SpellForce Platinum: Error - illegal char AND/OR ACCESS_VIOLATION

[NeoX]

Hi,

Hi NeoX

Got an imediate answer from the game:
1) it just crashes right away after loading your savegame when I press the inventory button. When I don't do that, it seems to run fine (could move the troops back to my camp). Did you maybe pick up that item we are suspecting of being responsible?

I cleared the camp and picked up the key to the gate. Nothing else.

1a) I'm curious too if your game uses the savefiles like you uploaded it: meaning with _ instead of ~ after the character name?

Its out of my savegame folder exactly how you downloaded it here.
I uploaded an other savegame earyl one (see above) can you test that too please?

2) I could try with my old savegame to figure out what goblin it was, but I just remembered that one time it even was crashing with the first ghost in liannon. Maybe I have a better idea:

Does the game choose item drops when loading a creature (map start or spawn) or are they randomly picked by the game whenever a creature dies?

If the fist case was true, I could supply you with a save just directly before I engage that creature and you would know the item.

it should be pure RNG, but its something we should have an eye on.

3) System report with SMB attached as requested.

Thx will check it asap.

In a strange way this whole thing is still entertaining. Maybe it's the hidden detective in us? :)

Grüsse
fraphi

I hope we can find the source of the issue to assure this can be solved for future users.

Greetings: NeoX

[fraphi]

Yes, must be RNG.

Played with your "Story"-savegame: Nearly cleared the camp too this time, then came a "Messerstecher" - crash! I could see that he must have been the 3rd scout, as there still was the yellow map-ring that announces a scout having seen you when the game froze.

Well, I will check again tomorrow - and just to let you know again, I'm not really in a hurry :)

[NeoX]

Hi,

Yes, must be RNG.

Played with your "Story"-savegame: Nearly cleared the camp too this time, then came a "Messerstecher" - crash! I could see that he must have been the 3rd scout, as there still was the yellow map-ring that announces a scout having seen you when the game froze.

Well, I will check again tomorrow - and just to let you know again, I'm not really in a hurry :)

Alright i found something, but this is more a theory based on reports of other games with the same hardware as you reported to me.

Are you 100% sure you configured your nvidia graphics panel to use your GT 730M dedicated GPU (high performence) when running SpellForce and not nour Intel HD chip? The Crass-Engine of spellforce is not designed to work with virtual VRAM (shared memory). There is the theory of stack-overflow in the room (more used VRAM then available) that can also cause this issue.

Could you try connecting an external stand alone monitor to your notebook and use only that screen as the mains screen and try it then? that makes 100% sure the dedicated nvidia GPU is only used.

Your Eventlog looks very clean.

Greetings: NeoX

[fraphi]

Hey! Thanks for checking.

Kind of expected: but no, doesn't change a thing with external screen. And yes, I set system control to use only the gt 730m for Spellforce. Updated lenovo drivers for GPU as well (as NVIDIA control didn't show up on right click anymore - now it does again). Still the same error.
(And the other PC I was trying to run Spellforce with, does only have a dedicated GPU - so...)

It's definitly one wierd as hell thing.

[NeoX]

Hi,

Hey! Thanks for checking.

Kind of expected: but no, doesn't change a thing with external screen. And yes, I set system control to use only the gt 730m for Spellforce. Updated lenovo drivers for GPU as well (as NVIDIA control didn't show up on right click anymore - now it does again). Still the same error.
(And the other PC I was trying to run Spellforce with, does only have a dedicated GPU - so...)

It's definitly one wierd as hell thing.

Whats the hardware of the other system? Could you also give me a SMB System-Report of that one?

Greetings: NeoX

[fraphi]

Okay, something changed or I missed something.

When launching the game while Windows is still loading up stuff (after login) I get this message:
"Error! - No game window found"
Then the game loads normal but stays in (a missaligned) windowed mode.
I still get the error in game when pressing that Inventory-button but after I press "ignore" twice the game recovers.

