Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Cold Front (Part 1)
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
JAiZ  [developer] Jan 9, 2024 @ 2:52am
Bug reports
Use this thread to report any bugs or issues you come across.

When reporting something, include as much information as possible; Even if you don’t think it’s relevant or useful. Bugs can have the weirdest reasons for happening, so the “probably unimportant” piece of information you might leave out could actually be the exact reason why it happens.
Even something as seemingly unimportant as the amount of time you've been playing for can be useful to know - It’s always better to provide too much information than not enough.

Also, if possible, include screenshots or video recordings of the issue, as this significantly helps figure out what went wrong.

Please also ensure that you can identify if the issue is due to a mod, or whether it happens with a completely unmodded game. This information is crucial in figuring out how to fix a problem.


Known issues that can’t be fixed

Long loading times.
This happens because of the amount of custom assets used in the campaign. The more custom models/textures/sounds a map has, the longer it will take to load - There is nothing that can be done about this.
The loading times will be different for everyone, as it depends entirely on the PC’s specs. Even with my PC it takes around 30 seconds to lead into each map, and playtesters on ancient hardware have even taken up to 3 minutes or longer to load.
Just like in the base game, having programs running in the background will also affect this, as will the amount of active add-ons.
In general, expect loading times to be 30% longer than with the official maps.


Crashes/Performance issues when playing with a lot of mods.
L4D2 is an old game, and therefore has very low engine limits. For example, it only allows 3.5GB of RAM to be used, even if you have more installed, and when you reach that limit the game will crash without any error message.
The game also has a limit of 256mb for sounds and models, which is very easily reached since Cold Front has almost 4000 custom models, sounds, and textures.
The best thing to do is to reduce your active mods: HD mods, RNG mods, custom campaigns, and any large Add-On over 100MB are likely taking up the most resources and should be disabled. You can type mem_dump into the console to see the current limits.
Adding -heapsize 750000 to the game's launch options will increase the model and sounds memory limit, which should alleviate some issues.


“Too many vertex format changes in frame, whole world not rendered” is spammed in the console for map 2.
This happens when too many brush faces are visible at once, and as a result the game starts culling and unrendering the furthest brush faces. However, this is hidden behind the fog, so while it is a legitimate error, it has no effect on gameplay or visuals, and can be ignored.
If you encounter this error on your own map, you can fix it by lowering the render distance, or by turning chunks of brushwork into brush entities.


No subtitles for custom voicelines.
Left 4 Dead 2 does not support custom subtitles, at least not in Add-Ons. The accessibility patch remedies this, but requires external installation. It can be found here.


Mike uses Bill’s subtitles.
Due to how Mike’s voice was set up, his subtitles will display as Bill’s. This is unavoidable as the game lacks proper NPC and subtitle support. The aforementioned accessibility patch modifies this.


Mike doesn’t have HUD icons.
There is no way to do this, as the game is not set up to actually support NPCs. The only way to give him a HUD icon would be to overlay it with vscript, but that would not align with custom HUD mods.


Taking control of Mike breaks the game.
This is normal. Mike is not supposed to be a playable character and the game is designed for 4 players, so taking control of him breaks all sorts of things.
You have to go out of your way to do this though, and there’s no reasonable way to prevent players from taking control without outright blocking the console commands, which would be a bit excessive. Just don’t do it and you’ll have no problems.
If this is a problem for dedicated servers, you can disable info_gamemode on map 3, and trigger the remove_mike_relay to prevent him from spawning.


Some models turn invisible in the finale.
This is an issue with the engine itself, and seems to affect all custom campaign finales. It appears to be completely random, and only unrenders prop_dynamic entities. I suspect this may be due to the ancient engine limits being reached.
One way of fixing this is to change your display mode in the settings, save it, and then change it back. No idea why this works, but if the invisible models really bother you, this is a quick fix.
I've also been told that starting and stopping a demo recording can fix it as well, but haven't been able to confirm this.


Some snowpiles are invisible.
For optimization purposes, certain models do not render on lower graphic settings. This includes all the snowpile models. However, not every snowpile is a model, so only the ones that are will unrender.
The same optimization method was used for other models, such as debris, car glass, etc. - These will intentionally not render on lower graphics settings in order to boost performance.


