Entering Engwithan Digsite Arena Sub-level causes freeze

[Alot]

Whenever I try to enter the Engwithan Digsite Arena Sub-level the game will try to load the area for a short while, but eventually get stuck on a black screen showing only the cursor. When this happens I am unable to quit the game or force the application to close via task manager and need to restart my PC.

 

This dropbox link contains my savefile and below are the output and DxDiag logs.

 

 

 

output_log.txt

DxDiag.txt

 

 

Edit: Nevermind, it just loaded; I have NO idea why.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Alot

[ladyerror]

With anyone here who is having this problem, could you upload your output log file after the crash happens?

 

You can find details about how to do that here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97377-how-to-report-a-bug/

 

Thanks! 

 

http://www.filedropper.com/outputlog_19

 

Still no luck with loading the arena, even with the console command to transition there from outside the ruins.

[Roby Atadero]

Thanks! Also, if you have a save file right before this happens that would hopefully help us figure this out too.

[ladyerror]

Thanks! Also, if you have a save file right before this happens that would hopefully help us figure this out too.

 

Here you go:

http://www.filedropper.com/marajungleb7b1a4a9-401b-45b0-b5cb-5cc28e094ab5754913485

 

It's in the Jungle from which I tried loading the arena through the console. It's the same freezing that happens when I go to the arena through the ruins map.

[ladyerror]

Here is a save file that cannot be loaded (inside the ruins, but outside the arena). It freezes the game in the same way as when entering the arena:

http://www.filedropper.com/maraengwithandigsite25e1072f-f4b4-40c3-a825-80d5dc15552a755382974

 

The output log for that crash:

http://www.filedropper.com/outputlog_20

 

And my dxdiag:

http://www.filedropper.com/dxdiag_15

Edited May 12, 2018 by ladyerror

[HorseCarnival]

Attached is my output log, taken right after a crash happened.

output_log.txt

[ev1alit]

After all the magic tricks with the console, settings, reinstalling and verifying game it still shows this sad black screen as @ladyerror said.

Maybe my output log can be helpful too.

https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=output_log.txt

Edited May 13, 2018 by ev1alit

[ClockworkPenguin]

With anyone here who is having this problem, could you upload your output log file after the crash happens?

 

You can find details about how to do that here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97377-how-to-report-a-bug/

 

Thanks! 

When it happens, it doesn't "crash". The game... hangs. It will do the full loading screen, music will stop, you'll get your cursor back (the gauntlet), and then the game stops responding.

[ClockworkPenguin]

Functional workaround:

 

1.) Start in the Tavern, preferably - this is just in case you have an.. issue that's cropped up a few times for me in bypass testing.

 

2.) Make sure Eder and Aloth are in your party (the ashen statue of the animancer will NOT spawn if Aloth isn't in your party - not sure if this is still true if you didn't recruit him). Xoti also, if you recruited her.

 

3.) Open the console (tilde key ~ on QWERTY keyboards. It's just left of your 1 key) and type IRoll20s

     This WILL disable achievements during this playthrough, even if you disable cheats later.

 

4.) Open the console again and type (or paste): AreaTransition AR_0912_Engwithan_Digsite_Sublevel West1 ZN_09_Port_Maje

     This will... teleport you into the digsite sub-arena. The issue seems to be the transition from the surface to the sub-arena.

 

5.) Let it load. If the zone still hasn't loaded in after about 4-5 minutes (its usually faster), manually end the game process - you can do this by typing Ctrl+Shift+Escape if your using PC with Windows 10.

 

6.) If the area didn't load in and you had to crash the game, load it up again and go up and down the stairs in the tavern for a total of three area transitions (to clear your auto-save history) and try again.

 

 

 

This should reliably let you in. I tried it with various conditions and, on the rare occasion that it didn't work, reloading and doing 3 area transitions and trying again seemed to let me in every time.

 

You should be able to walk out normally with no problems and resume normal gameplay, just without achievements.

 

Have fun.

[marineghost]

I have the same problem

 

log

https://www.dropbox.com/s/148ih08kfl5td7r/output_log.txt?dl=0

 

save

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jetrr1ag20lth3x/Pillars%20of%20Eternity%20II.rar?dl=0

[ladyerror]

From what I understand, Aloth cannot join your party until you complete the arena.

 

Tried the walking up and down in the pub and then loading the arena. Still doesn't work.

 

I noticed in the task manager that the game doesn't freeze completely and still continues to use the CPU, so I let it run for about 8 hours. Curiously, the memory usage of the game went down from around 1 Gb to 175 Mb, but the game is still unresponsive.

