Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist

Suggestions, Feedback & Bug Reports (OOC) => Bug Reports => Fixed Bugs => Topic started by: shadymerchant on June 05, 2010, 03:18:39 PM

Title: Balinoks Crash
Post by: shadymerchant on June 05, 2010, 03:18:39 PM
For some reason, just outside the doors of the dwarven halls, my game frequently encounters something that makes it crash. In the past it was somewhat random, but once I have crashed I can't get myself out of the trap. The game will crash upon trying to load the area again and again, leaving me stuck until a reset.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 05, 2010, 03:31:33 PM
I have the exact same issue. In the very same spot. That is, I need to restart in winXP and move away. Must be the tiles... but yeah it has started happening since, maybe, 2-3 weeks ago and I had this same machine...
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: shadymerchant on June 05, 2010, 04:04:05 PM
After entering the first mountain map of the balinoks, where the copper mining is located, my game froze. It wasn't immediate though. In any case, I now have two characters stuck until reset so I will stop going to the balinoks. I have some story lines tied to the area so I hope it is something that can be fixed.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Kendric98 on June 06, 2010, 12:33:45 AM
There is a spot in the swamps that freezes my game for a couple seconds to i wonder if its the same sort of issue.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Anarcoplayba on June 06, 2010, 01:01:36 AM
Same problem in the balonoks here.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 06, 2010, 01:43:49 AM
There is a spot in the swamps that freezes my game for a couple seconds to i wonder if its the same sort of issue.

That is more common since it's something happening to everyone I asked...

Anyway with Shady we were comparing graphic cards and stuff, since as I already explained, in winXP (with a lower resolution, but also LESS RAM) I can go out from that area, my issue is in win7 where I have max resolution. Might it be tiles? It's not particularly dense in placeables or npcs, it's simply... the area... any help?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: jugnaut on June 06, 2010, 12:04:05 PM
Happens to me all the time.  CAn't log into Erik until we have a reset.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 06, 2010, 03:22:48 PM
Yes really for me it is a bit of a problem when I need materials from there, unless going just through the cave (which can be VERY dangerous if compared to the dangerless other side). Can it be actually seen if there is any excess of tiles there?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: shadymerchant on June 06, 2010, 06:46:02 PM
Since I crash right outside of the dwarven doors, and on the way into the balinok mountains, its impossible to go in the direction of ghakis. I have a prisoner trapped in the area I'm going to have to abandon until I can get through to them.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Heretic on June 06, 2010, 06:48:35 PM
If you need dm help on instances you can't log in and you crash, log on another alt and let the dm know, so we can port/bail you out of said area for you not to crash.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Telkar on June 11, 2010, 08:02:12 AM
I went through the Balinoks area and through the dwarven halls with no problem, just like normal.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Dhark on June 11, 2010, 08:14:59 AM
It was mentioned that the recent updates to CEP2.3c might be the problem (some might not have updated to the newest version) ..I downloaded 2.3 some months ago , so Ill go test this tonight ...maybe after a gin & tonic.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on June 11, 2010, 11:59:25 AM
I ran around the area in question with my DM avatar a few nights ago and nothing happened to me. I'm wondering if there's something about some people's setup that doesn't like the area--fx if you have RealTek onboard audio, it can cause all sorts of different crashes, especially in areas with lots of sound objects.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: LoupGaroux on June 11, 2010, 12:05:01 PM
I know sometimes it happens to me, sometimes it doesn't

Often I think it might attribute to something in an override folder, cause I've instructed some to make a clean one, and login to leave the area and its worked. Other times, its an older video card that just can't process the area (Had that problem once with an old old computer and another server).

Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 11, 2010, 01:47:13 PM
I ran around the area in question with my DM avatar a few nights ago and nothing happened to me. I'm wondering if there's something about some people's setup that doesn't like the area--fx if you have RealTek onboard audio, it can cause all sorts of different crashes, especially in areas with lots of sound objects.

I am lolling because I have RealTek audio but it seems the Dark Power behind it all every time!!!
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on June 12, 2010, 05:00:22 AM
That's how truly awful Realtek is. It used to crash my computer so bad it would shut itself off.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: jugnaut on June 16, 2010, 09:58:23 PM
Happened yet again.  Can't log into another pc now.  I have realtek but it's always turned off so don't think that's the problem.  This area is such a problem.  What's different about it compared to other areas?  I can't log in now as that pc.  Most frustrating area ever. lol  Yet another group adventure ruined.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 17, 2010, 02:34:31 AM
Last time I went I didn't crash. I was surprised.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: KoopaFanatic on June 17, 2010, 08:09:32 AM
FWIW, I have the same thing happen to me at the ruins of Zeklos Keep.  Pretty consistently, if I get anything more than just the walls of the ruins on the screen, I crash and can't log into that PC.  (This might've changed since I first noticed it last summer/fall.... for obvious reasons I keep all my PCs away from that area.)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Aahz on June 17, 2010, 11:16:44 AM
I also crash in the ruins of Zeklos Keep and can not log back in with that pc. I also crash a lot when transitioning to that area between Tzer falls and the foothills with the Ogers. However, when I crash there I can just log back in without any problems.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on June 17, 2010, 11:19:34 AM
Used to crash (but with the chance to log back) in a specific spot of the path to Krofburg too. It seems mountain areas or densely fogged areas are the most problematic?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Emomina on June 17, 2010, 02:14:55 PM
it must be a configuration issue. as far as I know, I have never had any issues with any of those places.

The one spot that i get booted fairly regularly is while the transition from Djordi's vardo to outside is loading. But i can always immediately log back in and have no further issue.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: shadymerchant on June 20, 2010, 04:58:22 AM
After playing with the settings all night, I've figured out a fix to the crashes for myself at the very least. The Balinoks area will not function if I have my "Fast" bar in "overall graphics quality" set to anything but 0. In fact, if I try to adjust it while in game it will immediately crash me. If I log in with the bar higher, I will crash repeatedly, but if i then lower it back to 0 I can resume logging into the game.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: jugnaut on June 28, 2010, 07:59:54 PM
After playing with the settings all night, I've figured out a fix to the crashes for myself at the very least. The Balinoks area will not function if I have my "Fast" bar in "overall graphics quality" set to anything but 0. In fact, if I try to adjust it while in game it will immediately crash me. If I log in with the bar higher, I will crash repeatedly, but if i then lower it back to 0 I can resume logging into the game.

going to the lowest graphics quality worked for me, thanks shady

I noticed at the lowest setting, the skyboxes and something else, forget what, got unchecked.  Perhaps they're what's causing the problem.  I'm afraid to test it though lol.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on August 01, 2010, 03:33:46 AM
Lowering the graphics works also for me.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on June 23, 2012, 06:48:20 PM
Has anyone discovered -which- exact setting it is yet? So we can simply turn that one option down, instead of all the graphics. (They're not very outstanding as it is.)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Romar Notten on June 23, 2012, 06:51:47 PM
I have deleted the mist graphic from the .2da and turned on hiding of two stories or higher buildings (under game options i think). This has prevented alot of former crashes and massive lagg spikes for myself.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on July 08, 2012, 12:29:26 PM
I believe I have found the exact setting you need to turn down in order to prevent crashes in the Balinoks, at least this has worked for me.

