Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Technical Problems Game crashes in Act 2?

I've read some of the posts regarding crashes. I've got a Toshiba Tecra laptop with XP (sp 2) running. BD's the only game I've installed on it (well, other than Solitaire), and I can play clear through the entire first act. However, once I reach the second act (and I've tried a couple of times) it plays all right for a while, but whenever there are both Mutants and some other monster on the screen, it halts. (No mouse, no nothing). After a few minutes, it plays a few frames, then halts again. Once all the Mutants are killed, the action returns to normal. (BTW, the more mutants, the longer the pause seems to be).

After a few cases of this, the game eventually hangs, seemingly permanently. (Just for grins, I let it set overnight once -- no action other than about 3 animation frames).

I've got DirectX 9.0c, the dxtest shows no problems. I've tried turning AV & network services off, and I do have the 1.47 patch installed. As I said, it works fine through the entire first act. nVidia geForce video.

Any ideas? I've enjoyed the game, but if I can't get past this, I'll have to quit. (Unless you're coming out with a Linux version I can play?)

Thanks for the interesting first act, anyway.

Dervish

Check if there are files called debug.lst or error.txt in the Beyond Divinity folder. If so, what do they contain?

Some people with laptops have found the third party optimized Omega drivers (for ATI Radeon or Nvidia Geforce graphics chipsets) better for games.

In the Beyond Divinity folder, open the (empty by default) config.lcl file in any text editor, such as Notepad, add the line "sound 0", hit the enter key and save to disable sound. If mixing sound effects is the cause of the problem, that should prevent the slowdowns / lockups.


Have you tried doing a clean re-install of the game?
Zip or otherwise backup your saved games folder to another location first, just in case. Each save is a separate subfolder in the '..\Beyond Divinity\savegames' folder; the 5 'bd_act#_start' folders are created/updated by the game/patch, and do not need to be backed up.
Un-install the game, re-boot, in Windows Explorer browse to the 'Beyond Divinity' folder and make sure there are no files or folders remaining, except within the 'savegames' folder (though the 5 'bd_act#_start' folders should be gone). After that, shut down all non essential programs (especially anti-virus), re-install the game, re-boot and shut down all non essential programs again, then re-install the patch, start the game and see if you still have a problem with mutants mixing with other opponents.

Alternately, there is a file verification procedure;
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The install program should report any problems, such as CRC errors, during install. However, if it fails to do so, or a file becomes corrupt after installation, the integrity of the files can still be verified using a program such as FileCheck; download (194KB). This is a small freeware program (no install required) to calculate the CRC-32 values (the cyclic redundancy check used in zip files) of a number of files. It can also compare a previously calculated CRC file with a set of files/folders.

After doing a clean install of BD and rebooting, I deleted the files in the '..\Beyond Divinity\DirectX9' folder (since they are not needed if/once DirectX 9 is installed). Then I used FileCheck to create a crc file of the game folders, installed the 1.45 patch and did so again, both before starting the game (I repeated this procedure with the 1.47 patch). If you compare the appropriate CRC file to your install, it should tell you if there are any corrupt files. You do not need to worry about moving any saved games out of the savegames folder or deleting the files in the dynamic folders, since new files will not be tested by FileCheck, just those listed in the crc file. If you have started the game and changed any options, there will be differences reported in the config.div and keylist.txt files. In my install the '..\Beyond Divinity\Editor\dgen_themes.000' file was also reported to be different.

There are several files in the Beyond Divinity folder created when the game is started or options are changed, including init.cfg, mapids.000, persist.dat, sinfo.000, slashed-d3d6.cfg, slashed.cfg, sound.cfg and starlog.txt. A couple other files are also added, but another crc file including these wouldn't help much, since most or all are system or option dependent, so these files would usually be reported as different regardless of being valid or corrupt.
At least the config.div, slashed.cfg and slashed-d3d6.cfg files in the Beyond Divinity folder can be deleted, and the configuration program / game will recreate them the next time it is started.

Beyond Divinity CRC files (285 KB)
[*] These crc files are based on the UK English version; the North American version should be the same, I think, but the Australian version will have differences (it uses a different copy protection).
[*] FileCheck expects the files to be in the original locations to verify, so if you installed BD to a location other than the default (C:\Program Files\Larian Studios\Beyond Divinity), open the CRC file in Wordpad (for example), and do a search-and-replace so the file/folder paths match your install.

If your CRC values match, it is not the game itself, but likely a conflict with something else in your system or a problem in the saved game folder. When examining the list of 'errors' FileCheck produces, potential problem files would be those with an error trying to read, or with a large size difference (especially zero byte files) from the known good install.

Thank you for the response. Here are the files you mention:

debug.lst:
(null) - Debug log
Applying config.div patch

(There's no error.txt)

I'll try the sound off (although sound has given me no problems in the first act). Also, the omega drivers result in some other problems on the system, at least to my perception. It just *seems* slower.

