Any thoughts ... ?

[Iaga]

Tech question for someone with more know how than me.

I've been playing DDO on the same computer for ever. It's an old (really old) machine with XP as it's OS.

Despite it's advanced age, it runs the game pretty well. Admittedly my graphics settings are pretty bare bones - max draw distance as i play a few ranged toons - but things run smoothly.

I recently picked up Ravenloft,I can run into the mists with no problems, but, when i hit the gate to enter Barovia (i think it's Barovia), the game shuts down and gives me a "dndclient_awesomium has encountered a problem and needs to close" error. At this point i need to reboot the entire machine (and on my old rig, that can take a while).

On one occasion i got into Barovia but it crashed when i tried to zone into another area/quest - can't recall which.

Does anyone know if there are any settings/simple fixes i might be able to try to solve this?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Pixma/Omid - Loreseekers

PS - use small words - my tech know how is poor

[Aelonwy]

I can offer little help. I'm sorry. My hubby has the same problem. His computer can run the entire game without issue, we rarely suffer lag except in raids and those times when everyone is suffering such as the previous datacenter move. This issue was mentioned several times on numerous threads and on twitch, its mostly been met with silence.

Some people have had success updating to a newer version of Windows. You could try that too.

[xCataluna]

Two new graphics settings were introduced with Ravenloft. Have you already adjusted them down?
In the Options Menu, under Advanced Graphics, they're called Frill Distance and Frill Density.

This may help, as the Barovia wilderness is -huge-, and the developers have stated they used far more decorative landscape "stuff" in it then they ever have anywhere else.

[Matuse]

When I restarted playing at the beginning of the year, my machine was hard crashing sometimes as much as 6-7 times an hour. It was beyond incredibly frustrating. The problem was an obvious graphical one, so I steadily cranked down settings until it stopped happening. Now I get maybe 1 crash every other week.

[karatemack]

I have an older laptop that I still use to play DDO when I'm traveling. I noticed similar issues and then I installed DDO to a flash drive and ran it that way instead and "MOST" of my issues went away. I was pleasantly surprised to find that loading screen now loaded in less than 3 seconds typically (where I had sat on them for 10-20 seconds at a time) and overall I had a smoother experience.

I found a great deal at Staples for a 32 GB flash drive but a 16 GB drive would work as well.

Not sure that this will fix your issue, but it might help in other ways since you're running on an older machine!

[dogsoldier]

A couple of ideas:
Try different options for DirectX in the graphics settings.
You could also try updating your graphics card driver.

[Suggestion]

I had the same problem when I tried Ravenloft on Lamannia on my old XP system. The Ravenloft wilderness puts a lot of demands on your computer and older computers don't work well. You can try turning down your graphics resolution, but that may not be enough to make the game playable.

[CSQ]

I have an older laptop that I still use to play DDO when I'm traveling. I noticed similar issues and then I installed DDO to a flash drive and ran it that way instead and "MOST" of my issues went away. I was pleasantly surprised to find that loading screen now loaded in less than 3 seconds typically (where I had sat on them for 10-20 seconds at a time) and overall I had a smoother experience.

I found a great deal at Staples for a 32 GB flash drive but a 16 GB drive would work as well.

Not sure that this will fix your issue, but it might help in other ways since you're running on an older machine!

Interesting. Is your performance negatively impacted when you do this? Flash drives are supposed to have difficulty running programs because of various technical reasons, but compared to a 5400 RPM drive I suppose modern flash drives are probably better. Are you using USB 3.0 (usually indicated by a blue port, but not always)?

[karatemack]

Interesting. Is your performance negatively impacted when you do this? Flash drives are supposed to have difficulty running programs because of various technical reasons, but compared to a 5400 RPM drive I suppose modern flash drives are probably better. Are you using USB 3.0 (usually indicated by a blue port, but not always)?

On an older machine, your performance should increase overall. I am just using a $10 USB 2.0 from Staples: https://www.staples.com/51274/direct...c=googleserpss

It was inexpensive and has more than enough space for any updates which come out to the game. I was also considering upgrading my laptop to a SSD, but decided to try this first since it was less of an investment for a machine I'm going to replace in a year or so anyway. After installing DDO and Discord to the flash drive, nearly all of my performance issues disappeared.

Also, I was browsing through the system requirements and noticed that XP is no longer supported. I'm not sure if this was updated specifically because of features in Ravenloft which may cause issues with that OS, however it could be related since this page was updated on December 12 of last year.

https://help.standingstonegames.com/...ments-for-DDO-

[Impaqt]

USB 2.0 read throughput is 1/2 to 1/3 that of a 5400 rotating HDD.

[Pyed-Pyper]

....awesomium....

kill the awesomium processes

ctrl+alt+del > start task manager > 'processes' tab > highlight it/them* and 'end process'


* there were 5 separate processes running on mine - they were always causing problems, and not needed for playing the game

[Iaga]

Thank you for all the input folks. I thought i'd share results for other people who may run into the same problem.

Some people have had success updating to a newer version of Windows. You could try that too.

Eventually the machine i'm using will be replaced - this was more effort than i was willing to try considering the situation.

Two new graphics settings were introduced with Ravenloft. Have you already adjusted them down?
In the Options Menu, under Advanced Graphics, they're called Frill Distance and Frill Density.

I set Frill Distance and Density to their lowest settings.

When I restarted playing at the beginning of the year, my machine was hard crashing sometimes as much as 6-7 times an hour. It was beyond incredibly frustrating. The problem was an obvious graphical one, so I steadily cranked down settings until it stopped happening. Now I get maybe 1 crash every other week.

I lowered all my graphic settings and moved from full screen to windowed mode.

I have an older laptop that I still use to play DDO when I'm traveling. I noticed similar issues and then I installed DDO to a flash drive and ran it that way instead and "MOST" of my issues went away. I was pleasantly surprised to find that loading screen now loaded in less than 3 seconds typically (where I had sat on them for 10-20 seconds at a time) and overall I had a smoother experience.

I had an SSD laying around and moved the game to it. My load times are certainly faster (both at start up and moving zone to zone). This was certainly a pleasant upgrade for me But, i still get the same awesonium crash.

A couple of ideas:
Try different options for DirectX in the graphics settings.
You could also try updating your graphics card driver.

Drivers are current and my game settings show only one option for directX (it's greyed out and i can't select anything)? I was unable to play with that directx setting - am i looking in the wrong place? (with a character logged into game, options - graphics)

kill the awesomium processes
ctrl+alt+del > start task manager > 'processes' tab > highlight it/them* and 'end process'

* there were 5 separate processes running on mine - they were always causing problems, and not needed for playing the game

I remember killing LOTS of awsonium processes in the past - when i look to see what's running now there is only one process that includes the word awsonium in it and i'm sure it's the client - dndclientawesonium - or something like that.

I just tried Ravenloft a few times and the situation is the same. I can run 'Into the Mists' with no problems, but when i try to load into Bavia, kaboom!

Thank you for all the input folks. I was pretty sure i wouldn't be able to get this old rig to run it, but there are a lot of tech savy people who know more than i. I appreciate the help.