multiplayer crash

from Sins Forums
hey guys. love this game, utterly fabulous. have not had all night long game sessions with a pc game like this for almost 10 years.

anyway, I have tried maybe 10 times to get a multiplayer game going. i have both hosted and joined games, both on ICO and on direct IP connection. The same thing always happens. About 15 minutes or so in, the longest being 30 minutes and the shortest being 5, someone drops from the game due to a "MiniDump". I get it whenever I use ICO and my partner gets it whenever i play direct IP. There seems to be nothing particularly weird happening in the game itself when this crash comes but it seems to typically be when a fleet is moving on a phase lane(but thats happening alot so maybe its not conclusive).

im AMAZED that there is no forum post about this yet, EVERYONE I know who has this game has this bug during multiplayer.

singleplayer works fine, never any problems. ive emailed in two minidumps so far. those who are getting multiplayer to work, what is the secret? here is what i have, tell me what's different.

8800 GTS running dual monitors
AMD Processor
I Am behind a router.
VISTA32 (yes, i have checked for that update. No, I dont need it, i already have it installed).

my friend has an older computer, Intel processor, nvidia 6200, XP.

Now let me be clear, i get this crash OR someone else gets the crash and drops absolutely every time i play multiplayer, whether i play with that guy or not, on ICO, or on direct IP, whether I host or join, same thing happens.

okay thanks.
technical
7,645 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
We played a 3 humans vs. 3 comps newbie-game for 3½ hours, Sunday evening, on ICO : no lag, no crash, absolutely no problem. The host saved the game.

We continued the game on Monday evening for 3¾ hours : no lag, no crash, absolutely no problem. The host saved the game.

We finished the game on Tuesday, early evening, in about 1 hour : no lag, no crash, absolutely no problem.

The 3 players owned 3 very different types of computers.

You have a certain type of computer (AMD/Vista/8800), your friend has another type (Intel/XP/6200).

I don't know what to tell you : based on your info, who can tell ?

Maybe it's Vista. I belong to the Gamers-who-do-not-trust-Vista-for-Gaming cult : so, I have this unfair, sectarian bias against Vista.

Maybe your router is not properly configured : search the forum, there are excellent threads giving advice on how to setup router parameters. (The only thing I did is forward ports 6000 to 6112 (TCP) to my IP address, but I don't know much about routers -- obviously, my router is not blocking the game traffic when I join.)

The best you can do is e-mail a description of your problems (and the minidumps) to support@ironcladgames.com. Based on the info you have just given, I doubt that anyone here can precisely help you out. Sorry.  :NOTSURE: 


Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
well, yeah, im really looking for people who have the problem to say they are having it too so the developers look into it.

worth mentioning: it works fine in single player, so i dont think its vista or my video card or it would have problems in singleplayer as well.

a router problem shouldn't cause a hard crash, it should at worst just cause disconnection.

having developed RTSes before, this smells like it is some kind of desynchronization thats occuring that for whatever reason, some people aren't seeing, but I am (and others having difficulty with multiplayer). the variable time delay between the start of the game and the crash could simply be the amount of time it takes before the two simulations realize they have been running off different deterministic paths, like when pirates roll out, resources get spent, or whatever.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
just had it happen to me on my first multiplayer game. I have no idea what to do.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I don't have Vista. I crashed both times I played a MP game this week. Something's wrong, and I'm tired of being in really good games and bam, minidump.

Also have a 8800GTS and dual monitors.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
This happens to me every single time as well. I hold out for about 2 hours though usually before it finally dies. In my case it's Vista 64bit with 4gb of ram 8800gt nvidia card, quad core xeon 2.8ghz.

Anyway, I've only had 2 games ever this hasn't happened on the multiplayer side. And every time it happens once a large buildup really starts to happen. My guess is it's a memory leak.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Vista Service Pack 1 fixed all my problems of replay and multiplayer crashes. I'd recommend it.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
um
i have all my updates for vista past service pack 1, it came out awhile back, i am at 3 and half hours game time with 2 other friends both running vista 32 bit, dual cores, both very similar, i got same set up cept mine is desktop with 7600 GS video card... i get minidumps, and one of my friends also got it, if i do single player i get display driver crash then a blue screen the hell is going on????????
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
As SkoalFyfan just said.

I run a core2duo /w 4gb ram on Vista 64 & have a 8800gt. Was playing single player fine but when i'd play multiplayer it would crash (at first i thought it was xfire but wasnt). So of course me being so anal about my computer i backed up my files and proceded to format the sucker.

Fresh Vista 64bit install, all the latest drivers and MOST IMPORTANTLY Vista Service pack 1. Then 2 or 3 updates from MS update. Works flawless, played 3 MP games one of which was a 5hour 5v5 map where it the gigantic space battles even brought my system to its knees (core2 @ 3ghz/8800gt/4gb) yet still no crashes, it just chugs along.

Something interesting of note, whenever i'm a few hours in i notice that Sins takes up an OBSCENE amount of ram, (thank god i have an obscene amount) normally it sucks up about 2.5gb's of ram NOT counting the O/S or anything else.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
i run everything maxed out and the game hardly uses my resources even after an extended period amount of time with a big battle on a 4p map
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
i run everything maxed out and the game hardly uses my resources even after an extended period amount of time with a big battle on a 4p map
End of quote


4player maps hardly take up anyones resources :X, I was refering to 5v5 10player 100+ star maps with about 2000ships in a battle
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
yup.. got the same problem.. strangely, it only crashes in multiplayer games with more than 2 players.. i can play 1vs1 online for hours with no problems. i have windows xp, dual core, 7950gt geforce. no idea why this happens.. gotta be a bug of so me sort.