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This is a great game but....
SaibotKang
Member Posts: 70
in Everquest II
The e_outofmemory bug is a game breaker for me. I cant play more than 1 hour at a time without it happening, and it seriously impedes any kind of gameplay, especialy grouping. My rig is decent but nothing fantastic, but last year I could run EQ2 just fine on the exact same machine. Its just sad cause this game is actually good now, compared to how it was when I played it before, now I cant even get it to run. They should fix this asap.
Comments
Runs perfectly fine and I raid 5 hours a night.
BTW: With ACT, Vent, a browser and sometimes even background music.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=34987
Well heres an almost 40 page post on the tech forums for people that it doesnt run just fine for. This problem has been around for over a year and it hasnt been fixed, and it doesnt matter if you update to 4 gigs of ram and get the latest new video card, its still showing up. New people thinking of buying the game should be warned that that theyre buying a potentialy faulty product. Just saying "hey it runs good for me" doesnt do squat for the people who likely have equal or better comps but still are told they dont have enough memory due to a memory leak in the code.
That thread is only refering to the XP version too, people get the same error on vista when playing this game and it gives a different error message.
This is NOT a client side tech issue. Many people with many different types of PC's are reporting the exact same problem. This is an issue with the way the game is coded to release memory and the reason why its been so hard to pinpoint and fix for over a year is because it effects so many different systems and players. Like I said I played EQ2 fine about 8 months ago, some people that continued playing longer than me have seen it start happening litteraly overnight.
I was like the poster above who never had a problem until suddenly it appeared one day out of the blue. It made the game a misery for several months then disapeared for a few weeks then came back with a vengeance just before I canceled. SOE has been trying to fix this for over a year and a half. What is weird is how it comes and goes and with 2 people with identical system one will have it and the other will not.
EQII is still a bit of a memory hog and takes a pretty good system to run it well. Last time I played I was on a core duo 6600 overclocked to 3.4, a overclocked 7900GT and 2 gigs of ram and if I turned shadows on I would crash within 5 minutes. That was seperate issue from the e_outofmemory crash. I would get that one shadows or no shadows.
I miss DAoC
Mention one game that do not have any problems for some people, if it is not crashing it is something else that makes them not able to enjoy the game. Mention one game where you should not warn people because they are not buying a potentionally broken prodect because nobody does have any problem running when they should not have.
You wont se long threads with people saying I don't have this problem, I don't have that problem. The thread you refered seemed to be quiet for 5 or so months perhaps they got a fix for your problem that you have missed out on?
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
I had this for about a month a year back, then it vanished. No change in my system or its configuration. Never had the problem since.
Its difficult for the dev's to fix something that's so hard to isolate. The first step in fixing a bug is being able to recreate it in a test environment, if they can't do that then its near impossible to fix.
Mention one game that do not have any problems for some people, if it is not crashing it is something else that makes them not able to enjoy the game. Mention one game where you should not warn people because they are not buying a potentionally broken prodect because nobody does have any problem running when they should not have.
You wont se long threads with people saying I don't have this problem, I don't have that problem. The thread you refered seemed to be quiet for 5 or so months perhaps they got a fix for your problem that you have missed out on?
Crashing is a different issue. You can get crashes for a multitude of reasons, many of them are client side issues. The e_outofmemory bug is pretty specific in what is the problem...in that you are out of memory to run the program. If Im running a PC with 3 gigs I shouldnt be running out of memory running everquest 2. Also I think you underestimate the amount of people this bug effects, you seem to not have known anything about it until you read this. Ive researched it on the forums and spoken to people in game about it, and I beleive its quite a bit more widespread than you know. Also, there have been a number of posts on it all over the tech forums in the last month or two so no, I doubt there was any such fix. And if there was it wasnt permanent.
No its one very rare bug effecting less than 1% of the overall population.
I would like to see any other game company fix it
My copy of Rome Total War and Medieval Total War, both fully patched sometimes CTD for no reason.
No its one very common bug effecting more than 15% of the overal population.
See its pretty easy to pull random numbers out of your ass, but lets stick to the proveable facts.
You cant compare a CTD error to a memory leak, period. I already went over that.
