System Freezing Bug

Discussion in 'Support!' started by admrialmardok, August 24, 2014.

  1. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    When I attempt to enter any of the single player battles, the game launches around 24-36 processes of CoherentUI(it varies per attempt). these processes eat up all of the RAM and possessor time, to the extent of strangling the OS(audio still works during freeze). It took about half an hour for Windows to clear out the processes and get back to a stable state. i would appreciate any ideas on how to fix this bug on my end of things.

    System info:
    game version: .70289(latest steam build)
    CPU: Intel Core Two Duo E4500 2.20 & 2.19 GHz
    RAM: 4 GB
    32-bit Vista Business SP 2
    Nvidia Ge Force 8400 GS (latest driver)
    Shwyx likes this.
  2. Shwyx

    Shwyx Well-Known Member

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    Please post your most recent DxDiag (see my signature for a how-to).

    Judging from your system specs, though, you won't be a having a lot of fun with PA and that setup.
    admrialmardok likes this.
  3. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    I've attached the Direct X file
    I've been meaning to get Win 7 for a while, and i do know that it may cause problems to run Vista.
    I knew that my CPU was borderline, but i guess i need a refresher on Graphics card readouts. From what I understood of the steam minimum requirements, my card was near the bottom of acceptable, but still above the minimum line. The game also Auto-set the graphics to medium. Is this just a default, or did the game mis-read my system.
    Thanks for helping.

    just a side note, i can play Sword Of The Stars 2 with medium graphics. The models in that game seem more detailed than in PA.

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: August 24, 2014
  4. Shwyx

    Shwyx Well-Known Member

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    Well the game does run, so your graphics card can apparently do the job - if it weren't for the other issues (I'd still think about an upgrade, though). The 8400 GS only has 512 MB of video RAM and when that resource is depleted it'll switch to your system RAM - of which there isn't enough.

    With 3.2 GB available and Vista eating up a large chunk of that there's barely enough left for PA. An upgrade to a 64bit version of Vista would boost you to 4 GB available (an increase of 25%, after all); 64bit Win7 or Win8 and 8 GB of RAM would obviously be even better. RAM still is rather cheap ... I'd say go for it.

    As for performance in other games - that usually isn't comparable, as different games will often use (vastly) different architecture. And the presets ... let's just say that PA set my graphics to "high" as default, and I only get 30+ FPS on "low".
  5. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    My computer has surprised me with what it will run. being a janitor kinda prevents me from upgrading my system much. ah well, the joys of minimum wage.
    Anyhow, i still haven't been able to think of the reason for the excess processes of CoherentUI. i may just be a novice coder, but that seem like a very large issue. I have read the other threads about the core threading distribution. I would understand 2-3 processes for the distribution, but the amount I'm getting seems like there's a loop creating them, and the loop doesn't have an escape clause.
    Thanks for the quick response.
  6. Shwyx

    Shwyx Well-Known Member

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    Any time, I just wish I could have done more :).

    As for the Coherent UI - I don't think it's an issue of bad programming, but simply a new software architecture built to run on recent hardware. I don't know enough about programming but from what I've gathered it's an incredible flexible method of coding. Uber decided to build up somethin from scratch and at a certain point you have to make a cut in terms of what hard- and software you still want to support.

    We've also had quite a lull over the last years - my machine is ~6 years old and up until recently, I could play most games perfectly fine. Probably due to the last console generation artificially keeping system requirements low across all platforms for most titles. With new hardware around the corner and the new consoles gaining tractions a lot of gaming PCs that did fine for the last half decade will be in dire need of upgrades.
  7. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    I guess that leaves me up a creek without a paddle(PC stat wise). it is interesting that console games have such an impact on PC games. I personally don't see the allure in a console(PC's can run the games better with a proper emulator). My friends all seem to have one and the games on it are what they swear by. it makes me wonder if the trend will flip, and console games will be the rarity. it kinda sucks when Wal-Mart doesn't support your game system of choice.(4-15 PC games, a 5x5x5 bucket of console games at the local 6 stores)

    And i wasn't calling bad coding on the Devs. The thought that ran through my head was that the file could have been corrupted during download. all it would take is a letter in a function call changed and blam, the game dies at the point that function was called.
  8. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    By the way. SXX is doing some nifty work on reducing the memory usage of PA. See this thread. Maybe you'll have some luck with that.
  9. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    Thanks for mentioning that. I've been reading some of the other threads and hadn't gotten to that one. it should help with my issue.
  10. matgopack

    matgopack New Member

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    I've got the same problem - system crashes whenever a battle loads up (either single player battles in the galactic war, or a multiplayer game with bots). It was able to load the system editor, and the galactic map mode.

    Specs-
    CPU: Intel Core i5-2520M @2.5GHz (2 cores)
    RAM: 4GB
    NVIDIA NVS 4200M
    64 bit Windows 7

    I thought that my laptop would be enough to run the game as well, but it's possible that I was wrong about that :/
  11. kjotak109

    kjotak109 Well-Known Member

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    4GB of RAM?:eek: 4GB of RAM is NOT enough for playing this game, let alone being able to load maps. You need 8GB or more at the least.

    Also, your graphics card is sub-par compared to other cards of today's generation. DDR3 type video memory is not enough for a game this graphically intensive.
    Link: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-NVS-4200M.47343.0.html
  12. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    matgopack, if you go to the thread mentioned by DeathByDenim, it should help you with your problem.
    also, the game says that 4 gb meets the minimum requirements. the issue mat and i are having is the overload of CoherentUI, each processes take up tons of memory, thus causing our systems to grind to a halt. the thread that Death quoted from has a fix, i just cant get it to work
  13. matgopack

    matgopack New Member

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    Hmm, I thought that 4 GB was the minimum required spec :/

    I guess it'll just have to wait until I build a proper desktop :(
  14. admrialmardok

    admrialmardok New Member

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    if you can control the memory usage, it should be fine. a desktop may be nice for games, but many laptops can keep up
  15. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    Yeah, it is. It is however the bare minimum. You should be able to play the smaller of the multiplayer maps. The problem is that the bigger the planets are, the more memory you need. Galactic War should be possible of course, but as you can see from the Coherent UI memory usage problem there is still a fair bit of optimization required.

    And yeah, from the link @kjotak109 posted about your graphics card: "In theory the raw performance of the chip is enough to run current games of 2010/2011 in low-medium details and resolutions."

    That being said, PA is also very VERY sensitive about having the latest graphics drivers for your card. Laptops are notorious for providing drivers that aren't up to date. You'll have to get them directly from the NVidia website. Post your dxdiag.txt, so we can take a look at it.
  16. matgopack

    matgopack New Member

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    I've tried the thread on decreasing the memory use of the game, and it worked! It actually loaded a planet/let me play, so it's great :)

    Thanks for the help!
    DeathByDenim likes this.

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