Game has become really volatile recently

[gagnedd]

I have played this game successfully for at least a year on my gaming PC with an I5 and an Envidia with 4GB onboard ram. It slowed down after way too much exploration and base building, but I had a good long run without issues. Lately the game started crashing every time upon game save load. I updated my graphics drivers, and it worked once. Then a couple days later, it started crashing on save load again. The only way I could get the game to start was to turn down my graphics settings from medium to low for the first time ever. Even then, the game appears much more sluggish, and I haven't even explored that much or build that much yet. Also, for the past month, the game crashes pretty much every hour, so I have to keep restarting it, and often restarting my PC. I have to save way to often to keep from losing a lot of work in the game. What is happening? Why has the game become so volatile all of a sudden? I guess what I'm asking is "What have you done to one of my favorite games?"

[Insane Rogue AI]

Originally posted by gagnedd:

You got another thousand to fifteen hundred dollars laying around? I sure don't. Especially not just for 1 single game out of many my machine plays just fine. I love this game, but it has a big problem as the new content lays out. Soon, only a small % of players will be able to play it at all :(

Not to burst your bubble or anything but most people on steam have 8gb vram or more. Look at the feb 2024 steam survey.

I do sympathise since before upgrading in late 2021, I played with a 780gtx 3gb for almost nine years(I should have taken the 6gb version instead, oh well).
But 4gb is too little for most games these days. Granted it depends on what you play and what you consider playable.

Assuming it's a desktop, buy a used 3060 12 gb. They go for 200-250$ US on ebay. Depends on your budget really. Look locally, you can sometime get much better deals.
The point though is that you don't need to spend 1k to fix your VRAM bottleneck.

If it's a laptop, yeah IDK. Laptops with a decent amount of vram are stupidly expensive.
An external gpu could be an option though.

[Pyramid Games]

Originally posted by gagnedd:

[...]you've ruined a game [...] by designing it to be too bloated to run on normal gaming PC's.

This is not very nice, are you assuming we broke your game on purpose?

1. You only wrote that you have 4GB of RAM, based on that information I could only assume the game will not run. If you made a mistake and you meant 4GB GPU VRAM and you actually have 8GB of RAM or more then the game should run fine.

2. We answer to every player report, every bug report, every crash. As you know we have a dedicated e-mail account where we receive tens of game logs and save files every day and we fix every reported issue we can find.

3. So far nobody reported increased problems with the game performance after recent update, quite the contrary, we improved performance in some places and continue to do so. But most players expect us to keep adding content to the game, and more content means more resources / RAM required, that's just physics, like you can't add more water to a cup that's already full (even though we still try to "compress" that water to make the game run as good as possible).

4. There's always an option to switch to a "previous version" game branch on Steam so that you can continue playing the game without the additional content which won't fit in your memory. We try to consider the needs of every player, so even those with very old PCs can continue playing.

5. You didn't send us your save files and log files so there's no way we can debug your specific case and see how much resources are used in your save. As mentioned before: [e-mail] is the e-mail address where we are waiting for your log files and description of the problem.

[gagnedd]

I was hoping maybe that was a misunderstanding. I was too assumtive. I was trying to say that I had an Nvidia with 4GB onboard Ram. Nvidia is a GPU of course, as I don't think they make systems or processors, as far as I'm aware. I was hoping you'd assume that I was playing on a gaming PC (I wouldn't honestly expect the game to run, or even try to run it otherwise), which are gaming PC's because they have GPU's with onboard Ram to compliment the system Ram. I should have stated that I had 8GB of system Ram in my laptop as well, like I had said in my F4 post. Sometimes when you say things several times in several different places, one forgets the exact words they used or should use. Anyways, now we're on the same page.

I do understand where you guys are coming from, and I want the best for this great game too. I am genuinely concerned though that with the way this game seems to be suddenly overloading and crashing my pretty decent gaming laptop, that when you add Chemistry, the dog Robot, the rest of the story and the ending (what I'm most looking forward too), and multiplayer, that this game may just not run for me. I really hope I'm wrong about that. I wasn't trying to imply that you guys intentionally designed a game that would overload PC's like mine. I just mean that you're project is so amazingly ambitious, it may turn into a game that would run on only elite PC's when it's finished, so anything you guys could do to plan ahead and do everything you can to optimize what you already have will only help the finished project later. I know you guys are trying to do all you can on this regard. It just freaked me out when I thought you were saying that there was no way my PC should be able to run this game properly. I mean, I paid about 1.5 times what I paid for my PS5 2 years ago, so these types of PC's are not cheap, especially compared to your biggest competition of console gaming. I mean, in a perfect world, this would be a PS5 game, because my PS5 is so smooth, reliable, and consistent compared to the mish mash world of PC gaming, as I as expect you know :) ! Obviously I like some of the differences that PC gaming has to offer, or I wouldn't haven't almost $1000 on a gaming PC :) .

