Penumbra: Overture mid-game crash - JENS TAKE A LOOK PLEASE

[Bludo]

I am experiencing a number of crashes with Penumbra: Overture, which was purchased through Steam. Initially, some of these appeared to be related to where the saves were stored in my Documents folder. Running the game as Administrator appeared to resolve this.

However, I have continued to experience hard crashes during the course of the game. Some of these were worked around by setting the shaders to Very Low. However, it still will inevitably happen, and they seem to be common when loading new areas that are being entered. It appears to be an issue with the material system, and apparently not just specular maps.

I have scoured forums attempting anything and everything, from file integrity checks, to patches, to new executables, to adjusting Windows settings, etc. These have not resolved the issues, and frankly have been a lot more work than should be necessary to get the application to run as intended.

1. Windows 7 64-bit.

2. laptop: HP Elitebook 8740w with a Quadro 5000M graphics card.

3. hpl.log is attached

Thanks for any support you are able to provide. This has really been frustrating, particularly because I had no problems running Amnesia, albeit they're probably using different render tech.

[jens]

Possibly try and reinstall the game and do not apply any patches or changing exes or similar. The game is up-to-date and with everything at its best by default in Steam. Then to be sure, do a check file integrity check on the new game install in Steam.

If you experience crashes, first go to nvidia.com and download the latest drivers for your graphics card. Install, reboot and see if that helps.

If not, then think of 3rd party applications that could interfere. This could be anti-virus programs, 3d accelerated effects in the windows user interface or even the steam overlay. It could also be some sort of misconfiguration in the system files, as you had to run the game as an administrator in order for it to save. This could indicate something else is wrong and not completely fixed by running as an administrator.

[Bludo]

Possibly try and reinstall the game and do not apply any patches or changing exes or similar. The game is up-to-date and with everything at its best by default in Steam. Then to be sure, do a check file integrity check on the new game install in Steam.

If you experience crashes, first go to nvidia.com and download the latest drivers for your graphics card. Install, reboot and see if that helps.

If not, then think of 3rd party applications that could interfere. This could be anti-virus programs, 3d accelerated effects in the windows user interface or even the steam overlay. It could also be some sort of misconfiguration in the system files, as you had to run the game as an administrator in order for it to save. This could indicate something else is wrong and not completely fixed by running as an administrator.

Your reccomendations have all been attempted. I have done numerous clean installs of both the game and my drivers (even installing to a fresh Windows install just to see). I realize it is probably low on the priority list because I'm one of a few people reporting it, but I have a hard time seeing how there is not an issue in the material system. The game doesn't appear to be using any procedural textures, and particles don't produce any kind of a noticable problem. It seems almost exclusively isolated to issues when loading shaders and calculating lighting.

Also, another strange anomaly that occurs is that when the shader settings are set to Very Low, some of the textures, if they are unlit, draw entirely black. Turning on the glowstick will force draw everything within the view of the frustum. But it's not uncommon to see a scene drawing almost entirely black without some sort of dynamic light source in view.

[plutomaniac]

The same anomalies tend to happen with Intel HD cards. Or at least similar. Can you try the shader suggestions for these cards mentioned in the troubleshooting guide?

[Bludo]

The same anomalies tend to happen with Intel HD cards. Or at least similar. Can you try the shader suggestions for these cards mentioned in the troubleshooting guide?

I tried your suggestion, using the settings recommended for Intel cards in the Troubleshooting Guide. It did not resolve the crash, unfortunately.

Looking at the hpl.log file, it has similar errors every time a hard crash occurs. Unfortunately, because of Windows or the way crashes are handled, I don't get an exception, so there isn't much to work from. This is the end of the latest log after the crash, more or less:

WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
WARNING: Texture 'blinn4-fx' was not found!
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
ERROR: Couldn't create material '.mat'
WARNING: Could not load material ''
Loading map ...

Clearly, only the devs can be sure what's going on in there, but it appears to be attempting to create a material file that has no name, and subsequently fails to load it. Is it possible to circumvent having these files generated dynamically? I'd try a dummy file, but since it has no name, that doesn't really seem to make sense. Furthermore, I don't know if these log messages are even related to the crash.

Further assistance/guidance would be much appreciated. I don't suppose it would be possible to get a debug build of the executable with the debug symbols would it? I could at least try and narrow down the location of the crash in the stack.

[jens]

Is this a first time load of the map or a saved game loading the map? If a saved game try loading an earlier save, then play from there to the map that crashes.

Those errors and warnings are "normal" and should not cause a problem as long as the game is complete file wise.

[Bludo]

Is this a first time load of the map or a saved game loading the map? If a saved game try loading an earlier save, then play from there to the map that crashes.

Those errors and warnings are "normal" and should not cause a problem as long as the game is complete file wise.

It is neither. It can be loading maps that have been previously been loaded (and frequently is), or it can be brand new areas. The save files are not "corrupted" (nor should they be, anyway) because I have reverted to previous saves to check.

I appreciate your assistance Jens, but unless you have some other contrary indication, the shader system in this game's engine does not function correctly as far as my GPU is concerned. This issue is a progression stopper.

I probably can uncover ways to work around it (and have in some respects), but this game is not as compatible as the Steam system requirements would indicate.

If you're willing to provide me with an executable with debug symbols, I'm happy to help track down the issue. But from the amount of feedback that is being submitted about problems running the game, I think it's fair to assume that there are some integral issues with specified compatibility.

[jens]

Are you sure the drivers are up to date and that the game is running on the nvidia card? Because it is a bit strange that it uses fallback shaders for lights and fog on a modern graphics card.

[Bludo]

Are you sure the drivers are up to date and that the game is running on the nvidia card? Because it is a bit strange that it uses fallback shaders for lights and fog on a modern graphics card.

I am 100% certain they are up to date. Further, the Nvidia architecture has not altered their implementation of the shader interface since three revisions ago.

[plutomaniac]

Well, what gpu is being used can be easily verified. Can you try the free Amnesia demo found at http://www.amnesiagame.com/#demo and then attach us the file hpl.log found under Documents\Amnesia\Main folder? Also, check whether Amnesia shows just fine. It uses OpenGL as well(a newer version but still OpenGL).