DARWINIA CRASH FIX!!!! - READ THIS

[noctem]

I've read a large number of posts on crashes with Darwinia over the last few days trying to solve my own crash issue. Unfortunately none of the posts were of any help (99% of them tell you to upgrade your drivers which doesn't seem to do much of anything from what I've been reading!).

When I first installed Darwinia it was at version 1.0 and I had no problems whatsoever. I only patched up to 1.21, 1.22, and now 1.3 to get the latest features. Unfortunately I've had nothing but problems with Darwinia since installing the patches!

When I start Darwinia I can see all the bootloaders, and I can even see the world map! Trying to go further than that is the problem. Darwinia crashes with the following message:

The instruction at "0x10040a37" referenced memory at "0x04ed0038".
The memory could not be "read".

I've tried all of the fixes suggested throughout the forums but to no avail until I found the following topic: http://forums.introversion.co.uk/darwinia/viewtopic.php?t=2533. The key factor being the post that tells you to add the following line to your Preferences.txt:

Code: Select all

RenderLandscapeMode = 3

Like the other Render options you can substitute the value of 3 for 1 or 2. 3 worked for me, but I've not tried the others.

Anyway, give it a go and post your results.

If you're interested, below is my complete preferences.txt:

Code: Select all

ServerAddress = 127.0.0.1
BypassNetwork = 1
IAmAServer = 1

TextLanguage = english
TextSpeed = 15
HelpEnabled = 1

SoundLibrary = dsound
SoundMixFreq = 11025
SoundMasterVolume = 255
SoundChannels = 8
SoundHW3D = 0
SoundSwapStereo = 0
SoundMemoryUsage = 3
SoundBufferSize = 512
SoundDSP = 0

ScreenWidth = 1400
ScreenHeight = 1050
ScreenWindowed = 0
ScreenZDepth = 24
ScreenColourDepth = 32
ScreenRefresh = 60

RenderLandscapeMode = 3
RenderLandscapeDetail = 1
RenderWaterDetail = 1
RenderBuildingDetail = 1
RenderEntityDetail = 1
RenderCloudDetail = 1
RenderPixelShader = 0

ControlUp = key E
ControlDown = key Q
ControlLeft = key A
ControlBackwards = key S
ControlRight = key D
ControlForwards = key W
ControlChatLog = key TAB
ControlZoom = key Z
ControlDeselect = key SPACE
ControlIconsChatLog = key L
ControlIconsTaskManagerEndTask = key C
ControlSkipMessage = key ENTER
ControlIconsTaskManagerDisplay = key TAB

ControlMouseButtons = 3
BootLoader = none
UserProfile = Nekatu
ControlMethod = 0


You'll notice I've got the pixel shader disabled too, this is a personal preference and has no affect on the fix whatsoever. You'll also notice that I have the sound settings at the absolute bare minimums, this is again a personal preference as sound is very important in this game and I'd rather save my system resources for game play.

[NeoThermic]

Code: Select all

RenderLandscapeMode = 3

Like the other Render options you can substitute the value of 3 for 1 or 2. 3 worked for me, but I've not tried the others.

Very odd. There are three options for that, but they are 0, 1 and 2. There is no such thing as 3 there, so I would assume by saying 3, Darwinia is falling back to 1, which is what Version 1 used.

As a side note, most of the ways to get Darwinia working again is coverd in Read me first before submitting a bug report! stickie at the top of the forums here.

NeoThermic

[noctem]

thanks for that Neo, I was only going on the previously referenced post by Xander that I linked to in my original post. According to Xander the available options are 1,2 and 3. I chose 3 because that what I have all the other Render settings at.

Either way it works.

Oh, and the only reason I posted anything at all was that your stickie post does not mention the 'RenderLandscapeMode' variable. Any idea why this was removed from the later versions of Darwinia?

[xander]

err... 0, 1, 2... heh.

There are three options... and I made a typo. Sorry.

xander

[NeoThermic]

Oh, and the only reason I posted anything at all was that your stickie post does not mention the 'RenderLandscapeMode' variable. Any idea why this was removed from the later versions of Darwinia?

Book yourself and eyetest!

The RenderLandscapeMode flag, added in 1.21 patch (and still in the 1.3 patch) allows you to specify how Darwinia renders the landscape. What is important to note here is that there is no real set rule as to what will be faster for you. This setting has three options:

• 0 - uses Vertex Arrays. This was found to be slightly faster on some ATi hardware, and thus should be considered when testing out which setting to use
• 1 - uses Display Lists. This setting emulates the way Darwinia rendered in 1.0
• 2 - uses Vertex Buffer Objects. This is the default setting that Darwinia uses in v1.2 onward.

NeoThermic