This is the third clean reinstall I've used. The problem seems to reappear as soon as I reach the lava fields. It usually just slows down (very much) until I go to the battlefields. Some time after that point, it always crashes. Well before I have finished the first level, although sometimes not until I've reached a dungeon.

I'll try the rest of your suggestions as soon as I can. I should get back before tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Dervish

[color:"orange"]I'll try the sound off (although sound has given me no problems in the first act).[/color]

I was thinking the problem might be with sound effects for the mutants. Since the problem is with mutants mixing with other opponents, that implies something relating to the mutants is causing a conflict. Since you've already tried a clean re-install, it is probably not a corrupt file, unless there is a scratch/defect in one of the CDs or your optical drive has a problem reading one of them.

If the problem isn't graphics or sound related, it could have something to do with enemy AI. Maybe try learning the tracking skill (increases the range you can see NPCs on the mini-map) and see if that helps or makes the problem worse. One of the merchants in the imp village teaches Tracking, as does Annabelle in the BF.


[color:"orange"]The problem seems to reappear as soon as I reach the lava fields. It usually just slows down (very much) until I go to the battlefields.[/color]

Were there mutants in the lava fields? Fire elementals and demons were the main opponents, but I don't recall any mutants.

After you rescued Tax and the chieftain's son, there was a cut scene as you crossed the lava with Samuel sending a hunter after you in the form of a tibar, correct? The first time you entered the lava field, did you get a cut scene of that tibar changing back to its original form and attacking you? In an unpatched game it was possible to find the lava path yourself, though that could cause hanging cut scenes, rather than slowdowns.


Do you have access to another computer you could try the game on? If the same thing happens on a different computer, the problem may be something in the save game folder itself. If a save works elsewhere, then you know it is the game itself on the laptop, or a conflict with something else in that system.

No, I'm afraid I haven't rescued Tax and the Chieftan's son (although I have rescued Tax). I haven't been able to make it all the way through a level on the battlefields, yet. The game halts and I can't make it past the first couple of encounters involving Mutants. Encounters with Citadel Rangers/Gaurds/etc. go at normal speed (well, most of the time -- but that might be because of mutants behind a wall). I can tell if there are Mutants around, because as soon as they show up on the mini map, the game will halt for 60-90 seconds and then run normally for a few seconds. If I can kill the mutants in that time, it won't slow again until the next group shows.

Fortunately, they go away with a single blow, but if I lose track of the cursor it can be hard to do that.

The good news is that it *does* work on my older machine. That's just claimed by my wife... So the install disks are fine, and the save games are OK. It's probably a conflict elsewhere, and I'm hesitant about setting up a BD-specific configuration. I'm also not sure what all services I might be able to shut down (some are easy to guess). Any hints there?

Dervish

There is a very comprehensive startup manager in Spybot

When you install the program, let it do all the updates etc. then click on "mode" and change it to advanced.... you will now have a "tools" tab in the program. In there, is a startup manager. If you look to the right of the startup manager (there is a arrow to open that section - sounds complicated, dont worry you will see it when you run the program) it will explain to you what everything does, and wheither it is needed or not.

The "system internals" option will also sort out issues with missing DLL files on your computer (this has caused a couple of weird problems on computers, so it MAY also sort out yours). You can safely delete all of those entries (they are missing in anycase, so why should your computer even have a reference to search for them every times??? )

I have also had it in the past, that spyware has "infected" some DLL files linked to my sound / video driver files. doing a spyware scan will find these problems and you can choose to fix it.

Here is a Map of the area... so try to head directly to Nr2, where the chieftains son is kept in prison.

I thought you were referring to a different area (later in the game) when you said lava fields.

If you can borrow the older computer long enough to clear the initial island, I don't recall a lot of other areas in the act 2 main game which mix mutants with other opponents.


I don't use XP that much, but you should get a warning when trying to shut down anything essential. Many programs that add themselves to the task bar beside the clock don't need to be running all of the time. With laptops there will be power/network/etc utilities always running, but things like media players or office suite search/quicklaunch programs are unnecessary.

A quick web search produced: How to free up Windows XP system resources. Following the links there or another search may come up with better resources, if Spybot's startup manager isn't clear enough (I haven't tried it).


You may also want to play with the game settings, or check out suggestions in other topics, such as; Awful Slowdown.

Well, after playing with spybot and shutting down several services (and several versions of the video drivers), I've gotten so the slow down appears more randomly.. and less often. It's still 10-30 seconds, but I usually have enough time to kill one or even two of the Mutants before it takes effect. I can usually manage to win at least one battle before it crashes. I'll push forward, see if it improves when I reach an area with fewer Mutants.

At least that implies it *is* a conflict between drivers and system somewhere. No luck narrowing it down further, however.

Dervish