processor affinity(s)

[SteamWake]

I'll try to make this as brief as possible.

I recently purchased 'Starwars Knights of the old Republic' from Steam.

It runs okay (great game btw) but it crashes randomly with no pattern. I did a little research and it seems it has issues with dual core processors. Its an older game.

The recommended work around was a minor edit to the .ini file and then to use an applet called imagecfg.exe. This applet can be used to modify any program .exe file so that it calls to run on a single core fixing stability issues.

imagecfg works in as much as it modifies the .exe file as advertised. However now steam has issues as it looks at the .exe and declares it invalid (error 51) :doh:

So my questions are...

Is there any other way to set the affinity of a process?

Failing that is there any way to force your system to just use one core (temporarly of course) ?

[SteamWake]

I just tried setting the programs affinity in the task manager.. still crashed :oops:

[FIREWALL]

Hi SteamWake :sunny:

I heard awhile back here about turning off one core.

I don't recall if it was for this game or if it could be done.

Sorry. But thats all I can remember. :oops:

Good Luck :up:

[Zachstar]

I gave up on Kotor because of the crashes...

I tried the one core trick and others and nothing helped with me :(

[Arclight]

How far did you get untill it crashed? Played through that intro, untill just after crashing on the planet in the escape-pod. Playing on quad-core with no issues untill then. Also recently purchased from Steam btw.

Other than setting affinity in task-manager, I've got nothing. :nope:

[SteamWake]

More like when doesent it crash. It crashes on battles, it crashes when just walking down the street, it crashes at cut scenes, it crashes at loading screens, and on and on.

My play style has come down to go through a door- save, fight a battle - save, have a conversation - save, in other words save like every 30 seconds.

I made it to Tatoeene and have a few 'quests' completed there. I think about 8-10 hours of game play.

[goldorak]

What cpu do you have Intel or AMD ?
Early AMD dual cores (and maybe quad cores) had timing issues which could create havoc with certain games.
AMD released an official patch, its on their website.

Who knows, maybe its a steam related problem ?
I have KOTOR (the original retail release) and I played it the first time on a P4 with HT (that simulates multicore) and an ATI card (9800pro !!!) without any problems.
Maybe I should try again on a real quadcore and see how it goes.

[SteamWake]

Its a genuine intell chip. Already checked that.

KOTOR is the only game I have this issue with and I play many other older games.

[SteamWake]

Dual core Intel Pentium 4 (3.8ghz)

Ive tried setting the game to run on core zero or core one using task manager, no improvement.

I so want to play this game but I'm about to give up.

[Arclight]

Try disabling HyperThreading (HTT), probably in BIOS. :hmmm:

[goldorak]

Ok a little bit of internet search has uncovered a possibile solution :D


"Vertex Buffer Objects are an OpenGL method of storing vertex data in video memory. Enabling Vertex Buffer Objects (Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=0) can improve performance in certain situations, however it seems KOTOR 2 [and 1] has some issues with this method and you should set it =1 if you want to resolve slowdown issues in the game (e.g. on Dantooine). It may also help reduce the incidence of crashes in KOTOR 2. Note that this setting does not exist by default, so you should create it under this section and set it to =1."


Source : http://www.tweakguides.com/KOTOR2_7.html

To do this find the swkotor.ini file which you will find in the games installation folder, open the file with notepad or any other text editor and scroll until you find the graphics section and insert the following line Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1. Save the file. Start the game.

This solution applies both to Kotor and Kotor2.

:shucks:

[SteamWake]

Already tried that... in fact the version from steam already has that edit in the .ini file. Which kind of supprised me.

Hrm... maybe I will edit it out and see.

[SteamWake]

Well here I was all excited because I tried disabling HTT like arclight said and played for a few minutes.

I 'stress tested' running between zones, warping back to the ebon hawk, etc.

Wooh Hoo ! :woot:

Till I got into some combat, a total lock with looping sounds :nope:

So game runs better but now it hangs up... Sigh.. I guess I will have to admit I lost 10 bucks :dead:

[Arclight]

Oh for the love of... :doh:

Good news is you fixed the problem relating to using dual-core CPU (though it seems a problem with HTT itself; still working fine on my quad). This new problem may well be heat related; console ports tend to overheat the memory before the core heats up (ie cooling doesn't spin up).