Turning off the "Lights casting shadows" to the lowest option, under Advanced settings, has fixed this issue for me completly.
Every other graphical setting is on the highest for me, only shiny water is also turned off because it simply looks glitchy (but I believe it's unrelated to this bug.)


Hope that helps, so people can prevent the bug without having to tune down all of their settings when they enter the mountain areas.


Discard that, seems to be false. Crashes still occur in mountain areas during specific weather conditions or seasonal conditions, at least during daytime.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on October 09, 2012, 05:04:48 PM
I have deleted the mist graphic from the .2da and turned on hiding of two stories or higher buildings (under game options i think). This has prevented alot of former crashes and massive lagg spikes for myself.

I can't find any option even related to buildings, unless it's somewhere in the .ini files (but last time I touched those my errors only increased.)
Sadly this error has again resurfaced for me, after I thought turning off the "lights casting shadows" had fixed it. Oddly enough I passed through the area twice before today, smoothly.


I've tried turning down almost every video option one by one to detect where the fault lies, I can't find it.
The only thing that did seem to impact it is changing the overall graphics quality to that "Fast" setting, but it only delayed the crash.
Perhaps it would work if I simply tune down EVERY graphic setting, but I honestly don't think I can be bothered.

It seems to -only- be that area that causes the crashing, every other zone seems just fine on the highest settings. Has anyone considered simply changing that area instead to prevent the crashes..?
It comes across as pretty silly to me that everyone (or a large number of people at least) have to make their outdated graphics even crappier for only one area (and seemingly only during certain times or weather conditions or something.)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Ramika on February 14, 2013, 03:11:28 AM
I know this is seriously necromancied but....

This crash happens to me a lot too. I end up having to drop -all- of my graphics down pretty much all the way in order to log back in again until I am out of the area. It's annoying, but it works. So far, it's only happened to me in the Balinoks.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Avatar6666 on February 14, 2013, 04:38:08 AM
The same happens to me and I am not sure why, I have my graphics turned way down...its annoying....
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: YouLitABonfire on February 14, 2013, 06:56:28 AM
had it happen to me once. i think it's a welcome to the balinoks rite of passage.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Daboomer on February 14, 2013, 04:27:56 PM
It stopped happening, now it happened again. Weird since i ren the same graphics. Now i apperantly have to lower them once more. But it worked perfectly on best graphics untill yesterday  :shock:
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Ramika on February 15, 2013, 05:05:40 AM
It sometimes depends on the day for me too. There's been times I've gotten all the way through the Balinoks one way, only to crash on the way back. Or I can't even get through that first transition. Or I get there and back just fine.


I really don't get it.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Daboomer on February 15, 2013, 07:16:10 AM
It's like the bermuda triangel.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on February 21, 2013, 12:46:25 PM
I played around with this some as I started to suffer from the issue since I reinstalled Windows 7.

To me, it worked not running NWN in Windows XP compatibility mode. To do this, go to your NWN folder, right click the nwmain.exe and click properties, go to the "compatiblity" tab and uncheck the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:".

Could any of you having issues with crashing in the Balinoks check if this fix works for you?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: MistJumper on February 22, 2013, 09:24:47 AM
I have been running in compatibility mode since I got my new win 7 computer. I still get the crash. It has to do with some graphics issue, as turning down the detail to the lowest settings, removes the crash.

I would guess that there is some problem tile that, the Balinoks uses that is not used in any other area that has the mountains tileset. (some waterfall around some corner, or a snow cap mountain, or some high res tree tile) To note, walking into the area from the village side, I do not crash, walking into the area from the dwarf city, I crash. It might be the mountain door the dwarven halls use.

Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on February 22, 2013, 01:22:07 PM
The fix I proposed was to not run in compatibility mode. Lowering graphic settings work too, but is much more aggravating.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Aahz on February 22, 2013, 03:27:08 PM
I found something that fixed my crashing in those areas. It was to specifically move the grass slider to to none. Haven't crashed in those areas since.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on February 27, 2013, 08:32:14 AM
I played around with this some as I started to suffer from the issue since I reinstalled Windows 7.

To me, it worked not running NWN in Windows XP compatibility mode. To do this, go to your NWN folder, right click the nwmain.exe and click properties, go to the "compatiblity" tab and uncheck the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:".

Could any of you having issues with crashing in the Balinoks check if this fix works for you?

No one been able to try this out yet?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Perkele on February 27, 2013, 08:41:17 AM
I played around with this some as I started to suffer from the issue since I reinstalled Windows 7.

To me, it worked not running NWN in Windows XP compatibility mode. To do this, go to your NWN folder, right click the nwmain.exe and click properties, go to the "compatiblity" tab and uncheck the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:".

Could any of you having issues with crashing in the Balinoks check if this fix works for you?

No one been able to try this out yet?

I'll take a look at it today.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Perkele on February 27, 2013, 09:19:49 AM
Apologies for the double-post, but here's what I have come up with on my end:

Running NWN without compatability resulted in the game throwing me out everytime I tried to launch it. This was for nwnmain.exe.

Running in compatability mode with full settings aside from high resolution font and shiny water resulted in me crashing almost immediately when I stepped foot in the Balinoks. It would not let me join the server again, until I lowered grass settings to none.

Now it let me join and I haven't got any crashes, yet. I also put my grass settings to full and ran around for a while and I haven't gotten a crash, yet.

These are the sightings I have made.

I used Windows XP Service Pack 3 as my compatability mode as NWN would not launch without a compatability mode.

Perhaps the secret would be to lower your grass settings to none while traversing the Balinoks, and if you *feel* confident, turning them to full again.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on February 27, 2013, 09:48:53 AM
Hmm, yeah, though running without compatibility mode works fine on my computer at least, so if others are able to run without it, that might still be worth a shot. I personally like my grass ;)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Perkele on February 27, 2013, 09:59:43 AM
Hmm, yeah, though running without compatibility mode works fine on my computer at least, so if others are able to run without it, that might still be worth a shot. I personally like my grass ;)

Well, I hope my short testing was of help. Would probably need more people to try the fixes posted, trying the game without compatability mode and the grass thingy.



Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on February 27, 2013, 10:10:54 AM
Hmm, yeah, though running without compatibility mode works fine on my computer at least, so if others are able to run without it, that might still be worth a shot. I personally like my grass ;)

Well, I hope my short testing was of help. Would probably need more people to try the fixes posted, trying the game without compatability mode and the grass thingy.


Yeah and yes, certainly was.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Ryltar/ Robert Archer on February 27, 2013, 11:46:31 AM
ok tried this on three different pcs i found one thing that seemed to repeat crashes for me i'm running on windwos xp sp3 with a nvidia gfx card all updates etc, i do what you suggest there zarth in one case i ran around as my cleric hope, buffed up etc, then again unbuffed no probs both cases it was with the grass off only everything else max set

tried with warn buffed in stealth mode, got crash with grass on then did it again with grass off  crashed

then did it with grass on with invis on, got crash grass off with invis had crash

seems to me that in my experiences it happened when i was in stealth mode or invis it crashed me....could there be something in the engine when you load that hiccups that engine with stealth/invis setups for that area?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on February 27, 2013, 03:30:07 PM
I personally like my grass ;)

Me too, bud, me too... oh wait, you're talking about grass in-game aren't you?  ;) I am still running Windows XP SP3... never got around to upgrading to Windows 7 and at this point I'm just going to wait until I buy a new PC to do so. Is this problem limited to Win7 users or is everyone affected? I remember getting occasional crashes in the Ravine map of the Ballinoks but it was totally random. I could walk through it ten times unaffected, then randomly for no apparent reason, I would crash shortly after entering the area. But when I'd relaunch the game, everything worked fine. It's night-time in-game right now, but I will make a trip up that way come morning to see if I have any problems. I'll post the results in an edit below. From what I can tell of the posts so far, I'm guessing that these issues are happening to the folks using Win7... is anyone still using an older version of Windows like me having these issues? Knowing the answer to that might help in finding the issue and a possible fix.