In any case honestly, arguing about the nature of the bug without being an engineer viewing it with a debugger and knowlege of the game's internals is silly and a waste of time. None of us know jack about the internals of EverQuest II. Now that we got that out of the way I do not blame you for being annoyed when someone says, well it works fine for me. That does not help and it also does not mean anything really. The reproducible occurence of a failure on multiple machines is a sure sign there is a bug in a program end of story. We could get into how do you define a bug? Is it the software's fault when it works on 75 percent of systems say and not 25 percent, just as an example? To that I would say yes, it most certainly is a fault of the software for not handling whatever the case it is encountering that leads to the failure. So, if there is something unique about the systems that are having this issue which to this date unfortunately remains unidentified that hardly lets SOE's engineers off the hook for thier software failing across so many computers. Sorry, but that is simply the way it is and really isn't subject to debate.
A bug is a bug is a bug and when something fails this often across that many systems it is most certainly a bug and the fact that it does not occur on some other systems is interesting in terms of trying to isolate the fault but it hardly suggests there is not a fault.
I hate it when people say but oh, it works great for me as if that implies its not the software, its my machine sucks and oh, well too bad for you. That is not correct but it sure is annoying. People who say that don't always mean to offend I'm sure and it is useful to know a fault is not universal but its all in how it is said and discussed, etc.
/steps off the soapbox
I have only played EQ2 briefly and it looks nice but I don't think I have time for it versus other games I want to play more. I never saw that happen but then I didn't play a real lot. I hope they find and fix it. If you want to be proactive about trying to make that happen, do everything you can to reproduce it on demand and document how you do so along with providing them with the full DirectX reports they ask for etc. Do it in a competely clean environment ensuring absolutely nothing else is in memory and to guarantee this is so, use windows task manager to kill all non microsoft processes running, check this out with msconfig run from a command prompt. You can use that tool to temporarily disable everything except the microsoft processes and thus run clean to test.
It is not impossible that the fault is related to something unique to certain people's hardware or configurations as it does not universally happen to everyone. That doesn't make it your fault or make you machine less than somebody else's, etc., simply different in a way that the software has trouble with, which I would maintain in this case is the software's fault.
Good luck and if it is becoming too much of a chore, ditch the game and play one that isn't a chore to enjoy. I know we become invested in these games but its refreshing to let it go and play just play, not play because of some sense of investment in a character who really is nothing. The day the game becomes unpopular enough to lose money is the day your investment goes away regardless of how important it seems to you.
I left EQ after six years a while ago and it was an odd feeling of loss at first but to be honest, it now feels good. I probably will never view MMOs and the toons I play in the same way again after that. I will never take it as seriously as I did that game. I will certainly never suffer a game that gives me problems technically. I will ditch it for one I can spend my free time having fun with rather than fighting to get it to run, testing it for a developer for free due to thier failed testing, etc.
Just some food for thought which may or may not apply to you personally. I just thought I would toss that out though.
He who hesitates is lost.
Well a quick glance at the tech forums shows more and more people are getting this error everyday, seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe it will get fixed soon, but it probably wont. This is SOE were dealin with after all.
Aye, which is why even when they offer me EQ2 for free till mid September after the Vanguard fiasco and years of EQ I am done... I chose DAoC instead. It's a great game. You might want to check it out. Google for it and have a look at the official site if you aren't already familiar with it. There is a 2 week free trial to see it for yourself. If you do that, be sure to download not only the initial free trial but also the free Catacombs expansion for nicer graphics. The game looks, sounds and plays great although I have just begun to play. Having read a lot about it though, it really looks excellent and I've gotten a lot of helpful replies in the forums here sorting out how and where to begin. Classic servers for most population seems the way to go is the short of it at least in my humble opinion as a newbie there. Again, just an idea you might like to consider. Why put up with the bs you know when you don't have to?
He who hesitates is lost.
More to the point of your post, I played DAoC years ago but I hear it is almost dead by now, you are saying a lot of people still play it? (really interested to know!, I know the european servers are almost non-existent nowadays).
