Prophesy of Pendor Version 3.0 Status Update

[sairtar]

This post is super late, as I am on vacation.  In the 130 hours I have devoted to pop since I got my Windows 7 64bit machine I have not had a single crash.  However, it seems some battles cause an incredible amount of lag which is probably the scene issue Abyss was talking about.  Speed and Stability mod seems to work well with PoP3s betas and Pop2.5, reducing all the vegetation and extraneous textures seems to help though in other mods I can handle battle sizes of a thousand in Pop anything over 70 can give my computer a hard time.  If my specs will help they are in the spoiler.

Spoiler

1.6 quadcore, 4gigs 800mhz ram, 8800gtx bfg dx10 enabled card, windows 7 64 bit ultimate, and I run MB on steam.

Cant wait to play Pop3 when I get back to the north, cheers!

 

[Cohort Crusher]

Thanks Gerhart and saxondragon, for explaining this to me. I edited the module.ini to add in resources for different animations and panoramic skyboxes. Now I looked into it again and it works as it should.

That's like chopping your pinky finger off and wondering where your tenth finger went. Well not exactly,but most likely. Don't shoot yourself in the foot mate. Don't meddle with the occult.

~Ãbyss

Yeah, well, I didn't expect strange things like this to happen. You expect me to what, smell that once I've saved the module.ini it will get a will of his own and change itself before it get's actually saved?

And before you ask, i know how to edit module.ini files (despite my limited knowledge of modding). Everyone could've had this problem.

 

[Mariacello]

Say, sairtar, that's a bit odd. I've got a similar sort of setup, and I haven't had any sort of lag or crashes. I blame the power of those internet demons people call "viruses" 

Although are we talking PoP 3 or 2.5?

 

[sairtar]

Say, sairtar, that's a bit odd. I've got a similar sort of setup, and I haven't had any sort of lag or crashes. I blame the power of those internet demons people call "viruses" 

Although are we talking PoP 3 or 2.5?

This post is not being composed on my ipod so hopefully will be more helpful.  The battles that give me the most lag are hilly and rife with trees and bushes.  I can have 140 horses running around a dessert but some battles are so choppy i hide in the corner with some body guards and pray.  Ive only had this windows config in 2.5, beta ten, and such.  I came to the conclusion that it was location related after noticing that horses weren't the problem, however, I haven't done much testing on the issue cause on realistic mode it saves after every combat and lag makes losing a definite possibility.  If the dev team so wishes ill launch up a round when i get back after aug 9, well after release, and test the issue with more breadth.

 

[Fawzia dokhtar-i-Sanjar]

Sairtair, your problem has to do with Native, not PoP.  There has always been a problem with cavalry running in circles or lags in hilly terrain or tree-filled areas, or both.  They also get stuck behind trees and rocks.  The battles with cavalry are always OK in open terrain, as you observed.  SD and team have worked on the map to alleviate some of this, but it will always be problematic in a mod based on M&B V 1.011.

 

[Qtee]

Heyhey
I have win7 64bit, and the first time I tried Beta 10, I cheated a large army and attacked some large force and had a crash about 1min in. Since then, i haven't had a crash since, even with huge battles. In fact, Im finding it less laggy than any other mod or even warband with a large amount of horses on screen (which is always what bombed my framerate before). Although yea, in those hilly, foresty battle scenes its as bad as native. I have battle size at 200.
Did the new Dshar and Empire city scenes get taken out? I don't have them on the beta 10
From the brief play around with the beta10, PoP 3.0 is LEGENDARY in its awesomeness!!! Can't wait for release, if win7 is somehow cooked, I'll steal my old computer back off my gf, must....play....

 

[littlemikey]

Heyhey
I have win7 64bit, and the first time I tried Beta 10, I cheated a large army and attacked some large force and had a crash about 1min in. Since then, i haven't had a crash since, even with huge battles. In fact, Im finding it less laggy than any other mod or even warband with a large amount of horses on screen (which is always what bombed my framerate before). Although yea, in those hilly, foresty battle scenes its as bad as native. I have battle size at 200.
Did the new Dshar and Empire city scenes get taken out? I don't have them on the beta 10
From the brief play around with the beta10, PoP 3.0 is LEGENDARY in its awesomeness!!! Can't wait for release, if win7 is somehow cooked, I'll steal my old computer back off my gf, must....play....