Edited May 13, 2018 by ladyerror

[ClockworkPenguin]

Aloth is available to join your party as soon as you kill the two groups of enemies - the panthers by the cage door and the group of young wurms and boars just up the stairs from the cage. Just clear those two groups, open the cage and you can recruit him. After he's in your party, rather than walk down to the sub-arena, either walk back to town or use the various other entrances at the digsite and then use the AreaTransition console command I listed above. You may want to set the games graphics to there lowest settings, and set MSII sampling to between 1-4, as many others have reported that this helps as well - you can set them back to your preferred settings right after the area loads in with no issue.

 

I even tried it on my super old laptop that technically doesn't even meet the games minimum requirements and it still let me in, albeit with a slightly longer load time (about 3-4 minutes).

 

Sorry if this doesn't work for you, I'm just trying to give other players some of the workarounds that have worked for them, and/or myself.

 

If worst comes to worst and it still wont let you in, you can always just use AreaTransition to teleport yourself to the next town so you can at least experience more of the game's content. What worked for me to do so was just use "AreaTransition A" and then keep hitting the Tab key until you see an area called "The Hole". It'll be "AreaTransition A<long area name_The_Hole> South1 0". This will transition you to a tavern in the next city that contains several hours of gameplay just in that city and surrounding island - you wont be able to use your ship, though.

 

Hope you can get it to let you past... I had to give up on two days worth of progress after I finally got the digsite sub-area to let me load in, but at least I'm able to access the rest of the game now. Hopefully my/our experience will allow you to do the same until they find/patch the issue. Good luck!

[TigrisCorvidae]

Here's my save file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/luabzdfpfpcn380/Percy%20%28EngwithanDigsite%29%20%28475eb440-6c1b-4b5d-8ccb-eb98a7831022%29%20%28754980712%29.savegame?dl=0

 

and output log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zp04p7konxoo4qp/output_log.txt?dl=0

[ladyerror]

I picked up Aloth, but the arena loading issue is still the same. However, for some reason, with Aloth the freezing of the game is now somewhat different: I have the game running in a window and now I cannot change back to that window when the game freezes, whereas without Aloth I could switch back to the non-responsive game window.

 

It is weird as hell. I suspect that having a slower laptop with just 4 Gb of RAM might be the reason why I still cannot get it to work. Hope they fix the arena loading bug soon.

Edited May 14, 2018 by ladyerror

[AnaGBMF]

With anyone here who is having this problem, could you upload your output log file after the crash happens?

 

You can find details about how to do that here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97377-how-to-report-a-bug/

 

Thanks! 

 

Hello ! 

 

I have exactly the same problem.

I tried to turn graphics to lowest, VSync off and set MSAA samples to four. It worked the first time, and I was able to play for a few minutes. But my game crashed again while I was in there and I haven’t been able to get back in since. I tried to untick every box in the graphic settings, it doesn't work. I even have some issues to go to the entire Engwithan Digsite area, now.

 

You'll find my files here  : https://www.dropbox.com/s/jasux226ftj3ykj/Deadfire%20Bug.rar?dl=0

 

Hope this helps !

[dolgion1]

I have the same issue. I have to say that I did actually get into that area once. I did add custom portrait files into the portraits folder and set my character portrait, and it seems that since then I've been getting this error, though that's just speculation.

 

One thing aside: when turning off "miscellaneous" in graphics options, a lot of the lighting in dungeon areas (though that's just where I've been experiencing it so far, in the sub-arena and luminous adra pool) goes missing, which results in the entire area almost pitch black. My party looks like these shadowy figures walking around. I guess there's some gameplay crucial lighting that's toggled with the option. I would like to keep it turned off though, because I get a lot more FPS with it turned off.

 

My save file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kijx9WVKMzMp9MU6Ymj3_iYTU_ZZuIO4

My output log: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iNsWr3wnMhyYihGuDzMloLnYgTXuzBqS

DxDiag:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1grfSKxdrcZZX93ckjraWYRS8BxCaJtmN

 

I REALLY hope that you can address and fix this issue in the upcoming patch!

I did add custom portrait files into the portaits folder and sI did add custom portrait files into the portaits folder and s

[Jeris Boltsin]

I picked up Aloth, but the arena loading issue is still the same. However, for some reason, with Aloth the freezing of the game is now somewhat different: I have the game running in a window and now I cannot change back to that window when the game freezes, whereas without Aloth I could switch back to the non-responsive game window.

 

It is weird as hell. I suspect that having a slower laptop with just 4 Gb of RAM might be the reason why I still cannot get it to work. Hope they fix the arena loading bug soon.