EDIT: Okay, I made the trip to Krofburg and back with another player and neither one of us crashed. I can't vouch for their system specs (forgot to ask *facepalm*) but I'm running 1920x1080 resolution with full grass, full everything except for shiny water. So Rob Archer could be on to something with the stealth. However, I used to get random crashes without being in stealth mode so I'm not sure.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Valiant_Destiny on March 25, 2013, 12:54:10 AM
This issue seems to be similar to what just happened to me in Le Grand Bazaar, Dementlieu.  Why I am posting this here.

I walked into the shop and it crashed my server, also I have attempted to log in numerous times in that character in the past half hour and it refuses to allow me to play, freezing and crashing once more. 

I have logged in with another character, walked around everything seems to be fine.  I am not able to bring another character in the Bazaar, I walked around Valllaki though, nothing out of the ordinary.

Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 07, 2013, 07:08:40 PM
ok tried this on three different pcs i found one thing that seemed to repeat crashes for me i'm running on windwos xp sp3 with a nvidia gfx card all updates etc, i do what you suggest there zarth in one case i ran around as my cleric hope, buffed up etc, then again unbuffed no probs both cases it was with the grass off only everything else max set

tried with warn buffed in stealth mode, got crash with grass on then did it again with grass off  crashed

then did it with grass on with invis on, got crash grass off with invis had crash

seems to me that in my experiences it happened when i was in stealth mode or invis it crashed me....could there be something in the engine when you load that hiccups that engine with stealth/invis setups for that area?

I crash in this area consistently and constantly. It used to be fine, but I've noticed it across multiple PCs, and after turning down the settings on my machine. Sadly I don't think stealth has anything to do with it since none of my characters are using stealth or invisibility and I crash here often. Short of just plain avoiding these areas I'm really not sure what to do to deal with it. I'm literally hanging out here right now because my PC got caught in a crash loop there. hopefully waiting for the character to respawn in the mist camp.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: dutchy on April 07, 2013, 09:42:51 PM
i think its the only place that should have a sign with ooc info befor entering it.

with iether tips or what to do when it happend.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Mcskinns on April 07, 2013, 09:59:49 PM
i think its the only place that should have a sign with ooc info befor entering it.

with iether tips or what to do when it happend.

Conviently added to the area load screen so you have a lot of time to read over it while the load bar freezes at 95%
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Daboomer on April 08, 2013, 01:26:59 AM
i have passed trough the area a dosin times or so since my last crash, nothing. Silly balinoks triangle
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on April 08, 2013, 11:11:00 AM
Can I get those of you that suffer from this issue try to download this package: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16677912/rl_2da_v190_mountain_fix.rar

Extract it into your NWN\hak folder, overwriting the existing file.

Then let me know if it works, thanks!
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 08, 2013, 04:12:49 PM
Can I get those of you that suffer from this issue try to download this package: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16677912/rl_2da_v190_mountain_fix.rar

Extract it into your NWN\hak folder, overwriting the existing file.

Then let me know if it works, thanks!

Just installed it. Ill let you know how it goes.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on April 14, 2013, 08:18:30 AM
Any feedback on this yet? Thanks.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 14, 2013, 10:45:35 AM
Any feedback on this yet? Thanks.

Sorry I haven't actually been over that way in a week or so. Ive been mostly around the mist camp. ill take one of my low levels and run to krofburg with some mail later...do jumping jacks on the portal. that sort of thing.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on April 14, 2013, 10:46:19 AM
Awesome!
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 14, 2013, 11:03:47 AM
Awesome!

Sorry man...boom.

One thing I maybe didn't elaborate on is 3/4 of the time I start crashing in the Balinoks its the final transition into or out of Krofburg. I will crash more at that one transition than anywhere else on the server combined. I just ran across it twice. entered no problem but crashed the second I crossed it going out. It was at night. the character was running with ultravision, bulls strength, and barkskin on. no other effects im aware of.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on April 14, 2013, 11:27:51 AM
Hmm, bugger, back to the drawing board. Anyway, thanks for testing it :)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 14, 2013, 11:46:30 AM
Not sure if the Snowy Canyon is what yall are talking about with Krofburg, but its that transition i get stuck on, and the Village of Muhar in Har'Akir.
Havent tested the snowy canyon yet
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 17, 2013, 11:21:49 PM
So experimenting with that patch a little more I've noticed a few other things about the Baninoks crashing issue. They may or may not be total red herrings.

Ive tweaked down my grafix settings even more but it hasn't helped any with the crashing. ditto the patch. I just crashed three times crossing three transitions. The only thing I noticed was this occurred at night on the server. I managed to run clear from Vallaki to Krofburg during the day without crashing once. maybe just a real localized random occurance. Also the crashes I reported the other day occurred at night also. any before that I cant say for certain.

There is an "effect" for lack of a more descriptive term where running around in the mountains sometimes the character will suddenly seem to "float" in a blue or grey space or sometimes under the mountains itself. It normally corrects itself after a few seconds, but ive noticed a lot more of it lately while in the mountains. does this have anything to do with the tool used to "sculpt" the mountains into slightly more realistic shapes than what is normal using the regular NWN template tools and could this maybe be related to the crashing bug overall.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 18, 2013, 08:06:51 PM
Experimented a little more with some observations. During the day I just had one of my PCs run all the way from Krofburg to Vallaki and back shapechanged as a bear. No crashes. The weather effects were slight mist with rain. Is it possible there is some visual effect at night that is loading incorrectly or failing to load that is causing the crashes?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Soren / Zarathustra217 on April 21, 2013, 04:08:39 AM
Hmm, I wonder if it could be related to the skyboxes? Perhaps there's less fog at night and you can view the sky?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 21, 2013, 09:53:19 AM
I have all my settings turned off or on low, i get to the transition and it crashed on me so i get stuck within its transition, maybe something relating to a hak, or some other script or w/e.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 21, 2013, 11:37:21 AM
Hmm, I wonder if it could be related to the skyboxes? Perhaps there's less fog at night and you can view the sky?

Ok so a crash during the day. Ran all the way from Krofburg to the last map of mountains before Vallaki with no problem. Quickly went into that bear cave to grab some mushrooms and crashed AFTER I exited it. (not during which is more common) The environment was heavy rain with some fog. I did run across about 5 transitions before the crash however. I'm hoping the one I just had was due to the server being up for over 35 hours.

