LOMAC lock up, Stability issue, Moderator pls forward to ru

[Rodwil100]

Reading the posts, I see that a lot of us are having the same kind of problem . . . namely, Lockon locks up. I see various, specific scenarios described, but all in all, the lock ups seem to be happening during campaign mission loads or mid-campaign during a mission or during a single missions . . . or pretty much anywhere, anytime the program is running.

 

I see posts that suggest this is WIN XP SP2 related and this has been solved in the Flaming Cliffs add-on. Has LOMAC addressed problem in our forum? Will this be patched for the existing customers?

 

Interestingly, I don't see the forum overrun with reports of this problem. Clearly it's not wide spread.. It seems a lot of us are running the game without problem. If this is a hardware issue, it would be helpful for LOMAC to provide us with a hardware MEL (Minimum Equipment List).

 

However, if this really is a hardware issue, it seems very strange that running at mid settings, Half life 2, Doom 3, UT 2004, Farcry, Call of Duty, MSFS 2002 and 2004 and Falcon-4-all-modded-up have never locked up. To call these graphically demanding games is a huge understatement. These are the most graphically intense games currently available for us normal folks. However running at low settings, LOMAC lockups every time. What could it be?

 

Hardware? I have an Abit IS7 MB (current bios), a 3.2 P4HS/800 FSB processor with 2 matched Corsair XMS PC 3200 512meg sticks-o'-ram running in duel channel mode, a WD 250 gig EIDE HD @ 7200 rpm (caviar 8 meg-o’-ram version) and a 350 watt Enermax PS. Saitek X45 sticks. There's nothing hot dog about this system. Just stable, solid components.

 

Video is a Ti4200. (66.93 driver) Clearly, this is the lightest part. With the other games, frame rates will drop when the action gets too intense, but they never freeze the system. LOMAC always requires at least a CTR-ALT_DEL program shutdown to recover from a LOMAC program freeze. Sometime I will pause the game to answer the phone and come back and the game has shut itself down. Sometimes the mouse and keyboard are completely dead and it's necessary to pull the plug on the box and reboot the system. Interestingly, after a power-down reboot, LOMAC will allow a mission to load that it had previously refused. What's up with this?

 

Anyone remember Windows 95. I know, we are all trying to forget! We had QEMM ram memory managers and all kinds of junk to keep our ram allocations under control. This really feels like the same kind of problems. In the old days, programs would try to load memory into ram locations already in use and programs would freeze . . .or they would not properly unload memory after a process shutdown and try to reload the next process into the same memory location . . . another freeze, and the drama would continue.

 

Farcry (and all the others) load and unload memory like crazy and run just fine. Those jungle sequences are absolutely thick with graphic content. My system is "flat out". In Farcry, sometimes I can hear the hard drive just crankin' during game play. Frames rate may slow a bit . . . but is does not freeze . . . and I've never had to cold boot to get the next level. That would be rediculous! But when ever I hear the hard drive go off during LOMAC game play, I hold my breath, then whisper a quiet "Come on, baby. Stay with me". After a cold boot, LOMAC works better, at least for a bit . . . until memory gets loaded up again???? I wish I knew! . . . but my best guess is this is a memory management issue that has to be addressed with programming changes within the LOMAC program.

 

This really feels like the LOMAC "engine" has a memory management problem. XP (SP2 or not) is an adequite platform to run an intensively graphical program.

 

LOMAC needs to address this stability issue for this version of their game. If it's fixed in Flaming Cliffs, we would really appreciate a patch for our game, released now . . . and entirely separate from the "pay-for" Flaming Cliffs add-on. This is a game crippling issue for many customers.

 

If you are having problems, speak up. The developers need to know. This is the best way for the LOMAC team to find out how they can help their customers. It’s a good thing . . . and LOMAC’s the greatest military flight sim yet created . . . by an amazing and dedicated developement team.

