85 replies to this topic

[Jim Pearson]

Hi guys

Several reports of CTD's [ Crashes to desktop ] .

Issues may be;

A] Closed car sets like the Sportscars?
B] Mountain section from Mountain Box to Bungalow?
C] More extensively all the way around the Mountain from Goosneck to Hilberry?
D] All around the track?

In the release track 3DO there are some long draw distances front and rear, with some abrupt reductions in rear draw distance especially after rounding a corner like Mountain Box.

What could be happening is that if you spin just after GPL has dropped out of view, a large length of rear scenery, it [GPL] has to redraw that. I really don't know, but its worth graduating the drop off in draw distances to see if that fixes your issues. I have also taken the opportunity to pare back some of the really long rear view draw distances, as this in itself may have been the main issue. Some forward draw distances are shortened as well, but not much.

These changes will cause a few popouts in your rear view mirrors, but that might be a small price to pay for a track with fewer or no potential CTD's in my view. I never got CTD's driving on my "vanilla" PC, but that may just be that I have learned to drive without crashing on the mountain after all these years. So I was misleading myself about how stable the track was!

I am up loading a new track 3DO for you to test.

You can refer to the attached map for easy location identity.

Dont forget you can use the Options Manager to start a lap just before the trouble spot and cold tyres will help you spin!  

I repeat that changing a track 3DO in no way alters the comparitive driving difficulty, between players who have the release track 3DO and an updated track 3DO, provided the TRK file is also not varied. I have no intention of doing that.

Please go to http://jrpearson.hom...MCRelease.html

Take the new track 3DO out of its folder and place it in your C/SIERRA/tracks/AAIOM Folder.

Then please report back in this thread whether this FIX A has solved your issues, completely, partially or not at all. As much detail as possible please.

Attached Files

•  CTD MAP.jpg   68.75K   35 downloads

Edited by Jim Pearson, Jun 06 2019 - 01:07 PM.

[paul skingley]

Thanks Jim.

FYI I have NOT had freeze or CTD with the release version. It could be because i have only driven laps with 65mod so far.

Getting faster but yet to complete a lap without incident.


Paul

[GrandPrixYannick]

I'm still getting CTDs if I spin around at Quarterbridge.

And another one at Joey's when I flip my vehicle into the outer crest every time.

Edited by GrandPrixYannick , Jun 06 2019 - 01:43 PM.

[Cookie]

OUPS
now there is an invisible wall at the railway crossing after the rails on the right side at the fence!!!

Did two laps with ChapF without CTD but stuck at this wall

[Jim Pearson]

Cookie, on Jun 06 2019 - 03:03 PM, said:

OUPS
now there is an invisible wall at the railway crossing after the rails on the right side at the fence!!!

Did two laps with ChapF without CTD but stuck at this wall

Please do it again and upload screenshot for F10 view if you can

[Cookie]

Done

the car hits the wall on his right side

Attached Files

•  IMG_20190606_233438.jpg   75.73K   59 downloads
•  IMG_20190606_233516.jpg   66.12K   71 downloads
•  IMG_20190606_233503.jpg   75.04K   50 downloads

[Pedro]

What a great track to drive!

Sorry to report some CTD's
mod 65
practice - ofline- Lotus - after 1 lap leaving setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Cooper - after 1 lap leaving setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after 1 lap entering setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after crach  before Unions Mill (3e gear corner left) CTD doing a ESC+ENTER
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after crach  at Creeba br.  doing a Shift+R - CTD

Thinking I am to fast toggling the menu's ?
and hitting S+R and Esc+E ?

(Io) Man, what a track

[Jim Pearson]

Cookie, on Jun 06 2019 - 03:37 PM, said:

Done

the car hits the wall on his right side

Thanks................ Good pick up.

Yes I also found it while you were doing your screens. That invisible wall intrudes into the track about half a meter and is probably caused by the acute angle of the curb on the right ending there and being flush with the track edge.

There is another similar invisible wall intrusion on the inside of the tight right hander at Governor's Dip at the end of the lap, that I had noticed but as it seemed just to bump the car a bit I didn't worry about. However in any damage mode it might be a problem. This one is probably caused by the tight 10 meter radius of that corner.

I don't want to alter the look of that curb at The Bungalow or change the TRK file as previously stated.