 

Dual-core laptop & 4 Gb of DDR2 & Mobile DX10.1 GPU (512 Mb). Of course I start the game with" ....\PillarsOfEternityII.exe" -force-d3d10" as the game "requires" a DX11 compatible GPU with 1Gb of VRAM. Also, AMD legacy drivers (13.1) from like  - 2013???. And I'm in Neketaka at the moment, after 22 hours.

 

I tested your save and had no problems of getting to Arena Sub-Level, the same way I got there. (And Cheats / Restore = "Unity Console")

 

One thing might be: Page files settings. I've got the "let windows (8.1 pro) handle it" setting at the moment. Same games really don't like that (= they crash and whine about running out "memory"). In that case, I usually set it to "min 4096 / max 8192 Mb" or to a fixed size, like 16384 Mb.

[ladyerror]

Tried increasing virtual memory to "min 4096 / max 8192 Mb" (and included "-force-d3d10" when launching) and still no change. The rest of the game loads just fine, it is only this one area.

[Jeris Boltsin]

Tried increasing virtual memory to "min 4096 / max 8192 Mb" (and included "-force-d3d10" when launching) and still no change. The rest of the game loads just fine, it is only this one area.

There's your save in the beginning of Arena Sub-level. The same place I took the screen capture from. If that doesn't work, then = ?????. Unless it's about free RAM: I can drop my free RAM down to 3.4 / 4 Gb - simply by starting the game & when it's gets to the title screen, where you can load --> exit. Also on my laptop, when it used to froze there, the game was taking from 1.87 Gb <--> 2.05 Gb of RAM.

[ladyerror]

 

Tried increasing virtual memory to "min 4096 / max 8192 Mb" (and included "-force-d3d10" when launching) and still no change. The rest of the game loads just fine, it is only this one area.

There's your save in the beginning of Arena Sub-level. The same place I took the screen capture from. If that doesn't work, then = ?????. Unless it's about free RAM: I can drop my free RAM down to 3.4 / 4 Gb - simply by starting the game & when it's gets to the title screen, where you can load --> exit. Also on my laptop, when it used to froze there, the game was taking from 1.87 Gb <--> 2.05 Gb of RAM.

 

 

Thanks a lot, but loading the save file also leads to the same freezing/crash of the game.

 

Here is the output.txt for that crash, in case the developers need it:

 

http://www.filedropper.com/outputlog_22

[RandomGuy123]

Hi! I've experienced the same issue. Tried some options (lowest settings, enable 4x msaa, vsync), but only one attempt was successful (loading location from port using AreaTransition), and I cant load resulting save and the same path later leads to black screen .

I've checked some dxdiag files from these tread and it was always 4GB of RAM. I'm a linux user, my system uses about 1.5GB from the start, usually more, but i did some stuff, and now it uses only about 0.5GB - and LOCATION JUST LOADS WITHOUT ISSUES! I double checked, i can freely enter problematic location right from digsite, without any AreaTransition tricks.

 

My suggestion, that's something about free RAM.

 

So, if you having these issue and have about 4GB of ram, i recommend to close all applications before starting game (dont forget background ones, like messengers, torrent clients, maybe even amd/nvidia control centers), also good idea will be to open task manager and check, probably there are some unnecessary ram-hungry processes that you can disable.

[AnaGBMF]

At last, I made it there. Just like in PoE1, areatransition saved the day. At least, when you try & fail & try & try again & again 'til it works. 

 

Press § (Ö on my nordic keyboard) / iroll20s

 

I traveled to Port Maje's Gorecci Street. Well actually using this 'cause I'm lazy --> areatransition AR_0916_Port_Maje_Street North1 ZN_09_Port_Maje

Then to Engwithan Digsite Sub-Level ---> areatransition AR_0912_Engwithan_Digsite_Sublevel West1 ZN_09_Port_Maje

 

And don't ask me, why the level starts from the east side... Finished it & even got out of there without no freeze / black screen and now - we are sailing, we are sailing.....

 

Forgot to say that it worked for me too ! Thank you so much !

 

The urge to play was too strong I'll miss the achievements, though...

[Jeris Boltsin]

 

At last, I made it there. Just like in PoE1, areatransition saved the day. At least, when you try & fail & try & try again & again 'til it works. 

 

Press § (Ö on my nordic keyboard) / iroll20s

 

I traveled to Port Maje's Gorecci Street. Well actually using this 'cause I'm lazy --> areatransition AR_0916_Port_Maje_Street North1 ZN_09_Port_Maje

Then to Engwithan Digsite Sub-Level ---> areatransition AR_0912_Engwithan_Digsite_Sublevel West1 ZN_09_Port_Maje

 

And don't ask me, why the level starts from the east side... Finished it & even got out of there without no freeze / black screen and now - we are sailing, we are sailing.....