Could try lowering graphics and/or setting the cooling higher manually with something like Rivatuner. :hmmm:



On HTT: there's no such thing as a Pentium 4 dual-core. It's actually a single-core CPU with HTT. HTT creates a second virtual core. Though turning it off might fix some compatibility issues, it (your PC) is probably faster in day-to-day use with it enabled.

[goldorak]

The last versions of pentium 4 before the core 2 era were dual core versions.

[Arclight]

You're refering to Pentium D. :O:

Pentium 4 is strictly single-core.

[goldorak]

You're refering to Pentium D. :O:

Pentium 4 is strictly single-core.

Ok sorry for the confusion. :oops:

[SteamWake]

Oh for the love of... :doh:

Good news is you fixed the problem relating to using dual-core CPU (though it seems a problem with HTT itself; still working fine on my quad). This new problem may well be heat related; console ports tend to overheat the memory before the core heats up (ie cooling doesn't spin up).

Could try lowering graphics and/or setting the cooling higher manually with something like Rivatuner. :hmmm:



On HTT: there's no such thing as a Pentium 4 dual-core. It's actually a single-core CPU with HTT. HTT creates a second virtual core. Though turning it off might fix some compatibility issues, it (your PC) is probably faster in day-to-day use with it enabled.

I seriously doubt its heat related as I run other much more demanding games for long periods of time with no issues. Ive left SH4 running for hours while I mow the lawn or something with no issues. Ive experienced overheat issues before and this isnt it. Before I disabled HTT the vast majority of combats would play through with the occasional freeze however in that case I can usually recover with the three finger salute. With HTT disabled it locks up hard and only the reset button will recover.

I already tried reducing the settings for kotor to their lowest with no change in behaviour.

Yes its set for native resolution.

[Arclight]

Well, the point is really Kotor being a console port. Like I said, they tend to over-stress the memory. But if you say you're certain, I believe you. To be honest I didn't think it was the problem anyway, merely a suggestion that should be considered.

(for example, I can run Fear maxed at 100+ FPS, but the card locks up from heat in about 30 sec, while I can run much more demanding stuff at ~30 FPS indefinetly, theoretically)

:hmmm:

That said, I would still consider cranking the cooling up manually an option to pursue, if only to eliminate it as a solution. Got nothing else at the moment anyway. :doh:

[SteamWake]

Just an update...

While trying to get riva tuner up and running I had a thought..

Why not just try disabling CCC (Cataylist Control Center).

The results were quite dramatic. While I still get a crash at a loading screen occassionally I played last night for 2 hours with only one crash ! :salute:

That is a marked improvement. Not only do I get less crash outs but cut scenes load faster and run smoother as well.

Sometimes its the simple things :rotfl2:

[Reece]

Glad you got things worked out, I never use the CCC, I use Tray Tools (for GFX card settings/overclocking) & Powerstrip (monitor settings/Gamma etc) both can be set up with application/game profiles. I had a problem with the computer resetting within certain games, turned out to be a combination of processor/bus speed overclocking in bios & a PCI diagnostic card.:yep:

[Arclight]

Can't say I ever had trouble with CCC, because I never used it. :)

Went with TrayTools as well. It's not uncommon to see people complain about it though.

Glad to hear KoTOR is cooperating. :up:

[goldorak]

Yeah ATI Tray Tools should be bundled with ATI's drivers instead of that horribile CCC. :DL
I've had radeon 8500, 9800pro, x800gto and x1950pro and except for the 8500 and 9800 that used the old fashioned driver panel (the best in my opinion), for all other cards I've always used ATT.
I don't know why but with CCC the cards had always problems with gamma, and this thing drove me crazy.

Long live ATT. :rock:

[SteamWake]

Every time you go to update ATI drivers it trries to put CCC back in.

I had actually kind of forgot it was running till I started messing with riva tuner.

Riva would NOT install saying "Cataylist Detected" and not listing the actual video card.

It was then the light went off :O:

Now what the heck is ATT ?

[Arclight]

For some reason I always assume everyone is using Nvidia cards. :nope:

ATT= ATI Tray Tools. Basically rivatuner for ATI cards. Offers driver settings (you'd normally set in CCC) and overclocking. Can be used as a replacement for CCC.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-tray-tools-/