So I am putting a straw bale in both locations which will cover the invisible wall and give a visible object to avoid that collision value.

In other words, you will stay a half meter wider at those two spots because a straw bale is in the way.

EDIT Tested and you can pass close by the Straw bale at Bungalow without collision.

Will post images and if successful, include in CTD FIX B track.3DO once I see the full results of FIX A reported here.

Attached Files

•  gplc67 2019-06-07 08-26-04-07.jpg   56.59K   45 downloads
•  gplc67 2019-06-07 08-29-23-36.jpg   94.38K   53 downloads

Edited by Jim Pearson, Jun 06 2019 - 04:55 PM.

[Saiph]

I've just finished a roughly 60-minute testing session with the new .3DO and it looks pretty impressive.

I downloaded the new .3DO, but didn't install it. I then used the options program to change the lap start to Parliament Square. I started up GEM, selected the GTX Alfa T33, and started GPL. I drove up past The Waterworks, and then from The Gooseneck onwards I was provoking the car to spin or flip every couple of hundred metres, after I had built up a bit of speed. At first nothing happened, but then I passed the Black Hut and went on to The Verandah. Driving the car into the fence on the left, I provoked a spin, and as soon as the car reached 90 degrees, BOOM I was back at the desktop looking at GEM. I restarted GPL and drove past the previous location, and then started to provoke more spins. Nothing happened until I drove into the fences on the right at The 32nd, when I had another CTD.

I then shut everything down, and installed the new .3DO into the AAIOM directory. I then repeated my previous experiments, but this time I couldn't get any CTDs at all. Verandah was fine, The 32nd was fine, and so was everywhere else. When I reached Brandish without a CTD, I hit ESC, and then rejoined back at Parliament Square. Again I drove up past Waterworks, and tried to create more CTDs. Again, I reached Brandish with no CTDs, after crashing the car at least 20 times. At one point I crashed so violently that the car jumped completely over the fence near Brandywell and landed on its wheels. I then attempted to drive across the grass towards the mountain to see if I could reach it, but instead I found "the edge of the world", so I hit shift-r to get back on the track.

Just to check, I shut everything down again, renamed the .3DO to .XXX so it wouldn't be loaded, and tried again. Sure enough, I started getting CTDs again.

Although this was just testing a single car from a single mod, the results seem pretty conclusive to me. The new .3DO definitely seems to fix the CTD problems, at least for me.

Edited by Saiph, Jun 06 2019 - 04:39 PM.

[Jim Pearson]

Pedro, on Jun 06 2019 - 03:46 PM, said:

What a great track to drive!

Sorry to report some CTD's
mod 65
practice - ofline- Lotus - after 1 lap leaving setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Cooper - after 1 lap leaving setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after 1 lap entering setup menu-CTD - no time logged
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after crach  before Unions Mill (3e gear corner left) CTD doing a ESC+ENTER
practice - online at GPLRacer - Honda   - after crach  at Creeba br.  doing a Shift+R - CTD

Thinking I am to fast toggling the menu's ?
and hitting S+R and Esc+E ?

(Io) Man, what a track

Dont know about all that. Try slower keystrokes I guess or exit the track before fiddling with setups again?

Was this 1967 or 65? or other?

[Cookie]

I confirm the results of Saiph, no more CTDs !

Yes if you see the "wall" its no problem anymore...

I had same strange freezing gpl when I did cross the line after 19:49:11 -  hit esc+return - and GPL stopped working in the menu...

[Jim Pearson]

Cookie, on Jun 06 2019 - 04:51 PM, said:

I confirm the results of Saiph, no more CTDs !

Yes if you see the "wall" its no problem anymore...

I had same strange freezing gpl when I did cross the line after 19:49:11 -  hit esc+return - and GPL stopped working in the menu...

System specs?

Might be the number of objects at the S/F line, which might mean I have to make a LITE version after all.

[Cookie]

System is ok, running 60fps stable on the full track!

maybe I change

[ Replay ]
replayMemoryOverride = 256000 to 192000

My GTX960 GPU has only  2GB VRAM wich is 70% loaded

Attached Files

•  IOM load.jpg   148.63K   13 downloads

Edited by Cookie, Jun 06 2019 - 05:50 PM.

[jonny'o]

my computer is a dinosaur XP and I can not get on the track, I press the green and turn the windows

I'll try the 3rd addon.....

[Jim Pearson]

jonny, on Jun 06 2019 - 05:34 PM, said:

my computer is a dinosaur XP and I can not get on the track, I press the green and turn the windows

I'll try the 3rd addon.....

Are you using the small textures 3rd download on the release page?

[Jim Pearson]

Cookie, on Jun 06 2019 - 05:07 PM, said:

System is ok, running 60fps stable on the full track!

maybe I change

[ Replay ]
replayMemoryOverride = 256000 to 192000

My GTX960 GPU has only  2GB VRAM wich is 70% loaded

These menu / exit issues are beyond me. Someone else may have a solution to offer.

Your card is way faster than my GTX680

[marco lenarduzzi]

I'm getting CTD's in the in game menu and replays with the 65,67 and can am cars so far. The 65's had no problems while lapping but the 67's an Can Am cars still CTD when a crash happens in the first sector,not long after the Start/Finish line going down the hill. This is after installing the fix. Still an incredible track ! I really like the corner speed and direction arrows and the fog is just the best!

[Jim Pearson]

OK Some more things for you to try.

On the Downloads page now are two extra Zips

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LITE VERSION

First one is a LITE version 3DO plus two large textures that I somehow missed downsizing for the small textures pack. One is the bike at Windy Cnr but the other is the Notice about TV cameras you see if clicking on TV2 at / around the S/Finish line. These two textures could have been preventing people with low end systems from loading the track and/ or accentuate problems found in that general area.

The LITE AAIOM.3DO removes;

All Track Sounds
All gravity feed fuel cans used by bikes from the pits.
All Advertising Banners.
All hedgerow plants.

Overwrites two large textures not included in the initial Small Textures folder.

Reduces the size of the track 3DO and removes 3741 objects in total.

Simple instructions in the zip

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SMALL TEXTURES ADDITION

I have also added another small zip for people who want to keep the normal track AAIOM.3DO but want to use the smaller textures. This zip just contains the two extra small files mentioned above to place loosely in

C/SIERRA/tracks/AAIOM

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADDED TO CTD VERSION B [ The next one not yet released ]

Fix for Bungalow and Gov'nrs Dip invisible walls.

Smoothed out Draw distances at Quarter Bridge to try a CTD fix for reported spin outcomes there.

Lets see if there are more things I can add to that tomorrow [Sat] before I ask you to try another "patch"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When this exercise runs its course ie there are no more successful fixes, I will update the main installer and Alternate Textures Zips. Please remain patient while I try to optimize this for as many people as possible. I am used to this need to fix things that need alteration; I have had 14 years of almost daily issues like this!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lastly For those struggling to see driving lines under the trees, removing Hard Shadows makes the track and footpaths much clearer.

Also don't forget the other tips for improving frame rates covered in the Readme and Options Manager Readme. These techniques could also help to minimise CTD's!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later News

I was doing a little testing myself again this afternoon [ 7th ] and unfortunately found a small error in the track file that will need to be fixed. There's always something else....sigh!

This was a sharp camber elevation step down left hand side only at the top of May Hill where the straight road starts and the footpath; beside the wall that comes in at an angle from the left.

I will include new trk files with adjusted track 3DO's with future fixes. The only effect on racing will be that the people who don't bother to download any fixes who have the track already, will continue to have an unsettling bump there [ 10 cm in half a meter down ] and potentially be slightly slower than another driver who has the fix and has a smooth camber to follow. The only issue that may need watching is that the two different trk files may cause on line incompatibility, so I will encourage all serious racers to download the fixes.

Had hoped that any issues with the track would be with graphics, but this one isn't.

Edited by Jim Pearson, Jun 07 2019 - 11:12 AM.

[jxeboy]

This is amazing Jim. Thank you so much!

[Alan Davies]

paul skingley, on Jun 06 2019 - 01:24 PM, said:

Thanks Jim.

FYI I have NOT had freeze or CTD with the release version. It could be because i have only driven laps with 65mod so far.

Getting faster but yet to complete a lap without incident.


Paul

Concur with you Paul; some momentary screen freezes on the mountain tho'.