Dynamic shadows look weird in some places.
I’m not entirely sure why this happens, but I suspect that it’s an engine issue. Unless anyone knows how to fix it, there’s nothing I can do.


Low FPS after tabbing out.
Not sure why this happens, but it seems to be something with the engine itself. It’s not consistent either. Likely related to the game being 32-bit.


Overlays disappear during the storm.
Unfortunately, unlike models, overlays are hard-coded to fade out based on the fog distance. When the storm happens, the fog comes in really close, which pretty much sets the overlays fade distance to 0, unrendering them completely.

Red lines everywhere.
This happens when using the VScript Heavy Rain mod. Use this version instead.


If you, by chance, do know any methods for fixing these issues, let me know in this discussion post.
Last edited by JAiZ; Mar 12 @ 8:43am
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Showing 1-15 of 171 comments
Mr.C Jan 9, 2024 @ 5:22am 
Game will crash when finish the map 3,loading into map 4.But it will be okay that load the map 4 in the main hall.
JAiZ  [developer] Jan 9, 2024 @ 5:33am 
Originally posted by Mr.C:
Game will crash when finish the map 3,loading into map 4.But it will be okay that load the map 4 in the main hall.
Thanks for the report. Can you also provide a list of the mods you're using, your PC specs, and what gamemode you were playing?
Share as much information as you know, every detail helps.
Mr.C Jan 9, 2024 @ 5:48am 
Originally posted by JAiZ:
Originally posted by Mr.C:
Game will crash when finish the map 3,loading into map 4.But it will be okay that load the map 4 in the main hall.
Thanks for the report. Can you also provide a list of the mods you're using, your PC specs, and what gamemode you were playing?
Share as much information as you know, every detail helps.
Well,my MODs are too many,and my PC is DELL G3 3590.I played the campaing mode.
Kayle Tid Jan 9, 2024 @ 8:28am 
I have a problem for you guys to fix this map

In chapter 3 bot "Mike" can be controlled by the player when they join the game
and causes the player to crash the game. This problem also affects server play, when BOT Mike is created the player will be granted control of it. Sometimes there are servers that only create BOTs when players join. But creating a BOT early in chapter 3 will cause the server to crash when someone joins and controls it.

I hope you guys understand what I'm saying. And let's make BOT like The Passing or Resident Evil map make it invisible or something, so that players don't control it and don't cause the game to crash.


I forgot to take pictures so I can only describe it to you in words. So I hope you guys understand
:health:
Last edited by Kayle Tid; Jan 9, 2024 @ 8:37am
Shadowysn  [developer] Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:07am 
Originally posted by Kayle Tid:
-snip-
I understand your concern, internally it's a very hacky and stupid workaround.
If there is a proper team changing function for VScript the crash will not happen as that would be used instead.

As it is right now, Mike is being changed from being a passing survivor, to a normal survivor, but because of VScript limitations some deep hard-code that is inaccessible and obfuscated is not told about this change.
So when the Mike bot is removed which happens when taking control of him, that hard code throws a hissy fit and crashes the game.

Not changing Mike to a normal survivor also causes issues as the gate event is designed around him being vulnerable to the incoming infected and needing your protection.
The 'invisible' survivor behavior will stop the crash, but it also makes Mike invincible, ignored by all infected, and refuse to follow the survivors and stand still.
This is a hard-coded part of the 'invisible' survivor behavior, and trying to fix this is very difficult if not impossible.

We have an idea to use a workaround where the Versus path can be enabled by the server owner so Mike does not spawn.
Last edited by Shadowysn; Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:10am
Kayle Tid Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:36am 
Originally posted by Shadowysn:
Originally posted by Kayle Tid:
-snip-
I understand your concern, internally it's a very hacky and stupid workaround.
If there is a proper team changing function for VScript the crash will not happen as that would be used instead.

As it is right now, Mike is being changed from being a passing survivor, to a normal survivor, but because of VScript limitations some deep hard-code that is inaccessible and obfuscated is not told about this change.
So when the Mike bot is removed which happens when taking control of him, that hard code throws a hissy fit and crashes the game.