Anyways, I really love this game and want it to be amazing, and I hope I can stay with you and see it through till the colonists come home! (or whatever ending you have in mind) :D !

So, on a positive note, what files do I send you, and when once again? Do I send them immediately after my next game crash, or after my last save before my next crash? Is there anything else I can do to help you understand what is going on in my laptop that is causing these regular engine crashes? I will do anything I can to help, and to help you help me. Cheers!

P.S. I do intend to keep backups of different older versions of the game on my storage hard drive in case I am just unable to run the game after a future patch for some reason. Meantime, running the game on 1000 x 800 and treating F5 auto save as my best friend to avoid losing gameplay to crashes, I should be alright if you are unable to find anything else to help me.

[gagnedd]

Please note that I have never emailed a log of any game to anybody in the past. I am a complete noob on this regard. When I see you asking other players to submit logs and such, I often wonder how that is done.

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by Insane Rogue AI:

Originally posted by gagnedd:

You got another thousand to fifteen hundred dollars laying around? I sure don't. Especially not just for 1 single game out of many my machine plays just fine. I love this game, but it has a big problem as the new content lays out. Soon, only a small % of players will be able to play it at all :(

Not to burst your bubble or anything but most people on steam have 8gb vram or more. Look at the feb 2024 steam survey.

I do sympathise since before upgrading in late 2021, I played with a 780gtx 3gb for almost nine years(I should have taken the 6gb version instead, oh well).
But 4gb is too little for most games these days. Granted it depends on what you play and what you consider playable.

Assuming it's a desktop, buy a used 3060 12 gb. They go for 200-250$ US on ebay. Depends on your budget really. Look locally, you can sometime get much better deals.
The point though is that you don't need to spend 1k to fix your VRAM bottleneck.

If it's a laptop, yeah IDK. Laptops with a decent amount of vram are stupidly expensive.
An external gpu could be an option though.

Sorry Insane Rogue. That was a misunderstanding. What I was trying to say is that my Nvidia Graphics card has 4GB decicated onboard, which is what makes it a gaming PC. My main system has 8GB of system Ram. If a game had trouble running on what is essentially 12 GB of functional Ram, I'd be quite concerned and would probably want to shy away from it. However, I have fairly modest standards for game performance, as I have spent the last 30 years and more playing games that were in no way comparable in graphics to what we have today. I don't expect a game to run on any kind of high settings or with 60 FPS or anything like that. I just want a game that runs on medium to low graphics settings, that is reasonable playable and doesn't crash all the time.

And no, I don't play on a Desktop. I need a PC is more versatile and portable (and takes up minimal space) for work, so laptop it is. I have never heard of an external GPU for laptops, though, so I may have to learn more about that idea.

[Pyramid Games]

This directory on your PC contains logs and save files:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames\OccupyMars

(as explained in the FAQ)

Player.log shows the log of the last time you started the game, so send it after the crash.
You can also zip the whole directory and send it to us, but write which save name caused the issue. Also always try to write the reproduction steps in the e-mail - what to do to repeat your issue on your save. This way there's a chance we will find the problem.

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

Originally posted by gagnedd:

I have played this game successfully for at least a year on my gaming PC with an I5 and an Envidia with 4GB onboard ram[...]

If you really have only 4 GB of RAM then this is not enough for our game.
8GB is minimum but we recommend at least 16GB for comfortable gameplay (i use 32GB).
Actually we improved optimization of many things in the last update, but we also added more buildings like Miners etc, and so with every update the game will need more memory, so even if for some reason it worked for you just on 4GB RAM, it was a coincidence. It's just not enough RAM to fit everything the game has to offer.

This is a direct copy/paste from my earlier thread post:

"My machine should be good enoug with an I5 and and Nvidia with 4GB onboard, (and 8GB Ram besides)"

I guess I did say it right :) (and 8GB Ram besides)

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by Pyramid Games:

This directory on your PC contains logs and save files:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames\OccupyMars

(as explained in the FAQ)

Player.log shows the log of the last time you started the game, so send it after the crash.
You can also zip the whole directory and send it to us, but write which save name caused the issue. Also always try to write the reproduction steps in the e-mail - what to do to repeat your issue on your save. This way there's a chance we will find the problem.

