Steam Edition of Penumbra: Overture, B.P. & Requiem - Crashing

[DON3k]

I've only tried playing the 1st one (Overture), since I wish to play them in order, and I've read through a lot of the messages here, to identify a possible issue / solution before posting, but nothing has solved my problem.

As the title mentioned, I purchased the complete set of Penumbra via Steam.

Basically, I either get a crash at New Game, and if I do get it to start, I play fine until the next level or major loading-door is opened, then normally the loading screen appears, after about 10 seconds, the screen flashes and a black screen is all I see. I then have to END-TASK. I will normally still continue to hear the in-game music, but Vista will indicate the program is no longer responding in the Task Manager. The game, if left, never continues and must be killed.

Upon killing the game, I see this on the toolbar:



Strangely, none of my other games has ever caused this error. Not Crysis, Bioshock, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3... Just naming a few of the other titles I've played thru over the past few months.

My hardware:

MSI P35D3 Platinum MB
4 GB PC12800 DDR3 1600 Mhz Crucial Ballistix RAM
Intel QX9650 CPU
Vista 64
ATI 3870X2 w/9.2 Drivers (latest available)
Audigy X-Fi Fatality w/latest drivers via Creative Auto-Update

I've tried disabling the Catalyst AI, made sure that all other settings were checked for Use Application Settings, so that the Catalyst is not 'tweaking' anything, and I even tried clicking OpenGL Triple Buffering, but it's a no-go.

I also uninstalled 9.2 and installed Catalyst 8.12. Same results.

I tried the default screen resolutions, as well as a couple of the native resolutions of my monitor, but that does not seem to matter - same results.

For the hell of it, I setup Creative Alchemy to handle the sound, to see if this made a difference, but with or without, no change.

As you can see from the hardware list, my PC is a beast, and normally chews thru anything I throw at it. I'm also an IT Tech, so keeping the PC tuned and everything patched and up-to-date is always covered.

Anyway, if there's anything specific you can suggest, please do.

Oh, and as for Vista, I'm using the Administrator account, not the administrators group. I re-enabled the Administrator user and do not use any other profiles on this machine. So I do not have to deal with Run As Administrator or confirming rises in access level to make changes, UAC confirmations, etc - making permissions or access to files / folders no problem.

Also, the fact that it bombs during a level load, and not during actual game play, would make me think that it would not be connected with overheating, overclocking, etc. Besides, I've run HWMon while troubleshooting, and the temps are all very low. I have very good water cooling on the CPU and a very good airflow case.



I'll mention it, even though I would assume you're already aware of it; ATI, in their 9.1 driver set, introduced full OpenGL 3.0 support. Not sure that this should matter - you'd know best. However, that is why I did try rolling-back to Cat 8.12, just to see, but clearly it did not change anything results-wise.

However, even though I did try the 8.12 drivers, as a test, I hope that I'm not told that I need to regress drivers to some ancient set just to run the game.

I haven't played a good adventure / puzzle-solver game in a long while, since I normally stick to things like Fallout 3, Neverwinter Night series, and some FPS stuff, like Left4Dead, etc. Your series I was hoping would be a refreshing change of pace.

Oh, and here's my log file:

As you'll notice, this time it launched and started my save with no issues, but when I reached the next door (supply room this time) and opened it - bomb.

[jens]

Have you tried using software audio instead of hardware audio?

Perhaps you can try the new 9.2 driver? In another thread it seems that release fixed a crashing problem.

[DON3k]

Have you tried using software audio instead of hardware audio?

Perhaps you can try the new 9.2 driver? In another thread it seems that release fixed a crashing problem.

I am currently running 9.2. I only mentioned 9.1 because it was the release which updated OpenGL to 3.0, and since Penumbra runs in OpenGL, I figured it may be important. However, as I indicated, rolling back to 8.12 - pre OGL3, made no difference.

I don't believe it's a sound issue, since there's no in-game crashing (while playing), but only when a level load happens. During this transition, a 2D image is displayed on the screen (The snow / loading image), while the next level loads, and when the 3D OpenGL kicks in again, the screen crashes to black, but the sound continues. That is also when the error appears on the tooltray indicating that the Display Driver has crashed.

I will try turning off hardware sound, but since Unreal Tournament 3 also uses OpenAL for audio, and it runs with full hardware, without issue, I think it's likely not a problem.

[jens]

You could also try to set UseThreading to false in the settings.cfg file for the <Sound section that you'll find in My Documents/Penumbra Overture/Episode1/

Crashes between levels have often in the past been linked to issues with the audio.

[DON3k]

You could also try to set UseThreading to false in the settings.cfg file for the <Sound section that you'll find in My Documents/Penumbra Overture/Episode1/

Crashes between levels have often in the past been linked to issues with the audio.

Unfortunately, turning off hardware and UseThreading to false - neither has helped. My last three attempts to continue from my save just crash after the loading screen appears, never actually getting into the game.

Anything else you can recommend?

Latest log attached.

[jens]

Have you tried to turn off/down all the graphics settings possible? Only as a troubleshooting source of information.

