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Author Topic: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?  (Read 2304 times)

GoneWacko

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Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« on: May 08, 2009, 01:05:38 pm »

Last night I decided to reinstall my laptop.
Since I ran out of Windows Vista licenses and couldn't find any of my recovery DVDs, I went ahead and installed the Windows 7 RC (had to happen on of these days anyway :P).

At the moment, Dwarf Fortress seems to be crashing relatively randomly when I move around the map and/or change Z levels.

I'm wondering if anyone else is running Windows 7 and if they also have the same issues?

I've not tried too many things to diagnose the situation yet. Could easily be an issue with the graphics driver or some other issue that is not directly related to Dwarf Fortress.
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Eviltyphoon

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2009, 01:53:53 pm »

I'm running the beta, and I have no problems
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Tormy

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2009, 02:15:02 pm »

I'm running the beta, and I have no problems

That's quite impressive. I also heard that the Windows 7 beta system is faster than XP or Vista already. Is this true?
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spokehedz

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2009, 02:35:49 pm »

It's not that much faster than Vista, and it's certianly not any faster than XP...

But at the same time that is like saying the 1973 Gremlin is faster than a 2008 Prius.

Sure, they are both cars and the both run on the same roads--but they were built for different times, and with different requirements.

Vista adds a whole lotta style (which I am unable to say about either the Gremlin or the Prius) and flash. 7 adds a whole lotta stability and REFINES the flash. It also greately reduces the annoying "Are you sure you want to do this?" dialog.

Think of it this way:

Windows Vista = Windows ME
Windows 7 = Windows XP

or to put it a more dwarvenly way:

Windows Vista = Dwarven Atom Smasher
Windows 7 = Water/Magma flood
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GoneWacko

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2009, 03:30:17 pm »

As far as the original topic of discussion is involved: There is a remote possibility that I screwed up the cat-mouth-fix bit. I'm not sure if that should cause DF to crash, but it might be an explanation. I've not yet played long enough with a clean install to know for sure if it works now, but we'll see.
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Greiger

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2009, 04:13:03 pm »

I haven't heard of any minor thing like the messing up the cat fix causing a crash, you can do a whole buncha weird things with those raw files without issue.  It probably is possible to crash the game doing something absolutely insane with them, but the cat thing is hardly white-coat worthy.

I have no experience with windows 7 myself.  All I can suggest is if it has it to try compatibility modes and things.

As a side note am I the only one who noticed a sharp increase in DF won't work for me posts?  I saw 3 in the last month, and I never go to the bug reports section.  I think before that I usually saw about 1 a year.  Makes me wonder what could be the cause.
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Kardos

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2009, 10:03:18 pm »

I haven't heard of any minor thing like the messing up the cat fix causing a crash, you can do a whole buncha weird things with those raw files without issue.  It probably is possible to crash the game doing something absolutely insane with them, but the cat thing is hardly white-coat worthy.

I have no experience with windows 7 myself.  All I can suggest is if it has it to try compatibility modes and things.

As a side note am I the only one who noticed a sharp increase in DF won't work for me posts?  I saw 3 in the last month, and I never go to the bug reports section.  I think before that I usually saw about 1 a year.  Makes me wonder what could be the cause.
More new players who put things in their program folders on Operating Systems that put the save files in 'secure' directories.  Thats my guess.
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Janus

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2009, 12:40:36 am »

I've also played DF in the Windows 7 Beta without having any problems. I updated to the Release Candidate a couple days ago, but I haven't played DF yet since then.
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Tormy

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2009, 05:40:46 am »

It's not that much faster than Vista, and it's certianly not any faster than XP...

But at the same time that is like saying the 1973 Gremlin is faster than a 2008 Prius.

Sure, they are both cars and the both run on the same roads--but they were built for different times, and with different requirements.

Vista adds a whole lotta style (which I am unable to say about either the Gremlin or the Prius) and flash. 7 adds a whole lotta stability and REFINES the flash. It also greately reduces the annoying "Are you sure you want to do this?" dialog.

Think of it this way:

Windows Vista = Windows ME
Windows 7 = Windows XP

or to put it a more dwarvenly way:

Windows Vista = Dwarven Atom Smasher
Windows 7 = Water/Magma flood

Okay, thanks for the informations.  8)
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Frobozz

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2009, 09:15:08 am »

While we're on the off-topic discussion a bit, the speed goal for Windows 7 wasn't aimed at modern systems but rather systems that are somewhere between the requirements and recommendations for Windows Vista and perhaps even a little weaker than the requirements. Systems that have really weak video (like GMA 950) and lower end single-core processors. So while the speed increase might not seem that big on a Core 2 Duo with a mid-range current gen video card, the increase could be pretty massive for someone on an eMachine.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2009, 09:22:35 am by Frobozz »
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Sir Finkus

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2009, 10:32:32 am »

I haven't heard of any minor thing like the messing up the cat fix causing a crash, you can do a whole buncha weird things with those raw files without issue.  It probably is possible to crash the game doing something absolutely insane with them, but the cat thing is hardly white-coat worthy.

I have no experience with windows 7 myself.  All I can suggest is if it has it to try compatibility modes and things.

As a side note am I the only one who noticed a sharp increase in DF won't work for me posts?  I saw 3 in the last month, and I never go to the bug reports section.  I think before that I usually saw about 1 a year.  Makes me wonder what could be the cause.
More new players who put things in their program folders on Operating Systems that put the save files in 'secure' directories.  Thats my guess.

Well that should be completely transparent to dwarf fortress, or any other program for that matter.  At least that's how it is designed to work.

GoneWacko

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Re: Randomly crashing under Windows 7?
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2009, 08:32:51 pm »

Well I've not had this current game crash at all even after hours of prolonged play.

It may have been the fact that I tried to keep this system a little organized (even though it all descends into decay after a couple of months anyway :-)), I put DF in my Program Files folder. It's now on my Desktop where it's always been and it's fine.

If that was not the issue, then it was more sinister. Maybe the world I was playing with was bugged somehow, because I did gen a new one for this current game.
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