A Pattern to the Lockups/Freezes and possible solution

[Guest]

Hello all. I've been playing MP on a Vooodoo 3 3000 AGP win98, 320 RAM, Sound Blaster 16 PnP and have had no real freezes until Part Three: Chapter Eight. I dont know if this is the last chapter (the one with the big chopper) but i do believe there is a pattern to the freezes i am experiencing. It seems that the first time loading the chapter the game runs fine, UNTIL the cutscene where the chopper flies by the tower and then wastes your a**. After this cutscene plays, the game automatically loads again to my last save game, but a few secs in the level, the game freezes. Even if i load another save game from chapter 8 the same thing occurs. However, I have found out it seems, that if after the chopper scene comes on, i press ESC to get to the in-game menu, then I load a game from a different chapter, then exit that save game, return to a chapter 8 save game, then the game does not freeze. It seems that the game will not freeze if the level data is not already in the cache or primary memory (i.e. the red loading line takes a while to move across) cuz when it is (i.e. the red line moves super fast across) then a few sec into the level, the game will lockup entirely requiring an annoying reboot.

TO sum up, I believe the freezing is a cause of the level data in memory or something of that nature.

If anyone can help me around this so I can finish this damn game, by all means, please do images/icons/smile.gif

This will probably work on any chapter where this freezing pattern occurs too.

[SkavenRMD]

Just got an answer from our coder department.

The bug may have to do with texture memory fragmenting. Try reducing the Level Texture detail in the detail settings, and playing the level again. The Penthouse level has the highest texture memory usage of all the levels in Max Payne.

We are going to check if we can reproduce the bug in our office and get it fixed.

[Guest]

Hi! Finally I'm able to post a message...
WK2K you are right! I've encountered the same
sort of problem already in the 2n 'dream' sequence: if Max falls to death and the game
is reloaded it freezes after the first moves
of Max. Same situation in the Penthouse level
after the chopper kills Max. However I don't
think it's a problem with the textures because
I played it on minimum settings, which includes
minimum texture settings.
It seems that the death-movies leaves the memory
in disorder such that the following reload of the
game causes some sort of access violation.
I'm running similar specs as you, WK2K: VoodooIII
on 750Mhz with 256 MB fast (well, sort of) SDRAM
under W98 (first ed).
Besides the freezes after the two above mentioned
death scenes the game runs smooth even in high
settings.
Peter, please try to fix that bug. I really would
like to finish the game.
Cheers euclid.

[Lancelot2]

I also have a system with similar specs(AMD + Voodoo3) and also get the continual lockups and freezes. I've tried so hard to get this game to work flawlessly but will have to wait until a "real" fix it patch is released for all of us that are having problems.
What I have noticed though is that I believe the crashes are occurring due to memory management problems between the game code and OS as when I do a fresh re-boot, I could be lucky enough to play for close to an hour before the ultimate crash or freeze, however, if I start playing MP after say UT or Q3, it will generally crash within a minute or so. Give the above a try on the lowest settings and disable fogging to see if it works.

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[Guest]

reduce agp to 2X from 4X-solved my problem!


John