Any progress on the crash issue?

[Naryoril]

The game has been released for a bit more than 2 weeks now. But since then we haven't heard anything at all about the crash issue, which is honestly really annoying for those who are affected. Usually you guys make a great job in communicating with us, but this time there is has been simply no reaction at all.

So have you made any progress at all? Do you have any indication what might cause the crash and maybe a workaround? Even if you don't have any solution it would be great if you could say from time to time "we still have no idea at all, but we'r still trying", at least that would be SOMETHING

[Narmy]

The only workaround I found is playing the game in a Windows XP virtual machine, but that became too much of a pain so I haven't completed the game yet.

I hope in the future I can actually play the game normally...

[Ultimate Chicken]

This crash issue is one of the bugs programmers FEAR. The bug that is NOT reproducible on test platforms, that isn't a language, hardware or driver issue.

[Naryoril]

This crash issue is one of the bugs programmers FEAR. The bug that is NOT reproducible on test platforms, that isn't a language, hardware or driver issue.

I know that, i'm a programmer myself. But i also know that if there is a show stopper bug the customer wants regular updates, even if it's a "we are not any closer yet" or "we have some idea what it might be ... sorry, wasn't that", so basically if it's bad news, he'd rather have them than no news at all.

[Naryoril]

another 2 weeks have passed, and still no word about the issue at all...
come one guys, you can do better in communicating with us!

[SpaceDrake]

I kind of wish there was something to share. Unfortunately, we still can't pin down what's causing it, and MEL at Lizsoft thus can't do a single thing about it.

Sorry if this upsets anyone, but it's been maddeningly frustrating trying to pin this down, especially what with juggling Project Four stuff and other business. If you really feel like you want your money back, you can contact our vendors for a refund (either at support.steampowered.com or http://www.gamersgate.com/supportcenter/).

[Naryoril]

thanks for the reply
that's enough for me, at least so far

as i said, even if you say "sorry, there is nothing to say", that's much much better than not saying anything

if there is any way to help i'd gladly help. What i tend to do in these cases (bugs i can't reproduce for the sake of my life) is making debugging versions which write more information into the log file and send that to the customer with the problem. he sends me the logfile so i can narrow down the cause, i increase the log file information in that area and send the customer the next version. in the end i manage to pinpoint the exact line of code which causes the problem (especially for crashes) which then usually leads to a solution to the problem.
i know this is an annoying way to find the problem, but sometimes it's the only way i can think of, and it works.

[nz17]

Too bad Steam doesn't issue refunds except for pre-orders.  Thankfully I'm stalwartly staying with Windows XP (and Linux!) so I haven't experienced this issue.  You have my condolences, everyone who is having crashes.

[Naryoril]

it's been another month without any further notice. any progress at all on this front? And by now i start doubting you'r even really trying, since nothing at all seems to happen...

[Ascended1]

Another month with no notice?  I have been patient but this is absurd.  Cant get a refund since it's through steam, and so I'm stuck with a game that is totally unplayable.  Is this even being worked on anymore?

[SpaceDrake]

Unfortunately, see my previous reply. We've never been able to create a crash scenario for the game along the lines of what's being described, and Lizsoft does not have any idea what could be causing the crash. All I can say is that the game works fine on all our test hardware, and we did test the game on a pretty good spread of hardware.

If you really want a return on the game, Naryoril & Ascended1 (assuming you're still reading the forum :x ), try contacting Steam support again. If they still won't give it, email me at spacedrake[at]carpefulgur.com and give me the relevant Steam account name (not password obviously, just name) and we'll take it from there.

[Naryoril]

thanks for the offer SpaceDrake, but as i wrote in the "official" crash thread i managed to get it running. If you haven't read it, it might give you a hint in which direction you can make some further tests to reproduce it.

http://www.carpefulgur.com/forum/index.php?topic=1999.msg10239#msg10239

as an addition to that post: i managed to play through the whole game without a single crash after that. where before i was unable to get past the first visit to school

[Narmy]

Hmm, maybe the gamepad was the issue then. I haven't tried it in a while, but when I was having those crashes I was using a Playstation controller hooked through a dual port adapter.

[SpaceDrake]

I can't imagine why gamepads would cause a crash issue, though. We played through the game - several times! - with a USB gamepad as our preferred control method without any issue. The only crashes encountered were due to other, repeatable errors corrected prior to release.

Anyway, glad to hear you got to enjoy your purchase, Naryoril We'll try and investigate this potential joystick/gamepad issue, but I'm once again drawing a blank on how this could be the source of the problem.

Out of curiosity: did you guys have more than one pad plugged in? Also, does the Hori stick require its own drivers?

[Narmy]

Out of curiosity: did you guys have more than one pad plugged in? Also, does the Hori stick require its own drivers?

I only have one pad plugged in, but my dual adapter adds both ports as a separate pad whether there's one connected or not. I'll do a little experimenting and see if unplugging it stops the crashing, if it'll help.