I'm sure populations are nothing like the old days but I wasn't around then. I can tell you the classic server cluster generally runs over 2k players I think most prime time evenings so there's plenty of people for rvr, etc. within the classic cluster. I've seen the TOA servers get near 2k at primetime, that is to say, an entire cluster might hit 1.7k or so players. So its enough to have fun is my guess regardless of whether the game has as many servers total as it once did and regardless of the fact clusters were the answer to boost numbers for rvr. It seems to have worked out fine. Even on a TOA server starting new, I was seeing some lowbies, not a lot but some in the starting town. I'm sure they must have either been mostly or all alts but so what really? And chat was going on with some nice people in it when I introduced myself and said hello.
I think if you went back expecting numbers like the old days and newbie places or maybe even many older once popular zones to have many players in them you might be disappointed but as long as you recognize that overall for its age the game is doing great and there is plenty of people to play with where it counts most in rvr, you'd probably enjoy it. I know I am and I am just a lowbie new guy soloing for now until I am high enough to be grouping with people, etc.
My comments aren't to knock EQ2 at all which I think I'd probably play if not for DAoC actually but I am not willing to put up with stuff like VG's launch, etc. anymore myself. That's just me though. To each thier own. As long as someone is having fun, more power to them I say. ;-)
He who hesitates is lost.
No its one very common bug effecting more than 15% of the overal population.
See its pretty easy to pull random numbers out of your ass, but lets stick to the proveable facts.
You cant compare a CTD error to a memory leak, period. I already went over that.
1% isn't a number pulled from my "arse".
Lets go look at the technical forums shall we.
Do I see 1000 posts about the Error, no I don't.
So with an underestimated population of 100k players, thats less that one percent.
That 40 pages thread about the out of memory error, has had 10 new postings in 2007. That its a measely 10 in 9 months.
Have you tried any of the 100 fixes or so. Of which not one works for everyone.
Can YOU recreate it time and time again?
Do you know what causes it?
The Devs have been trying for years to find a common link, let alone fix it.
Considering it affects people one patch and then disappears the next. Bit hard to find what exactly is the problem.
It hard enough to fix a problem across 100,000s of computers which are each as unique as a snowflake without the problem having no consistency what so ever.
As for the problem being your end, considering the only time I have ever had the problem, it was on my end and rolling back my Video Driver stopped it
This is a very uncommon bug for a few unfournate people, thats a prooveable fact.
As I said the first time I would like to see any other Company do better.
But fine if you want to make out it some majorly common problem and SoE aren't try to fix it, fine.
You cant compare a CTD error to a memory leak, period. I already went over that.
The point I had and I guess Xanrn had is that other games has their faults their problem may it be they freeze/CTD or whatever and let it be for any possible other reasons out there. The issue is not that the don't have or have the exact same problem it is that all games deals with their own kind of problems.
Because it really doesnt matter if the game stops to work because of a memory leak or if it just simply CTD without a smokesignal. The game in every of those occasion will stop at least for the moment to work and you will not be able to play until you restart it.
EQ2 is not unique there, neither is any other game.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
I experienced the same thing, i hope tech support helps.
Life is too short to fight over bugs in games and yes they all have some but whatever.
The choices are simple, either work on helping them fix it by doing everything you possibly can to isolate the issue and giving them that feedback in hopes they can track it down or....
Go play something else. I know it sucks but that is the way it is. The analogy about snowflakes is actually a good one. PCs vary so widely in hardware and software configurations and all programs are subject to human errors in thier millions of lines of code it is actually a wonder things run as well as they do as often as they do.
People forget this technology is in its infancy really despite the major advances over such a short time in the past two decades.
I learned some time ago to just abandon ship if it starts becoming too much work to get one thing or another to run on my generic vanilla clean system for gaming. There's so much good stuff to play that if something gives me headaches I just uninstall and play something else rather than be frustrated and honestly while it hasn't happened it a lot, the times it has I don't think I missed much given how much fun I had with the next thing that ran right.
