Game Freeze when "Outside", Hard Lock, System reset required (MacOS, older MBP)


shmoo

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I can launch TLD (via Steam) and the game opens fine and I can navigate the various menus. However, as soon I start a new game or load and existing game and I am either 'placed' Outdoors (new game) or go outdoors (loaded game and then exit a building), my game freezes hard and locks my entire computer. I am forced to hard cycle (Power off and on) my Mac. 

 

This happens consistently at the recent patch levels (v.360+?), including the latest. The game has functioned fine for me previous to recent patch levels. I've been a long time player since the Kickstarter release and up through around v.345…

 

A link to my Player.log is here.

My system is a MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) running 10.12.2 (16C67) w/ 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB/Intel HD Graphics 288 MB. It's old, but it ran everything fine on Low settings previously. Has there been a change to core graphics/engine that invalidate my system specifications?  

 

 

Please advise…

 

love,

shmoo

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Hmm - When the game freezes can you still switch between programs? My first thought is that there may be some issues with reading the save files from the hard drive. First thought would be to run disk maintenance to ensure that's not the problem - https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201639

When you try to load the save games, do you make it to a load screen or freeze instantly? 

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5 hours ago, Support said:

Hmm - When the game freezes can you still switch between programs? My first thought is that there may be some issues with reading the save files from the hard drive. First thought would be to run disk maintenance to ensure that's not the problem - https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201639

When you try to load the save games, do you make it to a load screen or freeze instantly? 

When the game freezes, I cannot switch applications no. The entire system is unresponsive. Force Quit cannot be utilized, Finder is entirely unresponsive. Only literally power off my MBP (via a 3 second hold on the power button) and the cycling the power back on frees me from this torment. The game has been entirely removed from the system and reinstalled via Steam. Disk Utility has run on the internal HDD an found no problems. 

When I load save games, if they are saved at an "indoor" location, they load fine and I'm placed indoors and I can interact with the environment fully. Once I step "outdoors" or the game save loads "outdoors" initially, I get the running wolf, then the wolf stops running and my entire system locks up. I'm unable to escape at this point from frozen state. I am, in essence, trapped. Able only to stare at the screen and wonder what joy and entertainment awaits me if only it would load this one time…

 

Free me from this prison…

 

love,

 

shmoo

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2 minutes ago, Support said:

Did you try running the disk maintenance I linked above? Could I also get you to send me your log - instructions here: http://www.hinterlandforums.com/index.php?/topic/408-your-game-debug-logs/

Just grab the log and attach it to your reply

 

I don't mean to be rude, but I did both of these things already. My first post has the Player.log attached to it. My next response noted that I did run the Disk Utility, yes. Are you asking for new logs? 

 

love,

shmoo

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For completeness, I attempted again after today's 1.1GB of v.386 (via Steam). Same lockup issue when starting a new game. I can only assume I spawned outdoors. I can still start challenges that begin indoors, but when I exit the indoors, I lock up. Same behavior. Attached is the Player.log from today's v.386 new game attempt. 

 

love,

shmoo

Player.log

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Thanks - The latest helps as we've updated the game. Could i try getting you to run the game with the addition of -force-opengl - Just right click on the game in steam, select properties, click "Set Launch Options" and paste that in and hit okay and run the game

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18 minutes ago, Support said:

Thanks - The latest helps as we've updated the game. Could i try getting you to run the game with the addition of -force-opengl - Just right click on the game in steam, select properties, click "Set Launch Options" and paste that in and hit okay and run the game

Well starting the game with -force-opengl causes an immediate crash. See attached image. This is reproducible. I've also attached a text file with the actual crash log. Player.log also attached, though I'm not sure it went far enough to re-initiialize. This was an immediate crash on start.

 

I fear that changes to the games engine may now require features unsupported by my dated GPU (nVidia GeForce GT 330M). That would be a heavy blow. Please do continue to diagnose and help me determine if this the end of the road for TLD on my system?

 

love,

shmoo

 

Screen Shot 2016-12-19 at 7.45.48 PM.png

TLD Crash on Start.2016.12.19.txt

Player.log

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  • 4 weeks later...

Following up here that the lockup still occurs when 'outdoors' (transiting from 'indoors' or when starting a new game) as of the alpha v.393 update. Player.log attached.

If there is anything I can do to contribute to the verification of this issue, please update…

 

 

love,

shmoo 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/27/2017 at 2:06 PM, Support said:

Unfortunately I don't have a specific update for you, we are working on some performance improvements in general, but you're also on the very cusp of our min spec, so it's hard to say for sure that this will resolve your issue. 

Understood. I appreciate the response. Thank you…

The underlying point I'm trying to make is that the game functioned fine, albeit at a minimum graphical quality and speed from Kickstarter release through v.345. Sometime after that point, it appears a change was made to the engine in some way shape or form that now causes earlier discrete cards in older hardware, such as mine, to lock up the entire system. I  am not the only player to experience this (http://www.hinterlandforums.com/index.php?/topic/13055-game-freeze/). 

