Stalker SoC Crashing Issues

[chaosshade]

I recently introduced a friend (well someone I know anyway) to SoC and he's having trouble getting it to do... well... anything really. It started up and ran once but after dying several times on the carpark mission (because he's used to FPS's that baby you, like Halo and Crysis) he got frustrated and quit. The next day, he went and tried to start it, but it wouldn't. It ran the prefectching phase but crashed during the synchronizing phase. I told him to put in the -noprefetch switch (because you really should anyway) and he did, but it started a new behavior. It blank screened, then froze, resulting in a CTD.

This is the error it's generating:
[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : SGameMtlPair::Load
[error]File : D:\xray-svn\xr_3da\xrGameGameMtlLib_Engine.cpp
[error]Line : 78
[error]Description : fs.find_chunk(GAMEMTLPAIR_CHUNK_STEP)

I looked on the ZRP site because it's a very good resource for error finding, but it didn't help, it wasn't even under the rare crashes section. At this point I'm kinda stuck. I'm reluctant to give him the URL for the site because... well... he's a completely inept fool that would just annoy the living crap out of everyone.

His comp's specs:
Windows Ver: Win7 x64
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66ghz
RAM: 8gb of DDR2
GFX Card: 1gb nVidia 9400GT
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45T-UD3R
HDD: Seagate 500gb

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

A non-prefetch switch? How does one do such a thing? Does it make a noticeable difference in performance/loadtimes?

[chaosshade]

You go to your SoC shortcut and go into the properties then to the end of the target line and type: -noprefetch It DRAMTICALLY reduces the load times and helps cut down the memory use (essential for memory-hungry mods like ObLost and SMP)

so your target line would be: "blahblah\blahblah\blah" -noprefetch

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

Would that work with the Steam version?

[natvac]

[error]Expression : assertion failed
[error]Function : SGameMtlPair::Load
[error]File : D:\xray-svn\xr_3da\xrGameGameMtlLib_Engine.cpp
[error]Line : 78
[error]Description : fs.find_chunk(GAMEMTLPAIR_CHUNK_STEP)

That's not on the list because I've not seen it before. I don't know what the xrGameGameMtlLib_Engine module does. Maybe it is trying to read the materials used by the game.

The fs.find_chunk(GAMEMTLPAIR_CHUNK_STEP) is a standard low-level FileSystem function for finding sections inside data files used by STALKER. The game is failing to find a needed resource part.

My guess is that he has a corrupt installation. Since the error is mentioning D:\xray-svn\, that implies either an unpatched retail 1.0 version of the game (likely) or patch 1.0001. (This is on the ZRP site in the "Anatomy of a Typical Error Report" table.)

Since this has to be a DVD copy of the game: He might have a faulty DVD drive or a bad DVD or a problem with his computer, like bad memory. This means a re-installation is needed.

Also, he should not be playing without patching to at least version 1.0001 or 1.0003 (1.0003 is the first patch that is Large Address Aware, useful for 64-bit OSes), and for future compatibility, make it 1.0004 or 1.0005 (although that could be potentially problematic on a quad-core processor with delayed spawns). Patches greater than 10MB in size are cumulative. Tell him to get the patch compatible with his version of the game: NA (North America), WW (world-wide), or Eastern Europe/Russian.

That means his saves are lost, but it doesn't sound like he's progressed that far into the game. The ZRP permits the effective recreation of one's saves, so it is not that big of a loss.

And yes, he should definitely use the "-noprefetch" switch.

==========

For completeness: If anyone gets their game from Steam, he/she can validate the game cache by right-clicking the game's entry in the Steam Launcher and perusing the pop-up menu option for doing that. If this is necessary, one should back up his/her game saves if they are stored under the Steam _appdata_ subdirectory in Program Files.

To check that, open fsgame.ltx and examine the first line, the $app_data_root$ assignment. One can change this after a re-validation to point elsewhere, like C:\|Users\Public\Documents\STALKER-SHOC\ (Vista/Windows 7) to preserve one's saves.

The Steam install is very archaic and assumes an XP installation, I seem to recall.

Would that work with the Steam version?

Edit: I'm too slow for this online stuff! Yes, Zeno, the "-noprefetch" option will work with SoC, but you need to either add it to the launcher's command line options or create a separate shortcut to launch STALKER.

Thanks for the indirect compliment, chaosshade.

[chaosshade]

Well, we managed to fix one problem with the game, but another crash turned up.

Fixed:
-1.0000 version to 1.0005 version
-DVD to NoDVD fix

Another crash turned up, but he restarted the game (hence disabling his IM) before I could see the error that was generated. It was something in the cordon, that's all I know for sure.

[Carnageman]

does the -noprefetch switch work for CoP as well?

[Kobura]

From what I've observed it seems to have that set by default. When I played SoC I used to have a ginorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmous freeze right outside the hangar in the Garbage, when I was travelling to or from north/south. It was so bad I used to hit the pause button and go get a sandwich. Sometimes use the bathroom. Occasionally I'd take a walk around the neighborhood too, and it'd still be frozen. It always unfroze eventually, but after setting noprefetch it didn't do that anymore. The pause command took effect after the freeze, and the game sat waiting for me to return (on the odd occasions it finished what it was doing before I did)

Since CoP hasn't done it for me anywhere this is the basis of my presumption. Now strike me down with holy haillfyre.

[jeniskunk]

Mar 20, 2010 5:28:39 GMT -5 Kobura said:

Now strike me down with holy haillfyre.

We don't, yet, have that in the Zone.
But we do have a dozen or so Monolith Exosuited troops each with an RPG-7 and 50 rounds of PG-7VL.

Jenifur Charne

[chaosshade]

Mar 20, 2010 5:28:39 GMT -5 Kobura said:

From what I've observed it seems to have that set by default. When I played SoC I used to have a ginorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmous freeze right outside the hangar in the Garbage, when I was travelling to or from north/south. It was so bad I used to hit the pause button and go get a sandwich. Sometimes use the bathroom. Occasionally I'd take a walk around the neighborhood too, and it'd still be frozen. It always unfroze eventually, but after setting noprefetch it didn't do that anymore. The pause command took effect after the freeze, and the game sat waiting for me to return (on the odd occasions it finished what it was doing before I did)

Since CoP hasn't done it for me anywhere this is the basis of my presumption. Now strike me down with holy haillfyre.

That "freeze" you were experiencing was the NPCs being switched to online mode. It's especially common with Agroprom (first visit,) Rostok, AW, and Pripyat. Look at my topic for optimizing gameplay (it applies for ALL versions of Stalker) to see if you can fix it.

[Carnageman]

So, does adding the switch to CoP matter or not then?

[chaosshade]

Mar 20, 2010 11:30:58 GMT -5 Carnageman said:

So, does adding the switch to CoP matter or not then?

The -noprefetch switch is possibly the single most important gameplay fix for the Stalker series, Carn. I can attest 100% that it makes a difference. You SHOULD be using it on all Stalker games.

[Carnageman]

K then. And what does it do, exactly?

[chaosshade]

It disables the prefetching stage of loading, freeing up memory and resources, giving overall smoother gameplay.

[Carnageman]

Yes, but what is the prefetching stage?