 

Forgot to say that it worked for me too ! Thank you so much !

 

The urge to play was too strong I'll miss the achievements, though...

 

Well, I've got 15 achievements ===> Cheat Engine 6.7 + DrummerIX's PoE2 table v5.5 ==> "Keep Achievements Enabled When Using Console Commands".

[shonix]

Hi! I've experienced the same issue. Tried some options (lowest settings, enable 4x msaa, vsync), but only one attempt was successful (loading location from port using AreaTransition), and I cant load resulting save and the same path later leads to black screen .

 

I've checked some dxdiag files from these tread and it was always 4GB of RAM. I'm a linux user, my system uses about 1.5GB from the start, usually more, but i did some stuff, and now it uses only about 0.5GB - and LOCATION JUST LOADS WITHOUT ISSUES! I double checked, i can freely enter problematic location right from digsite, without any AreaTransition tricks.

 

My suggestion, that's something about free RAM.

 

So, if you having these issue and have about 4GB of ram, i recommend to close all applications before starting game (dont forget background ones, like messengers, torrent clients, maybe even amd/nvidia control centers), also good idea will be to open task manager and check, probably there are some unnecessary ram-hungry processes that you can disable.

Edit: oops, finger slipped.

 

How did you lower the ram usage by so much? One of my RAM sticks died and I’m currently waiting for a replacement. The game can still run but it crashes at the first cave with Beowulf (decided to start over lol) when it didn’t before. I’d like to play a little bit more if possible before my new parts come in lol. And it’d be nice to not have to use cheats to enter the arena sub level again.

Edited May 15, 2018 by shonix

[RandomGuy123]

 

Hi! I've experienced the same issue. Tried some options (lowest settings, enable 4x msaa, vsync), but only one attempt was successful (loading location from port using AreaTransition), and I cant load resulting save and the same path later leads to black screen .

 

I've checked some dxdiag files from these tread and it was always 4GB of RAM. I'm a linux user, my system uses about 1.5GB from the start, usually more, but i did some stuff, and now it uses only about 0.5GB - and LOCATION JUST LOADS WITHOUT ISSUES! I double checked, i can freely enter problematic location right from digsite, without any AreaTransition tricks.

 

My suggestion, that's something about free RAM.

 

So, if you having these issue and have about 4GB of ram, i recommend to close all applications before starting game (dont forget background ones, like messengers, torrent clients, maybe even amd/nvidia control centers), also good idea will be to open task manager and check, probably there are some unnecessary ram-hungry processes that you can disable.

Edit: oops, finger slipped.

 

How did you lower the ram usage by so much? One of my RAM sticks died and I’m currently waiting for a replacement. The game can still run but it crashes at the first cave with Beowulf (decided to start over lol) when it didn’t before. I’d like to play a little bit more if possible before my new parts come in lol. And it’d be nice to not have to use cheats to enter the arena sub level again.

 

That's the power of linux) I simply install & load lightweight environment ("thing" that draw windows, panels - something like that), i'm sure i can reduce ram usage even more, but no need for that.

 

My guess - you need about 2.0-2.5 GB of free ram before starting game to load sub-level location (not sure about windows version though, but it should be the same amount).

[dolgion1]

So I managed to get into the area using IRoll20s, and am now playing with steam achievements. Let me briefly run it down, it may work for others too:

1. I switched to the beta branch (don't know if this is needed, it's just what I did in hopes for a quicker fix)
2. I loaded into the game at the point where I failed before, in the Engwithan Digsite main arena and enabled cheat codes in the console as per the IRoll20s (yes, I know this disables achievements from this point on)
3. I went to Port Maje's tavern (Kraken's Eye or something like that)
4. There, I did the AreaTransition command described earlier in the thread: areatransition AR_0912_Engwithan_Digsite_Sublevel West1 ZN_09_Port_Maje
5. I successfully got into the map, but without achievements
6. On a whim, I reloaded to my earlier save that I loaded in step 2, where I hadn't enabled IRoll20s yet
7. I entered the sub-arena and this time it worked! It's as if my PC had to do it successfully once, to get into the right groove, haha
8. I was concerned that steam achievements were still disabled, so I played through this map and returned to the Port Maje tavern
9. There I hired an adventurer to test if the achievement fired, and it did!

Now I'm just playing as I would normally. I lost three days to this bug and in the meantime played Avernum: Escape from the Pit, which I can recommend btw!