One thing im definitely noticing is there seem to be a lot of new clipping issues or something with the mountains. My character will suddenly start running in the air or thru the mountain (as in under it). also some of the paths Im used to taking seem to be blocked or the 'toon' will try to take a more circuitous route than what the path would seem to call for visually.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 22, 2013, 11:24:40 AM
Alright. Think I was on a red herring. I had Stan looting up that way and had several crashes during the day. I probably just got lucky before and read too much into it. Sorry for the false alarm.
The clipping issue HAS to be some part of this though. There's always been some in the mountians, but never this bad.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Geiger on April 22, 2013, 01:06:24 PM
This same kind of issue happens at the Zeklos Keep as well.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 24, 2013, 03:57:37 AM
Yeah. Definitely nothing to do with day or night. I've just gotten stuck in a perpetual crash loop leaving Krofburg. I literally wont be able to get the character onto the server till the next reset. It happens along the entire Balinoks chain, but that one threshold directly into or out of Krofburg is a killer.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 24, 2013, 04:26:42 AM
Again, I'm wondering if it has anything to do with your operating system. I'm still running Windows XP and I haven't crashed in the Ballinoks for a very long time. Even then, back when it used to happen it was random and occasional. I could go through the area ten times and nothing would happen, then suddenly, without warning or any evident reason I'd crash the next time through. So, out of curiosity... you're running Windows 7 right, respawn?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 24, 2013, 01:14:16 PM
Im running Windows 7.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 24, 2013, 02:13:00 PM
Im running Windows 7.

And you experience this crash with about the same frequency as respawnaholic does?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 24, 2013, 02:15:42 PM
Im running Windows 7.

And you experience this crash with about the same frequency as respawnaholic does?

There are two areas where i crash apon entering the transition, getting stuck within the loadscreen every time.
Balinoks - Snowy Canyon
Har'Akir - Village of Muhar
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 24, 2013, 02:22:52 PM
Im running Windows 7.

And you experience this crash with about the same frequency as respawnaholic does?

There are two areas where i crash apon entering the transition, getting stuck within the loadscreen every time.
Balinoks - Snowy Canyon
Har'Akir - Village of Muhar


Are you, by any chance, running the game with Windows Aero running? If you've no idea what I'm talking about, then the answer is likely yes.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 24, 2013, 02:28:06 PM
Yes, am i not supposed to? im not sure what to do or change it.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 24, 2013, 02:39:43 PM
Alright. It may have absolutely nothing to do with your issue but being that it's a giant memory hog and does a lot of funny things... just right click on your NWN launcher and go to "Properties" section. Then, under the compatibility tab, you will find the option to "Disable Desktop Composition". Select that and it will essentially disable Aero while you run NWN. If the crash persists then it obviously had nothing to do with Aero, but the silly thing is pretty much just a giant resource hog with no real purpose other than cosmetics. I've heard from so many gamers that had issues with different games that went away after they disabled it, so I figure it's worth investigating.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on April 25, 2013, 12:25:24 AM
Alright. It may have absolutely nothing to do with your issue but being that it's a giant memory hog and does a lot of funny things... just right click on your NWN launcher and go to "Properties" section. Then, under the compatibility tab, you will find the option to "Disable Desktop Composition". Select that and it will essentially disable Aero while you run NWN. If the crash persists then it obviously had nothing to do with Aero, but the silly thing is pretty much just a giant resource hog with no real purpose other than cosmetics. I've heard from so many gamers that had issues with different games that went away after they disabled it, so I figure it's worth investigating.

I'm running Apple...I mean Windows 8. I just tried to do what you suggested for the Win 7 platform above and there is no option for ""Disable Desktop Composition". It does however say "run this program in compatability mode for" box is not checked and Win XP service pack 3 is greyed. Not sure if that means its running in Win-8 mode or its running in WinXP SP3 mode by default.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 25, 2013, 03:35:40 AM
Alright. It may have absolutely nothing to do with your issue but being that it's a giant memory hog and does a lot of funny things... just right click on your NWN launcher and go to "Properties" section. Then, under the compatibility tab, you will find the option to "Disable Desktop Composition". Select that and it will essentially disable Aero while you run NWN. If the crash persists then it obviously had nothing to do with Aero, but the silly thing is pretty much just a giant resource hog with no real purpose other than cosmetics. I've heard from so many gamers that had issues with different games that went away after they disabled it, so I figure it's worth investigating.

I'm running Apple...I mean Windows 8. I just tried to do what you suggested for the Win 7 platform above and there is no option for ""Disable Desktop Composition". It does however say "run this program in compatability mode for" box is not checked and Win XP service pack 3 is greyed. Not sure if that means its running in Win-8 mode or its running in WinXP SP3 mode by default.

Well, I'm not overly familiar with Windows 8 but check off compatibility mode, and see what options are there. If not Win XP then go for Win7, I don't think they have Aero on Windows 8 anyways if I recall (which would explain why the option mentioned above wasn't showing up for you, possibly). But, in your case I'd suggest running it in compatibility mode to see if that improves the crash issue for you at all.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 26, 2013, 12:42:20 PM
Alright. It may have absolutely nothing to do with your issue but being that it's a giant memory hog and does a lot of funny things... just right click on your NWN launcher and go to "Properties" section. Then, under the compatibility tab, you will find the option to "Disable Desktop Composition". Select that and it will essentially disable Aero while you run NWN. If the crash persists then it obviously had nothing to do with Aero, but the silly thing is pretty much just a giant resource hog with no real purpose other than cosmetics. I've heard from so many gamers that had issues with different games that went away after they disabled it, so I figure it's worth investigating.
I have done this, but it seems it still crashes on me. >.<
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on April 26, 2013, 01:43:57 PM
Out of curiosity, to those of you who crash in these areas, what kind of video card are you using?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on April 26, 2013, 01:49:11 PM
Alright. It may have absolutely nothing to do with your issue but being that it's a giant memory hog and does a lot of funny things... just right click on your NWN launcher and go to "Properties" section. Then, under the compatibility tab, you will find the option to "Disable Desktop Composition". Select that and it will essentially disable Aero while you run NWN. If the crash persists then it obviously had nothing to do with Aero, but the silly thing is pretty much just a giant resource hog with no real purpose other than cosmetics. I've heard from so many gamers that had issues with different games that went away after they disabled it, so I figure it's worth investigating.
I have done this, but it seems it still crashes on me. >.<

Okay, so now we know it's not Aero. Are you running in compatibility mode or normally? And yes, what blue asked above is also something that could be causing the problem. .
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: edarsenik on April 26, 2013, 02:01:14 PM
I also have the Balinoks crash, it happens at the transition near the bee keeper everytime, unless I turn my Graphics bar in NWN to Fast or whatever its called (lowest graphics possible) I had a room mate that played on the same rig as mine, and they had the exact crash and fix


I run an ATI XFX 6870
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Sorrow00 on April 26, 2013, 02:05:31 PM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400, compatibility mode for windows 7.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on April 26, 2013, 05:51:11 PM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on May 01, 2013, 11:19:19 PM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.

Negative. I'm using an Nvidia GeForce GT 620 and my crashing is so bad I've taken to avoiding the Balinoks outright. The final transition into or out of Krofburg is the worst by far, but it can happen anywhere in that chain. The last time it did I couldn't log the character back in until there was a reset.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: dutchy on May 02, 2013, 12:39:06 AM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.

odd note might be related might not be.

i never crashed with any area untill the recent changes to zeklos
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 02, 2013, 12:53:15 AM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.

