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HiddenMissive
HiddenMissive
Join Date 12/2014
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Game constantly freezes

December 28, 2014 5:10:58 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I'm brand new to the game, and I really love it so far.  One problem, the game freezes on me several times a session.  All of my drivers of up to date, and I've tried turning the planet and ship detail down to medium.  It still freezes.  It seems to happen consistently when scrolling down closer to the planets.  Not every time, of course, but enough to be extremely annoying.  I'm playing on a brand new computer, with 20 gigs of RAM, so the fact that I'm playing on Huge Maps ( I wouldn't think ) should be an issue.

Is this a known issue?  And if so, what's the workaround?  

Thank you in advance!

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slowreflex
Join Date 01/2013
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Reply #1 December 28, 2014 5:28:08 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Does it just freeze or does it slow down gradually and then freeze?  Have you looked at your CPU utilization?

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HiddenMissive
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Reply #2 December 28, 2014 5:46:06 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

It freezes completely, to the point where my only recourse is to reboot the computer.  I haven't looked at the CPU utilization.  I will next time, as I'm sure it will be soon.  (frozen three times in the last half hour)

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Reply #3 December 28, 2014 6:13:04 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

(Just froze again) Looks like my CPU usage is hovering between 30% and 35%, with 25-30% of that coming from Sins.  Hope that helps.

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Ryat
Join Date 06/2006
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Reply #4 December 28, 2014 7:03:07 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

The problem (sadly) is well known. Sins is limited by its 32-bit architecture and single core operation. The engine was built in 2006 (released 2008) by an indie company so they couldn't exactly get the best that was offered at the time. Therefore the game is only using one core (some is using a second but its minimal) and on huge maps it can start to chug and slow down to the point of freezing. There is no work around short of overclocking the CPU.

When Ironclad attempts to make Sins 2 (we hope and pray) they should have access to much better tech to build a new engine that will remove this problem.

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harpo99999
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #5 December 28, 2014 7:06:07 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

sounds like it is hitting the FULL use of thread on a quad core or dual core with hyperthreading, unfortunately, sins is effectively a singlethreaded game and it has already been thrashed to death about the possiblility of re-writing the game engine to multi-theading (result is that it will not happen before sins 2(if sins 2 happens)).

harpo the NON-subscriber

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Reply #6 January 1, 2015 12:59:12 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thank you all for your responses.  I was ready to write it off as an inherent issue with a 32-bit program. However, here is the latest chapter in my bizarre little issue.

 

I gifted the game to my brother via Steam because I figured he would enjoy it, as well.  I told him to turn the detail down to Medium on the planets and ships, just to help avoid any freezes.  I tried hosting a game for the two of us vs the AI.  The game repeatedly froze, to the point that it was unplayable.  Not my brother's comp, mind you, mine.  We decided to see what would happen if my brother hosted a game.  He set one up in the exact same map with the exact same settings.  I didn't have an issue for the full five hours that we played.

Weird, right?  So it's obviously on my end.  A driver, perhaps?  I updated the graphics drivers when I got the computer, which is new as of a few weeks ago.  What else can I try? My processor is an AMD A10-7850K Radeon R7, 3.7 GHz, with 20 gigs of RAM.  My graphics card is an AMD Radeon R9 260

Thank you in advance for any response

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psychoak
Join Date 07/2007
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Reply #7 January 1, 2015 4:13:52 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Unfortunately, your nice 12 core processor is being severely wasted on Sins, but 3.7ghz should be more than enough to avoid what you're running into.  It is not a memory issue, that leads to a dump, not a hard freeze requiring a reboot.

 

That it freezes when you zoom in implies it's a problem with your graphics setup, something is hosing pretty majorly when textures are being utilized by your graphics card.  You still shouldn't have to reboot, it's just locking up your graphics driver so you can't see task manager come up, window mode should solve this.

 

I'd do a graphics driver update, check directx while you're at it, and then play in window mode until you've fixed the problem.  An R9 260 shouldn't even be worked running Sins, so it's probably just a bad driver and not a bad card that flips out when it gets taxed.  The other possibility is that Sins is actually being run on your Kaveri instead of your R9.  Possibly both, I'm not familiar enough with the setup.  Either situation could result in performance issues though.

 

You can also try disabling auto-record and auto-save as well, should they be enabled.

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Reply #8 January 2, 2015 12:33:03 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thank you for the response.  I re-downloaded all the drivers and switched  to windowed mode and had no issues.  I'll try normal mode again at some point, but I'm having too much just playing the game without crashes to bother.  Thank you all for the help.

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