Spitter on 24/8/2005 at 16:08

---

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97055) This may or may not help. I have the same problem with my Geforce 6600 GT, haven't tried the latest drivers yet.

Pootzwacke on 29/8/2005 at 19:16

---

I had this reboot bug as well... and I'm happy to say I've found several workarounds. Note that I was also in the position of not being able to proceed with the game, since the first transition between Stonemarket Plaza and Stonemarket Proper was the one that crashed the system. :) I'm now happily on to the first Pagan mission. I still crash occasionally, but it's down to a minor annoyance rather than a game-breaking brick wall.

First of all, it's definitely a combination of things - there absolutely is a save/load bug in the game itself, but it's triggered by particular events most of the time. I personally believe that the crash is related to either the loadzone portal itself, or possibly the "blue mist" *TEXTURE* in these loadzones (and that this part of it is a driver issue).

So, here's what you do.



1) Never overwrite savegames. Always save to a new slot. If you use Quicksave, the next save you make should be a "normal" save so that the Quicksave isn't overwritten. This solves a lot of the problems by itself. Overwriting savegames causes junk data buildup and eventual corruption. The Eidos forums mention this step... I ignored it, but it turns out it's definitely the right thing to do. :)

2) When you approach a zone portal with the intention of going through it, do the following: move into another nearby room or area, far enough away to insure that a) the doorframe/load zone itself isn't visible from your position (even the blue mist particles!), and b) that you're not in a zone from which you can SEE the area where the portal is. Put a few walls and doors between you and the portal. When you save, you can then return and try the level transition. (What I'm trying to say is that you should move far enough away that you're in a different Unreal Zone Portal area from which you can't see the Zone Portal area containing the level load zone. ACK!)

3) Don't walk forward into the portals - *back* into them. This seems to make a difference for the graphics driver part of the bug. Basically, if you're not looking at the blue mist when you hit the zone trigger, you're not rendering the zone portal or the blue mist, and it seems not to trigger the bug nearly as much.

4) To prevent crashes, don't load a game straight from the menu during gameplay (using Menu>Load Game or Quickload)... instead, die. Letting yourself be killed (by a guard, or drowning yourself, etc) causes the Load screen to come up anyway - but the game seems to "clean up" some things in memory when you do it this way, and a crash on the next load is less likely. This has been a BIG factor for me.


(Here's a very minor related spoiler - though probably one you'll want to know about, as it involves fun extra content that you might otherwise miss!):

[SPOILER]Please note that the first time you "die" in a City area, you'll be sent to the Prison level, which is a fun little escape mission. After you've done this once, dying will bring up the Load screen as usual.[/SPOILER]

The cause of the crash on load screens seems to be a video mode change between the game and the menu. When the "Loading" screen first comes up (the one with Garrett's face and a picture of the level being loaded), there's a brief flicker when the process first starts (it usually makes dots and dashes flit across the screen for a second, like when your monitor changes resolutions)... and that's when it crashes if it's going to. If you see that momentary glitch, it means that the mode change was successful and all will be well with the load; if it crashes, I bet you ten donuts you'll find that it's at that exact step when the system reboots.

Hope this helps... I think you'll find that taking these steps will make the game playable and allow you to continue on. :)


-Pootzwacke

fedra on 16/11/2005 at 13:19

---

I allready overwrite the game savings).
What I should do?
I don't want to play it again to that point because I allready did 3 times?

SECOND
Do you have that jerky graphics to?
I mean, in some places the image (textures) looks like Duke Nukem. Very sharp and poor (low resolution).

If I try to rise the quality in game's options I can't see much diffrence.
Also sometimes I have very low fps.
I have AMD 1800+, GForce 6 (A 6200 TD), 256 + 512 SDRAM and NForce 2 MBO.
:nono:

van HellSing on 17/11/2005 at 08:33

---

Some time ago I had a similar problem, which involved my PC restarting randomly when loading a map. Turned out to be mobo/integrated sound card driver problems. Everything works fine after a driver update.

fedra on 19/7/2006 at 10:35

---

There are any updated info about how to fix this bug?
:wot: