haven't trouble with seven.



There is a max limit of number of placeable in an area that the toolset can support.



Are your trouble only with your area or with every area ? did you try to open OC area ?



The problem may be with your area and not your installation.

[Dementia5]

You raise a good point, but the memory mishap occurs on several modules. Prefabs mostly, but I will attempt to open the OC when I return. I've seen mode at 150MB and have to assume that somebody is capable of rendering those areas.



The Toolset renders my areas fine, provided the size is under 26 MB, or some other limiter (perhaps number of placeables as you suggest).



Not sure how to determine what the max # of objects should be when designing?

[kamalpoe]

Dementia5 wrote...
Not sure how to determine what the max # of objects should be when designing?

It's been tested. approx 3250 is the hard limit (placeables/environmental etc). Of course you should use many less for performance reason.

[Shallina]

a Module of 150 meg contain many area, not only one most of the time.

[Dementia5]

Thanks. No where near that limit.



I did run across someone who said without a particular patch upgrade the Toolset behaved normally. Any way to roll back a patch?

[Dementia5]

Cannot uninstall or reinstall...

[dunniteowl]

That sounds weird. How did you attempt the uninstall? I have an Uninstall option in my program files. You know when you go, Program Files, and then the display comes up with all your installed programs, then you mouse over to Atari, it shows NWN2 and then moving to that allows you to see all the launcher options? There is a last spot on my folder that says, Uninstall Never Winter Nights 2.

You can also do it through the Add/Remove Software, but you should always check in the Start Bar, All Programs blah blah bla-blah first and see if there is a program for uninstalling the game within it's own files. If you try the Add-Remove software first, and it starts, you could end up like you are now.

Not sure what to do in that case.

And now for the stupid question. Did you log in as Administrator?

I feel your pain, brother, I really do.



dunniteowl

[Dementia5]

In the directory is an "uninstall" exe. I clicked on this. Didn't bother to check with any compatibility options, I would assume that I can uninstall in the same manner as when I performed the install months ago. Failing to uninstall does not bode well for my planned follow-up action (which was a reinstall). Therefore, I am going to abandon this Toolset repair effort.



I have already burned too many synapses on this, and lost more time than I ever would have imagined; I am now of the camp that it will never be solved. I want to thank everyone for the help and support, inside and outside of this forum, and living through the frustration; misery loves company, eh?



I am now looking into porting my work into a Dragon Age: Origins campaign using its toolset. Please check my blog for further updates, and I will continue to frequent the forums here, as obviously the social.bioware forum is supported by a very classy clientele. Look for me on the DA:O boards as well.