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Solved A certain loading screen freezes constantly

Bathtub-pirate

Bathtub-pirate

Sailor
Storm Modder
Hey Guys.

I am nothing short of hooked to the fine work that is the Build 14 Mod. Unfortunately my enthusiasm comes to a depressing hold whenever I try to enter the Havana Port. But the story requires me to go there in order to board my new ship (I play the scenario with the dutch mercenary). As soon as I try to enter the port, the loading screen for the port pops up ..... and never fades away. Even though the rest of the game moves on, which I can tell by the ambient sounds in the port, the loading screen is all I get to see from there on. Hitting enter two times in order to go back to the town and retry is possible but doesn't help. The loading screen just will not go away from this moment on, when I enter the port.

Is this a known bug and is there a workaround? I really am eager to play on.

BTW: The quick travel function is not available for some odd reason. It was before. But since the Spanish higher-up is my new boss and I am to ckeck out my ship, the quick travel function is gone. So trying to go to the port via that is no option.
 
Check the FAQ for details on how to enable error logging, then post the results.
 
The settings in the engine.ini appear to be as they should be by default. Debuginfo and runtimelog are set to 1 right of the bat. However, instead of the line tracesfilesoff there is only a line tracefiles. So do I have to put this to 1 instead to 0?

Despite runtimelog and debuginfo being active already there is no error log. So the game doesn't seem to regard the freezing loading screen as an error. Might make sense since the game basically goes on. I just get to see jack shit of it.^^

What bits of the compile and system logs do you need? Or should I post 'em complete?


Edit: I played on a bit to see, if there are other issues. But apparently there are none. Everything seems to work as it should - other than the loading screen in the port and the quick travel feauture being gone to god knows where. I can go to the outskirts for example without the loading screen outstaying it's welcome. Seems that the damned loading screen just tries to hold me out of that port. Even when I save "blind" in the port and load this game, the loading screen will not fade away when the location is loaded. Interesting sidenote: The thumbnail in the load game selection is just a black screen, whenever I save in the loading screen occupied port of Havana (I hoped it would turn out to be a workaround to save and load the game in the port ... it isn't).
Fortunately I have a number of older saved games. I now will go back to one of these and try to pin down, where and when the error precisely occurs.

Speaking of which: I have an idea. My "old" ship was in the very same port, in which the new one is now located. I just ignored the gun fire of the Fort and dropped my anker there anyway, like only the most severe badass would do.^^ So maybe that is the source of trouble, since my ship has an ingame connection to both - the quick travel feature and the port. Maybe the game has trouble to recognize my ship in the port since technically both - the old and the new one - are located there. I will check it out.


Edit: Damn! Unfortunately my idea didn't proove right. No matter where my old ship is located (this time I managed to find the beach via sea), the loading screen problem at the port remains. Really frustrating because other than that the game seems to run as it is supposed to do. It all goes down south from the moment on I get "hired" by the spanish higher-up. From there on the quick travel is gone and the port has the loading screen issue. Should there be another quest book entry after I visited the guy in the shipyard and before I go to the port? Because if so, that entry never appears.

Here are the compile and the sytem logs (attached to this post). Like I said there is no error log to be found. I hope these help to pin down the problem. Maybe that would be a good moment to mention that my version of PotC is the German one. Even though one couldn't tell it is other than for the spoken German "catch phrases" at the beginning of any dialogue. But any text in the game is in English and I haven't run into any errors so far, other than this single loading screen and quick travel being gone.
 

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  • compile.log
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  • system.log
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It looks to my untrained eye that the game is looking for a character that is not there.
"ItemLogic -> randItem draw: no model for item Havana_Town_01.indian7"
 
Why would that be? Installation error? I installed the game like it was demanded. Even though there were many "not founds" in the Batches. But then again it was written that this was quite normal.


Anyway - I proceeded as demanded. Even reinstalled the stock game initially (outside of Program Files). Then installed the full 2.1 Beta, batched it, then 2.3 light, batched it .....


To make matters worse - I tried to bypass my frustration with the Dutch guy. So I wanted to play as Jack Sparrow. Guess who made a surprise appearance .... my by-know-arch-enemy, the cursed loading screen. Same shit there. I can't start as Jack Sparrow. The game kicks off, I hear some shooting and I assume I have to click through a tiny bit of dialogue ..... but how can I know for sure, since all I see is yet again the goddamn loading screen!? Man I could tear my hairs out about that shit.
But this time around I can serve with an error log. See attachment.
 

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  • error.log
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  • compile.log
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  • system.log
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I'm no coder but I believe that a stack error is related to memory.

But look at that system.log! It looks like your video card dropped out. What are your hardware specs?
 
I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9100m G. The processor is an AMD Sempron. And 1 Gig of Ram (pretty oldschool / lame, eh^^). The game itself runs well. Not sloppy. It either runs well or not at all (loading screen). Pretty weird. I now make a freeplay as the French guy. There are loading screen errors as well. But just here and there and not constantly at the same occasions. So I can compensate it with saving religiously. But when I try to load the Jack Sparrow game or try to enter the port at the given moment in the plot with the Dutch guy (which is unavoidable in order to progress), the damn loading screen freezes all the time.