I'm not expecting developers to "roll back" improvements, but I'd love some level of testing and confidence that the issue is confirmed to do with the engine, or if it's a bug of some sort. If it's latter (bug) I can hold out hope for a fix, if it's the former (engine improvement), then that settles it.

 

love,

 

shmoo

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Hi shmoo, 

Seems I'm in the same boat as you. I'm running a MBP Mid 2010, 13inch, with 8Gb of Ram and finally have had the time to get back to playing TLD. I've never had problems running the game on my system however now every time I try to start a game at mystery lake it seems to spawn my character indoor and when I attempt to leave the room the game freezes on the loading screen. 

I'm sorry to say I haven't come across any solutions. Hope Support can sort something out soon.

regards

Amon  

 

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Again, to re-iterate, the issue isn't directly with the engine but more to do with the fact that we do require at least 512MB of VRAM. Most  2010 Mac Books only have 256MB of VRAM, which won't be enough. In this case system RAM won't make up the difference either as a discrete video card can't add to it's VRAM pool. Can you confirm exactly how much VRAM you have? 

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37 minutes ago, Support said:

Again, to re-iterate, the issue isn't directly with the engine but more to do with the fact that we do require at least 512MB of VRAM. Most  2010 Mac Books only have 256MB of VRAM, which won't be enough. In this case system RAM won't make up the difference either as a discrete video card can't add to it's VRAM pool. Can you confirm exactly how much VRAM you have? 

 

Having checked my hardware specifications, it appears that my system has only 256MB of VRAM. Despite this prior to updating my version of the game, I had no problems running the game graphics or game speed wise.

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This sounds like a symptom of us being in development and as such we can't guarantee any sort of experience with video cards that are below 512MB, as that is below our target minimum spec. This is something that can be impacted simply by us swapping from a "in dev" place holder texture to a version that is closer to our intended release version. Unfortunately for technical reasons we do have to set that target. If I find a work around I will post it here, but I can't promise anything since it's outside of our support scope. 

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18 hours ago, Support said:

This sounds like a symptom of us being in development and as such we can't guarantee any sort of experience with video cards that are below 512MB, as that is below our target minimum spec. This is something that can be impacted simply by us swapping from a "in dev" place holder texture to a version that is closer to our intended release version. Unfortunately for technical reasons we do have to set that target. If I find a work around I will post it here, but I can't promise anything since it's outside of our support scope. 

 

I myself and I'm sure many others would appreciate anything that you could do.  I'm almost wishing I could go back to the last stable version of the game I was running, though I'm not sure if that is possible through steam.

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Firstly, thanks for the continued updates to the thread. I really do appreciate the time it takes you to provide support and that it may not be possible, in all cases, to resolve issues for everyone who posts here…

 

On 3/7/2017 at 4:36 PM, Support said:

Again, to re-iterate, the issue isn't directly with the engine but more to do with the fact that we do require at least 512MB of VRAM. Most  2010 Mac Books only have 256MB of VRAM, which won't be enough. In this case system RAM won't make up the difference either as a discrete video card can't add to it's VRAM pool. Can you confirm exactly how much VRAM you have? 

While Amon and I seem to have the same symptoms, in my case my mid-2010 MBP does have 512MB of VRAM in its discrete video card. Gathered from  -> About this Mac -> System Report -> Graphics/Displays, I show 512 MB (Image attached). I can't speak for Amon and others who have posted similar experiences with TLD since sometime after v.345, it does appear that I meet the current minimum specs with respect to VRAM, CPU, and RAM.

On 3/7/2017 at 6:14 PM, Support said:

This sounds like a symptom of us being in development and as such we can't guarantee any sort of experience with video cards that are below 512MB, as that is below our target minimum spec. This is something that can be impacted simply by us swapping from a "in dev" place holder texture to a version that is closer to our intended release version. Unfortunately for technical reasons we do have to set that target. If I find a work around I will post it here, but I can't promise anything since it's outside of our support scope. 

I had not considered this, and it seems plausible, as I suppose higher count/resolution/widget/fizzbuzz texture could cause an exhaustion of resources on the client system.

Is it possible to get a older/lower resource intensive textures as an option in the game? As a troubleshooting step is there a build of the game that could include these that we could test?

That would help determine if this was indeed a texture issue (if successful) or related to another change in the game (if loads continue to lock up during 'outdoor'. I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I would be happy to participate in whatever way I could to assist in further determining the root cause of this issue.

 

love,

shmoo

Screen Shot 2017-03-11 at 8.11.27 AM.png

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  • 2 months later...

It has been over two months since my last post on this topic with no updates or replies. Still looking at potential remedies based on feedback from Hinterlands Support. 

 

I DO meet minimum specs as described in this thread. Can I get an update?

 

love,

 

shmoo

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  • 4 weeks later...

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