Random CTDs

[Slappy Da Clown]

Ok

I may have just had an epiphany or maybe it was a stroke. Anyway, Twice now I have noticed the CTD cycle to got like the following.

Map plays well, then I save it & quit. Load game later, a series of ctds ( 2 or 3 maybe even 4 in a row ) at the end of an auction for a patent. The last cts will have a newspaper article event IMEDIATELY after the auction finishes. Then the game will play through to the finish.

Question 1
Are Patent Auctions random events ?

Question 2
Is it possible that the series of ctds is being caused because 2 events are occuring too close together ?

just some random clown thoughts

[snoopy55]

1) yes, auctions are random events.

2) I've had 2,3 or more right in a row. If you leave all your newspaper notices and announcements on, you'll get alot. 'I think' every item you see in the upper left of your screen comes up as a newspaper or some type of announcement.

[CeeBee51]

ArizonaV2. I had been having CTD's the last couple of days at approximately the same time..... around 1890-93 somewhere, not sure because until this thread got started I wasn't paying all that close attention. This time it happened once again and just as the screen was going black I heard the auctioneers gavel signalling the end for the cheaper tunnels bid.I never bid on it and I'm playing with no AI if that means anything.

[K-class]

Snoopy55 is there any logs that this game has that shows errors or any program that can capture what's going on.

Have a look at this - tells you what you may already know but my PC is well within specs. (Hopefully a trusted site.)

see http://www.canyourunit.com/ and run Sid Meier's Railroads!

I am going to keep looking at what is running on my machine as my system said errors with w32time and urlmap.exe at round about the same times as these two my major crashes playing the Alaska map - may be related may not be but I have removed these two issues.

If you read over at Civilization Fanatics' Forums CTD's and game crashes are talked about a lot.

Really need a way of capturing what's is happening in a error log.

[gforce]

i always stated out to create a local events file for each usermap,
but then again, it wasn't really always that logic as i hoped, i've got for example an events file that will never get your map crashed, the events listed overthere doesn't have either any logic but it don't crash...
now, sometime later i believe it is really necessary that you've got a RRT_Events.xml file in the custom assets dir! (or in the local map)
maybe most of you are having this file already in the custom assets dir but in logic terms there wasn't any reason for.
but hé, it can't hurt to try it!
let me and others know if it helped!

ps: i have those newspaper alerts off

[snoopy55]

K-class - My system passed with flying colors, in this case, green. The first test failed to even read my system, but then re-reading the instructions I realized I was trying to do it in Google......

Now, research on w32time and urlmap.exe on the internet will show you that both of these have to do with internet. I had no reason to enable internet playing, so I don't have these errors. I can safely say that 99% of the CTD I get are either map programming mistakes or maxed out CPU. Alot of people keep wanting to add more memory. Ctrl-Alt_Del will tell you if you need more memory. (ya, i've said this before....) click on the processes tab. Just above it, click on View, Select Columns. I have CPU Usage, CPU Time, Memory Usage, peak Memory Usage and VM Size (Virtual Memory). This will tell you if memory is your problem. I have yet to use 1 Gb while playing this game(Peak Mem Usage). I don't have the numbers in front of me anymore(I do clean this room now and then.....I think.....)but even including Virtual Memory, I stayed below 1.5 Gb. And I like to play against 3 AIs. I could say a 9.1Gb 10K RPM drive used only for Virtual would be great. Do some research on virtual memory on the web.

basicly, see what your system is doing. if possible, set 2 screens going and have the Windows Task Manager will let you know how things are going.

[Slappy Da Clown]

Well

Call the clown an idiot. I never thought about turning off the event alerts. Gonna try it like that & see what happens.

Would the error report from the windows event viewer be of any help does anyone think ?


Side to Side with containers dont CTD it just freezes any ideas there ?

The following is a list of maps I have on my machein that work without crashing.
America V1
Basin & Range Demo
Chicago to the Rockies
Europa
Islands
Santa
Side to Side 1.d
Super Bowl Express
Austrailia
BC Gold
Italia
NE UK Hard
NE UK Easy
Scrooge
Styx
AZ Canyon V2_2.0a ( with the mail car fix also )
New England
Sids Place
Eastern Ontario
River Run NW
Money
Demo
Spain
New England
Manchester to Liverpool
Maritimes Canada
Alaska
Russia
Florida
Hill Valley Steaks
Southern Ontario
Wisconsin
All were installed with the installers


Here is a list of maps on my machine the keep crashing ( I am still trying to determine why ).

Sida to Side DSC 1.0
Central Andes (retirement screen)
Flaglers Florida (random)
Mideast
PA Coal (random)




I will add to this list as time permits

[CeeBee51]

I keep getting crashes in the Arizona map around 1892. The last few times there has been nothing going on that I can tell.... no auctions, no events just trains running. Not even building track or anything.

[karsten]

Hi CeeBee, have you tried placing the Arizona folder into the UserMaps folder? A number of people have reported that they fixed their crash problems that way.

[CeeBee51]

yeah, thats where it is and thats where it's crashing. Was doing the same in the scenerio folder as well so I guess the location isn't the problem with this one.

[snoopy55]

Side to Side with containers dont CTD it just freezes any ideas there ?

When does this freezing take place?

[CeeBee51]

1891-1892... pretty much around the same time. Sometimes an auction is running, sometimes not. One time a train was unloading because I could hear the coins just as the screen went black. I hadn't played this map in a awhile till this last week. Before when I played it I had some crashes but usually could continue from the last save. Now it just keeps crashing after the save or if I start a new game. Doesn't seem to matter and it's been pretty much in the same time frame. If too many more maps start doing this I'll do an unistall-reinstall and see if that helps.

[choobacca]

Something I have noticed with the random events and patent auctions is that right before they pop up, I see solid hard-drive activity for a second. Windows is trying to pull files from my swap file since they were probably moved out of RAM because they haven't been accessed in a while.
I don't have newspaper popups enabled, but when an event occurs, it still runs the event and displays the icon and event text in the upper-left corner of the screen.

There is a log you can look at if you enable Logging in your settings.ini file. "Logging = 1".
Then you will see files in your "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\Logs" directory. If it were an event that caused a CTD, the last line in the file will be a RandomEvent line.

[K-class]

Thanks choobacca

Thats what I was looking for.

There is a log you can look at if you enable Logging in your settings.ini file. "Logging = 1".

Then you will see files in your "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\Logs" directory. If it were an event that caused a CTD, the last line in the file will be a RandomEvent line.

Have enabled and well see what happens.

[Slappy Da Clown]

Got that enabled now. We will see if its not some help.


If Arizona is V2-2.0a you need to put in the mail fix from the map thread. We just got it on today thanx to the smart guys.