[BIOLOG]

Hmm, to be honest, it's the first time I hear about it. However, SP2 causes problems with A LOT of things, and I really don't recommend running LOMAC with it installed. Also problems you described with mouse/keyboard remind me of problems that I had when my windows was installed incorrectly. I fixed them by formatting harddrive and reinstalling... Anyway, do you recon you can run LOMAC on SP1 normally?

[Cherokee]

Ok, I'll speak up. Yes, I have some of the same problems you have described, especially dealing with the memory issue. Currently, I fly one mission and then reboot the system. I can play 2 or sometimes more tracks depending on how long they are but always, before I start a meaningful mission I always do so with a reboot. Example: Started mission 3 of the F-15 campaign and flew for about 7 minutes, got killed so thought well that's not too long I'll just start again without reboot. Flew the mission completed it and as I am comming in on final about 1000 ft. from the threshhold......hardlock. Of course the mission isn't saved and now I'll have to do it over. Here is another reason I feel that memory managment is an issue. I also play the il2 series. Now for me and most others this series has been extremely stable. It never crashes on me. Well if I exit out of LOMAC and don't reboot, the Il2 games seem to have problems, which include but are not limited to hardlocks. And the weird thing is that it doesn't matter how long windows sets idle between games, it's like it does not release the used memory until the system restarts. I love the sim and will continue to support/play it. But I must admit, I have found myself recently gravitating toward other flight sims, and will wait before buying the patch/addon with cautious optimism. Now one bit of maybe good new. I saw a thread somewhere on here from a beta tester who stated that he does not remember 1.1 ever crashing on him, but that 1.02 used to crash repeatedly. Let's all hope together. This sim is too good to watch it stagnate. Just my thoughts.

[BIOLOG]

Well, 1.1 doesn't crash for me... BUT I'm not running SP2...

Also it does crash during some extreme tests which I had to conduct (playing large-number AI missions with <100 time acceleration). but that was probably because my old CPU...

Anyway, are both of you running SP2 at the moment, and when did you reformat last time? Or had a clean install of windows last time?

[SimFan]

Same for me.

 

I (still) have exactly the same problem with LockOn.

Sometimes the game freezes for no apparant reason.

(mostly in F15 campaign).

Can mostly exit LO with ctrl-alt-del as well.

I am running XP SP2 - AMD64 3500+ - GF6800GT@350/1000 - driver v61.77 - 1GB RAM dual channel. No OC.

LockOn - most settings on high.

Don't think it has to do with SP2. No other app or sim crashes on my rig.

LockOn up, at least up till v1.02, has a problem, I am afraid to say.

One important thing I should mention.

Most, if not all postings (with this issue), I saw were people running in 1600X1200@32bit (like I am).

Maybe it is a driver problem @that res - and LockOn, somehow.

I also hope a patch and/or add-on will fix this !

[BIOLOG]

Not on topic, but you might want to switch to something like 66.86... Much better for your card! In most cases anyway...

[SimFan]

Thx.

 

Biolog, yes thx.

Also off topic.

I know 61.77 is OLD and slow.

However, I tried with several newer driver versions, but, since the computer is used for (many) other purposes aside from sims I got some other problems with higher versions (like the FULL screen video playback bug in v66.93).

I am waiting for the next official release.

Would you think that would solve the freezes I sometimes get ?

[BIOLOG]

New Driver - probably not. However, it should decrese screen corruption, which sometimes occurs on some systems. Also, regarding full-screen playback.. I assume you are talking about Windows Media played, although this is know to happen to some other players as well... The way I fixed it, was by downloading some sort of update from windows media player site, and after that everything works like a dream!

Worked fine with 66.** drivers, although now I'm on ASUS 62.17 drivers... which are crap, but I will reformat in a couple of days and install the new drivers... Priobably ones from nVidia website, 66.83 I think they are... Or Omegadrivers... If you heard of these

[SimFan]

Will look for the WMP10 update. Thx.