Thanks. I'll try to send you what I can. Please note, it's not any particular save file. I started the game fresh a day and a half ago, and that game was also crashing regularly from the start. The game just seems to be doing something in my PC over time that eventually crashes the Unity engine, the game, and my Steam with it. There appears to be no other rhyme or reason, except that when I lowered the resolution to 1000 x 800, it took about twice as long to crash, so it has to be something to do with the system demands of the higher quality resolution and video quality.

[gagnedd]

Originally posted by 7Games a Day:

Originally posted by adrianna_PyramidGames:

I have a few points for you to try and I recommend following them in the given order:

1. Enter "regedit" in the Windows search bar. Then, paste the following path \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\PyramidGames\OccupyMars at the top of the window, leaving the first word which means "computer". Press ENTER and remove the highlighted folder.

2. Remove the folder OccupyMars which can be found here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames. Important note: If you have any save states that you don't want to lose, please first find them in the following folder: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\PyramidGames\OccupyMars\SaveData, copy them and keep somewhere in a safe place on your computer.

3. Click "verify file integrity" in game's properties on Steam. Here are the instructions if needed.

After all that, you're ready to relaunch the game and see if it will crash again.

Bought the game recently and in my opinion this really needs ajustments so that the game goes smoothly. Started three different saves and they all lead to crashes and freeze at some point, my latest save i tried to explore without building just to see if it would crash and when discovering the second site it freezes, so basically we need to stay confined in an area for the most part which takes the fun out of exploration. I have 32GB ram and 6GB vram and only play at 1080p usually not too demanding for a pc

Oh God! This guys PC is worlds above mine, and a laptop with those specs would cost thousands! If he has trouble running the game to his standards, heaven help me, I guess. What chance do I have with my comparatively weak laptop PC. :( Hopefully you guys can help this guy, and maybe in the process, find a way to help me have a more successful running of the game!

[Pyramid Games]

In the first post you only wrote about 4GB, in the next posts you started mentioning other values but it wasn't understandable. What does "besides" mean in hardware? and the difference between RAM and VRAM is pretty important.

Also Steam Hardware Survey currently shows that 50% of gaming PCs in the world have 16GB of RAM or more. You don't have to buy a whole new PC, just an additional ram stick for your PC, for like $40.

Another thing: the fact that somebody has problems on his 1 high performance PC doesn't mean that it's a problem with the game. Every PC is different, it's not like with consoles where each one is identical. Some PCs have cooling problems, others have problems with drivers which are not up-to date etc. During the last 7 years of releasing many games we have seen the weirdest issues happening to player PCs.

We have about 40 PCs at the office, with different CPUs and GPUs, some Intel, some AMD, some have 8GB RAM, some 16GB, some 32GB etc. but on each of them our game is behaving fine, no crashes. We wouldn't release a game build if we had crashes during testing. It's just that there are so many possible hardware configurations in this world that game developer can stand on his eyebrows and still won't be able to make the game work on everything, we can only do our best and try to test on as many machines as we can.

Anyway I think enough has been said in this thread so I will be closing it. We are still waiting for logs, saves and description of reproduction steps at [e-mail] from anyone who encounters any crashes, we're always happy to help.

[gagnedd]

Found The Solution to my game crashing issue

FYI to anyone who saw my earlier locked thread on how the game had become volatile for me and crashed regularily, I have essentially figured out the problem to the point where my game runs smooth and has virtually no issues anymore. My problem appeared to be lack of free hard drive space once the game was installed. I always assumed that the hardware space "requirements" for a game were always just the space needed to install the game and install the occasional update. It didn't ever occur to me that having free available hard drive space was essential for certain games to run properly. The game says it requires minimum 15 GB of free hard drive space, but they recommend 20GB. I was trying to run the game with only 5 - 7 GB free after the game was installed. This seems to be the source of my crashing issue. Once I moved another game to my backup portable D drive, I had about 30GB free hard drive space, and the game has run brilliantly on the setting I always used to run the game on ever since. Free hard drive space appears to be truly essential, at least for this game to run properly on my gaming laptop. I just wanted to do a followup anyways in case anyone was curious or experiences the same issues with the game.