City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Suggestions needed

AZKinger

By AZKinger,
Posted on: 2010-02-28 07:39 in Mac Users

 

Posted

I've recently re-activated my CoX account and am enjoying playing between crashes ... I've read all of the suggestions on settings and tips and still seem to have crashes relatively frequently. Having a crash to desktop every once in awhile is probably something I can live with but what is killing it for me is when it completely locks up my system requiring a hard boot. Frankly, this is something I *NEVER* see with a Mac and if I can't stop it I'll probably have to retire my account once again (don't have a Windows box anymore).

So ... for all you Mac OS X users that have managed to get stable play time can you help enlighten me on how you're doing it?

Quick specs on my system:

- Mac Pro
- 2x 2.8GHz quad core
- 10GB RAM
- Nvidia GTX 285 (1GB RAM)
- OS X 10.6.2

 

Posted

I can give you some general advice, but for more I'd need more info from you, such as: What other applications do you run while you have CoH running? Do you have any USB devices plugged in?

General advice meanwhile:

- It looks like you have enough RAM, so that should alleviate it somewhat.

- Try using /reloadgfx *after* every third zone change or so. Using it before has no effect, and usually causes a crash.

- Turn on advanced graphics settings in the game and set all your detail levels no higher than 100%. Higher values uses more video memory and increases the chance of a crash (they're related to video memory usage - reloadgfx clears the vram, that's why it works).

- Play in full-screen rather than windowed mode. Windowed mode has a separate bug that causes it to freeze if you do a certain combination of switching to another application while video memory use is high.

- Complete freezes are very rare - sometimes it takes a while to crash to desktop, though, so be patient. Sometimes using Cmd-Option-Esc (the force-quit key combo) speeds it up a bit.

If the crashes are more frequent than it seems like it should be (I can crash 1, maybe 2 times a night using the techniques above, but sometimes go several days without one) post the last few lines of your Console log (Applications > Utilities > Console) and maybe I can find a hidden cause.

Most important, hang in there - Issue 17 closed beta is coming up (per the announcement on Fri) so a new Mac client may be coming with it. Apple is releasing MacOS X 10.6.3 practically any day now, which has much better OpenGL support. The two together might produce a more stable CoH experience.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by CuppaManga View Post
I can give you some general advice, but for more I'd need more info from you, such as: What other applications do you run while you have CoH running?
I've tried with nothing running and numerous things running with no discernable difference. Generally, just run Chrome and Adium.

Quote:
Do you have any USB devices plugged in?
Yes. iPod or iPhone generally.

Quote:
- Try using /reloadgfx *after* every third zone change or so. Using it before has no effect, and usually causes a crash.
Check. Done/do that and it does tend to prolong time between crashes but I still get at least one an hour.

Quote:
- Turn on advanced graphics settings in the game and set all your detail levels no higher than 100%.
Check. Done that and even tried a lower value but that doesn't seem to help.

Quote:
- Play in full-screen rather than windowed mode.
Check. Always play fullscreen.

Quote:
- Complete freezes are very rare - sometimes it takes a while to crash to desktop, though, so be patient. Sometimes using Cmd-Option-Esc (the force-quit key combo) speeds it up a bit.
Will try the quit sequence to see if that helps but I just had a freeze that remained that way for over 30 minutes. I was able to SSH in from another system to kill the PID this time. However, oftentimes that won't free up the system.

Quote:
post the last few lines of your Console log (Applications > Utilities > Console) and maybe I can find a hidden cause.
Most recent crash:

Code:
2/28/10 10:55:12 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	cider(27801,0x74014c00) malloc: *** mmap(size=16777216) failed (error code=12)
2/28/10 10:55:12 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	*** error: can't allocate region
2/28/10 10:55:12 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	cider(27801,0xa086b500) malloc: *** mmap(size=331776) failed (error code=12)
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	*** error: can't allocate region
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	2010-02-28 10:55:17.314 cider[27801:903] exception occurred while switching video modes: ‡Ëf†å
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	2010-02-28 10:55:17.419 cider[27801:903] Critical failure: the LastResort font is unavailable.
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	2010-02-28 10:55:17.420 cider[27801:903] Critical failure: the LastResort font is unavailable.
2/28/10 10:55:17 AM	[0x0-0x728728].com.transgaming.cityofheroes	2010-02-28 10:55:17.421 cider[27801:903] Critical failure: the LastResort font is unavailable.
The last line repeats many times.

