Having as many mini-dumps as sync errors..are they caused by same problem?

from Sins Forums

OK , we(me and my brother) can not stop playing regardless of sync errors  :) ....but it seems that we get just as many mini-dumps.  To avoid this as much as possible we can only play small maps...bout 25 planets max...1-2 ai enemies, that way we sometimes get close to finishing a game before sync loss or mini-dump....however, if it is sync loss and we are close to finishing , we just go ahead and complete the game, other wise we are forced to exit SoaSE and restart a  new game ..on the other hand if it mini-dumps we can sometimes just reload the last save and once in a while that allows us to finish the game.  

I am wondering if the mini-dumps are related to the sync error bug that was found?  Or when the 25th rolls round with hopefully the fix for the current sync error, will the rampant mini-dump still be rearing its ugly head?

Anyone else having constant mini-dumps?  I have not had any problem playing single player however, my brother told me he has mini- dumps when ever he plays large maps with many planets .. for ex, 70 or more.  I have not seen this but was just wondering how far reaching this problem is...... anyone else?

Cvon

 

3,032 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I would guess that minidumps on large maps are due to running out of memory. Entrenchment is still not quite finished on optimizations. Hopefully that will be resolved by the 25th :)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I too ran into the bizarre problem of sync bugs playing with my brother a couple of months ago over the break. It was bizarre, as though we were in some ways still in the same game, it was like we were playing out 'alternate universe' histories of what happened. Could have been interesting as a feature of some 'quantum probability' feuture -- but as it was in actual fact an irritating bug that had no off buttom and seemed to happen every game it really ruins the multiplayer experience.

I hadn't wrote on this yet because I had figured they would have gotten around to fixing it in one of the patches since December -- apparently not (I haven't been able to test this for months now, being too far away to coordinate a long-term game -- and aren't all sins games long-term games?).

If you could send the dev's some saved games (I sure don't have any at this point), I am sure it would be useful to them for solving the problem (maybe even sending both your save and your brother's?).

Hopefully this problem will be resolved shortly. Just one quick question though: I experienced this playing over a LAN, as i assume that Valkajin did.. have any of yee online players had the same problem?

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

For sync issues, save games won't do it. You'll have to send them checksum logs from your desynched games.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Mini dumps are just crashes, I think the name Mini dump is the name of the action the program does to dump log information to a file.

Anyways it is possible that 2 clients de-synchronizing could cause a crash, like client A telling client B that he has just moved some ship from A to B and then client B says "there is no ship, oh shit, Mini dump!".  I think though, like Annatar says, these Mini dumps are memory issues.

I managed to reduce my crashes to only really big games that go on a long time by reducing the graphics quality to High rather than Highest.  It will depend on your system but I think that you guys should try reducing graphics quality 1 or 2 notches and see how you get on.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

A "minidump" is actually the file that gets created when Sins crashes. The crash is the real problem. :) A lot of the crashes right now are just memory issues that optimization should clean up. In the mean time, turning down the graphics settings reduces the frequency of them.

Sync problems are caused by the two computers playing the game both trying to make the same decision, but coming up with a different result. There's a great dev journal that explains what can cause those bugs.

 

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/339031

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Actually we have never played Entrenchment over LAN. All of our games have been played through Ironclad over the internet.  So when you say to turn down the graphics from highest to high , is that the single settings where it says ship detail and such?  Because if this allows us just another hour to play during  a game  we would finish many more games!

Cvon

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Yes it is.

I believe it's under a section called Effects, I may be wrong though.  It has little images showing pixelated planets, ships etc that change as you select the setting.