I assume that there are certain data files that can't be rendered. Be it because my Laptop sucks (but why would the rest run just fine then?) or some files took a wrong turn during installation ...

I really would love it if someone could figure it out. For now the freeplay with the French guy is awesome. But who knows for how long?^^



EDIT: Whenever I try to go to Tortuga the loading screen freezes ...... FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!
 
I want to make sure that I understand you correctly.


the problem occurs when loading a big waterfront map.
Click to expand...

But wouldn't that mean that the game would be most prone to crash on the open sea - since there is the most water? By now it appears that these "crashes", at least the regular ones, only occur in certain ports. Havana at that certain plot point in the Dutch guy's storyline and Tortuga apparently in general, as I now see with the French man. And let me guess .... Jack Sparrow starts in the Tortuga port as well (does he?).


It could be that all of the memory is being used, causing the puter to revert back to the Intel graphics.
Click to expand...

So it's not a Ram related system performance issue but an issue with the performance of my video card? Okay, but why would that be a problem only in so isolated cases? I run the game on 1152x864 resolution, which is more than I ever ran the stock game on, and everywhere it runs, it runs quite well. So my question is if it wouldn't be more of a global, general problem, if the graphic card couldn't handle the game.
My impression is, that there may be certain objects and textures in the game, that cause the trouble. Maybe some of the new ship designs, since it always happens in two certain ports that far. BTW - I never experienced the freezing loading screen while exploring an island. It also never occured so far while visiting any beach or shore. Always ports or in on or two cases the open sea with ports nearby (in sight). So it is quite specific.


Anyway, read this thread and see if it helps you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the hint. But I already stumbled upon this on my own. And for me it doesn't appear to be an option. At least not as described. In the control panel of my card I can assign very specifically how the card handles certain programs by adjusting various parameters (anti-aliasing etc., performance vs. quality). Problem: I have no clue what effects the game in which way, since the adjustments there are pretty specific and the language isn't exactly user friendly. Needless to say that I have no clue what mechanics are at work with the graphics that you guys implemented.
Then, under "2. Select the preferred graphics processor for this program:" open the drop-down menu and select "High-performance NVIDIA processor". Unfortunately this is not an option for me. Because it requires a GeForce card with GPU, which mine hasn't. So I cannot assign a certain graphic card to a certain program. At least not this way. I only can manage how my card handles certain applications. But how to avoid that this useless piece of Intel gets involved .... no idea.

So, would it maybe make sense for me to implement the Intel graphics fix, that is offered as an additional installation option, when installing 2.3? And if so - do I need to run the entire installation process yet again - for like the fourth time *sigh*. Or can I install the graphics fix afterwards on top of the current installation?

Thanks for your patience and time so far.




!!!EDIT!!!: O-kay .... I am kinda making headway here. But just kinda. I toyed around a bit with the engine settings and decreased the color quality. Any setting below high gets me into the port of Tortuga consitently! Resolution is not a problem, as I have it still on 1152x864. BUT ..... I can't move! All I can do is float to the sides and hit enter - but the options usually offered there don't work or aren't there. No quick travel back to my ship and I can choose the option to talk to my officers, who are right in front of me. But no dialog gets started. So instead of the loading screen now my character freezes. Is that now a beacon of hope and making headway or is it a complete clusterfuck???
I sense (hope) the solution is near and uploaded the sytem and compile log. These are the result of me loading the game with mediocre color quality and sucessfully entering the port.
 

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  • compile.log
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  • system.log
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Ok, you are having loading problems on the 2 largest islands. When you are at sea it only loads your ships, any other ships that might be close by, and water. In a port POTC loads the entire island with its cities, the ships sailing around the island, the port with its docks and the ships docked there, and the NPC's wandering around the dock area. So loading the port puts the heaviest load on your hardware. It also appears that POTC can not find one of those NPCs. That sometimes causes a CTD by itself, but you aren't getting a CTD.

About hardware, what is your operating system? I ask because 1gb of ram is not enough for Vista or Win7, but is adequate for XP. This is video related in that your video card uses that ram as well as the system and POTC. When you went to 16 bit color it reduced the total load on the system and you got slightly better performance.
It appears that you do not have Intel graphics at all and that is a good thing. So you should not need the Intel fix.

You now can not move? Two people in one day with this problem....... Try deleting your "options" folder. You will have to reset all of your options again, but it might get you going. Otherwise go back to the last save before entering port and try it again.
 
Just wanted to give an update. The loading screen problem is entirely solved since I switched to mediocre color settings and never reoccurred again. The being-unable-to-move-problem was also fixed by returning to an older save game and I have played on without this problem since then. Though if I do escort missions, the guys I escorted sometimes remain on the port, to which I brought them, forever.^^


There are some minor bugs and CTDs may occur. But only when I play for a longer time and they don't happen categorically. Of course, there is some "glitchiness" to the game. But since this is a beta version and the collision detection system in the POTC engine is remarkably bad, this is no surprise.
Thanks for the back and forth anyway. I greatly enjoyed the build total conversion ever since.
 
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