Saturday, May 12, 2012. Patch Alpha – Report 2 + mini-fix
 

Hi everyone,

The testing has been a great success! We’re still catching up to all the logs and dumps we’ve received. We’re only up to Wednesday’s logs so far. We’ve identified and tentatively (pending further testing) fixed every bug found so far, except for one. Most importantly, one lucky log gave us exactly what we were looking for, and we got a crash at the precise moment we needed to have it happen.

The only bug we haven’t yet fixed has to do with the game crashing due to some external programs running in the background. We’re still investigating that one. It apparently may be connected to having flash videos loaded in a web browser while playing the game, and / or using voice chat. We’re not done investigating that one yet however, so we haven’t yet fixed it.

With that, we do have an update to the beta that should address the other crash bugs, and address some of the others like reduced quality cockpits. It’s a tiny .dll file that you need to put into your
(Program Files)\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\parts\core
Folder

Game version remains the same. When sending logs, dumps, screenshots, or any other info, please specify whether it’s pre- or post-fix.

Note: the game can also crash if you have the PowerStrip utility running in the background

Have a good weekend! We’re back on it Monday.

You are very very wellcome !

Cheers dude

Great stuff :)

Does the sender of the one lucky log win some kind of prize? :P

Thanks again for the info, will give this a spin when I've got a bit of time later this evening.

Thanks.

I am surprised that anyone has a video/flash running as it halves fps (on ati gpu anyway).

lets see

good rithim ... keep it up, !

EDIT

no more bad quality pits are gone... but we lost AA inside the pit. cockpits look jaggy again. they were soft at silk before

and it seems to me like stuttering is back.

goog news thanks a lot for your works:grin::grin:

Think hes on about a browser Flash Vid?

I dont know if this will be read by development team but it is worth pointing out that activating mumble overlay (voice communication system) caused instability for me, including a black screen. Might be worth looking into.

Now this is great! Steady stream of news, hotfixes etc!

Thanks a bunch!

BP

Thanks B6

Thanks BlackSix:)

Thanks for the hard work team!

Thank You! We will testing tonight :)

How about checking Track Ir as maybe one of the culprits as what's launcher crashing CLOD.

Thanks for the update!
Have a nice weekend!:grin:

Thanks TEAM! Mucho appreciated and testing out now.

Thanks for the update and the mini-fix!
After 5 minutes of testing, I can say that the low quality cockpits are gone for me. Great. :)

Great news. Thank you!

I have a question if possible. In the last update about BOM (second set of screenshots in the April 13th update), you posted few screenshots with different lighting than what is present in the recelnt version. Closer withe the original beautiful orange sun rise.

Is that kind of lighting part of the next patch, or was it used only for publicity purpose?

Thanks BlackSix. :)

Here is a report from Stirwenn reporting CTD with Desktop window manager enabled :

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=420962

I thought that regards Freetrack and stopped it - made no difference but 'Check for Widows Update fired up' and my game died - disabled it along with any other program with 'Check for updates' options, also disabled Steams pop up messages, Windows Desktop set to minimum resources, etc. No AV on my OS either - took it off and use my old XP partition for web browsing,

An update and a hotfix on a Saturday, great stuff!

:) AT LAST ,a positive working partnership between the developers and the consumers with hopefully a 2 way open channel for communications and work through s.
Well done everyone.:)

On a similar topic, when will we be getting the items that were turned off back on and the reflection effects?

(Or are they I haven't played the mini fixed alpha yet.)

Awesome sauce, thanks Blacksix for the update.

regarding other programs or processes,My normal procedure is to go into task manager and turn off stuff Im sure a lot of people here do that.And have never been on voice comms while playing Dover(yet).If there is a voice comms program in Dover as in Il2 then i agree it should be looked at because from my understanding "most" people turn that off in il2.I have not looked in Dover to see if there is one or if its on or not.Will have a look and see.

i see now i am a senile member ;o)

I recommend to clear your cache folder if having a problem with the mini

Don't expect people to turn off the rest of the computer when they play a game. I WILL NOT turn off or uninstall my AV for any game if I have enough computer power to run them both. Gaming is a small part of what a computer does and shouldn't dictate how the computer is used, or what aps run on it.

+1

the game crash for me every time and I didnt see any folder called cppdump

Hahah external programs. Who would have thought. Chat and Flash! Like the banner on 1C website?

