Game crashing/unplayable. Worth waiting for patches?

[Obiwan]

Background: My rig is not the most modern. It's a Dell XPS M1730 laptop (dual-core 2.8 GHz) with 4 GB of RAM and Nvidia 9800M GTX, but it runs all my games great (high FPS in Crysis on Ultra-High). OS is Windows XPsp3.

 

BlackShark 1 always ran great. And I was drooling over BlackShark 2 new look and features. I bought the full version (not the "patch"), but am having nothing but problems. Instant flight works fine, but whenever I'm close to an exploding vehicle (car or train/boxcar), BS2 crashes. I can start the "Death Valley" mission, but as soon as the AI launches air strikes, it crashes. Loading "Clear Tkvarcheli" or "Convoy Hunt" missions causes a crash on mission load, before I even see a cockpit.

 

I'm not sure if I'm doomed with my rig/OS. XP sees 3GB available and uses PAE by default. Adding /3GB to the boot.ini causes the desktop to crash immediately upon loading. Add /3GB and /PAE to boot.ini get my tothe desktop and lets me at least start BS2, but I never see the load-screen. Music starts after a bit and then the system locks up hard.

 

I'm not sure it's a memory issue though, perhaps a bug in the BS2 effects module?

 

The reason I'm posting is to ask for your suggestion to either a) uninstall BS2 and ask for a refund because my rig just sucks, or b) leave BS2 sit for a while and hope that future patches may address the problems I'm having.

 

Seeing how a lot of people seem to be able to play BS2 just fine (no doubt under Win7 64-bit), I'm not convinced that efforts will be made to get BS2 playable on XP. My rig certainly matches the minimum requirements of the game, so I hoped it would run.

 

Should I wait for patches? Is there some sort of deadline until a refund may be issued? I'd love to play BS2, mainly for the graphics enhancements. However, BS1 still gives me pleasure so having BS2 is not critical.

 

So, is my rig just too old, or is there hope that BS2 may be patched to run on it?

 

(Sorry for the "odd" post, but after spending hours of "down-tweaking" and trouble-shooting, I'm just at a loss on how to proceed.)

[GGTharos]

You rig is adequate I -think-, but a 32bit OS has its limitations with the newer DCS offerings. If you aren't willing to go the 64-bit route (and I'd recommend Windows 7, not XP) then option A may indeed be for you. However I hope that perhaps someone here can chime in with advice that will help you run BS2 without any changes.

[Marmusman]

I have same problem in a-10c. I use xp also. Running with low settings helps. I also try not to fly with other planes (I realize that it is stupid, but at this point I am just trying to learn the game. So when I get a new computer I will be somewhat well versed.)...my video card is my problem. Not sure if it helps or just offers some comradery.

 

[edit]

Too add a little bit more info.....fires and smoke and explosions seem to always be the cause of my crashes. The more planes in game, then the more explosions...they do not even have to be occurring within my field of view or area of operation.....if another wing starts attacking somewhere else on the map, I get a crash.

 

I wonder if there is a .lua or config file that can be tweaked to lower these explosion graphics??? Just a thought.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Marmusman

[EtherealN]

If you can pick up any .crash files and post them here (I fail to recall where they end up on XP), that might help, but I do suspect the 32-bit is the issue in some way. Should be able to get it running though.

 

DxDiag output file might help as well, in case there's a driver somewhere that is causing it to be extra sensitive in your case.