NEW Fix for CTD when starting campaign (Nvidia, High End Cards)

[peter_de123]

Hello,

since I got my Nvidia 8800GTS I could not start MTW anymore, which was especially annoying because I bought the Eras Package. I even tried an old MTW version but it also did not work. After reading in various forums I thought it had something to do with the Nvidia Graphics Driver.

When I updated the driver tonight (version 175.16) I decided to give MTW another try. CTD when starting a campaign, just as I was fearing.

However, for some reason I also installed the Napoleon Total War Mod and tried again... SUDDENLY IT STARTED PERFECTLY.

So it could not be a graphics driver issue... I started toying around, removed and cleanly installed MTW, made a backup and tried to find out what made MTW work when I installed the Mod. I succeded to narrow the problem down to TWO FILES:

button_ipnext.BIF and button_ipprev.BIF in the "Medieval - Total War\campmap\buttons" Folder.

I verified it by using the clean, vanilla installation and only replacing those two files with the ones from the Mod.

NO CTD'S UNTIL NOW ANY MORE !!!

So to all those out there who also have the CTD problem when starting a campaign: Please try it out and report if it works for you.


Since this is my first post I am not allowed to enter a direct Link to a zip file containing the two buttons, so please look here: rapidshare.com / files / 115211547 / MTW_Gold_v2.01_CTD_Fix.zip . html (just remove the empty spaces between the words).


Alternatively you can of course install the NTW1 Mod.


-------------------------------edit by drone----------------------------------------------
Rapidshare link seems to have expired, here's one from GameFront until I can get this hosted locally
MTW_Gold_v2.01_CTD_Fix.zip
Local link
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[dknight]

Interesting, this should be included in the general threads about MTW CTD

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

I'll PM Martok

[Martok]

Allow me to officially welcome you to the Org, peter_de123! How wonderful that your first post here also contains a possible solution for people having problems running the game. My hat's off to you, sir.

Interesting, this should be included in the general threads about MTW CTD

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

I'll PM Martok

Indeed. I've already added it.

[drone]

Is this the isolation of the problem that's usually solved by the 2xAntiAliasing setting, or something beyond that?

I guess the next question is, what's different between the BIF files?

Welcome to the .Org, peter_de123!

[Raz]

Welcome to the org, peter_de.
And I can't thank you enough that you've found a way to fix this issue that has plagued a many MTW players for a very long time.
Although it never affected me personally, it is still a great leap forward for the players of MTW.

[I of the Storm]

That's excellent news. I haven't been affected either, but I'm glad for all the others that there seems to be a workaround. In case this turns out to be a viable solution (let's wait for the reports of other players) this surely deserves an applause.

[King Kurt]

This is most interesting - Peter, was your MTW installation include VI?

Also - a questions to modders - does a mod such as XL change the files mentioned by Peter? If I mod to Xl after installation, do I do the change then or is before Mod OK??

[Raz]

Those files seem to be with the GUI, so any total conversion would probably change those files. The super mod, XL, and the MedMod probably don't change those files as well as the some of the newer mods that also keep the timeframe (i.e. Pocket Mod). But I wouldn't know for sure if XL does or does not change those files mentioned.

[peter_de123]

Thanks for the praise, but let us wait until we hear from other people who had the problem.

I installed MTW from the Total War Eras Edition, so it is actually the GOLD Version, which includes Viking Invasion.

I don't expect this to be the general solution for the CTD-Campaign screen problem, but every single player who is helped by this will certainly be happy about it.

[Kaidonni]

I'm reinstalling MTW Gold right now to see if this solves the problem for me. If it does...yay. If it doesn't...I sure hope this computer decides to recognise the M2TW DVD, because if it doesn't, I will snap that game in half (when I first had it it played up, damaged DVDs...now, the computer seeks to ruin just about everything for me, be it work or games). Then, I'll just be left with RTW, which I recently uninstalled to make room for M2...

EDIT: Okay, it seemed to fix the campaign map. Nvidia 8600GT or whatever the card is called, used to crash just as the load bar had completed. However, battles are still an issue - units appear ABOVE their cards (when you move the camera view, if any units are at the bottom of the screen, they don't disappear under the cards), and the attack cursor still does not appear when hovering the cursor over enemy units (another issue is units not going where they are supposed to). I'm assuming a similar fix might work for this, though? Could be some files once again?

And yes, I am grateful to you for this - but what about battles? It's just not MTW without those lovely battles...:(

EDIT 2: Just checked the official Total War website, and yeah, it's those mouse-over problems I'm still having.

[Kaidonni]

By the way, I'm messing around today to see if this fix works while playing XL, and I'd just like to point out that, according to the 'date modified' column, it doesn't look like the mod changes the two files. Of course, I installed the fix after XL, so I could be wrong...

NEWSFLASH!!! I just tried battles, and they seem to be fubared regardless of resolution (or mod). Now, I was hoping 2048x1546 or whatever the one resolution is (2048x1536? Think it's double 1024x768) would work, but it meant I had to alt-tab and close MTW from the Windows Task Manager (screen was entirely blank). 640x480 didn't work either (thought it did for a moment). HOWEVER - I tried one thing randomly - clicking on the radar map. That seems to work properly still. I can send my units where I want, and the attack cursor properly appears. Now, it isn't perfect, and might take some getting used to, but it is good enough considering the problems people have been having. I'm going to go and explore a bit more with this, fighting battles and all that, to test it out.

EDIT 2: The only issue using the radar map seems to be that I can't alter the depth of my units in battle. A shame, really, but then again, we might have to do without, because for all intents and purposes, we can play battles again. LOL. Question: Does the computer ever alter the depth of units, or is that an ability reserved only for the Human player? If only the Human can do it, I'll be more than happy to consider an inability to change rank depth something that levels the playing field.

[Kaidonni]

So, I was thinking...anyone up for looking into this further? Peter_de123 has started the ball rolling, and I think we might be able to sort out the battlemap too. One major point there is that, although elements of the battlemap do not line up properly, giving mouse-over problems, other elements do. The radar map allows you to move units to the correct place, albeit in a more difficult manner, and attack enemy units properly, and the other buttons on screen still work. It could be an unresolvable graphics issue, but it seemed like that for the campaign map - maybe, as with the campaign map, certain files don't agree with the Nvidia drivers, and we could tweak them to work?

[houyangwang]

Thank you. Now i can play the campaign map.

[Kaidonni]

So, am I to understand that this is a dead thread, and no one at all is interested in looking any further into this? Peter has given us some important groundwork here, he might have given us the route to stuffing those driver problems once and for all...and he might not have, but I do kinda feel ignored in what I've said, and surprised no one is interested at all...

[drone]

So, am I to understand that this is a dead thread, and no one at all is interested in looking any further into this? Peter has given us some important groundwork here, he might have given us the route to stuffing those driver problems once and for all...and he might not have, but I do kinda feel ignored in what I've said, and surprised no one is interested at all...

Since I run with an ATI card, I don't see the problems. I also am not familiar with what is involved with the BIF files and their format. Maybe this should be brought up in the modding forum, to see if any light bulbs go on there. My guess is that there is a rendering feature causing it that the Napoleon mod guys don't use. But I don't do graphics, that's just an edumacated guess from a software guy.

[Martok]

I don't think it's that no one is interested, so much as it is that not a whole lot of us possess the necessary expertise to be able to mess around and find the solution (goodness knows I certainly don't, anyway ).

As for moving this thread to a more appropriate sub-forum, I'd considered moving it to the Alchemist Lab, except that it's not exactly the busiest of places and might therefore take even longer to get a response there. Perhaps the Apothecary?

[caravel]

button_ipnext.BIF and button_ipprev.BIF are the up and down scroll arrows for the review panel. They are already known to cause visual glitches. If you have an annoying flashing bit at the top of the screen directly above them then this is why. I had no idea they were actually causing the CTD though, so this is an important discovery.

In retrospect this can also explain the corrupted GA cup icon on the review panel and the crash I was having when clicking on constantinople after ending a turn. That was probably also caused by the review panel up/down scroll arrows appearing.

As to the in battle synchonisation issue, AFAIK this is an Nvidia video card driver related problem. I have not seen or heard of this occurring on ATI cards.

In basic terms the mouse clicks are not being translated correctly onto the 3D space. If you can downgrade to older drivers, that may solve it. In my case it did not but changing settings in the Nvidia control panel eliminated the problem entirely. You can try those settings yourself, they are in the CTDs thread in the apothecary.

[m52nickerson]

I was having problems with my new computer, the campaign would crash just after start. I tried this fix and it worked perfectly.

[Martok]

Outstanding! It's good to see you back, by the way.

[Biggus Diccus]

This is just too good to be true I copied the two lousy files and loaded a savegame that crashed campaign map EVERY time before, and now behold; no crashes

BTW: I have a Core 2 Duo with a ATI X1950 graphics card, and MTW VI works perfectly for me now, in campaign map and battles. Thanks peter_de. Thanks. I'll buy you a beer or three if I ever meet you LOL.

[m52nickerson]

Outstanding! It's good to see you back, by the way.

Thank you! It is good to be back.

[OmarPacha]

BTW: I have a Core 2 Duo with a ATI X1950 graphics card, and MTW VI works perfectly for me now, in campaign map and battles. Thanks peter_de. Thanks. I'll buy you a beer or three if I ever meet you LOL.

May I know your version of Catalyst and processor ? If you don't want to advertise anyone, by PM.

Cheers

[axel]

Hi
On wot Nvidea card will MTW VI run propaly cane somme one name a fue

[caravel]

It can usually be run on 7xxx series cards under XP without issue, though under Vista it could be a problem.

[axel]

Is there going to be a update for this problem ? or wot about the 9000 series?

[caravel]

Is there going to be a update for this problem ?

Not as far as I'm aware.

...or wot about the 9000 series?

I'm assuming you mean Nvidia 9xxx series cards and not old ATI 9000 series cards? Assuming it's the former there are no known cases of users trying to run MTW on a 9xxx series card as yet (unless I've missed something?). It's likely to be much the same as 8xxx series cards however.

Unfortunately if you want to play games like MTW you will probably need to keep an older system handy for that purpose.

[axel]

Hi Cynwulf,
thx for your reply, so this meens in a fue years nearly no one cant play MTW VI anymore becose the old grafic cards arent for sale then and the driver updates will just be for newer cards, it will be Nvidea 8000 or 9000?? i find it hard to believe that there will be no updates for this.
i got more old games running just fine its only MTWVI wot cant be played and this is my favorite isnt there any thing we cane do or sega????

[oz_wwjd]

is it just the Nvidia 8/9-series cards that have this problem? If so you could use another card,if there's anything that matches the speed of the 8 and 9 series cards.

[axel]

Hi mate
I know wot you meen mate, but i dont think there s a grafic card with simler speed, becose i also use other games and programs wot require s a better card like 8000.
But i dont think its got to do somme thing with the grafic card, but with updates and drivers this all started with the new grafic card wot been also made for windows vista.

so i think there will be updates or drivers wot will fix this in time, i cant believe that they will not do any thing with it becose they want to sell there game s to and there will be only newer cards wot will hold Vista so i think there will be updates.
Maybe the community cane do somme thing

[Axalon]

In my humble little opinion, peter de123 should be properly sainted for this discovery...

My ATI-sapphire Radeon x1950Pro AGP, would not go anywhere near a MTW-campaign until I found out about this and I fashioned some replacement-files of my own, all according to peter de123's info and files he supplied. Since then there have not been any problems at all with MTW.

- Now, I am not able to determine here if this thread got a sticky or not, but if it don’t, I sure think that it deserves one.