Update Error
 

Hi All

Just dloaded dll and installed started CLOD, gone to quick mission and got this message.

Thanks to all involved in trying to solve this sims probs.

Regards

Enyaw

Did you clear your cache folder?

Did you enable logging in the config?

yep, the crash folfer is in the game core? or in my documents? i found this cppcrash but not this cppdump

There isn't Cppdump folder, I only have the cppcrash folder and the dmp files are wriiten into it. As far as I understood thats it.

Which quick mission? I will try it and see if its a common problem

Just flew a quick campaign sortie in Helmut Wick vs. J. C. Dundas and the new mini-patch works a treat! Got my beautiful cockpits back! I put the game into autopilot and had a really good look around from externals and back and forth to cockpit and flyby and its all looking really great with no crash. (this is with about 15-20 aircraft engaged in combat!)

System Ram sat at 6GB usage and GPU Ram at almost 2GB at 6048x1080.
At this res I still have to turn a couple things down to keep above 30FPS.
SSAO off - Grass off - landscape shading, trees and buildings on medium but it still looks gorgeous!

I especially noticed for the first time how smooth everything pans when looking from the F2 external camera, even in surround res @ 6048x1080!!! Feeling more like the ol' IL2 of yore! The clouds are still a problem but otherwise this is just amazing progress guys!

I have many crash on the aircraft setup screen (!), while I talking on the TS (I dictated my setup to my friend). Weird.

Still keeping fingers crossed....

Hi All
It was a steam prob, verified files again and game ran, just had a crash but no report to send, quick mission london attack.

If the testing is helping that much, perhaps this should be the way forward for all releases. Eg, the Moscow game could go as a Beta to a select few (pic some of those that have helped with previous Betas) before it goes on sale.

To the community:
This is the purpose of alpha and beta test patches. We crashed, we sent them logs, they are looking into them and fixing issues one by one. The more crash logs we send, the faster they will know exactly what to fix.

So let's get testing :grin:


To the developers:
First of all, thanks for the feedback and hotfix guys.
Second, please keep this up. There are a lot of people willing to help and since patches and updates come around the weekend, most of us have enough time to put in some test flights.

This process is much better both for you and for us: you get logs that help you find errors and we get more frequent updates.

I think i will have no problem at all if 2 months from now we are still beta testing one patch a week, but each patch is improving something. It's also easier for your programmers to focus on a small list of changes each week.

Then, when everything regarding performance is fixed, you can roll it all into one big patch and put it on Steam. ;)

If you verified your files, you rolled back again to version 1.05.15950 and you are not running 1.06.17852 + Hotfix!

Will test it, Thank You B6.

I just tested that quick mission with no problems (I always use that one anyway for performance measurements).

I have clouds disabled, SSAO and Shadows ON and Trees Off and played very smoothly.

thanks for the come through; time to shoot down some bugs

c:\start test phase

Great work Blacksix!! Its a pleasure to work your team this way!!! Thx alot!!!

That certainly sounds promising, I unfortunately do not have the time to devote to this testing phase, but am following it closely with eager eyes.

Thanks for the update!

After installing this latest mini fix I can say that flying at low altitude over small cities is quite nice now. I'm getting 60-90 fps and it feels smooth, no stutters. This is a big improvement from some older versions. No crashes yet, but haven't played many missions either.

Aye or at least three cheers from the community! ;)

Installed the the hot fix and flew 3 single player missions (2 hours) from the JG2 Wick vs. Dundas campaign 8-10 and had no CTD's at all.

Thank you for the update, this sort of interaction between the developers and community should continue. I, and I am sure many others, would love to help out any way we can.

Cheers guys, +1 1C

Congratulations MG team on optimizing the scenery! Shadows, lighting, buildings, trees, all set to max except building detail. Seems to be built for the GTX570 :D

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6..._02_52_575.jpg

The "see trough" throttle cable lead and canopy ejection cord still not fixed on 109`s:confused:!

better performance than the original alpha..

Wow I'm actually amazed they released this so fast!

Thanks :cool:

This.

Thanks B6!

It dose what it says on the tin for me. Had a little tussle to get it running and had to restart a few times before a bunch of blue screens and launcher.exes sorted themselves out but that has cleared and everything running great. Slightly better fps and even less of a dip when hitting bombers over London plus the cockpits look excellent and the lettering on the wings is legible again.

I noticed in task manager performance that the CPU is being greatly under used now at something over 50% and the memory at around 20%. So I guess it is my GPU that is keeping my FPS around 30 and rarely up to 60. I will wait to see the effect of the clouds being fully reinstated but I may have to get a better card or a Sli setup.

As things stand I am very pleased. Thanks guys.

Sweet :)

Great work 1C. Going to test now :D

Well done 1C, this is the service we hope for, please don't stop as you can see it boosts the positive feelings on the forums.

Weekly, monthly patches will be more than welcomed...cheers, MP

Flew on ATAG with a few aircraft changes (~1hr I think). No CTDs (cleared cache). Great so far!

So far no CTD both online and offline playing ab. 1 hour.

Still i got ocasionally stutters (micropauses).

But flying low level over cities is much better now - much more smooth with less noticable stuttering. Fps 40-60.

I got Q6600 + Ati 6870 + 4 Gb Ramm+ Win7 64 bit. Settings medium to high without shadows.

Right path...

With the particle performance problems solved, we'll have good gameplay!

Performance seems better. I tested it for a few flights and no CTD's occurred. I had several CTD's yesterday before the mini-fix.

I do still have clouds popping up which started after installing the alpha patch. I cleaned out the cache after installing the fix.

Also the hurricane is missing a mirror. The frame is there but no mirror.

Keep up the good work!

So nice to get an update so fast. Thanks a lot!

Let's keep the weekly builds coming until you release the final patch to steam :)

Played around 30', no stutter, max & average fps looks the same, but min is higher, with everything maxed out, Vsync ON and SSAO ON. Seems more fluid.

thx b6

There are mi fix impresion

Pre Fix:

London: 20m , 30fps 45fps
France 700m, 45 fps 60 fps

Post Fix:

London: 20m, 38 fps 45fps
France 700m, 52fps 60fps.

My seting are
I7 950 24Gb ddr 1600, velociraptor SA3 10000 rpm, Gtx570

GRAF DRV beta 301.24
FXAA: On
TRIPLE BUFER: ON
VSYNC:ON

In game

1920x1080
Full
model detail: High
buildings detail: low
landscape detail: high
Forest: low
visual efec: high
tex cuality: Original
AA, epilepsy, SSAO, VSYNC. Desac

Damage marcks: high
many buildings: high
terrain shadows: medium

grass: On
shadow:On
roads: On
roads

Thanks I'll give it a try.

Probably not the reason but if you had a flash video running in the background it halves your fps.

Who has video running while playing CLOD?

4 hours of constant flying with numerous contacts and fights - no crash as of yet. Performance like pre hotfix. Great work!Have to monitor it some more but my hope is big that the time of a shelved Clod are gone:)

Winger

Best part to me is the landscape and reflections. Now the transition of color off to the horizon looks normal instead of blocky. Just check out a big city. Huge improvement guys!

Here's some mornin screenies online:

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/7...2051200004.jpg

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/699...051200005t.jpg

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/3...2051200006.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5...2051200007.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/6...2051200008.jpg

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8...2051200009.jpg

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/8...2051200010.jpg

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2...2051200011.jpg

thx for the update ATAG bliss,
the new engine is a success, now they can at last slowly enable all the hidden wonders and fine tuning capabilities the game has, the work is paying off, the team must be delighted
it's gonna be insane

let's roll and release another alpha :cool:

Think im going to try a reinstall.

Anyone getting huge pauses?

I cleared out my cache already but when I flew the hurricane in the free flight over england i was getting 5-6 second pauses. Is this just the cache rebuilding itself maybe?

I do have work software running in the background so that could be the cause...can't switch it off right now.

Awsome stuff B6 and 1c crew, excellent to see things starting to iron out. :D Gonna get this fix right away and give it a crack :D

Its great to see the interaction between the community and you guys to get it sorted, this is how things should be, instead of rubbish arguments, i hope it stays like this :D :D

Btw, any information on who submitted the log?? :D that way we can give them a round of applause also :D :D

Yeah the guy who submitted the good crash dump should get a free copy of BOM ... if you lost his mail then let's make a lottery with all those who submitted a log ... some positive marketing doesn't hurt!

"The crash-dump lottery" lol...

somethig new on this patch:

you can now play at x16 without your game going down to 2 fps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjUgR...ature=youtu.be

same here

Downloaded, installed. Didn't clear cache, but flew 4 - 5 ATAG Spit missions without CTD at all, albeit without much dynamic traffic. Had a couple of offline games (lots of planes) - no CTD yet (although was getting regular ones with latest patch) - early days, but fingers crossed. Really impressed that team prepared to put out a fix on a Saturday, so close to patch; keep it up lads ;-)

Marx

Tested it out on a mission I had made with about 50 aircraft all low level over Dover , no crashes yet which is good. Now if only the stutters were gone then it would be running well. Averaging about 50 fps but the stutters kill it. I have all detail on high.

The patch fix working well here, no CTD's.

I did have micro stutters, looking at the buildings and trees flash by, when flying at treetop level over London. I was able remove the stutters by reducing settings from High to Medium. I found very little difference in visual quality by reducing the settings. Frame rates stayed at a constant 60fps with Vsinq ON.

I think he fact they are releasing Saturdays is that they are really onto something and know what to fix to get a result...

On ATAG for 5 hours with no CTD

Antivirus suites do practically nothing, just FYI. Any decent rootkit can install itself in master boot record and then force a BSOD, at which point your AV is now useless.

I haven't had any antivirus running in 4 years, and never had a problem yet. I just don't download random EXE's, and I don't run stupid microsoft programs like Outlook which are the security equivalent of swiss cheese.

Antivirus programs are just like the US's TSA: just there to make you feel better, but don't get anything accomplished.

No CTD's yet and smooth as silk. Thanks guys!

Yep.

Runs really well for me.

Beautiful work guys
 

Averaging 52 FPS in Black Death with all sliders maxed, 1900X1200, SSAO, AA and Vsynch OFF (I'm using the 301.24 Nvidia drivers with Nvidia FXAA, no jaggies and very light frame hit)
No crashes and smooth as Buttah!
Is it just me or do the sounds seem awesome all the sudden?

Nice improvement. Had the game crash on me once while loading a quick mission but smooth since. Haven't tried multiplayer yet but if it's at least as good as before the mini-fix I'll be happy.

Single player is definitly better, 50 fps on black death with SSAO and AA off is a big improvement.

Keep up this rate of improvement and contact!

Throw in some tanks/infantry and make this a better version of WWII online and I will throw money at you.

S!

As my TM Warthog is still on it's way I can test by running tracks etc. So decided to run the Black Death on 1920x1080 with everything maxed out except Building Detail at Medium, Epilepsy Filter Off.

First test with SSAO Off, VSync Off, AA Off. Otherwise as above.

Minimum: 6FPS (the bomb explosion scene with Hurricanes)
Maximum: 197FPS
Average: 80FPS

Second test with SSAO, VSync On and AA at 1x.

Minimum: 6FPS
Maximum 68FPS
Average: 57FPS

So in conclusion must say the patching is definitely going the right way :) Rig in signature and using Catalyst 12.4 WHQL + CAP 1.

no launcher crashes for me since the fix neither offline nor online.but i have to say, that i havent flown in formation with my squad mates since.but up until now, it looks good so far.
the textures are back, and thats very good.

what i have noticed though, like other already mentioned, is that sometimes i have huge freezes(screen completely stuck) for a few seconds, and then the game continues....i would suspect, that in these situations, the game normally used to crash.
i consider it still as a problem, cause when flying online, it can get pretty lethal to have this kind of freeze during a dogfight, but its still better than the crashes of course.
so after months of waiting, you guys deserve a thank you again....thank you.

If this happens online, turn OFF skin downloading in network settings. It causes long freezes.

If offline it can be a texture loading if you have texture setting on Maximum. Reduce it to high then or medium if you have 1GB vram.

Also make sure to add both Steam/Il-2 and Documents/IL-2 folders to 2 exclusion lists of your AV: 1)real time files monitoring and 2)network monitoring. Add Launcher.exe to exclusions too. Avast AV created stutters for me till I did this last year.

But you have to manage exclusion lists as described above. This is why exclusion lists are present in AVs. Real-time monitoring produces stutters.

I notice the same problem as you but i don't think the crashes are now replaced by stutters or huge freezes. Before the patch i had very little crash and yesterday night on atag a huge amout of freeze. Perhaps due to the number of player?:rolleyes:

Definitely smoother, but I'm not getting bullet damage except on the control surfaces. Anyone else getting this?

S!

Propably reported, but when playing track Hurricane vs. HE111 sounds is bugged. When Hurricane fires the guns engine sound cuts and comes back after firing again.