Negative. I'm using an Nvidia GeForce GT 620 and my crashing is so bad I've taken to avoiding the Balinoks outright. The final transition into or out of Krofburg is the worst by far, but it can happen anywhere in that chain. The last time it did I couldn't log the character back in until there was a reset.
eh, I've had nVidia cards for years, and while I have had some crashes in NWN, I have never experienced the crash described in this thread.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: blur927 on May 02, 2013, 02:39:46 PM
I've had this problem with 2 seperate machines, most often in the first mountain area after Vallaki. Both run windows 7, One has an nvidia gtx 480 and the other one is a laptop that has a built in intel(?) card. Turning grass off fixed crashing issues with both machines, though my laptop also had a crashing issue related to sound as well. Hope that helps some people.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on May 02, 2013, 07:54:49 PM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.

odd note might be related might not be.

i never crashed with any area untill the recent changes to zeklos

I cant pinpoint the exact moment but this IS a recent issue. I feel like it started happening in earnest after one of the updates. It may be the one you describe.

Also.....The bad clipping in the mountains is a recent issue. I cant help but think that the two are somehow related maybe.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 02, 2013, 11:46:06 PM
follow-up: does this happen in every area that uses the mountain tileset(fx: Mt. Baratak, the Svalich Pass), or just the balinoks area?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Nocturne on May 03, 2013, 12:29:42 AM
Personally I've never experienced crashes up Baratak but the first mountain tileset to Balinoks used to crash the game (Nvidia GTX 285). But not straight away; after 5-10 seconds worth of walking forward into the area, it would then freeze it up.

Logging back in after that crash would then hang my loading screen, then subsequently crash again. Only way was to set my graphics to minimum with no features THEN loading in again used to get me into the area.

I've recently put in a GTX 580 but I haven't run through the area enough times to really see if it has made a difference. I've not had the issue yet though.

I recall certain placeables used to crash my client back in the day, (e.g. That glowing orb - crashes you if it's on your screen and you alt-tab out) not sure if that's been looked into already.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: dutchy on May 03, 2013, 07:19:09 PM
I thought so. ATI cards have considerably more problems with NWN than nVidia cards do, and tend to crash far more often.

odd note might be related might not be.

i never crashed with any area untill the recent changes to zeklos

additional i have to say i only crash at the keep as i SEE the keep, the area when entering is np but once i enter and walk around the keep my computer just goes boom
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 03, 2013, 09:05:54 PM
I've had crashes in the Balinoks, but generally only in some of the areas.

The most often reoccuring is the area the Dvergeheim entrance is in, when you first enter the mountains south of Vallaki. But I've had them further down that same road as well. I don't think it's related to the mountain tileset though, since I've never experienced any crashes elsewhere than on the road to Krofburg. Not in the Svalich pass towards Tser Falls nor north towards the Mage Tower at least.


I've tried every single setting seperately, turning them off and on, but that hasn't told me much. Only ruled out a couple.
It just seems to crash whenever settings are set too high, doesn't really matter whether it's lightning or texture related I believe.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DM Tarokka on May 04, 2013, 02:08:41 AM
As I suggested in the past, what I've done, and it has always been working so far, is setting all graphics to the -minimum-, hence the crashes won't happen. On the cause of them, I cannot say, but for sure it's something graphic related since my own system works for my machine (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz, 8192MB RAM, nvidia GTX 460)
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 05, 2013, 04:48:42 PM
I've had crashes in the Balinoks, but generally only in some of the areas.

The most often reoccuring is the area the Dvergeheim entrance is in, when you first enter the mountains south of Vallaki. But I've had them further down that same road as well. I don't think it's related to the mountain tileset though, since I've never experienced any crashes elsewhere than on the road to Krofburg. Not in the Svalich pass towards Tser Falls nor north towards the Mage Tower at least.


I've tried every single setting seperately, turning them off and on, but that hasn't told me much. Only ruled out a couple.
It just seems to crash whenever settings are set too high, doesn't really matter whether it's lightning or texture related I believe.
That's what I thought. It must be a placeable in use in those areas.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 05, 2013, 06:45:51 PM
That's what I thought. It must be a placeable in use in those areas.

Very possible, actually.


If it is though, it's one that loads as soon as you enter the Dvergeheim zone (coming from the direction of Vallaki.)
Since I sometimes do not even exit the loading screen before the game crashes or am only able to take a few steps.

At some point I thought it might've been the dwarf statue or something near it, since it seemed to stutter there.
But then again, the game often stutters anyhow whenever character models or such come into sight, so that may be unrelated.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on May 06, 2013, 05:31:22 AM
This is confusing... it doesn't seem to be hardware/system related, but at the same time I want to say it is since I've NEVER had a crash on the first screen of the Balinoks (where Dvergheim is). The only map that used to (occasionally) crash me was... I wanna say the ravine map (forget the actual name). It's basically the middle map on the journey through the Ballinoks from Krofburg to Vallaki and even then it was only a question of logging back in and everything was fine. I run all my graphics at maximum (except for shiny water, as I recall that creates all sorts of problems) so that's why I find the whole issue baffling. I've puzzled over this for several days trying to think what could be causing it outside of sever-side issues but I haven't had any brilliant revelations. The only thing that struck me, is that this seems to be happening only to people running Windows 7 or newer. Is anyone who's not running Windows 7 or 8 experiencing this crash issue or am I right in saying it's only newer operating systems that have this problem?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 06, 2013, 07:16:27 AM
This is confusing... it doesn't seem to be hardware/system related, but at the same time I want to say it is since I've NEVER had a crash on the first screen of the Balinoks (where Dvergheim is). The only map that used to (occasionally) crash me was... I wanna say the ravine map (forget the actual name). It's basically the middle map on the journey through the Ballinoks from Krofburg to Vallaki and even then it was only a question of logging back in and everything was fine. I run all my graphics at maximum (except for shiny water, as I recall that creates all sorts of problems) so that's why I find the whole issue baffling. I've puzzled over this for several days trying to think what could be causing it outside of sever-side issues but I haven't had any brilliant revelations. The only thing that struck me, is that this seems to be happening only to people running Windows 7 or newer. Is anyone who's not running Windows 7 or 8 experiencing this crash issue or am I right in saying it's only newer operating systems that have this problem?

You may actually be right, to be honest. Or something related to newer PCs at least.

I used to have the exact same setup as you with, I think, Windows Vista with only shiny water turned off. And no issues at all, ever.
The same still goes for my current system, which is pretty modern and Windows 7, it's only those select few zones in that I crash in.

A placeable that keeps trying to load constantly for those with newer systems until the game simply gives in still sounds like a plausible cause. Unless it's a certain combination of data, like textures and lightning, that isn't possible to process. But a placeable causing it by being rendered differently or something seems like a more logical cause behind it. Wouldn't know which one though. Are there actually effects, textures or placeables that are only visible or that drastically improve or change graphically when you have your settings set higher?


