General stability

[Vladd]

Have to say thanks to everyone who has continued work on BoB II. It really is a fantasticly atmospheric sim, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

At present I'm seeing crashes maybe one flight in every six or seven. The crashes can happen anytime in flight. My system is a core i5 2500K; ATI Radeon 6950 (latest 12.4 drivers); Win7 64 (latest Direct X) with 4GB RAM. I've also applied (I assume successfully) the win7 fix along with the ATI vsynch fix.

I understand that the main code is rather dated, and can live with less-than-perfect stability as a result. My expectations are not the same as if the game had just been released. But I was wondering if the infrequent but regular CTDs were fairly normal? If other users can play without this issue, I'll try more tweaking.

Only thing which might give an indication that something may be amiss is that whenever the game launches, desktop colour scheme switches from aero to Windows basic. No idea if that's significant. Oh, and if my plane loses a wing, the game does not crash but the view spins like crazy. Wonder if there's anything else I can try?

Cheers

[Buddye]

Hi and welcome to BOBII and the BOBII forums and community. You should not be having any CTD as I am not working on any BOBII code CTD at present. Look in your BOBII folder and find a file called crashlog.TXT and post the first 20 lines of the last few crashlog if they are different so I can review them.

You might also check or re-check the following basic setup item:

First, you cannot run BOBII in Windows Compatibility Mode (XP SP3). It runs in windows 7 64 bit just fine (which is what I run).

Second, I assume you are running the 2.11 Update and I see you are running windows 7. If you are not running the 2.11 update then download it and install it. Here is the link:

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 10&t=21865

Below are the 2.11 release notes:

Note1: this update will bring *any* previous version up to 2.11. You do not need any previous patches at all.

Note2: You will need the latest DirectX to run 2.11.
You will get a missing .dll error if you do not. When you run the 2.11 self-installer it will point you to the Microsoft DirectX update page. Update to DirectX9.0c (June version). Unfortunately, there are multiple versions of 9.0c so if in any doubt, update.

Note3: The MultiSkin patch should go ON TOP OF Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory v2.11 Patch (English) OR Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory v2.11 Patch (International)
You should have a 256M gfx card to be sure to run without issues.

Note4: How to back up your existing settings from earlier BoBII updates.
Buddye's installation guide HERE-> http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/vie ... 0&t=19368B
Back up your Bdg.txt and \savegame, \2dGauge, and \keyboard folders (these folders contain all your settings and joystick buttons)

Note5: If you have a low end system and experience a crash once into 3D, go to your bdg.txt file and set LANDSCAPE_TEXTURE_SIZE = 1024 (the default is 2048). This will reduce the landscape texture resolution by a factor of 4 and should help users with low system memory.

Note6: Windows Vista and Window 7 users. All Vista and Windows 7 users will need to apply the 'Vista/Windows 7 fix' to your desktop shortcut as a fresh 2.11 install will overwrite the previous shortcut.
Right click on shortcut and go to properties. Go to the compatibility tab. Check "disable desktop composition" and check the privilege level, run this program as an administrator.

Note7: Forcing VSync with ATI card
There is a known issue with the latest ATI cards and VSync. See http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/vie ... 10&t=21660
In short, you need to right click your ATI tray icon and enable through that (Wait for vertical refresh->Always on).

Note8: Framerates over densely populated areas of 3D objects
See the section later in this thread. Object rendering is not as efficient as we hope to make it in the future. Be prepared to check your Ground Object Density settings in densely populated urban areas. See below

Did you implement Note #6 (Important)?

Is you DirectX 9c update to the latest? If unsure run the Microsoft Web installer here(it will update only what is needed):

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

If you are running a wide screen monitor check this thread and implement:

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 17&t=12695

[Vladd]

Thanks for the reply Buddye. I'm using 2.11, and as far as I am aware, have implemented the steps you mention correctly.

Have PM'ed you the crashlog.

Cheers

[Prem Holdaway]

Hi Vladd,

One other thing to do, and that is to make sure that none of your programs are running in the background. That includes scheduled tasks and automatic updates, including Windows automatic updates.

I have them all setup for manual updates, which I carry out approximately once a month.

I have only one program, that even though it is switched to manual update. Still tries to update on every boot and once a month, even though it is turned off. That program is Logitech QuickCam and is a pain in the butt, especially when you've had a good score. I suppose I should have notified Logitech, but I never have done.

Do thoroughly check, as some are quite devious in how they work behind your back.

[Buddye]

Thanks for taking the time to post the crashlogs.

You posted 4 crashlogs which shows you crashed in:

1. module KERNELBASE.dll
2. module KERNELBASE.dll
3. module <UNKNOWN>
4. module Profile::CalcWPAbsTimes()+72 byte(s),

The first 2 crashlogs are in a windows program and the third crashlog is in an unknown module. I suspect that the first two crashlogs ( module KERNELBASE.dll ) are caused by the OS, drivers, driver settings (maybe the video driver setting) or some kind of interferrence of backgraound programs. The crash in unknown module says that the processing did not get far enough to get the crashlog program to get setup.

The last crashlog is in a BOBII program (CalcWPAbsTimes). I can not get the correct place of the crash as we have moved forward and I am running 2.12 code.

If you are willing to install our 2.12 code that we are testing then I should be able to see the code (correct line number) that is crashing if you get the same CTD (re-produce the CTD) so I can try and debug it and fix it.

Here is the 2.12 files (EXE and pdp files). First, just back up your 2.11 BOBII EXE and pdp files that are in your BOBII folder by coping the two files to another folder. Then just download and unpack (I use rar to unzip it) and place the two files in your BOBII folder.

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/bob ... 2.12-4.rar

If you do not have the time or you are not comfortable messing with your files just do not do it and I do thank you for posting.

[PV]

Please note that if you choose to install the new .exe, it WILL
corrupt any campaign you are in process of conducting. This
often happens with new patch versions, but with all the amendments
to the campaign for v2.12 this9one is 100% certain. Best to finish a
campaign, or be comfortable with abandoning it, before moving to
a new patch exe.

[Vladd]

Thanks for the replies gents.

Think I'll check background processes and experiment with graphics settings for starters. It does seem likely that whatever is happening is potentially fixable though, which is good to hear. I'll try 2.12 soon too, bearing in mind PV's point.

Your help is appreciated!