We are currently all cramming as much testing as we can on the developer forums to work out the source of these crashes.

Basically, we have done SO MUCH work, PoP is so huge, it has become unstable on 64 bit machines. However, not everyone is getting these crashes, so we are currently trying to work out exactly what causes the crash. And since the mod is released in just over 24 hours, everyone is rushing to try and find a solution. Once 3.0 is officially released we will make a large FAQ about how to minimise the risk of crashing. We have also made one or two "Performance packs" that will take out some of the new textures/scenes in the game (unfortunate I know - they are amazing work), but have been shown to improve stability greatly on 64 bit systems. The good news is that if you have a 32 bit system, we haven't had any reports of crashes, so you can play till your computer explodes =D

 

[saxondragon]

Thanks Gerhart and saxondragon, for explaining this to me. I edited the module.ini to add in resources for different animations and panoramic skyboxes. Now I looked into it again and it works as it should.

That's like chopping your pinky finger off and wondering where your tenth finger went. Well not exactly,but most likely. Don't shoot yourself in the foot mate. Don't meddle with the occult.

~Ãbyss

Yeah, well, I didn't expect strange things like this to happen. You expect me to what, smell that once I've saved the module.ini it will get a will of his own and change itself before it get's actually saved?

And before you ask, i know how to edit module.ini files (despite my limited knowledge of modding). Everyone could've had this problem.

Very true.. it happenes to me all of the time.. every third time I add a resource, change the map, sneeze in the .ini file.. it gets munged. 

I am concerned at the amount of resources that the skyboxes and alternate animations will take up.. would you mind sharing your system specs, settings and let me know how this works for you with the final release of Pop?

Thanks,

Saxondragon

 

[Qtee]

Basically, we have done SO MUCH work, PoP is so huge, it has become unstable on 64 bit machines. However, not everyone is getting these crashes, so we are currently trying to work out exactly what causes the crash. And since the mod is released in just over 24 hours, everyone is rushing to try and find a solution. Once 3.0 is officially released we will make a large FAQ about how to minimise the risk of crashing. We have also made one or two "Performance packs" that will take out some of the new textures/scenes in the game (unfortunate I know - they are amazing work), but have been shown to improve stability greatly on 64 bit systems. The good news is that if you have a 32 bit system, we haven't had any reports of crashes, so you can play till your computer explodes =D

You guys (and gals) are legends

 

[Griefer]

What if I'm in Windows 7 but installed M&B in the x86 program folder so it's running at 32 bit? Am I still going to be able to enjoy all the magical pretty goodness?

 

[littlemikey]

What if I'm in Windows 7 but installed M&B in the x86 program folder so it's running at 32 bit? Am I still going to be able to enjoy all the magical pretty goodness?

You will still be able to play PoP fine, however you run the risk of crashing in larger battles or scenes.

This isn't just a problem with PoP. Lots of larger mods have this problem, just because they add so many new textures and objects more then the origional engine intended. SoD is one of the ones that comes to mind. Think of it like this: Basically they made the mod so huge, it can't support it's own weight. In a battle where you have 200+ troops with high resolution textures, the system just can't handle it.

One of the solutions the developers (I think it was MadVader/Abyss who were working on it together) came up with was to cut out certian textures. Also, turning down specific settings, such as shadows, seems to help too.

What's important is that the bulk of the mod is kept intact. One of the biggest losses is the fantastic Empire/D'shar cities that Sysyphe and M0rdred spent so much time creating. However the good news is that not everyone experiences these crashes, so some players will still be able to experience the full world of PoP. And all the rest of us, I feel would much rather play a stable, although cut down, mod then one that crashes in the large battles, which is what we're all here for anyway

 

[Fawzia dokhtar-i-Sanjar]

Correction: Empire palaces and towns and the D'Shar yurt villages are entirely Sysyphe's original creations.

