New Test Build 1.6a

from GalCiv2 Forums

We had hoped that the memory leaks that we fixed in the 1.6 betas were the cause of the out of memory bug, but it turned out that we hadn't found all of them yet.   So sorry for the delay, but we think that we have squashed the last and worst of the leaks. 

We've also fixed a crash when you have the background stars (or point sprites) turned off. Thanks to the people who sent in their files so that we could reproduce the problem.

I'm posting this as a test build first so that you can try this out before we put it up on Stardock Central.

http://sd.stardock.com/carielf/da_1_6a.zip

 

10,594 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
sweet. i noticed the memory leak; glad you're on the ball!
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
WOW. It is going ludicrous speed now. It follows each of my ships movement and darts around the map so fast I don't even now what the heck I'm looking at and suddenly it's my turn again! I am playing on a huge map with max amount of civs.
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Would you recommend to start an all-abundant game on a huge map using this build? I got 2GB physical RAM.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How do you install this patch?

Download the linked file and extract it to your main DA folder, I'd say. Don't forget to keep a backup though.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You've done it! Havent had a single crash and everything is really smooth. Great job.   

ps - maybe you can mention this is a separate post in GalCiv section so that all those who may not check DA section separately will go ahead with this. Even if its a beta.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I put one in the bug reports section as well.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tried the new beta. My framerates were about the same. Maybe this version
is solving memory leaks, but my response is quite slower on the bera than the main 1.6. Saves are slower, button operations (like the colony button) is slower.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It usually takes some time to process ship movements because I have speed 25+ ships running around. Is there an option that allows ships to move instantly like the AI ships? I actually have to avoid building many ships to meet up at a location because of this.

I would like to report that the 1.6a patch seems to result in a crash right after the autosave on a new turn (I am autosaving each turn, so it's something that occurs right after autosave but before I get control, such as in the new turn's events). There is nothing revealing/interesting in the logs, but it occurs after playing for at least 30 minutes (huge map, many AIs naturally). Also, when buying buildings or queuing many buildings on many colonies, the program may hang but not crash occassionaly.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well I had the same crash with this new fix, eventually. I was playing on a Huge map with max civs. It still going fast and then when it tries to auto save I get the exact same memory crash message as before this fix. I have sent the debug file and the previous autosave file to the gc2 bug email. I'm wondering if it could be the models I'm using. I'll get rid of the custom models I downloaded and try again.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hey just wanted to chim in and say that this 1.6 is working great and is a MAJOR improvment in speed ....thanks Star Dock Team
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Those who are having crashes still, please post your debugs and SE logs as applicable.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sadly, the new 1.6a version has turned out worse than the original for me. After trying to save (and getting the ever popular "Out of memory") I restarted the game only to find ALL of the saved versions of a game I've been playing for four days gone completely!
Sorry if this is obvious, but what are the SE logs and where do I find them?
I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I am running Vista x64. It seemed to me that the 2 GB memory issue shouldn't even show up on a 64-bit OS, but I'm a UNIX person and don't know how Windows handles memory ops in 64-bit.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry if this is obvious, but what are the SE logs and where do I find them?


SE stands for Smart Exception. it's an applet that helps SD figure better figure out what's going wrong with its products. you can download it through SDC in the 'free stuff' section.

as for where to send the reports, i know there's an email address, i just can't remember it.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

gkaras, that shouldn't be possible that it would have deleted all of your save games unless you tried saving over all of them when you got the out of memory bug.  Or did you only autosave? Did you check your Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder to see if the files were actually there?

SmartException reports should be sent to [email protected]

 

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
perfect, couldn't remember if there was a separate one for DA. damn, i never did send a current bug report on these strange graphical errors.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So, near as I can tell, how I lost all of my saved versions is partly the beta fix not working on my system and partly (OK, mostly ) my own fault. I did a quick save, which failed. When I went back into the game I didn't notice that the previous quick save was gone, since the last attempt failed. Then the game did an auto save, which also failed, wiping out the last auto saved game. Then I did ANOTHER save, but accidentally hit the "Save/Load" instead of quick save. That ALSO failed, but wiped out the only existing saved version, which was the previous auto save. Voila! A perfect storm of stupidity!