Dark Souls 2 Crashes

[kaffeekranz]

Test3 crashes as well.

My game path should be fine: C:/Games/

[DaSun]

Well I think I may have something, not sure if it will work for everyone. I've been able to play the game without hardly any crashing at all. I will go into detail over the extensive testing I've done.

So first let me start off by saying after changing and messing with every setting imaginable. Ranging from tweaking the games graphics settings, closing anything that could causing the game to crash, checking graphics drivers, disabling steam overlay, etc. nothing seemed to work.

But darnokz mentioned something about the compatibly modes so I decided to try it. I had already but the game still crashed until last night. Once I switched the compatibility mode to : Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5 the games stability with the ENB improved ten fold.

I was having the same issues as others when I went to certain spots in the game it would crash. Or when the game would load or travel it would crash. The hole in majula, the shack with the cat, if I ran off to the side down the stone corridor. But now the game never fails to load; almost. I tested it more this morning but last night I came in and out of the game over twenty times without it CTD once when the game loaded. I dont have any of those other issues above either anymore but it still crashes; I'll get to that.

Now last night I had all my applications off so I tried it again this morning with everything on and the game still ran fine in the Windows NT. Hardly no crashing at all. It only crashed once last night and it wasn't during loading and at annother part of the game other than majula. So I thought the loading issues had stopped but I tried it again this morning and it crashed once while in the game and once while loading. But thats after moving through it a lot, the game does not crash hardly at all for me anymore anyway; it has yet to be seen it it might work for others.

So that means theirs still a problem if its still crashing but overall the game is working much better with ENB now. I also wanted to note that I tested all the other compatibility modes as well and every other; for me anyway; the game crashed. Only in NT does the game work really well; for me.

So that also means that it might not have been any settings or applications causing the game to crash; though it still does but not hardly at all anymore. Oh and I tested how it ran running as an administrator on and off and the game still ran pretty good whether if it was on or not. I have all graphical setting on high and none of the settings of my computer have been changed. The NT mode worked really well for me.

Also I havent tried the test versions yet, I will give them a try an see if it makes any difference. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, I7 950, HD 5770 Vapor-X, 6 GB RAM.

[crazypilot]

@DaSun, thx alot for information

edit :
10mins so far and not a single crashed. Teleported ingame alot already. Game started without crashing for the 1st time.

I will test more.

Thanks alot Boris <3

edit2: Restarted game 7 times and not a single crash. I was getting 7 8 crashes every 10 game start.
i will test ingame more.

edit3: After 2.5h of gameplay, i had only 1 crash, at random place. And not a single Fresh Game Start crash. Way more stable.

[kaffeekranz]

NT mode's not an option on Win8 unfortunately though.

[darnokz]

Yep, test 3 crashes.

[null-subject]

Exact same issues here guys. I could get in the game, but travelling was almost a surefire crash. Using the Windows NT compatibility mode helps tremendously (it makes the game playable at the very least), but it still crashes after a while.

I've now completed the game 100%, and there are also many (almost all late game bonfires) areas in which AO turns on and off depending on the camera angle (Shaded Woods, Ruined Fork Road is one of them)

I'd love to find a way to resolve these 2 game breaking issues, but everything else works fantastic.

Thanks a lot for the hard work Boris, and thanks to everyone else here contributing.

[Catharsis Mandate]

I can confirm that the NT compatibility is doing something, I just played for over an hour with wickfuts preset, where I would crash 9 out of ten times I warped or died before. I was approaching the castle over the footbridge from the second bonfire in huntsman's copse when I finally did crash.

[DaSun]

I'm glad things are working for a few people. You must experience this game when its gorgeous; its a totally different experience and game compared to what was released.

I tested the test3 and it didn't crash or anything. The overlay wasn't working; suppose because it was a test file. But I'm not sure I could add anything to the test file working. The ENB graphics were not on due to it and thats the only time the game crashed for me. The vanilla game never had any issues though the NT is still working when I switch the test file and preset ENB's. Seems like the crashing happens about the same rate for everyone. I'm still not having almost none, the last few hours coming in and out and had no problems.

@kaffeekranz, wow Windows 8 doesn't have NT. Well thats just another reason for me to stay away from that OS. They already took a lot of stuff out of 7.

edit: Oh and thank you so much Boris for the work you've done, and everyone here contributing.

[darnokz]

To windows 8 users, I can play without crashes on windows 98/95 compatibility mode.

I've just found save location so you don't have to start new game : its on C:/ProgramData/DarkSoulsII ---> copy your current save file there. (normally game saves are in C:/Users/*username*/AppData/Roaming/DarkSoulsII)

You will have to set your graphics settings again and put that auto lower detail thingy off.

!!!There's one important thing. !!! Performance is worse while using this compatibility mode. I normally run the game at locked 60 fps with enb. Now I have 40-60 fps while looking around majula. It's not exactly perfect solutiont then...

[Enrai]

Thanks for the heads up Darnokz. I noticed the performance drop too, unfortunate but tolerable.