Very weird CTD

[Guest Amgot]

I'm not sure this has anything to do with the Fixpack but maybe it does, so I'll just post it here.

 

I just wanted to play some BG2 tonight, so I just started the game and loaded my latest savegame as usual. But when the loading finished, the normal screen (with the characters and so on) showed up for less than a second and then I got a CTD.

 

I tried to load some of my other savegames, I disabled my anti-virus, I tried to play in 800x600 (instead of my usual 1024x768) but it doesn't work, I still got that same CTD.

 

What I don't understand is that I didn't modify anything in BG2 (installing new mods, ...) or in my computer (upgrading drivers, ...) since last time I played (which was two days ago). So I don't understand what can cause that. Here is what the Windows error report thingie says:

 

AppName: bgmain.exe AppVer: 2.0.0.2 ModName: bgmain.exe

ModVer: 2.0.0.2 Offset: 00015e1a

 

Don't know if it helps much but for my part, I would really like to play BG2 asap, so please help me!

[pro5]

Try adding

[Program Options]
Logging On=1

to your BALDUR.INI

 

It may produce some more descriptive error output to BALDUR.ERR text file.

[Guest Amgot]

Ok I deleted everything in my temp and cache/data folders but the game still crashes. But I've tried loading an older savegame and it worked so I guess I'll just take it from there. Only my two latest savegames make the game crash. My third latest savegame doesn't, even if it's in the same area than the two newer ones... Weird

 

Just for info, here is what the Baldur.err file showed (after adding Logging On=1 to baldur.ini):

 

---------------------Start Logging Session---------------------

 

c:\program files\black isle\bgii - soa\cache\data\AREA020A.bif: Cached

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2791, 1169 ) #:2359332 R:14

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2663, 1109 ) #:8454273 R:14

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2743, 1145 ) #:8519810 R:14

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2824, 1134 ) #:8585347 R:14

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2696, 1122 ) #:8650884 R:14

CVisibilityMap::AddCharacter : ( 2696, 1158 ) #:8716421 R:14

 

Thanks for your help

[Guest Amgot]

Hmm unfortunately the problem is not solved.

 

Some more info: the crash occurs when I load a savegame where I'm doing the Eyeless cult quest. I am in the area where the "diseased" guardians of the temple are, just after the "bridge trial". In my savegame, I had just got the half-rod from the weak god inside the temple and I got out of the temple, spoke to the main guard who didn't believe I would free them from their agreement, and then walked a short distance and saved there (there is water around my characters).

 

I can load an older savegame where I just defeated the shadows after the bridge trial (tough fight!) and then, I only have to walk to the guardians and get inside the temple. I did that of course, but when I get out of the temple, the game crashes again, exactly the same way than when I load my more recent savegame.

 

I tried uninstalling the whole game, deleting the "Black Isle" folder in Program Files (and keeping the saves in a separate folder on my desktop), the reinstalling the game, patching it, installing the same mods in the same order, pasting the "save" folder in my BGII directory. But when I load my savegame, it crashes again.

 

What I was thinking was to load my older savegame which doesn't crash, walk into the temple in order to get the rod, then CLUA myself to the "Eyeless cult lair" area, go on with the quest and when I get the other half rod from the blind beholder, go back to the temple, give the full rod to the god and then, instead of getting out of the temple, CLUAing myself to the "Eyeless cult area" in order to avoid the crash. Do you think this is possible? And do you know the "area code" for the Eyeless cult lair area?

[CamDawg]

It's also possible it's a corrupted save game; typically the bitmaps can get screwy. Go into your save directory and find the folder of the save game that's having problems. (I'd create a copy of the directory just in case.) Delete all of the .bmp files from the save game that's causing problems and then try it again.

[Guest Amgot]

It's also possible it's a corrupted save game; typically the bitmaps can get screwy. Go into your save directory and find the folder of the save game that's having problems. (I'd create a copy of the directory just in case.) Delete all of the .bmp files from the save game that's causing problems and then try it again.

 

I just tried that but it didn't work

 

I don't think the savegame is corrupted because when I load an older savegame, it doesn't crash but then when I get out of the temple, it crashes. It looks like it's more a problem with the area. ..

[Guest Amgot]

I need some help with the CLUA console:

 

I know the code to use is MoveToArea("<string>") but I don't know the strings for the area inside the temple and the area where the Eyeless Cult lair is. Could someone tell me how I can find that (or give them to me)?