I do still hope the issue will be found, since it's a bit silly having to degrade the graphics of an already outdated game even more just for a select few unimportant zones in the entire game. So far I've been switching settings whenever approaching the problem areas, but that's rather tedious as well and if I turn the options back on max all at once it sometimes crashes my game as well. And not because I have a lousy PC though.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on May 06, 2013, 10:28:35 AM
I think it may be a DirectX issue, actually. If I remember correctly, from DirectX10 onward, they're not fully reverse-compatible like the previous versions were. Microsoft changed their driver-architecture with Vista and... well, a bunch of boring tech stuff that's not really important. I believe you can circumvent the issue by installing the developer version of DirectX, which should include all the missing bits. If anyone's feeling adventurous and wants to test my theory:

1- Make a system restore point because I don't have Windows 7 to test this myself (it shouldn't affect anything adversely, but better safe than sorry)

2- Go to this link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109)

3- Download and install the DirectX runtimes. This should include all of the stuff that wasn't carried over from DirectX 9 to DirectX10

4- Restart your computer

5- Get in-game and head to a location you'd normally crash when entering

6- Let me know if it worked or not.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: edarsenik on May 06, 2013, 04:21:31 PM
I just tried this out, Its weird because now it lets me into the area (first map of the balinoks, south of vallaki, near the bee keeper)  And before it would crash while loading the area.... I was running in the area and the ''neverwinter nights stopped working'' message popped up.... Its definatly tied to Windows 7/8 Id bet... Unless there are others  using XP that get the crash?? I dont have the crash in the other mountains tileset areas, like the tser bridge/baratak mountain... Only in the balinoks... wierd, before I was thinking its conected to the minning nodes there.. But thats just a guess....
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: edarsenik on May 06, 2013, 04:25:25 PM
I just tried this out, Its weird because now it lets me into the area (first map of the balinoks, south of vallaki, near the bee keeper)  And before it would crash while loading the area.... I was running in the area and the ''neverwinter nights stopped working'' message popped up.... Its definatly tied to Windows 7/8 Id bet... Unless there are others  using XP that get the crash?? I dont have the crash in the other mountains tileset areas, like the tser bridge/baratak mountain... Only in the balinoks... wierd, before I was thinking its conected to the minning nodes there.. But thats just a guess....

*also It keeps me in the crash loop still, untill I lower all gfx settings to lowest....
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 06, 2013, 07:43:11 PM
It has to be a placeable. If it was the tileset it would happen in every area that uses the tileset, and if it were something like DirectX or whatever it would crash in any area. The fact that it's limited to 1-3 specific areas consistently says that it's some object in those areas, and the most likely suspect would be a placeable (though it might be a messed-up sound object as well).
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: respawnaholic on May 06, 2013, 08:11:26 PM
It has to be a placeable. If it was the tileset it would happen in every area that uses the tileset, and if it were something like DirectX or whatever it would crash in any area. The fact that it's limited to 1-3 specific areas consistently says that it's some object in those areas, and the most likely suspect would be a placeable (though it might be a messed-up sound object as well).

Possible and it makes sense but as someone else noted this (for me at any rate) is a relatively recent thing. I don't remember it happening prior to Febuary or so, but I did get a new computer since then so it could also be tied to win 8. most of the times I crash its between transitions and it just crashes straight into desktop.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Jeebs on May 06, 2013, 08:53:09 PM
It has to be a placeable. If it was the tileset it would happen in every area that uses the tileset, and if it were something like DirectX or whatever it would crash in any area. The fact that it's limited to 1-3 specific areas consistently says that it's some object in those areas, and the most likely suspect would be a placeable (though it might be a messed-up sound object as well).

It does seem likely that this is the case. I thought perhaps the DirectX issue was limited to some of the CEP placeables (hence why it would only happen in certain areas) but if that didn't solve the issue then it doesn't leave much else. I'm just baffled by the fact that I can walk through those areas completely unaffected. Blue, do you have access to the module itself? As far as tracking down a placeable/sound that could be the culprit goes, it would be a little tedious but comparing the placeables in those areas to find one that's common to all three might be a way to find out.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 06, 2013, 10:03:26 PM
It has to be a placeable. If it was the tileset it would happen in every area that uses the tileset, and if it were something like DirectX or whatever it would crash in any area. The fact that it's limited to 1-3 specific areas consistently says that it's some object in those areas, and the most likely suspect would be a placeable (though it might be a messed-up sound object as well).

Possible and it makes sense but as someone else noted this (for me at any rate) is a relatively recent thing. I don't remember it happening prior to Febuary or so, but I did get a new computer since then so it could also be tied to win 8. most of the times I crash its between transitions and it just crashes straight into desktop.
Um, look at the very first post of this thread. People have been suffering from it for a lot longer than that.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 06, 2013, 10:37:04 PM
Yeah, this bug has been here for months, if not years.


You're more knowledgeable than me on this Bluebomber, for sure, but it seems odd for it to be a sound object.
Since you have to tune down the video settings to get through the areas without crashing, not the audio options.

Then again, I suppose the sound object placeables do have some sort of graphical presence, visible or not, that may be messed up.
I don't know, it's an old game and hard to tell how this works. Just figured I'd mention the obvious in case it possibly narrows down your search.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 07, 2013, 12:01:43 AM
Yeah, this bug has been here for months, if not years.


You're more knowledgeable than me on this Bluebomber, for sure, but it seems odd for it to be a sound object.
Since you have to tune down the video settings to get through the areas without crashing, not the audio options.

Then again, I suppose the sound object placeables do have some sort of graphical presence, visible or not, that may be messed up.
I don't know, it's an old game and hard to tell how this works. Just figured I'd mention the obvious in case it possibly narrows down your search.
If it's a messed-up sound object, then it isn't a graphical crash, the game would crash when it tried to play the sound object.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 07, 2013, 07:33:24 AM
It may be a dumb comment, but doesn't the fact you need to lower your video settings imply that it's not related to sound?
That's what I was trying to say. Anyhow, I'll leave it in your much more capable hands. If I find something notable, I'll post here again.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: dutchy on May 07, 2013, 11:57:26 AM
Yeah, this bug has been here for months, if not years.


You're more knowledgeable than me on this Bluebomber, for sure, but it seems odd for it to be a sound object.
Since you have to tune down the video settings to get through the areas without crashing, not the audio options.

Then again, I suppose the sound object placeables do have some sort of graphical presence, visible or not, that may be messed up.
I don't know, it's an old game and hard to tell how this works. Just figured I'd mention the obvious in case it possibly narrows down your search.
If it's a messed-up sound object, then it isn't a graphical crash, the game would crash when it tried to play the sound object.


really really dumb question   but we do not know when it is a sound crash or graphical crash right?  lets say people have the graphics at minimum and the sound at 0  sound still plays you just dont hear it
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Lucadia on May 07, 2013, 12:44:40 PM
iv had 4 computers, 2 of them required very low graphics settings, only on that first map of the Baloniks, otherwise it repeat crash trying to load the map
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on May 07, 2013, 02:40:10 PM
Yeah, this bug has been here for months, if not years.


You're more knowledgeable than me on this Bluebomber, for sure, but it seems odd for it to be a sound object.
Since you have to tune down the video settings to get through the areas without crashing, not the audio options.

Then again, I suppose the sound object placeables do have some sort of graphical presence, visible or not, that may be messed up.
I don't know, it's an old game and hard to tell how this works. Just figured I'd mention the obvious in case it possibly narrows down your search.
If it's a messed-up sound object, then it isn't a graphical crash, the game would crash when it tried to play the sound object.


really really dumb question   but we do not know when it is a sound crash or graphical crash right?  lets say people have the graphics at minimum and the sound at 0  sound still plays you just dont hear it
Right.

