DRD Team

Hello there.

I am reporting a problem I'm having with GZDoom temporarily freezing on me during play. My graphics card is the nVidia GEForce 7300LE, and sometimes when the game freezes, it gets so bad that the computer restarts. I am using version 1.4.8 right now, but have tried 1.5.6 with the same result. I've been playing the game with the GL rendering active, but without the texture blending. Even updating my drivers to the most recent version hasn't stopped the game from freezing. All the times this happened, I was also using a genuine Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas module for the music. By the way, my operating system is Windows XP SP3, the computer is a HP Pavilion a1440n with 4GB of RAM. The graphics driver version is 6.14.12.6658, dated 1/7/2011

Get used to the idea that you may have to buy a new computer soon. I had one go down with the same symptoms some 7 years ago. Eventually it got so bad that it even restarted on copying a large number of files on the HD.

I'll keep that in mind, Graf. For now, I have decided to use an older version of GZDoom, version 1.3.0. (I could not find 1.3.17, but will keep looking.) I went through two complete plays without any freezes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Speaking of crashes, I did experience the Doom95 bug about the skull cube's target not being preserved in saved games. I'm glad that most source ports have eradicated it.

Do the newer versions also cause restartes when you limit the frame rate to 35 fps (cl_capfps 1 in the console)?

It's a bit odd that you only seem to have the problems with newer versions. There haven't been so many changes since 1.3.17 that might cause it.

Well, I have no clue whether that command works for me or not, but will check later.

The newer versions of GZDoom on my system likely use shaders that require a newer nVidia card. Didn't somebody on these forums say that nVidia 8xxx cards or above are needed? Was it you? I have the GEForce 7300LE, like I said before. I'd have to save my money and upgrade if that is the cause of the freezes. Anyways, I noticed that version 1.3.00 of GZDoom doesn't have the option for the shaders in the menu.

I think that my freezing problem with that game is probably due to the fact that I have an older nVidia graphics card than what most people would be using with GZDoom. I'm going to save my money and upgrade to a newer card before using the newer version of GZDoom.

UPDATE:
Anyways, I did check out 1.3.17, and no freeze. I'm certain my graphics card has trouble with the newer versions. I have no idea why. However, I am going back to 1.3.00, as when I used the other one, I had trouble seeing in dark areas. When I entered the area with the first soulsphere in E1M3 of Ultimate Doom, the room ended up looking pitch black, and I should have been able to see the textures. I could not see a thing due to the sunlight hitting the computer screen. Of course, when I turned off the shaders for fog, I was able to see.

Anyways, I'm probably going to need a newer graphics card. I'm going to go on eBay and check out the prices.

EDIT: I saw an nVidia GEForce 9400 GT for only $55. Not shabby, but I'll save for it. I'm going to have to search for a new power supply first, as I saw the power requirements for the card.

That sounds odd. The shader fog should work on your card, albeit with a significant performance hit. I can use the shaders on my old computer which has a GF 6800 but it's horrendously slow.

Graf Zahl wrote:That sounds odd. The shader fog should work on your card, albeit with a significant performance hit. I can use the shaders on my old computer which has a GF 6800 but it's horrendously slow.

I don't think I was clear enough when I said that. The shader fog does work on my card.

When I play the game, I prefer to turn the fog shader off as it enables me to see better in dark areas, especially since I prefer to use the original Doom sector light mode. GZDoom versions 1.3.00 and 1.3.17 have not been freezing on me, and I do not know why the later ones have been. I now doubt the shaders are the cause. I'd have to turn off all GL features in the game, and then gradually turn each feature on until the game freezes. This means I'll have to narrow it down. I'll deal with doing that when I have spare time, and am not doing video captures.

Prior to this experience, the last time I had any version of Doom freeze on me was playing Doom95 on a 14 year old 200mhz HP computer during a battle with the baphomet on Plutonia map 30, and that was within the past two years. (The game froze due to the spawncube targets not being preserved in saved games, and when it did that, the computer stopped responding until I did a hard shutdown.) It is capable of running ZDoom, but Doom95 runs better on it. I keep the old computer around as it is the only computer in the house that can run DOS games natively. (FYI, it is a HP Pavilion 7285 with an Intel Pentium processor.)

EDIT: I noticed that under the same gamma, brightness and contrast settings, GZDoom was darker in the area with the first soulsphere in Ultimate Doom E1M3 when running version 1.3.17, while slightly brighter in version 1.3.00. I think I'll use 1.3.00 so I can see in the area better.

Ryan wrote: When I play the game, I prefer to turn the fog shader off as it enables me to see better in dark areas, especially since I prefer to use the original Doom sector light mode.

There shouldn't be a difference in visibility between shader fog and hardware fog so this is odd.

That makes sense, Graf. I can see a slight difference in really dark areas, whether the shader fog has been turned off or on, but in other areas I can't tell any difference. Of course if an area is pitch black it won't matter. However, I did notice that the dark areas were easier to see in version 1.3.00 than they were in 1.3.17, which I found odd myself.

At any rate, 1.3.00 has never frozen for me even once.

Graf, the freezing problem I was having has been resolved. After upgrading the video card it went away. I'm now using the most recent version of GZDoom.