 

[littlemikey]

Correction: Empire palaces and towns and the D'Shar yurt villages are entirely Sysyphe's original creations.

My mistake, I keep forgetting who did who, there was so much contributing >__<;

 

[Cohort Crusher]

Thanks Gerhart and saxondragon, for explaining this to me. I edited the module.ini to add in resources for different animations and panoramic skyboxes. Now I looked into it again and it works as it should.

That's like chopping your pinky finger off and wondering where your tenth finger went. Well not exactly,but most likely. Don't shoot yourself in the foot mate. Don't meddle with the occult.

~Ãbyss

Yeah, well, I didn't expect strange things like this to happen. You expect me to what, smell that once I've saved the module.ini it will get a will of his own and change itself before it get's actually saved?

And before you ask, i know how to edit module.ini files (despite my limited knowledge of modding). Everyone could've had this problem.

Very true.. it happenes to me all of the time.. every third time I add a resource, change the map, sneeze in the .ini file.. it gets munged. 

I am concerned at the amount of resources that the skyboxes and alternate animations will take up.. would you mind sharing your system specs, settings and let me know how this works for you with the final release of Pop?

Thanks,

Saxondragon

Sure. Here are my system specs:
Intel Pentium D 2.67 GHz
2 Gb RAM
NVidia GeForce 8800GTS 640 vRAM
360 Gb Harddisk, 43 Gb unused (thought this could be useful as well)

I'm running M&B with shadows and character detail set to low (don't really care about them, so why bother having them set to high?), AA on x2. Particles are on, as well as dynamic lightning and other things. grass distance set to 50%. Screen resolution set to 1920x1200. Corpses set to 20 models, and rag dolls set to 3 or 5, depending on the stabillity of the module itself. Brightness set to 180 - 200 because I like my wargames dark and gritty.

I use Zaro's excellent Graphics Enhancement 2.5 mod, combined with Panoramic Skyboxes and the HDR of Rus XIII mod. Also got Speed&Stabillity installed for increased performance and to avoid crashes. Normally have the Battlesizer set to 200 men, but I sometimes need to revert to 100 men in cases were too many polygons are present (causing a crash as a result). Also using Warband animations because they looks more realistic and allows me to aim my couched lance.

Everything seems to work fine with all these mods installed, except for the battlesizer. 200 Men onscreen causes my game to crash. I don't really mind about it though, I haven't got any problems playing with 100 Npc's.   

 

[littlemikey]

Thanks Gerhart and saxondragon, for explaining this to me. I edited the module.ini to add in resources for different animations and panoramic skyboxes. Now I looked into it again and it works as it should.

That's like chopping your pinky finger off and wondering where your tenth finger went. Well not exactly,but most likely. Don't shoot yourself in the foot mate. Don't meddle with the occult.

~Ãbyss

Yeah, well, I didn't expect strange things like this to happen. You expect me to what, smell that once I've saved the module.ini it will get a will of his own and change itself before it get's actually saved?

And before you ask, i know how to edit module.ini files (despite my limited knowledge of modding). Everyone could've had this problem.

Very true.. it happenes to me all of the time.. every third time I add a resource, change the map, sneeze in the .ini file.. it gets munged. 

I am concerned at the amount of resources that the skyboxes and alternate animations will take up.. would you mind sharing your system specs, settings and let me know how this works for you with the final release of Pop?

Thanks,

Saxondragon

Sure. Here are my system specs:
Intel Pentium D 2.67 GHz
2 Gb RAM
NVidia GeForce 8800GTS 640 vRAM
360 Gb Harddisk, 43 Gb unused (thought this could be useful as well)

I'm running M&B with shadows and character detail set to low (don't really care about them, so why bother having them set to high?), AA on x2. Particles are on, as well as dynamic lightning and other things. grass distance set to 50%. Screen resolution set to 1920x1200. Corpses set to 20 models, and rag dolls set to 3 or 5, depending on the stabillity of the module itself. Brightness set to 180 - 200 because I like my wargames dark and gritty.