Not changing Mike to a normal survivor also causes issues as the gate event is designed around him being vulnerable to the incoming infected and needing your protection.
The 'invisible' survivor behavior will stop the crash, but it also makes Mike invincible, ignored by all infected, and refuse to follow the survivors and stand still.
This is a hard-coded part of the 'invisible' survivor behavior, and trying to fix this is very difficult if not impossible.

We have an idea to use a workaround where the Versus path can be enabled by the server owner so Mike does not spawn.
Okay, I think the guy above has the same problem and that's the reason.

To sum up, except for that problem everything is fine. I don't have any problems playing this map I hope you will fix this problem somehow.

P/s: Wish you success in your next project:steamthumbsup:
Last edited by Kayle Tid; Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:38am
JAiZ  [developer] Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:48am 
Originally posted by Kayle Tid:
Originally posted by Shadowysn:
I understand your concern, internally it's a very hacky and stupid workaround.
If there is a proper team changing function for VScript the crash will not happen as that would be used instead.

As it is right now, Mike is being changed from being a passing survivor, to a normal survivor, but because of VScript limitations some deep hard-code that is inaccessible and obfuscated is not told about this change.
So when the Mike bot is removed which happens when taking control of him, that hard code throws a hissy fit and crashes the game.

Not changing Mike to a normal survivor also causes issues as the gate event is designed around him being vulnerable to the incoming infected and needing your protection.
The 'invisible' survivor behavior will stop the crash, but it also makes Mike invincible, ignored by all infected, and refuse to follow the survivors and stand still.
This is a hard-coded part of the 'invisible' survivor behavior, and trying to fix this is very difficult if not impossible.

We have an idea to use a workaround where the Versus path can be enabled by the server owner so Mike does not spawn.
Okay, I think the guy above has the same problem and that's the reason.

To sum up, except for that problem everything is fine. I don't have any problems playing this map I hope you will fix this problem somehow.

P/s: Wish you success in your next project:steamthumbsup:
Thanks! We'll continue working on a fix and update the campaign soon.
Kyle H. McCloud Jan 9, 2024 @ 10:53am 
Thankfully I have a bug report with a very easy fix: one of the generator props being tugged by a car at the start of the finale chapter is non-solid and you can walk right through it. No joke, that's all I saw in my first playthrough. Congrats!
(SHL2CS) Jareb Jan 9, 2024 @ 1:39pm 
when I get to the saferoom on part 1 it just crashes
Xinyi Jan 9, 2024 @ 4:11pm 
chapters 4 to 5 is unplayable for me it instantly drops my fps
ShaDark Jan 9, 2024 @ 5:59pm 
The finale doesn't seem to load for me, I can go through part one through four with no issues but when I get to the loading screen (closing the safe room door in part 4) to load the finale, the game crashes and closes out, only mods activated are weapon mods (example, Silenced Sub-machine gun replaced with Halo's Needler.)
R4ZOR154 Jan 9, 2024 @ 6:35pm 
Almost all sound seems to stop at some point during the finale after opening the shutters. Only sounds that remain are gunfire and common infected grunts. No finale music, no survivor voice lines or special infected grunts/leitmotifs. Sometimes right after hitting the button but its worked as far as the bridge before the tank and then just cutting out. Most mods I use are model re-placers (guns/items/survivors) so I though the Looming Dread tank music mod was the problem but after 5 more finale runs after a full campaign of no other issues I'm not sure what the problem is. IDK my laptop's specs but its a 2020 model and has had no problems before. Awesome campaign though!
Rhodes Jan 9, 2024 @ 7:38pm 
So I my game keeps freezing trying to load the map despite having all 3 addons installed and enabled, I'm not sure whats bugging it out so I turned to here for some help.
nick Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:04pm 
Me and my friends are unable to do versus because it is missing textures. Loading into campaign all the textures work fine but after loading into back to versus after the campaign all the missing textures became wireframe instead. We all have all 3 parts installed and our addons are disabled, even downloading the gamemaps zip did not fix the problem
KILLERMACE10000 Jan 9, 2024 @ 9:07pm 
map freezes then crashes right as it starts
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