Deadfire freezes during intro cinematic -- during the last line of voiced dialog.

[Arsene Lupin]

Summary: the game freezes/crashes during the introduction cut-scene, specifically during the final line of the opening narration (at or shortly after the colon preceding the last clause). Assuming the final clause is a separate audio file, it may be crashing while trying to load it, as the voiced narration ceases at the moment of the freeze.

 

Screenshot: I'm unable to provide a screenshot, as I noticed the Steam overlay ceased to function at some point during the cinematic (I could take a screenshot when the first paragraph was on-screen, but could not by the time the third paragraph was visible); the Print Screen command only copied the desktop at the time of the freeze.

 

Details: I've tried to run the game about a dozen times w/ various settings ticked in the options menu, trying various compatibility modes. Am currently running the game on a Windows 10 x64 PC w/ an older HD6870 GPU, which I know has had some problems with Unity, but PoE1 ran perfectly, so... I dunno. I've also (of course) verified the integrity of the game cache and tried running the game with administrator permissions, with and without the Steam client. Completely deleting and re-installing the game is a last resort as, unfortunately, I suffer from that terrible condition known as bandwidth caps.

 

Save file: not applicable.

 

Output file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AxLN1f9scVlJvda2K00c7b6FeacD8GQp/view?usp=sharing

 

Notes: I've currently got the game installed to a nonstandard directory -- D:\[[   Steam   ]] -- I'm going to try reinstalling it to C:\, which is an SSD; if that doesn't work, I'll also try running the game on an older laptop running Windows 8 (assuming an integrated HD4000 card is up to the task) and will report back w/ the results.

[Arsene Lupin]

Hm... I've never really monitored GPU usage. Watching the Catalyst Control Center w/ the game running in windowed mode, I noticed the activity percentage oscilated a bit between 45 and 75% for most of the trek rightward. It never hit 99%, but the moment the game crashed it fell to zero. Not sure if that means anything.

 

FWIW I'm using an older ATI card.

 

Guess I'll try maxing out the AMD overdrive thing, see if that effects anything, but I doubt it will.

[Arsene Lupin]

UPDATE: bug persisted on SSD. Should clarify that apparently it was not the very last line of dialog in the opening narration (the summary of PoE1, if that wasn't clear) but rather the second-to-last (didn't realize there was room on the page). Evidently the game freezes while trying to transition from the PoE1 summary to the opening cinematic.

 

And I can play the game now! By pressing ESC to skip the summary and jump straight to the opening cinematic sequence (narrated by Eder).

 

So, it's great that I can finally play the game, but a shame it took so long to figure out such an obvious workaround, and also a shame that I didn't get to hear all of the narration--or, indeed, see if there was a second page or more of narration (probably not, right?) before the cinematic sequence.

 

Still, while not quite the game-breaking bug I first thought it to be, it would be nice to see this fixed.

[Arsene Lupin]

UPDATE2: okay, cool. The bug isn't less bad than I initially, thought, it's worse. The game just likes freezing. All the goddamn time. I've no walked down that silly abstract conveyance thing watching flashbacks to the really-not-as-compelling-as-you-seem-to-think-it-was main quest from PoE, and freeze. Freeze. Freeze. FREEZE.

 

I have yet to make it to character creation.

 

I have tried adjusting every graphics option there is. Every compatibility option there is.  Ever option available to me, I have exhausted. This is *infuriating.*

[Systolicframe]

UPDATE2: okay, cool. The bug isn't less bad than I initially, thought, it's worse. The game just likes freezing. All the goddamn time. I've no walked down that silly abstract conveyance thing watching flashbacks to the really-not-as-compelling-as-you-seem-to-think-it-was main quest from PoE, and freeze. Freeze. Freeze. FREEZE.

 

I have yet to make it to character creation.

 

I have tried adjusting every graphics option there is. Every compatibility option there is.  Ever option available to me, I have exhausted. This is *infuriating.*

This is the exact issue I have, I get a little further (character creation) then it freezes every time, might be my GPU though, I notice during the transition from the path to the meeting the closer I get to the wheel consistantly hits 99% of my GPU usage