Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Syphen · Post by **Syphen** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 00:43

Is it possible to get an Eta on the 1.3 patch or 1.2.2 or what ever number you're going to give the next patch. I bought the game and since installing it i've had 3 BSODs on my computer, a computer that has never had a BSOD before. I built it myself last year. I've been in the IT industry for 15 years so no cracks about not knowing what i'm doing.

Any way, I've uninstalled the game for now due to its unplayability. I get unspecified errors every time i go to load a game, and about 4/10 times i dock at any station it CTDs. The Hard ware of the computer is 1 year or less old from purchase new and installation. I keep the computer clean and running smooth. I've never had any problems with this computer untill I installed X3 : Reunion. So I'm just kind of wondering when you all will be releasing the next patch with some serious code fixes bug fixes, graphics fixes, and crash fixes? I see alot of people saying how much better the game runs now with 1.2.1, If i have this much trouble with it, I shutter to think what it was like before.

Secondly, once the game is stable on all platforms are there any plans to make it into a MMO type game? I see alot of potential with the little exposure i've had to it. It seems the ideas and concepts the X universe has would be well suited to deployment to the world market as an MMORPG.

Oh my system specs.

P4 2.4 Ghz, 1536 MD corsair xms RAM, 2- 40 gig HDD, (older video card) ATI 9800 pro 128 mb. Win XP pro currently running catalyst 5.10 drivers. 5.11 just came out so i might try downloading them.

The computer is in perfect condition. Once i was able to recover from the BSOD and uninstall X3 the errors stopped. It hasn't crashed, locked up, or randomly rebooted sicne then.

The_Mess · Post by **The_Mess** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 01:18

I'm guessing it wil be soon(tm). Or at least before the 20th of this month (hopefully). Werid, 1.0's releativily stable on my system, and it's just above minimum specs.

esd · Post by **esd** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 01:24

This isn't really tech support you're after. And the ETA of 1.3 was in the 1.2.01 readme, I believe. Sometime this month.

Lazerath · Post by **Lazerath** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 01:26

Its been posted within the next two weeks (by the end of November).

chadrickb · Post by **chadrickb** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 01:59

What is the error message you are getting when your computer blue screens? I know a lot of people have been having the game quit on them and giving them unexpectedly quitting error messages, but I don't recall seeing too many blue screen complaints (then again, I haven't been looking). Depending on the blue screen error, it might be that you have a bad RAM stick in there, which may also be leading too your extremely frequent crashes.

Syphen · Post by **Syphen** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 02:03

It could be tech releated as far as the crashes and what not but there are never any specific error codes so i can't really post them here. Usually they just come up unspecified. Any way, yeah i missed the 1.3 eta in the readme. Thanks for the fast answer.

Shintai · Post by **Shintai** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 02:10

Syphen wrote:The computer is in perfect condition. Once i was able to recover from the BSOD and uninstall X3 the errors stopped. It hasn't crashed, locked up, or randomly rebooted sicne then.

Well...first of all:

1: X3 by itself have nothing to do with any BSOD outside the game. Nor should the game be able to do a BSOD by itself if you know about kernel protection. However if X3 should cause a BSOD it would only be by running it. not by having it installed.
Here we can then talk about the starforce copyprotection, however due to the fact it stay when you uninstall X3 I doubt thats the reason aswell.

2: Check the BSOD screen message aswell as the STOP codes. They can tell you all you need to know about finding the cause of your problem.
For finding the answers to stopcodes for specific bug checks you can use msdn.microsoft.com to check it.

If you are in doubt, you can always paste the message here so we can help you.

Also I would check your memory with a memtest utility aswell as maybe checking if your PSU can handle the load. problems with one of these things usually generates random crashes and reboots. Specially the PSu in terms of heavy load on it. Like a game as X3 would do. Also check for possible heat, since that could be an issue aswell.

Post by **Cycrow** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 02:11

its not that often a game can actaully cause a blue screen error by itself
and ifs happening regually then its more likly ur computer at fault than the game, otherwise alot of other ppl will be experiencing it too

the most likly cause is faulty hardware or incompatable drivers
X3 could bring this out by access areas that ur other software might not

so the problems might have always existed but nothing b4 has pushed to hardware to actaully reveal these problems

it might be worth checking ur computer temps, as X3 uses alot of processing power on both ur CPU and GPU it can cause your computer to heat up alot more

Gasaraki88 · Post by **Gasaraki88** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 02:38

I agreed with the post by Cycrow and Shintai. I too am a tech support person. However I have not have any BSOD or CTD problems with this game. Most people don't realize the power supply can cause problems like BSODs. X3 is a very demanding game and can cause all your computer components to draw its max power. If your power supply is a crappy one or its too low of a voltage, it will cause BSODs with a blank error.