For example, I wanted to play Vanguard. I don't want to argue about the relative merits of Vanguard. But I wanted to play it. Well, it would not run well for me at all even though it does run well for some with higher end systems than mine. The solution? Uninstall and try DAoC which it turns out runs great for me and I find it a lot of fun so I don't feel like I lost much there except blowing the money on the game that wouldn't work but it happens sometimes. That does not mean I think Vanguard sucks or that SOE sucks or whatever but I it does mean I am not going to waste my valuable gaming time with something I feel wasn't ready for primetime and which certainly didn't work well for me. End of story.
I never bothered to post somewhere like here about it either. I just tried to get it to run for a time, read the tech forums, tweaked away and got disgusted and it was over. If I had posted somewhere about my woes I would have got what you got here, a mix of me too and it runs great for me neither of which actually helps me have fun playing so why bother I guess is the question. Just say no to stuff that doesn't work and go have fun playing something else. Try it. You'll like it. I know I do. :-)
He who hesitates is lost.
Never crashed. Not even once. In VG, i will crash at least one time every sessions.
eqnext.wikia.com
I think its your computer. I have 2 gigs and can play 4 or 5 hours with constant zoning before I have to reboot. I also never get "e_outofmemory" messages. I just simply decide to reboot because its going to slow for me.
Can't remember the last time EQ2 crashed. Have never herd anyone from my guild say something about it.
Must be hardware issue, if it is a bug I guess ALOT more people would have same probs.
______________________________
The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess.
And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic'
and send them to the Special Olympus.
Kinda on/off topic but has any one besides me ever noticed that one of your toons played laggier than the others or seemed to get the random disconnect from time to time ? I would swear that they had it in for my assasin lol
Mention one game that do not have any problems for some people, if it is not crashing it is something else that makes them not able to enjoy the game. Mention one game where you should not warn people because they are not buying a potentionally broken prodect because nobody does have any problem running when they should not have.
Apologist posts like this really irk me. Some people will go to any length to defend a game. So long as they're not experiencing an issue personally, and the game runs fine for them, it's not a "real" problem and "all MMOs have bugs".
"Name any game that doesn't have bugs..." "Well, all MMOs have RMT/botters, and at least this game isn't as bad as -other game here-" (the self-deluded Lineage2 people love using that one). And on and on...
Look, if even *one* person is experiencing an issue - regardless if you and/or hundreds or thousands of others aren't - it's important enough to bring up. If someone is pointlessly slamming the game, saying it "sucks" or whatever, that's one thing... defend it all you want. But when I see posts by people trying to dismiss or diminish someone saying "Hey, I'm experiencing this bug that keeps crashing the game" with "Well, it works fine for me, and besides, all games have bugs..." it's just ridiculous.
It's important for people to see both sides of the picture - not only the good, but the bad, too. It all leads to a more informed decision for the people considering buying it - a "caveat emptor" if you will. I'm sure most people are intelligent and reasonable enough to distinguish a mindless hissy-fit of a rant from a well-written and informative post, like the OP here.
Seriously, running to a game's defense with these rationalizations of "all games have..." is really not necessary.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Mention one game where you should not warn people because they are not buying a potentionally broken prodect because nobody does have any problem running when they should not have.
Seriously, running to a game's defense with these rationalizations of "all games have..." is really not necessary.
Anyway that I didn't cut in the earlier quotes was the essence of the post but is not directly coherant(?) to the quote I left from you though. But the intention was not to make it /care because alot people don't have the problem.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
I had the same problem as you and i think i have managed to find the answer to the problem. Fingers crossed now i have had no problems for 3 weeks however there is no guarantee this will work for you.
Do you have windows managing your virtual memory? If you do then change it.
I used this guide for The paging File and it worked a treat for me. I went down the 1/2 your recommended VM & this has been more than adequate to run my pc without falling over.
http://www.andreasroom.com/HowTo/WindowsOptimisations.aspx
It's a very good guide but as said before it's not guarnteed to work for you
The thing with this error is that if I edit the exe file and set it to allow it to use more than 2GB memory I can play at 1600x1200 on Extreme settings without ever crashing once. SOE have known this sorts out the problem (for Vista users at least) for months now but rather than do anything about it they've told us that carrying out this fix to allow us to play the game without crashing could get out accounts banned due to altering a file. As it is I still crash even on High settings which is ridiculous. It's not my hardware, it's the game.