Are the developers aware of this? One of the things that struck me over the massive nerf/attack on fade/fling/pull abilities that happened was how much development time it may have taken? Why is the zone crash still here? Are they aware of it? I am trying to make this as constructive a topic as possible. I don't want to bring the patch into it; there are other topics for that. I am told it is largely due to the client being unable to handle a certain amount of memory due to C++ requiring static memory allocation (as in once what was requested is hit, the game crashes). This started many years ago. Zones it commonly happens for: Sanctum Somnium (Might have been fixed.) Valley of Lunanyn (Might have been fixed.) Neriak 4th Gate The Dead Hills Argin-Hiz (The worst offender of all.) Every single raid we have 1-8 people crash going to these zones. This is every single time, and it is not an exaggeration to say we've likely lost a few hours over the years to this issue. Beyond raids, it's annoying in general and leaves a terrible reflection on the game. So my questions are: 1.) Are the developers aware of this long standing problem? 2.) What workarounds are there? As much as I hate upgrading to a decently powerful machine then dialing back settings to avoid crashing, if I can do it I will. Not everyone crashes, only a subset of people, and they don't crash 100% of the time either. What exactly triggers this? How can we prevent it until it is hopefully fixed?
Answers I've picked up from guessing: Yes, they are mostly aware of the general issue. Information on specific zones that are the worst offenders, and the frequency that it happens to people, might be lacking. Generally, the cause is lack of memory because the game is a 32 bit game. The coders have done a bunch of workarounds which put band-aids on the issue. What can you do? Well, try what is said here: http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Graphics_and_performance_settings_guide#Crashing Besides what is at that link, having your computer "clean" of junk and not running a ton of stuff in the background, having updated drivers, etc., may help. Sometimes, when it is a specific zone, Daybreak can go back and remove some stuff from the zone or discover some issues which can help once fixed. The only real answer would be to rewrite the client from scratch, but they won't do that since it is expensive.
I fail to see what other processes have anything to do with it. My computer has far more resources than Everquest would ever need; more than several instances at once would need. I'm pretty sure Everquest crashes due to memory issues far earlier than the true 32-bit limits too. Someone told me this is due to C++ requiring allocating memory in advance and not dynamically. I have to wonder why they don't do the necessary tweaks to increase the amount of memory allowed, but it's probably not that simple. I really hope they are actively looking to fix it. It just boggles my mind to have people crashing every time we do certain zones. I'm tempted to take the extreme approach and test if old models avoid it. I'll try the streaming texture thing. It is extremely frustrating to have to minimize memory usage when at one point I put the entire game data into a RAM disk before I had a SSD, for speed. Edit: I did not have "Stream Item Textures" checked. I will be quite happy if that does it. It's still a very seriously embarrassing issue that needs to be fixed though.
I'd say a good 1/2 of my crashes on zoning are due to UDP and poor routing. Dropped a packet connecting to zone server? TO THE DESKTOP YOU GO!!!!
You are lucky, mine crashs even when I don't zone. For exemple Im in bazaar doing nothing, error windows pop up: client crashed.
Indeed. Degmar is by *far* the worst zone for this. At LEAST half the time I attempt zoning into Degmar, I end up crashing. I recall some patch notes from months and months ago where they "corrected" crash issues zoning into Degmar, but alas.... Dredge/Arx/4th gate are also bad, but nowhere near as bad as degmar (same reports from everyone I've talked to.)
I used to crash into Degmar, but one of the patches in the last six months ended that. Now I only crash logging OUT on a single character out of the four I play. Three of them never crash on logout, one almost always does.
I've had this affect me in the Grand Guild Hall and even zoning to South Ro recently too. I asked a few times in the expansion stream if this "1.3GB crash bug" is being addressed, and they said in the stream "stability issues" are being worked on without mentioning this crash in particular. It's relevant in the context of the expansion since there is no question it will affect the expansion content, especially if they make zones that use a lot of RAM.
I find that sitting for a long time inactive in a zone makes a crash more likely the next time I zone.
I have seen others say this too. It is not exclusively this though. Like four of us crashed twice each going to the Grounds to do the raid and then on the way to the Feerrott as well yesterday. I really hope they fix this before the expansion. Despite my contempt of the recent regression, I do not want the game to fail. When I see so many iffy on continuing or returning to the game tough, I worry. This is a very real issue that should be a top priority.
“I find that sitting for a long time inactive in a zone makes a crash more likely the next time I zone.” I find this also the case if i sit in one spot for long periods (and by long i mean a day or so) i'll come back and zone and bam get a crash .. but it happens so rarely its not a big issue for me.
Before last patch hardly any crashes, weren't on my radar. Now constant crashes on all 4 accounts. 2 of the computers are twins, same gateway model and os. Os installation only a couple of months old. They changed something with the patch so they should be able to backtrack it without to much trouble.
Unfortunately it's shuffled who is affected quite a bit over the years. I wasn't affected at all until last Spring. It may be possible to duplicate on anyone by repeatedly zoning between high RAM usage zones though. If RAM ever successfully passes 1.3GB for anyone without a crash that would be interesting to note too, because a guildie said that is the point it will crash. Morell's Castle, Sanctum Somnium, Valley of Lunanyn, Neriak Fourth Gate, Dead Hills, and Argin-Hiz are off hand zones commonly where the crash finally happens. They may have changed Vally of Lunanyn though; I'm not sure if that was the same issue.