Sandalpocalypse · Post by **Sandalpocalypse** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 05:04

I'm thinking a hardware issue as well, also thinking power supply. The ones that come with most computers are cheap and unreliable.

Schizosimian · Post by **Schizosimian** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 05:47

Its worth remembering that X3 runs most computers to the max. So really you could say that playing X3 is a pretty good way of testing how good your computer is! Few games/applications are consistantly demanding in the way X is.

I'd concur with the PSU/Heat comments as your likely problem. PSUs are seriously under-rated - cheapola ones can run at less than 50% efficiency and that is basically like expecting an athlete to perform as well in an atmosphere with less than 50% normal oxygen, or a car to go as perform as well with a tank of 50-octane petrol (thats 'Gas' to any americans out there) as 97-octane (Optimax

)

Mayson · Post by **Mayson** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 05:51

I've heard bad things in general about the Starforce copy protection software that X3 and other games sometimes use. I think it installs some sort of drivers that I guess could be the link between you installing X3 and your random BSODS, but I haven't really done any research on it so there might not be any link at all. Just something I thought you might want to look into.

Tiedyeguy · Post by **Tiedyeguy** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 09:07

Syphen wrote:Is it possible to get an Eta on the 1.3 patch or 1.2.2 or what ever number you're going to give the next patch. I bought the game and since installing it i've had 3 BSODs on my computer, a computer that has never had a BSOD before. ....

P4 2.4 Ghz, 1536 MD corsair xms RAM, 2- 40 gig HDD, (older video card) ATI 9800 pro 128 mb. Win XP pro currently running catalyst 5.10 drivers. 5.11 just came out so i might try downloading them.

You got a BSOD on WindowsXP?! BSOD is DOS based and therefore doesn't really happen in XP. If your RAM is dead you will get things that look like BSOD's. Try changing you RAM out for some that you know works fine. It will probably fix your problem.
Brian

Chips · Post by **Chips** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 09:25

Mayson wrote:I've heard bad things in general about the Starforce copy protection software that X3 and other games sometimes use. I think it installs some sort of drivers that I guess could be the link between you installing X3 and your random BSODS, but I haven't really done any research on it so there might not be any link at all. Just something I thought you might want to look into.

I think that by saying "it works after uninstalling X3" that it's supposed to vindicate Starforce, because it, and it's drivers, will still remain.

This is due to the fact that if it did uninstall the drivers, and you had another Starforce protected game, it would be quite inconvenient

mjs · Post by **mjs** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 09:27

Tiedyeguy wrote:You got a BSOD on WindowsXP?! BSOD is DOS based and therefore doesn't really happen in XP. If your RAM is dead you will get things that look like BSOD's. Try changing you RAM out for some that you know works fine. It will probably fix your problem.
Brian

It seems that you aren't an experienced PC user/developer. BSOD is a Windows NT / 2K / XP / 2K3 thing only. To be more precide, it's the driver "blue.sys" and the corresponding device name is "\\Device\\BlueScreen". DOS never had a BSOD, instead it had an error message from EMM386.EXE that was written in white letters on a black screen. A BSOD is usually caused by a buggy driver, sometimes it's damaged RAM (or invalid RAM timing settings).

Take a look at the ReactOS implementation for further details.

Regards,
Mark

CaMeL_UK · Post by **CaMeL_UK** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 09:41

He is Right. BSOD happen all the time on my XP Machine. I found out that this was due to a problem with my modem driver. The reason you dont see them very often on xp, is that generally when a system hangs it automatically restarts. If you turn this option off under advanced properties of my computer and startup and recovery. Un-tick that and then you may see a few more.

The only time x3 causes a complete system shutdown is when the game minimises, and i try to maximise. It seems to be an issue with re-initialisation of the Video drivers, but i learnt that as long as i end the task rather than try to reopen x3 the game works fine and this is the only bug that i have found.

On another note if you believe that your system was new 1 year ago you are very sadly mistaken, that system is fairly dated by now especially your graphics card that model has been around for 2 years.

Hope you dont give up on x3 it really is a great game

Trevelvis · Post by **Trevelvis** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 12:48

I really hope it gets released before the 28th November as thats the day I move House and not sure how long it will be before I get the internet back so pllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssseeeeeeeeeee can you relese 1.3 before then Thanks

Laroo · Post by **Laroo** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 12:59

Go to an internet cafe or a library in your new loaction, if the worst come to the worst.

ShoC · Post by **ShoC** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 13:41

Is there any chance of any form of info as to what the patch might contain i.e

Bug fixes or some additions or is it top secret Argon military stuff

Al · Post by Al » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 14:01

There will certainly be bug fixes and hopefully some more optimisation. As for anything else we'll just have to wait and see.

Al

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Re: Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Agreed

Re: Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Re: Two things, First 1.3 patch ETA.

Dear Egosoft Please release 1.3 before the 28th Nov

Next patch