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

**Bludo** · 02-27-2013, 06:52 AM

(02-26-2013, 02:07 PM)plutomaniac Wrote: 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).

Certainly, although the GPU is an NVidia Quadro 5000M. As I mentioned, I played Amnesia on the same machine without a single crash that I can recall. Of course, I was using older drivers, but those were the same ones that I was using before they were updated for the sake of Penumbra: Overture, after those crashes began.

I booted Amnesia, as you suggested and had no problems in the few minutes I spent running around. Rather than downloading the demo, I just booted up my retail copy on Steam. I hope that's not a problem. The hpl.log is attached.

**plutomaniac** · 02-27-2013, 02:09 PM

Everything seems to be fine with Amnesia, the game runs fine and the Quadro card is being used properly.

1) Let's try deleting your configuration files. Go to Documents\Penumbra Overture\Episode1\ and delete all .cfg files and try the game again (basically delete everything except the saves).

2) The latest Nvidia Quadro drivers are 314.07. Make sure you have them installed and not the default OEM ones that come with the laptop. Select clean installation during setup too. If the drivers are indeed at version 314.07, then make sure that the nvidia control panel is not changed in any way. Leave it at defaults when it comes to Penumbra and Amnesia and change any settings in-game.

3) If the above don't solve the problem, there might be a problem with old files that were created during the time that you didn't run the game with administrator privileges. Go to C:\Users\-YOUR-USER-NAME-\AppData\Local\VirtualStore and delete everything Penumbra-related. That means Documents and Program Files (steam folder). If you don't know how to do that then just rename the folder VirtualStore to VirtualStore_TEST and try running the game again as an administrator.

**Bludo** · 03-01-2013, 06:13 AM

(02-27-2013, 02:09 PM)plutomaniac Wrote: Everything seems to be fine with Amnesia, the game runs fine and the Quadro card is being used properly.

1) Let's try deleting your configuration files. Go to Documents\Penumbra Overture\Episode1\ and delete all .cfg files and try the game again (basically delete everything except the saves).

2) The latest Nvidia Quadro drivers are 314.07. Make sure you have them installed and not the default OEM ones that come with the laptop. Select clean installation during setup too. If the drivers are indeed at version 314.07, then make sure that the nvidia control panel is not changed in any way. Leave it at defaults when it comes to Penumbra and Amnesia and change any settings in-game.

3) If the above don't solve the problem, there might be a problem with old files that were created during the time that you didn't run the game with administrator privileges. Go to C:\Users\-YOUR-USER-NAME-\AppData\Local\VirtualStore and delete everything Penumbra-related. That means Documents and Program Files (steam folder). If you don't know how to do that then just rename the folder VirtualStore to VirtualStore_TEST and try running the game again as an administrator.

All the .cfg files were deleted and I used the drivers you specified (although, the NVidia applet said that revision 310 was the latest when I ran it). There was nothing related to Steam or Penumbra in my VirtualStore folder - just a system folder for software that came with the machine. Unfortunately, nothing changed when I turned the shaders from Very Low to Low. The game still crashed within a few minutes of loading.

On a side note, Penumbra: Black Plague appears to work fine. I did initially experience a crash with that, as well. But it appears that that particular issue was related solely to file rights in the My Documents folder.

**plutomaniac** · 03-01-2013, 09:48 AM

I can't think of something else at the moment. Amnesia is working just fine and thus the nvidia drivers and opengl seem to be working correctly. My guess is that Penumbra is not compatible with this card which is indeed strange. Maybe this card had dropped proper support for older versions of opengl? (Penumbra uses 1.4 wheras Amnesia 2.1). I'm saying that because it seems that the game loads fallback textures. Maybe Jens know more.

**jens** · 03-01-2013, 02:00 PM

I don't know more I'm afraid. Something specific to the computer, OS or the graphics card/drivers in itself. I can only suggest to request a refund for the game if not possible to run it as intended.

**plutomaniac** · 03-01-2013, 05:42 PM

yes, refund or try it at another computer

**Bludo** · 03-02-2013, 08:24 AM

(03-01-2013, 02:00 PM)jens Wrote: I don't know more I'm afraid. Something specific to the computer, OS or the graphics card/drivers in itself. I can only suggest to request a refund for the game if not possible to run it as intended.

That is unfortunate. The issue here isn't that the game was paid for and does not work to spec. It's that it should work. Perhaps you cannot be sure, but I am relatively certain that the issue is not related to the drivers, GPU, or OS. Individually, each component is compatible with the latest versions of OpenGL.

My sense is that there is an issue with the shader implementation in the render pipeline when used with this GPU. Unfortunately, the error handling is so opaque that I can only superficially look for causes. There are no exceptions thrown. I can't find any crash logs that aren't Windows generated. The game's internal logger throws numerous warnings and errors that apparently are not indicative of oncoming fatal errors.

Is there any way you can assist with that will provide me with some additional data on where the failure occurs?