Dragon Age Discussion

[WorstUsernameEver]

Alright that's it. I've been sticking my head in the sand until now, but no more. The PC version of Dragon Age if jagficially craptastic. From a memory leak that won't relent to incessant crashes to desktop courtesy of the new epansion pack, this game is borderline unplayable. I consider myself to be fan of Bioware, but this PC version is pure garbage. If it was any other company you lot would be crying bloody murder. But because it's Bio, this shamelessly poor coding is considered an mere eccentricity.

 

Such a pity my Xbox 360 is currently laboring under the Red Ring of Death.

 

Still haven't bought and played the expansion but on my PC the memory leak with the OC were never THAT bad.

Sometimes after 2/3 hours the loading times would become Witcher-like () but that was it.

.......

So you're telling me they managed to make it worse with the expansion?

[jaguars4ever]

Alright that's it. I've been sticking my head in the sand until now, but no more. The PC version of Dragon Age if jagficially craptastic. From a memory leak that won't relent to incessant crashes to desktop courtesy of the new epansion pack, this game is borderline unplayable. I consider myself to be fan of Bioware, but this PC version is pure garbage. If it was any other company you lot would be crying bloody murder. But because it's Bio, this shamelessly poor coding is considered an mere eccentricity.

 

Such a pity my Xbox 360 is currently laboring under the Red Ring of Death.

 

Still haven't bought and played the expansion but on my PC the memory leak with the OC were never THAT bad.

Sometimes after 2/3 hours the loading times would become Witcher-like () but that was it.

.......

So you're telling me they managed to make it worse with the expansion?

Yes, they somehow did the impossible by making the leak worse. In the original game the leak would gradually increase the loading times from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. Now, in addition to the loading times, the frame rate gradually drops from 60 to 20.

 

But there's nothing gradual about the CTDs. They hit you in the face like Chris Brown on Rhianna.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Yes, they somehow did the impossible by making the leak worse. In the original game the leak would gradually increase the loading times from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. Now, in addition to the loading times, the frame rate gradually drops from 60 to 20.

 

But there's nothing gradual about the CTDs. They hit you in the face like Chris Brown on Rhianna.

 

....Glad my lack of money spared me doing the beta-test for Bioware.

[mr insomniac]

Yes, they somehow did the impossible by making the leak worse. In the original game the leak would gradually increase the loading times from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. Now, in addition to the loading times, the frame rate gradually drops from 60 to 20.

 

But there's nothing gradual about the CTDs. They hit you in the face like Chris Brown on Rhianna.

 

....Glad my lack of money spared me doing the beta-test for Bioware.

Hmm, I haven't experienced anything as bad as that so far. Two CTD's overall, only one without a recent save. I am saving just about every time I turn a corner or have a seemingly important dialogue now though... just in case. Load times were worse in the OC and framerate's been pretty constant for both. I usually only play for 60 minutes or so at a sitting. Maybe that has something to do with better load times, dunno.

 

I've just been looking through the DA PC Tech forum thingy over at the bio boards. Wow. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

[jaguars4ever]

I've just been looking through the DA PC Tech forum thingy over at the bio boards. Wow. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

The current consensus seems to be that the persistent CTDs are afflicting the Windows 7-64 bit OS. Which, incidentally, is what I've got.

 

Am I right to assume you're not using Win 7-64?

[mr insomniac]

I've just been looking through the DA PC Tech forum thingy over at the bio boards. Wow. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

The current consensus seems to be that the persistent CTDs are afflicting the Windows 7-64 bit OS. Which, incidentally, is what I've got.

 

Am I right to assume you're not using Win 7-64?

That's just it. I am using Win 7-64.

 

Found this which may be of help. Possible crash fix

[Monte Carlo]

I'm about to say something you don't hear often...

 

"It runs just fine on Vista...."

 

[Raithe]

I'm about to say something you don't hear often...

 

"It runs just fine on Vista...."

 

 

I do have to say.. apart from a Hitman Bloodmoney graphics glitch, I've never had any problem with things working on Vista....

[jaguars4ever]

I've just been looking through the DA PC Tech forum thingy over at the bio boards. Wow. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

The current consensus seems to be that the persistent CTDs are afflicting the Windows 7-64 bit OS. Which, incidentally, is what I've got.

 

Am I right to assume you're not using Win 7-64?

That's just it. I am using Win 7-64.

 

Found this which may be of help. Possible crash fix

Good news: The "fix" seems to have stopped the crash to desktop!

 

Bad news: The "fix" replaced the CTD with a crash to BIOS, forcing me to enter windows in Safe Mode!