I use Zaro's excellent Graphics Enhancement 2.5 mod, combined with Panoramic Skyboxes and the HDR of Rus XIII mod. Also got Speed&Stabillity installed for increased performance and to avoid crashes. Normally have the Battlesizer set to 200 men, but I sometimes need to revert to 100 men in cases were too many polygons are present (causing a crash as a result). Also using Warband animations because they looks more realistic and allows me to aim my couched lance.

Everything seems to work fine with all these mods installed, except for the battlesizer. 200 Men onscreen causes my game to crash. I don't really mind about it though, I haven't got any problems playing with 100 Npc's. 

Having so many programs editing M&B can't be healthy

 

[Fawzia dokhtar-i-Sanjar]

As we said in the FAQ (did you read the Game Breakers section?), editing PoP 3 codes and adding mods to PoP 3 is perilous at best.  Problems caused by either are not supported.

I and other members of the Dev Team have used Battle Sizer throughout beta testing without problems, set between 150 and 170.  Of course, we didn't screw around with the codes and add mods, though.

 

[saxondragon]

Thanks Gerhart and saxondragon, for explaining this to me. I edited the module.ini to add in resources for different animations and panoramic skyboxes. Now I looked into it again and it works as it should.

That's like chopping your pinky finger off and wondering where your tenth finger went. Well not exactly,but most likely. Don't shoot yourself in the foot mate. Don't meddle with the occult.

~Ãbyss

Yeah, well, I didn't expect strange things like this to happen. You expect me to what, smell that once I've saved the module.ini it will get a will of his own and change itself before it get's actually saved?

And before you ask, i know how to edit module.ini files (despite my limited knowledge of modding). Everyone could've had this problem.

Very true.. it happenes to me all of the time.. every third time I add a resource, change the map, sneeze in the .ini file.. it gets munged. 

I am concerned at the amount of resources that the skyboxes and alternate animations will take up.. would you mind sharing your system specs, settings and let me know how this works for you with the final release of Pop?

Thanks,

Saxondragon

Sure. Here are my system specs:
Intel Pentium D 2.67 GHz
2 Gb RAM
NVidia GeForce 8800GTS 640 vRAM
360 Gb Harddisk, 43 Gb unused (thought this could be useful as well)

I'm running M&B with shadows and character detail set to low (don't really care about them, so why bother having them set to high?), AA on x2. Particles are on, as well as dynamic lightning and other things. grass distance set to 50%. Screen resolution set to 1920x1200. Corpses set to 20 models, and rag dolls set to 3 or 5, depending on the stabillity of the module itself. Brightness set to 180 - 200 because I like my wargames dark and gritty.

I use Zaro's excellent Graphics Enhancement 2.5 mod, combined with Panoramic Skyboxes and the HDR of Rus XIII mod. Also got Speed&Stabillity installed for increased performance and to avoid crashes. Normally have the Battlesizer set to 200 men, but I sometimes need to revert to 100 men in cases were too many polygons are present (causing a crash as a result). Also using Warband animations because they looks more realistic and allows me to aim my couched lance.

Everything seems to work fine with all these mods installed, except for the battlesizer. 200 Men onscreen causes my game to crash. I don't really mind about it though, I haven't got any problems playing with 100 Npc's. 

Thank you, this has been helpful,.

As you play, if you would be so kind, as to let me know, either here or in PM, if you experience any crashes or problems. 

Best regards,

Saxondragon

 

[Ãbyss]

IS THERE NO CRASHTESTING OF THE MOD?!!! 
-MadVader

I thought all you folks would enjoy a laugh.

~Ã.

 

[Fawzia dokhtar-i-Sanjar]

 

[webspinnre]

For what its worth, I have 64 bit Vista and haven't experienced any problems with crashing on any of my MB games. I also keep my games installed somewhere other than program files.