I did some backtracking with GPUsettings because:

1) I accually didn't set the NVIDIA control panel setting to use gt730m only (or lost it when reinstalling drivers). Corrected that and still got the error.
2) The setting I mentioned earlier was in Windows systems settings: in "Display", "Grafikeinstellungen" I added "Hohe Leistung" for Spellforce.
3) With both deactivated it results in the same error. And if the game isn't in fullscreen I can press "ignore" twice and the game recovers as well.

Systems report of the desktop attached. Didn't find any reference to Spellforce Platinum though.

[NeoX]

hi,

Okay, something changed or I missed something.

When launching the game while Windows is still loading up stuff (after login) I get this message:
"Error! - No game window found"
Then the game loads normal but stays in (a missaligned) windowed mode.
I still get the error in game when pressing that Inventory-button but after I press "ignore" twice the game recovers.

I did some backtracking with GPUsettings because:

1) I accually didn't set the NVIDIA control panel setting to use gt730m only (or lost it when reinstalling drivers). Corrected that and still got the error.
2) The setting I mentioned earlier was in Windows systems settings: in "Display", "Grafikeinstellungen" I added "Hohe Leistung" for Spellforce.
3) With both deactivated it results in the same error. And if the game isn't in fullscreen I can press "ignore" twice and the game recovers as well.

Systems report of the desktop attached. Didn't find any reference to Spellforce Platinum though.

"Error! - No game window found" happens if the game takes too long to start up and the HR-Mod fails to inject itself completely. Just restarting the game normaly fixes it, but its something i aim to patch with the next update of the mod.

Back to the main topic: I found something in common!
1. Your Desktop system has a lot of Crashes for Fallout 3, but thats a bethesda game, so yeah i think thats normal for it :-P
2. I could sort of recreate it with your nvidia driver version and even found similar reports online!

Please try the following:

1. Just stop the windows service "NVIDIA Display Container LS".
2. Try to intall the driver version 457.51 for your nvidia GPU. I found that this is the last version where no issues had been reported for this game.

I would laugh so hard if all these issues are caused by the nviodia drivers.

Greetings: NeoX

[fraphi]

Bethesda... yes, it's not surprising at all.

I think, I've seen the info about the driver (think it was on moddb.com). Even think, I tried that on my desktop.

Will give it a try on the desktop. But there i didn't install your mod (yet...). So, I will do those two suggestions first without your mod. After this, I will have to take a break with troubleshooting. Will continue next weekend for sure.

I will write my findings asap.

[NeoX]

hi,

Bethesda... yes, it's not surprising at all.

I think, I've seen the info about the driver (think it was on moddb.com). Even think, I tried that on my desktop.

Will give it a try on the desktop. But there i didn't install your mod (yet...). So, I will do those two suggestions first without your mod. After this, I will have to take a break with troubleshooting. Will continue next weekend for sure.

I will write my findings asap.

np, let me know when you have new results.

Greetings: NeoX

[fraphi]

Hi NeoX

Ah, I would love to laugh hard if it was Nvidia!

Yes, I encountered the "Error! - No game window found" before and did exactly as you wrote: exit in main menu and restarted the application - error gone :) - and didn't worry me at all.

Now: no luck on my desktop (it's still running SpellForce with the last GOG-Support changes including the widescreen fixed exe). Used my old save.
Nvidia driver 457.51 (international) and stopping Nvidia Display Container LS didn't do anything.

For the laptop I didn't find any newer drivers than Version 25.21.14.2591 (from 2019) (info: dxdiag) -> think that's Version 425.31
-> stopping Nvidia Display Container LS didn't do anything as well.

Should we maybe continue to try something like: german iso + HRmod + windowed mode + just press that "ignore" button and continue playing like that?

I could check, if it is accually possible to continue playing.

It would be the first playable state of the game and if I could find a solution where the resolution would more or less fit the screen (now it cuts off pieces at the bottom and to the right), I think I could live with that.

Greetings
fraphi