My money's still on a placeable, though.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: swbf2lord on June 25, 2013, 06:34:12 PM
I've been wondering if out might be a VRAM issue, maybe NWN isn't allocating enough. It is an old game after all, and perhaps the engine is only using 128-256mb max? I don't really know much about the inner working of this engine, but some games are only able to use a limited amount of VRAM (RAM could also be an issue, but idk).
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: harbingerfrost on January 04, 2014, 10:50:51 AM
So, any time I log out in the Balinok Mountains, I am unable to log back in and move my character. My machine almost completely loads the area, and then crashes subsequently. It's happened more than three times now, and I can't play that character until the server gets reset to bump them to the OOC area. Is there any kind of solution, or anything at all?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Lucadia on January 04, 2014, 10:54:25 AM
You need log into another pc and adjust your resolution settings.

Lowest graphic settings should allow you log into mountains to get out.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on January 04, 2014, 11:56:02 AM
You need log into another pc and adjust your resolution settings.

Lowest graphic settings should allow you log into mountains to get out.

You should be able to do that in the game menu as well, without having to log into any character.



Has the development team ever considered simply remaking these areas?

As far as I can tell it is only about two areas in the Balinoks on the road towards Krofburg that make these crashes occur. If these areas could be remade from scratch the error would most likely die with the old versions of the area, right? And players would no longer be required to lower their video settings to play on the server (or swap back and forth between settings) just for these one or two problematic areas out of the 800+ unique areas in total. (Probably way more by now.)

I know this is not the most fun task for the development team, but on all my time playing on this server I have never encountered this crash in any other area.
Which would suggest remaking these one or two areas would, in my opinion, very much be worth it and might permanently root out this ongoing problem?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Ellana Twiggy on January 04, 2014, 12:31:13 PM
I am fairly certain it has something to do with the grass mesh, mainly because blood monkey finally updated his mountain tile set back in 2007 to fix the issue with people crashing when they entered his mountain areas (which was fixed even further by the ctp team, though I am not sure where that link might be) and then Mondego did a further update in 2009. I'm not sure if the tile set was updated here, but I've tested both of these on full graphics with no issues, where as the one in the ravenloft hak causes crashing on full graphics (This is given that I honestly have no idea as to the hak order and pasted the ravenloft haks into a basic cep 2.4 mod).

Here are the twho mountain tile sets with their respective updates -
2007 - http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=3936
2009 - http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=7749

I imagine that it is a lot of work to update a tile set though in the haks, mainly because I have no clue how to do it myself, and even less of a clue as to if the area's would have to be remade after doing so. I do know that Mondego's update fixed the grass issue for certain.

If it's a sound then it should be fairly easy to fix, compile the area and it will return with any invalid sounds, ie, like the rain storm sounds, most of them do not work and can cause errors. I've figured this out after working on several project area's of my own, and I know for certain there was one other, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. I don't know if that would cause some one to crash in an area when it plays or not however.

I do know that the crashing occurs mostly at the entry area (where dervishiem's entrance is), and the area leading down to the invidians, the one coming down out of the mountains and into the forest right before their camp.  Typically I don't really check, because as soon as I crash I drop my graphics to their lowest setting and re-log on and continue with what ever I was doing.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on January 04, 2014, 12:44:24 PM
I do know that the crashing occurs mostly at the entry area (where dervishiem's entrance is), and the area leading down to the invidians, the one coming down out of the mountains and into the forest right before their camp.

Those are to my knowledge the only areas I crash in as well, especially the zone with the entrance to Dvergeheim.


So perhaps it would be possible for a developper to redo just the sound objects in those areas first? See if it helps.
Makes sense to redo the easy stuff first and only bother remaking the entire two areas when that fix does not work.

I doubt replacing tilesets would help, if tilesets were the problem would we not be crashing in a lot of other areas as well?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Bluebomber4evr on January 04, 2014, 01:32:34 PM
We are using the most current version of that tileset. The fact that it only occurs in just a a few areas that use this tileset (out of very many) says to me that it is either a particular, single problematic tile in the tileset or a placeable with a broken model.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Ellana Twiggy on January 05, 2014, 02:07:44 AM
We are using the most current version of that tileset. The fact that it only occurs in just a a few areas that use this tileset (out of very many) says to me that it is either a particular, single problematic tile in the tileset or a placeable with a broken model.
I don't think it is a placeable, unless there are a great many in that second area, the one on the way to the Invidians. I'm pretty sure that area is just all tileset, though I might be wrong. Maybe that would be the easiest one to check and then see if the problem is the same in the dervish area. I know that the mountain tileset still has a few glitches, like fading with some tiles, but I am not sure if that would make you crash or not, seems that is an issue with the tree line connection with the stone. At least I've noted some gaps there.
I rather wish I knew how to be of more help with this.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Dread on January 05, 2014, 03:35:12 AM
The game seems to crash for me either at the Foot of Mt. Ghakis or Near Krofburg areas, at least once. Generally it eventually lets me log back in after three or four consecutive login attempts, but those are the two problem spots for me.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Merry Munchkin on December 31, 2014, 11:05:22 AM
My game has locked up in only two areas -- the transition entering the Balinoks from the north (Vallaki), and the transition coming out of Dvergheim.  Each time it is when I am attempting to enter the map, and only from those two transition points.  The map generally loads correctly, then freezes when I attempt to move more than a few paces.  Interestingly, I have found that if I initiate movement very gingerly in those areas (i.e. I don't change camera angles, I move only using mouse-clicks, and only a few paces at a time) once I get a significant distance away from the transition points, I don't have issues.

My solution for lock ups has been to exit the game, reboot my computer, restart NWN, lower the graphics settings to "stupid", then everything usually loads correctly.  If I don't reboot my computer, and just try to reload NWN (even with lower graphics) my game does not load correctly (I freeze during the loading).

Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Super Sugar on December 31, 2014, 11:13:43 AM
If I don't reboot my computer, and just try to reload NWN (even with lower graphics) my game does not load correctly (I freeze during the loading).

This sounds like you are describing a memory error that exists until the memory is flushed (PC is rebooted).  It might be possible to narrow this down to being caused by the Module or Game in this specific area.  Can you run a memory test to make sure it isn't a local problem?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: superslacker on January 03, 2015, 11:53:10 PM
There's something off the path with the little shrine on the "At the Foot of Mount Ghakis" area that's made me crash. I crashed when I entered the area, but it let me log in, and then now I can't even log in there because it crashes as soon as the load bar is full. A placeable like BlueBomber was saying, maybe? I know my rig can handle any graphics or sound levels this game or any hak can throw out, it can't be that.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: IDreamofDaleks on January 04, 2015, 12:00:01 AM
This just happened to me, you godda lower the graphics to Fast, 16 meg compadibility mode and turn off everything. If you open nwn.exe you can do that without logging in.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: LeviShultz on January 04, 2015, 12:16:23 PM
Had the exact same thing happen to me. I think some of the particle effects push the area over the edge.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Merry Munchkin on January 04, 2015, 12:57:57 PM
If I don't reboot my computer, and just try to reload NWN (even with lower graphics) my game does not load correctly (I freeze during the loading).

This sounds like you are describing a memory error that exists until the memory is flushed (PC is rebooted).  It might be possible to narrow this down to being caused by the Module or Game in this specific area.  Can you run a memory test to make sure it isn't a local problem?

Ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool today, and no problems were found.  I have Windows 7, with an Nvida GeForce graphics card and 512 dedicated VRAM, so my system has enough video horsepower for a game like NWW.  On a side note, I crashed a few days ago  in the roadway right in front of the Dvergheim entrance going TO Dvergheim -- I had not gone through the transition yet, so it was not transition related.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: de_reguer on January 04, 2015, 01:04:38 PM
If I don't reboot my computer, and just try to reload NWN (even with lower graphics) my game does not load correctly (I freeze during the loading).

This sounds like you are describing a memory error that exists until the memory is flushed (PC is rebooted).  It might be possible to narrow this down to being caused by the Module or Game in this specific area.  Can you run a memory test to make sure it isn't a local problem?

Ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool today, and no problems were found.  I have Windows 7, with an Nvida GeForce graphics card and 512 dedicated VRAM, so my system has enough video horsepower for a game like NWW.  On a side note, I crashed a few days ago  in the roadway right in front of the Dvergheim entrance going TO Dvergheim -- I had not gone through the transition yet, so it was not transition related.

No. This whole section of mountains is notorious for making people crash. I had it badly for awhile. I think its texture related, but there is a setting related to grass  I think that finally fixed it for me.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Dark Dreams on March 09, 2015, 01:14:23 AM
I haven't (knock on wood) had any problems in the Balinoks with crashing yet, and Katerina lives there. Graphics set to very best appearance, etc... I'm wondering what is different for everyone else... I haven't updated any of my haks for PotM in a good year or two at least... could it possibly be related to the characters themselves in conjunction with the area, like a texture, head model type, weapon, clothing type, robe, etc, that might be a co-causal factor (also, I know that having a very full inventory can cause or contribute to lags / crashes in graphically challenging areas... a possibilty for those who have had trouble)?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on March 09, 2015, 09:27:57 AM
I can rule out the weapon, robe, head model type and inventory for you. I've experienced the crash with a near empty inventory, no weapon equipped and while wearing a hood.

I think the reason you are not be experiencing the crash has more to do with your specific setup, graphics card or other computer specs. That seems like the logical explanation.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Dhark on April 10, 2015, 04:49:18 PM
I crashed last night on the exact spot that rocks ussaly fall on you, out side the Dwarven hall entrance. Only reseting all graphic options to minimum would allow me to logg back in.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DrXavierTColtrane on May 29, 2015, 10:18:47 PM
This just happened to me as many have described. I entered the Balinoks, saw two non-hostile dire bears but backed away from them. The last thing that happened was I hovered my mouse over a copper seam. Now I can't get back in without crashing.

Will try to set graphics lower and see if that works.

ETA: It did.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Tycat on May 30, 2015, 08:07:53 AM
i usually loop crash just outside of Krofburg until I lower my graphics settings. This didn't used to happen until I got a newer computer, but my old one handled it on full graphics without any crashes. Probably related to the graphics card/drivers on newer machines
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Feronius on May 30, 2015, 09:39:43 AM
I still believe it would be worth rebuilding the zone outside of Dvergeheim and the zone before Krofburg from scratch, as these seem to be the only areas on the server with this specific issue and there is a very real chance that redoing the areas from scratch will eliminate the problem areas along with the old versions of the maps. Of course this is a crappy job, nobody really wants to remake zones that were already build, but considering the large number of players that appear to be affected by this crash I think it is at least worth considering. Even if there does exist a (less than ideal) workaround that prevents the crash for most players, in this case that is setting your video settings to the minimum.

Same goes for the Raduta Keep crash, although that appears to be a different and far more recent (which hopefully means easier to resolve) bug that unfortunately does not have an effective workaround.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: DrXavierTColtrane on May 30, 2015, 06:25:50 PM
I went through the Balinoks three times recently without crashing, all the way to the end, so I'm not sure what was different this time in the entrance part just outside Valliki. The dire bears were new, and--since I was looking for herbs--I went off the road toward the copper seams and interacted with the area that says something about "these miners left in a hurry." That's when it locked up completely until I reset my graphics.

I could still play NWN locally. And I rebooted my computer completely without that fixing it. So it was something very specific and recurring to that certain spot in the Balinoks methinks.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Thundron on June 21, 2015, 04:12:31 PM
Usually crashes when I enter the area. Then I just have to restart nwn and re enter the server and it crashes again about 10 times.. until it works.. I dont think it never crashes again during that area. Might try sometimes booting if it would work right away. I lowered graphics at some point and it helped but not anymore.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Mayvind on January 01, 2016, 09:01:18 AM
Balinok- Deep under the mountain. Crash upon transition, several restart still crashed, disable shiny water.. graphic at lowest and highest no effect use desktop, laptop different graphic cards still crash. character stuck on loading screen then crash unable to play the character. Also reinstall CEP, HAK ..etc.. nothing work. Any suggestion ?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: EO on September 07, 2018, 10:36:24 PM
Has the recent update helped with the crashes?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: BahamutZ3RO on September 07, 2018, 10:58:15 PM
Ran around up there a bit and didn't crash!
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: zDark Shadowz on September 08, 2018, 02:26:59 AM
I'm having quite a few crashes in the Balinok, but after turning down all my graphics settings to the lowest possible... don't crash any more than usual.

Though after the last reset or two I'm crashing everywhere a bit more often than I used to, but that's unrelated to the Balinoks.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Edward on September 08, 2018, 07:54:03 PM
Also keep crashing in the Balinoks.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: EO on September 08, 2018, 07:54:24 PM
Also keep crashing in the Balinoks.

Which areas?
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Phantasia on September 08, 2018, 08:18:45 PM
I haven't had any tile related crashes just yet while travelling the Balinoks aside wonky EE issues.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Edward on September 08, 2018, 08:23:12 PM
Also keep crashing in the Balinoks.

Which areas?

Big bridges, after the Dwarf place.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: sotbiii on October 04, 2018, 01:56:13 AM
I don't know about Balinoks but for some time now outside areas take several minutes for me to load and often lead to crash.
Especially areas with several NPC like in Port-a-Lucine crash me all the time.
Interior areas load much faster and result in no crashes.

Snowing seems to have made this problem even bigger for me, right now I can't get in game at all.

I used to have similar issues in Balinoks pre EE but now I have them everywhere.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: Iridni Ren on October 04, 2018, 08:29:59 AM
I don't know about Balinoks but for some time now outside areas take several minutes for me to load and often lead to crash.
Especially areas with several NPC like in Port-a-Lucine crash me all the time.
Interior areas load much faster and result in no crashes.

Snowing seems to have made this problem even bigger for me, right now I can't get in game at all.

I used to have similar issues in Balinoks pre EE but now I have them everywhere.

Outside areas that have either snow or rain take a long time to load for me and then tend to lag as well.

All in all, I've not had a lot of crashes since EE and would say it's actually been more stable for me than before. But last night I had two severe crashes, one of which I received a completely new message...something about my video driver had quit working and was having to recover.
Title: Re: Balinoks Crash
Post by: SardineTheAncestor on March 24, 2019, 11:40:30 PM
The area that leads to the Invidian camp/caves is atrociously laggy despite being tiny. I've been there twice in 4 months so I can't remember the area name but it's the one right before you enter the area with them in it.