PSA: Game Freeze Workaround

[Seiter02]

If you occasionally have your whole screen freeze (but you are still in game, you can hear sounds etc) but your computer continues to function, you are possibly having the same type of issue I have been having. The problem is often manifest in specific locations, like OT ramp, some parts of SS and others. It appears that the signature for these failures tends to be:

1. Windows users
2. Users with nvidia cards
3. Users with resolution above 1680*1050

To see if you are a candidate for this workaround:

1. Start -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> System

If at the time of the freeze you see an entry of form:

"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." immediately followed by a DistributedCOM, you are likely subject to the same problem I was. The underlying error that is trying to propagate up is usually "resetDevice() failed!" but because of the way the Launch Titanium batch file launches eqgame, there is no host container for com to send the message to over lrpc.

If you update your Launch Titanium.bat file to 'start /wait eqgame patchme' instead, your command window will stay open while you play, com will be able to route the message and tdr will be able to do the right thing, which should prevent the freeze.

Of course this doesn't fix the core problem which is the resetDevice failure on large resolutions, which is why this is no more than a workaround.

[spiz]

This has been driving me nuts. I cannot wait to test this fix tonight.

[BlackBellamy]

ah this might be why people using wineq have reported this problem going away - because maybe wineq opens the game in a good host container

[Heywood]

tried this, and my command window doesnt stay open.

[salimoneus]

I've had this happen on occasion, and doing ALT+ENTER a few times to toggle full screen mode seems to resolve it after a few tries.

[Baler]

The gross misuse of the acronym for Public Service Announcement seen daily on the internet is disgusting.
That said the OP is not giving all details about this and or it's causes.

Originally Posted by Ropethunder [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This error would be thrown if DirectX failed to reset the Direct3D device.

Originally Posted by Ropethunder [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

the client just isn't handling the device reset properly. There's nothing that can be done about that.

It's a flaw of the titanium client.

Originally Posted by BlackBellamy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

ah this might be why people using wineq have reported this problem going away - because maybe wineq opens the game in a good host container

Originally Posted by Aeolwind [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Reason I mention using WinEQ2 is that the Titanium client in windowed mode, overall, is about as stable as a house of cards in a windstorm. I couldn't even log into eqemu on my home rig till I got it. My laptop does ok without however.

WinEQ2 Comes with EQPlayNice built in, still. EQPlayNice is what kept EQ from being a monstrous resource hog and tying up a lot of DLL's and processor power/ram back in the day. While EQ was optimized, and it was optimized before Titanium, EQPlayNice worked (and still does work) better than what Sony's modifications did.

I'd like to add that UAC prompts will cause this blackout and you can disable UAC prompts via the group policy editor temporarily. Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode = Elevate without prompting
Of course if you're not confident or inexperienced in your computer security this is not recomend because this no longer requests the user to yes/no an elevated program.

unrelated but over on TAKP their velious client they modified fixes it self and doesn't have this issue. However I'm unsure if p99 is allowed to distribute a modified client given their agreement with daybreak isn't transparent to the public.

[Briq]

Originally Posted by salimoneus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've had this happen on occasion, and doing ALT+ENTER a few times to toggle full screen mode seems to resolve it after a few tries.

This is what I do to fix mine. I usually find it is when, say another monitor is powered on or something that flickers the screen will cause it to lock up. ALT + ENTER to full screen and ALT + ENTER to go back to windowed mode (or vice versa depending on which one you normally play in)

[Nycon43]

Been having this issue, do I add that 'start /wait eqgame patchme' under the comment section for the Launch Titanium.bat shortcut?

[Naerron]

only on p99 would be shit on your for trying to be helpful, thank you OP for sharing, not many people have been using this great work around. glad someone made a post

[Pretzelle]

Originally Posted by salimoneus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've had this happen on occasion, and doing ALT+ENTER a few times to toggle full screen mode seems to resolve it after a few tries.