In the same settings.cfg file as you used to change sound settings, you can set LogResources="" to true, please do this as it would make the hpl.log file a bit more detailed.

[DON3k]

Have you tried to turn off/down all the graphics settings possible? Only as a troubleshooting source of information.

In the same settings.cfg file as you used to change sound settings, you can set LogResources="" to true, please do this as it would make the hpl.log file a bit more detailed.

Well, even with every option selected as either Off or Low, at 640x480, threading is false - same issue. Either a crash at a load screen, or as I've found in the area I'm in (just after escaping the spider caves) when I break the vent open into the room with the wood box just outside the vent, a lockup there. Anytime it's managed to continue, this is where it next bombs. In previous levels, it would always only bomb at a load screen when opening a new door.

New log attached

Funny thing is, I can set every option has high, On, enabled, and even hard-code 1920x1080 into the config, and set the max voices from 32 to 64, with threading, and the game runs just as good, or as bad - however you want to look at it. It plays the same as when everything is off or disabled - meaning it either loads, or not, or crashes at the next load, or when I break the vent into the new room.

It seems to have no issues with all the bells and whistles on, and even at my monitor's highest resolution, looks great and plays great - that is, if it opens at all upon selecting Continue, or if it does continue, until it crashes at the next load screen.. Or when I break the vent open, as I described above.

I have verified my steam files cache for the game, and it seems to indicate that all files are there.

---

Oh, and to reiterate; It still displays this error, each time it crashes. With either 8.12, or 9.2, as I originally mentioned:

---

Have you tried to turn off/down all the graphics settings possible? Only as a troubleshooting source of information.

In the same settings.cfg file as you used to change sound settings, you can set LogResources="" to true, please do this as it would make the hpl.log file a bit more detailed.

Well, even with every option selected as either Off or Low, at 640x480, threading is false - same issue. Either a crash at a load screen, or as I've found in the area I'm in (just after escaping the spider caves) when I break the vent open into the room with the wood box just outside the vent, a lockup there. Anytime it's managed to continue, this is where it next bombs. In previous levels, it would always only bomb at a load screen when opening a new door.

New log attached

Funny thing is, I can set every option has high, On, enabled, and even hard-code 1920x1080 into the config, and set the max voices from 32 to 64, with threading, and the game runs just as good, or as bad - however you want to look at it. It plays the same as when everything is off or disabled - meaning it either loads, or not, or crashes at the next load, or when I break the vent into the new room.

It seems to have no issues with all the bells and whistles on, and even at my monitor's highest resolution, looks great and plays great - that is, if it opens at all upon selecting Continue, or if it does continue, until it crashes at the next load screen.. Or when I break the vent open, as I described above.

I have verified my steam files cache for the game, and it seems to indicate that all files are there.

---

Oh, and to reiterate; It still displays this error, each time it crashes. With either 8.12, or 9.2, as I originally mentioned:

BTW: This crash is only visable if you press Ctrl-ESC while crashed at the black screen. Your toolbar will appear, and there you can right-click on your Penumbra toolbar and choose Close. When it END-TASK and goes away, that's when you can see the Error Bubble about the driver crashing. Others may be getting this, too, but don't do this in order to see the error.

[DON3k]

Just wanted to provide an update.

I installed the new ATI 9.3 drivers, but still encounter crashes on loading screens, or an occasional crash during game play. Each time it is still the same error, about the display driver having to recover from a crash.

This is still only happening in your game, and not others I'm playing.

[saywut]

Hello I'm new to the board and I've been having similar problems as that of the OP. I have a Sager NP9262 gaming laptop with dual nVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX cards (drivers 179.48 as of this posting - currently up to date) and the dreaded Vista 64 OS. Penumbra:Overture crashes and locks the computer even before I leave the Windows desktop.

I don't think it's a fault with the game, because I get this glitch with some other games, like Thief: Deadly Shadows and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War. In Warhammer, I'm able to play in a windowed mode and that stops the crashes, but with Thief and Penumbra, I get a mega crash that forces me to reboot, regardless of whatever admin/compatability/ -window tweaks I try.

I'm thinking that Vista 64 and/or the nVIDIA drivers are having a problem jumping from my screen's 1900x1200 size to the default one for Penumbra. My hpl.log file is brief --

-------- THE HPL ENGINE LOG ------------

Creating Engine Modules
--------------------------------------------------------
Creating graphics module
Creating system module
Creating resource module
Creating input module
Creating sound module
Creating physics module
Creating ai module
Creating gui module
Creating haptic module
Creating scene module
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Resources Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Creating resource managers
Misc Creation
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Graphics Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Init low level graphics
Setting video mode: 800 x 600 - 32 bpp

-- Stupid Vista.

---

I figured out a stupid workaround...but it's a win for Vista 64:

- set my screen (via nVIDIA control panel) to 800x600
- run game (it runs!!!)
- set game video options to 1280x1024
- exit
- set my screen to 1280x1024 so I can see more than four icons
- run game

AND IT WORKS! :

I think I might try this for my other older games...stupid friggin' Vista!

[Yuhaney]

I've always said that Vista isn't good for gaming.
I prefer XP! :