 

Thanks for your help

[CamDawg]

Yeah, looking through the active scripts in the area I don't really see what might be causing this issue--if anyone else is experiencing this as well, please report it so that we can narrow it down and see if it's a Fixpack issue or a local issue.

 

A complete area list is available in the IESDP; in particular you want these:

 

AR0201 Ghouls village under Temple District
AR0202 The Unseeing Eye Cult Hideout
AR0203 Temple of the Forgotten God -- Amaunator (Unseeing Eye Plot)
AR0204 The Forgotten Believers -- Temple City (Unseeing Eye Plot)
AR0205 The Beholder Hideout (Unseeing Eye Plot)

[Guest Guest]

Thanks to your help, i've been able to CLUA myself around the problem by teleporting my party directly from the temple to AR0202.

 

I went on with the quest, got the the Pit of the Faithless and re-united the two rods. Unfortunately, when I tried to use the wand against the Beholder, I wasn't fast enough and he killed me before I could do anything. I reloaded and tried again but one more time, he was too fast. I reloaded a second time and failed again. I reloaded a third time and... crash. Exactly the same crash than before. I've tried the two previous savegames too and the game crashes as well.

 

The weird thing is, I had reloaded a couple of times in ghoul city and in the pit of the faithless due to some tough battles with mummies and gauts and it all went well... I reloaded two times the savegame which crashed and I had no problem. I really wonder what can cause this bug to suddenly appear like that!

[berelinde]

I've never had CTD facing the Unseeing Eye, but I have had the rod go off as soon as the second half was picked up, killing the pc and forcing a reload. I've gotten around this by saving prior to picking up that second half. Do you think this might help?

[Guest Amgot]

I've never had CTD facing the Unseeing Eye, but I have had the rod go off as soon as the second half was picked up, killing the pc and forcing a reload. I've gotten around this by saving prior to picking up that second half. Do you think this might help?

 

I saved before (and after too) picking the second part of the rod. Problem is, I just can't load these savegames, the game crashes..

 

This bug is driving me crazy, I don't understand why a savegame I loaded without any problem 2 times crashes the third time (and when I try again and again as well). And also why does it make my previous savegames crash too??

[berelinde]

Well, that certainly applies suction.

 

Sorry, that was the only suggestion I had.

[Gorilym]

...but I have had the rod go off as soon as the second half was picked up, killing the pc and forcing a reload. I've gotten around this by saving prior to picking up that second half...

 

I too have had this happen quite a few times over the years, and I too always save before reuniting the rod just in case. However, it seems like this behaviour might be something worth investigating for the Fixpack (if that hasn't already been done, that is).

 

Sort of off-topic, I know.

[CamDawg]

The only insta-kill block for having the Rift Device is in the Temple sewers area script. That being said, I've experienced this as well which makes me wonder if there's a master area conflict here. Both Temple sewers (ar0701) and the lair of the Unseeing Eye (ar0205) are listed as master areas so, in theory, this shouldn't happen.

[Smoketest]

I fixed the rod stuff years ago, so never had any issues; didn't even have issues before I rewrote the scripts, go figure. The Unseeing Eye always showed up on cue, and the rod never misfired. Furthermore, if you set the game to pause when you see an enemy, the Unseeing Eye will cause a pause when it appears in your view, so use the rod and then unpause. Obviously you'd want to use a protected character for this so as to avoid unnecessary death. The Cloak of Mirroring (I use the original SoA version) or Shield of Balduran is helpful against him.

 

As to the odd crashing of savegames... another one I can only guess at due to never having had this problem before... Is your computer doing write-caching of files written to the hard drive? If so, turn it off and see what happens. Perhaps you're running with hard disk compression turned on, and that's conflicting somehow? It could also be video drivers, odd as that may sound. They're notorious for causing issues for some people. You could try disabling 3D accelerator usage in BGConfig.

 

Something certainly seems to be corrupting your data. Some older versions of NI would corrupt save files if any editing was done, but you didn't mention trying to edit your saved games.

 

Edit: If you have Data Execution Prevention turned on (built-in anti-virus feature of modern CPUs), try turning it off and see if the game runs better. DEP is very picky when it comes to older software. I can't run Office 2003 with DEP turned on.