[mr insomniac]

Oh no, that's much worse! Apologies

[Volourn]

Just another reason why DA 360 is superior to DA PC.

[Nightshape]

Just another reason why DA 360 is superior to DA PC.

 

Ladies... And Gentlemen!

 

I want to introduce you to the legend of the acursed Black Isle. Scurge of the Obsidian forum, with his patented Vologic^TM approach to discussion. Regardlessm some people even agree with him, but he's back on form, and making his inane opinion known, no matter how dim witted, or how bad his logic.

 

It is with great pleasure I would like to introduce you to the man, the myth and the legend.

 

Volourn!

Edited April 4, 2010 by Nightshape

[~Di]

Wow, I'm still using Win XP and an old Pentium 4, and I've had very, very few problems with DA:O, all minor. I haven't been too excited about Awakenings, but now I'm glad I decided not to rush out and get it. Sounds like it ruins the original game. *shudder* I'll totally pass on it. Recent expansion packs have really disappointed me anyway.

Edited April 4, 2010 by ~Di

[Tigranes]

Volourn!

 

But he never does shirt signings.

[Nightshape]

Volourn!

 

But he never does shirt signings.

 

I know

 

On another note, I believe that the problems are probably related to 64 Bit OS's. Afterall I'm running win 7 x64 and I've had myself some issues.

 

Someone somewhere in the code likely did something like this:

 

long foo = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(foo); ++i)
{
...
}

[Gorth]

Someone somewhere in the code likely did something like this:

 

long foo = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(foo); ++i)
{
...
}

You lost me there... is the problem with the different long sizes in x86 and x64 platforms? I thought it was language platform specific. Does your language default that to long int or long float

[Spider]

The game did feel more crash prone in the expansion. But it wasn't really that bad for me. Maybe 5-6 crashes in total (compared to 1 or two in the original). So while annoying, nothing game-breaking.

 

The memory leak I never noticed. Maybe 4GB of RAM is enough to not suffer from that?

 

And I'm running Win 7 64 bit.

[HoonDing]

of DA:Awakenings.

[Nightshape]

Someone somewhere in the code likely did something like this:

 

long foo = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(foo); ++i)
{
...
}

You lost me there... is the problem with the different long sizes in x86 and x64 platforms? I thought it was language platform specific. Does your language default that to long int or long float

 

I'm probably totally wrong. Stab in the dark, a guess.

 

It could be a number of things but it's likely type related, as the issue's don't exist for x86 systems atleast that's what seems to be the case.

 

It could be a pointer, or something akin to that causing a mismatch.

 

Basically I'm guessing that at some point the code attempts to do something which returns a larger byte size or address pointer which is obviously incorrect.

 

In all honesty I don't know, I've never written anything for x64 platform.

[Volourn]

I don't agree with everyhing he said, but that review was absolutely hilarious!

 

P.S. It took me over 20 hours to beat A. And, it's no average game. KOTOR is an average game. A is above average. And, it's fantastic expansion.

P.S.S. The fact that people are using 'it's more of the same' to bash an expansion ofa game they enjoyed is beyond ridiculous.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Volourn

[Meshugger]

Volourn!

 

But he never does shirt signings.

 

I know

 

On another note, I believe that the problems are probably related to 64 Bit OS's. Afterall I'm running win 7 x64 and I've had myself some issues.

 

Someone somewhere in the code likely did something like this:

 

long foo = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(foo); ++i)
{
...
}

 

Don't worry, it has already been fixed for 64-bit OSs. The foo-variable has now been changed to signed Int32. Thank you for your cooperation.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Meshugger

[Nepenthe]

Shrug, I think it wasn't more of the same - it was actually a major improvement on the original. Level design was improved from a gameplay point of view (less grind), there were actual "villain masterminds", instead of just having a 100-hour mook run culminating in a really big mook.

 

I have no idea if any of the gameplay bugs have been fixed on the console side, but the PS3 version played just like the original - jerky but livable. Too bad if the reliability took a (further) hit on the PC side, but I'd play Awakening over the OC any day of the week.

[jaguars4ever]

Is there anything important in the locked chests? I don't really want to have Nate in the party (since he's boring) but he's the only guy I have who an pick locks.

[mr insomniac]

I haven't found anything memorable in the locked chests so far. Sigh, just more of the same ol' DA:O.

 

Or you could

go get Sigrun

.

[jaguars4ever]

I don't have a Sig-runt.

 

I have a Justice (awesome!), Emo-Nate, Alistair-Mage, Low-Brow Dwarf, & Viconia.