Thanks for taking a look at this. Quite frustrating.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AZKinger View Post
I was able to SSH in from another system to kill the PID this time. However, oftentimes that won't free up the system.
I've been having the same problems...hadn't thought of this trick. Usually during a hard lockup of the CoH app, itunes will keep playing in the background so I know it's not a complete system freeze. I'll have to try this ssh trick, thanks!

 

Posted

Oh noes a crash to desktop?? Try a complete crash, every ten minutes because of their stupid **** updater problems! This could be affecting you too, been fraggled since Friday!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Patriot View Post
Oh noes a crash to desktop?? Try a complete crash, every ten minutes because of their stupid **** updater problems! This could be affecting you too, been fraggled since Friday!
Post the last few lines of your Console log (Applications > Utilities > Console) and I'll see if there's any pattern.

Meanwhile, if anyone else is experiencing more frequent than normal crashes with the Mac client, open a ticket with Support (help.ncsoft.com). That's how the devs track widespread issues.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

Just an update to this thread on how things have progressed for me. I've gotten to the point where I do actually have what I'd call fairly stable use (little to no crashes). What it has really boiled down to for me is two things:

  • Video settings - Set this at about half way on the scale for detail and particles
  • Cmd-tabbing - Do NOT do this

I actually do swap to other things from time to time but it does raise the risk of a crash pretty substantially. I've found that the best way to do it is to hit cmd-enter to get out of fullscreen and WAIT to do ANYTHING (including move your mouse) for the video to redraw and stabilize. After that, most of the time you're ok but sometimes it will still crash on ya at some point.

Also of note for those folks that run a lot of apps like me. NEVER run VMWare and CoH at the same time. Not only will it crash CoH but it will cause a system kernel fault. Very ugly.

Well ... that's my two cents. I hate running the game at a much lower video quality than I should be able to but I'd rather it be stable than pretty (for now). I hope the new release improves things but I'm not hopeful. Unlike WoW that actually develops their own OS X code CoH is just using a Windows emulator (Wine) and thus I don't think it'll ever be of the same quality or performance. For comparison, WoW runs at absolutely max detail at 2560x1600 with zero slowdown on my system.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AZKinger View Post
Also of note for those folks that run a lot of apps like me. NEVER run VMWare and CoH at the same time. Not only will it crash CoH but it will cause a system kernel fault. Very ugly.
I'd like to see the panic log for this if you can find it - I haven't been able to duplicate that issue.

Also, WoW has a much different and more simplistic method of rendering characters and scenes than CoH does. CoH makes use of multiple layers of textures, which uses up a lot more memory and requires more precise timing.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by CuppaManga View Post
I'd like to see the panic log for this if you can find it - I haven't been able to duplicate that issue.
I'll post it for ya if I can find one.

Quote:
Also, WoW has a much different and more simplistic method of rendering characters and scenes than CoH does. CoH makes use of multiple layers of textures, which uses up a lot more memory and requires more precise timing.
That may be true but it's no excuse for things like memory leaks and such. It really is just a difference in terms of commitment. Blizzard is truly committed to the Mac/OS X platform where here it just seems to be an afterthought that can generate some extra revenue with very little extra support. Please don't take that the wrong way ... I'm not complaining as that's still way more than most game companies do and hence why I am playing the game

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by CuppaManga View Post
I'd like to see the panic log for this if you can find it - I haven't been able to duplicate that issue.

Also, WoW has a much different and more simplistic method of rendering characters and scenes than CoH does. CoH makes use of multiple layers of textures, which uses up a lot more memory and requires more precise timing.
Are you running booting the kernel in 64-bit mode? Parallels 5 will freeze the system if you are running CoX and 64-bit kernel in 10.6. 32-bit kernels work OK with PD5 and CoX.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by PumBumbler View Post
Are you running booting the kernel in 64-bit mode? Parallels 5 will freeze the system if you are running CoX and 64-bit kernel in 10.6. 32-bit kernels work OK with PD5 and CoX.
I don't remember if I was using 32-bit or 64-bit last time I tested. If that's the difference, though, then the drivers for Parallels/VMWare are not happy in 64-bit mode.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination

 

Posted

I tested the VMWare/Parallels thing in 64-bit mode with CoH for Mac running.

Parallels did cause a panic as soon as the virtual guest OS was started. VMWare ran fine with no problems.

Looking at the panic log, it looks like Parallels is trying to address some kind of memory address that no longer exists. It's basically a problem for the Parallels people to fix.

Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination