Frequently Asked Questions

1) My game keeps crashing, is there anything I can do to stop it?
i) Are you running the game on maximum (highest) settings? if so, lower them to High or Medium, there is a known issue with the game using up too much memory, there is nothing we can do about this, also no matter how powerful your pc is, it is affected by this issue no matter the pc it is not above this crashing issue, it is a game problem not a hardware one, so quite simply lower your settings. If you still have an issue with crashing see point two.
ii) Give us as detailed information as possible about the crash, what was happening at the time of the crash, what races, ships, abilities were involved. If you can supply a Debug Log (see above for more information about logging) and post a bug report on our website.

@jtillung - due to the extra bits that DS adds it can overload the system, as for the large address thing, from what I understand it merely allows the game to use 2 gigs by itself were as the current default setup causes dumpage when the whole system while running the game hits the 2 gig (if Im wrong Stant Im sorry)
We are currently in the run up stage for the next Diplomacy update that will incorporate mem cutting features to reduce or negate 2 gig crashes.

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll tick to High as that seem stable. Not like I really need more details on ships anyway. Don't spend much time zoomed in that much to notice

Wonder how long it'll be before we see the first 64bit only game...

This memory limit crap is making a lot of recent games crash.

Like Carl posted, you have to turn it down to get it to work.  The lower, the better, though most people can play single player on high for hours without a crash.  Online it's just better for everyone to be set to low when you play.  Your specific reason why it's crashing at 1.7 is maybe because you're out of RAM before you hit the 2 gig limit?  You can't always base it off of what you're seeing being used by one program you have to add them all up and give a little room for inaccurate reporting of RAM usage.

As for LAA (Large Address Aware), it's been posted time and time again as a fix and that's just bullshit.  Awareness does not equal ability.  The switch only allows a program to use larger addresses so that it's not in direct competition for RAM that's in use by other programs that do not have it enabled.  It, in no way, shape, or form, allows a 32 bit program to use more RAM.  2gigs is the limit for 32bit software.  Only a 64 bit program can do that.  Now some people like to call themselves software engineers fresh out of school even though they're really just entry level programmers with zero experience in the industry and they think they know better then the hundreds of thousands of programmers that came before them and will try to confuse you with fancy words and link to information about servers rather then personal computers and use words that they learned which aren't the words everyone else uses to confuse the issue, and tell you that RAM doesn't matter because programs don't use it to run which is completely asinine since if that was true then we wouldn't need RAM at all, but hey, the truth is that every time someone brings it up, they explain it wrong, do not include the correct information, or just don't know what the hell they're talking about and when people try it, they come to the proper conclusion and that it just doesn't work as it's being advertised.  And as for messing with your 32 bit system settings to get it to work like a 64bit OS and saying it's fine to try is the stupidest thing I've ever heard because all of the other software and hardware settings on your PC can get screwed up sending you into hours of repair to undo the damage you've done by screwing with it after you've found out you were misled in the first place.  These test programs to show you that it works are pure bullshit as well because all they're doing is writing and showing you they can write...  A true test would be one that uses your sound drivers, uses your video drivers, crunches complex numbers, writes and reads, accesses multiple files at the same time (thousands in the case of Sins), and changes it all up randomly on the fly for hours...  You know, all of those things your system has to do in order to play a game...  None of them would hold up to the test.

Long story short, if you have a 64bit OS with lots of RAM (4gigs to whatever), you can enable the switch and get better performance since the game can use addresses not in competition with other programs and not in competition with system used RAM, a 32bit OS gains nothing because the system itself will not allow it to use the larger addresses.  The game is still only using 2 gigs of RAM though even on a 64 bit system because it was coded as a 32 bit program and thus by the rules of coding in place, it cannot use more then 2.

I should know, I've played the game on both 32 bit and 64 bit systems, 3 and 4 gigs of RAM respectively, LAA enabled and not, and there's no real appreciable amount of game play gained in any scenario regardless of what some random fan of the game might say.  They all play the same, they all use the same amounts of RAM, they all crash at the same general times when using the same settings.  I've also got more then a decade of experience in the gaming industry as well as modding for fun on the side so I know I'm doing it right giving it the best possible chance to succeed, and not one person I've ever talked to who is still active in the industry about LAA has ever said LAA fixes anything other then tricking the end user into believing things are better.  So save yourselves the trouble and just follow the recommendation of turning the settings down for now until TSOP has done everything that they can and us modders have had a chance to incorporate their work into the things we're doing and you don't have to screw with anything potentially damaging your system in the process.

Have a nice day.

Stant123

reply 3664

EDITED.

Have a nice day.

Whoa, did you just tell someone to have a nice day?! Your getting soft. ROFL.

I'm watching football.  I'm eating hot wings and pizza.  I'm drinking beer.  My team is winning.  My girl brought a few of her friends over.  Soft?  I'm as hard as I've ever been.

Edit:  Of course I say that and the Falcons drive and tie it up.  =\  Fucking dirty birds.

after the last three sentences in that post (not counting the edit) do you really give a damn what the Falcons do?

Yes, because when the team is winning, everyone is jumping around and bouncing off of each other and right now while it's tied and in overtime, we're all sitting watching, eyes glued to the TV.

This is why when I get into my deeper classes I'm coming HERE for proper terminology and CORRECT definitions to sed terminology, Here I see at least 10-20 active and quick responding well experienced programmers, in place of the guy getting handed a new book  with instructions included on how to spin tech jargon to where people just nod and say "ohhhh" or "uh-huh" when they give up trying to understand lol. Looking forward to picking all of your brains next year             if any of you will allow me that is.

Also, who knows, I might just become competent quick enough to contribute to people's modding needs here at Sins!

lol my programming class was one class (or was it two) from high school, I'm just willing to examine and study what others say about certain things and review the facts themselves and be willing to ask questions, best school I have ever been to

getting back to the Falcons, making it work either way for you. If your team loses, console them with a massage train.

Yeah, I wouldn't come HERE for that stuff, I'd go to dev journals on as many forums as I could follow.  Stay active on those and build up relationships with the developers.  Not only will you get current up to date information from several sources, but it could lead to future employment.  Always a plus.

As for contributing, if you are competent in the English language and can handle looking at lots of numbers, you're already qualified to be a Sins Modder.  2D/3D art skills and modeling experience is not necessary, although a plus if you're any good at it.

Edit:

Mendy scored on a 50 yard run in Overtime ending the game with a win, setting my place on fire pretty much.  Nicole got knocked to the floor by one of her friends, I jumped on top, then her friends piled on top of me.  Best dog pile ever.  I even got punched for enjoying it too much.  =D  I love football season.

I tried editing once, my comp isn't up to the task, it's about 5 years out of date except for the vid card and it's memory,they're only 3 years out of it (barely have 2 gigs of ram) converting from tga to dds takes a decade(20-30mins a file) for some reason so I gave up till I get a new comp(but! thanks to grants and government funding it's a high possibility I'll be updating this one, or obtaining a new one ^^) but thanks about the dev journals and forums though. I'd still like to come here at least as a backup because of familiar faces and with people like Major Stress and yourself, you two seem to be pretty dependable and knowledgeable.

lol, only 2 gigs of ram, thats all I have so don't worry there

Don't forget about Harpo.  He's been doing this longer then I've been alive...  And I'm no spring chicken.

Hey, my old desktop only has 640 megs of RAM and I still use that.  2 Gigs is plenty.