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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace & FreeSpace Open Support => Topic started by: QuantumDelta on April 20, 2010, 04:57:49 am

Title: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: QuantumDelta on April 20, 2010, 04:57:49 am
Okay I'm mostly writing this now, and very briefly because I need to leave for work and I will probably forget about it until it happens again and it's quite irregular.


Some of you already know I bought a shiny new PC last month, 5870, i7 blahblah.

The system runs FSO wonderfully, however, on occasion, the game falls over completely (everything freezes up, visuals first, music next, sound last -> game goes not responding and needs to be ctrl-alt-del'd).
It happens very irregularly, once every dozen hours or so of gameplay, and I'm not wholly convinced that it's FSO's fault (despite it only occuring in FSO so far).

I didn't notice at first but the error is always followed by the ATi driver message saying that the gpu recovered from an error (standard debug message), while the system completely recovers, FSO doesn't and needs to be forcibly closed no matter how long you wait.
No other game has done this so far and due to the obvious infrequency of the error I haven't caught it on a debug log (*it's not reproducible as far as I can see).

I'm using the 10.3 cat preview drivers on win7 x64 ultimate, http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/tips/Pages/catalyst-10-3-preview.aspx (those things).
I'm just wondering if this is a FSOx5870 issue or if FSO is the only piece of software exposing this 5870 10.3 issue.
I imagine if I'm playing debug for hours at a time the debug logs are going to be pretty big anyway, so I'm not sure where to go with this one.
Any known issues? advice?
I'll read and digest when I get home and try to offer more information do any debugging you guys suggest.

Happens on all mods (haven't been playing without mediavps recently so I don't have a benchmark to test it against but I don't think it's asset related from the complete-randomness of it all).
Time to vanish in any case!
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: Fury on April 20, 2010, 05:02:49 am
Can you please post a debug log anyway. Also, update to officially released 10.3's.
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: QuantumDelta on April 20, 2010, 05:35:33 am
http://pastebin.com/84AGe8tX

Debug Log^
Officially released 10.3s?
10.3a is older than 10.3b isn't it? ATi's website points me at the 10.3b (preview driver).

I've downloaded what I think is the 10.3a anyway for now, I'll compare the notes later and report back, I'm late out now but hey, was in the shower too long and didn't expect a responce so soon ;p
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: Fury on April 20, 2010, 05:52:19 am
As I am at work, I can't compare to my own, but these lines might be problems.
Code: [Select]
OpenAL ERROR: "Invalid Operation" in g:\fso\fs2_rc2_export\code\sound\ds.cpp, line 1809
OpenAL ERROR: "Invalid Value" in g:\fso\fs2_rc2_export\code\sound\ds.cpp, line 3265

And then multiple instances of lines like these
Code: [Select]
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-glow.ani
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-shine.ani
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-normal.ani
Why the heck is it looking .ani?

Couldn't see anything that would cause issues with GPU though.
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: The E on April 20, 2010, 07:12:06 am
As I am at work, I can't compare to my own, but these lines might be problems.
Code: [Select]
OpenAL ERROR: "Invalid Operation" in g:\fso\fs2_rc2_export\code\sound\ds.cpp, line 1809
OpenAL ERROR: "Invalid Value" in g:\fso\fs2_rc2_export\code\sound\ds.cpp, line 3265

You notice it says "OpenAL Error" though? that's not the sound code (And since that one is bound to be replaced, well....)

Quote
And then multiple instances of lines like these
Code: [Select]
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-glow.ani
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-shine.ani
For "fighter2t-02.pof" I couldn't find fighter2t-02a-normal.ani
Why the heck is it looking .ani?

Couldn't see anything that would cause issues with GPU though.

It's looking for anis, because that's the lowest level of priority for bmpman. What this effectively means is "I couldn't find this map in any supported format". Which is not an error message per se, and certainly wouldn't cause any weird issues, I think.
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on April 20, 2010, 02:18:20 pm
Well he did say visuals then music freeze.  Updating the sound drivers couldn't hurt if you haven't already.  If that isn't it I'd make sure your power supply has enough juice for the system.  If your right on the edge of power usage and the systems revs up a fan or needs a little extra power for some reason during play it may just push it over the edge.  Overheating would be another possibility.  I've had both happen with ATI cards and VPU recovery is always the symptom. 

As for the .ani files E is right.  It will try to load every possible type of may (normal, glow, shine, etc) for every graphic it loads.  Normally it just means it doesn't have that type of map and can be ignored.  Would only be an issue for base maps so if it said fighter2t-02.ani you would have an issue. 
Title: Re: Weird ATI problem with FSO?
Post by: QuantumDelta on April 20, 2010, 05:09:31 pm
I've ruled out overheating (*unless the temp sensor is gone) and load would probably kick off power drain in any of the other gpu intensive games I play as most of them pull full fannage on max everything...
Good suggestions though..

I should probably mention that, if there is a drop, it's probably only for a second if not less? The OS and any other tasks in the periphery are completely uneffected (..even video encoding x_X)
I'll check if there's any new OpenAL stuff available, though they'd have to have updated this month more or less.