Game Freezes when Starting

All things related to the UT3 RPG Monster Mash 3 server
SamuelHans
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:54 am

Hey, I'm new here and I just purchased the Steam version of UT3.

Upon starting a round in the Monster Mash 3 server, my game freezes. I can play other game types just fine though. It doesn't crash when I spectate the game though, just whenever a wave starts it crashes in 1 second.

Am I supposed to download the Mod from a certain link to get this to work correctly? I am unsure why it does this.
warhead2
1337 Haxor
Posts: 166
Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:55 am
Location: Indiana

verify as best you can that the invasion mod has had every file installed in the right place. one common cause of ut3 crash is a file in wrong place. in case like yours it not finding one of the graphic packages can easily cause in-game crash.
also check the logs cause sometimes ut3 logs which graphical reference it had trouble loading.

because you have ut3 off Steam you must pay extra careful attention because in Steam the directory structure is different from the directory structure of when you install ut3 from CD, and is a common cause of mod installation issues.
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SamuelHans
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:54 am

Thanks for the response.

I am unfamiliar with what files are needed, and I just did the download by connecting to the server. Do you have a link to download the correct version for the server so I can verify it is installed correctly?

There's multiple version that I see on the net, and I don't know which to download. I also wouldn't have a clue of how to verify if the directory structure is correct or not.
DW_Skittles
Site Admin
Posts: 301
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:00 pm

If its wave 1 its most likely your hard drive loading all the stuff.

If you leave it for a minute or 2 it should return to normal.

even on the faster mechanical hard drive it takes about a minute to load.
SamuelHans
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:54 am

Waiting for a few minutes doesn't do anything. I spectatored and watched a full wave go by. It is when I spawn that it freezes, regardless of suddenly spawning right in a new game, or spawning on wave 5 after watching the full battle.
DW_Bomzin
Site Admin
Posts: 2241
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:00 am
Xfire: bomzin
Location: Layton,Utah

Odd problem. You may try clearing the cache and re downloading the files , one could be corrupt.
warhead2
1337 Haxor
Posts: 166
Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:55 am
Location: Indiana

So you have not downloaded and installed the mod directly, correct?. All you have done is access it through the custom mod browser in ut and download it through the server browser, correct?

Reason I ask is that if you have at some point downloaded the mod from some link and installed it, this can potentially cause issue. In my own experience with ut3 mods, not only files not found, but also files in the wrong place, or the same file in multiple places, can sometimes cause crash. If so, you can just purge whatever files you installed to clean it up.

If you haven't installed the mod in this way then all the above won't be a problem, as downloading through the custom mod server browser in ut3 should be very clean. in any case clearing the cache directory sounds like a great idea. You should find that in UTGame\Cache directory, I believe.

Check the logs if you can, example of typical log location is My Documents\My Games\UT3\UTGame\Logs. Sometimes one gets lucky and ut3 actually states the exact reason for the crash. Unfortunately the usual case is they don't so logs may not be helpful.
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DW_ChocoCake
DW Clan Member
Posts: 87
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:00 pm

I know that MM3 lags my computer exactly as you describe, but it eventually unfreezes for me. I don't think there is a crash bug occurring since you are able to spectate the game which implies that the packages you have downloaded are being loaded. Also, other players are able to join the server and play. When you first spawn it loads a lot of stuff. If you do not have a lot of ram (like less than 2Gb) the game will freeze for a long time. Try turning down graphics settings and closing other applications.
warhead2
1337 Haxor
Posts: 166
Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:55 am
Location: Indiana

I tried for the first time to get on and the exact same thing happened to me. I have not installed any dw mod so i am solely loading from cache. I tried clearing cache and it did not help. I can specate, but when i spawn, there is a moment or two of total freeze, and then a big crash, i get a nasty error window and ut3 forcibly terminates. I checked the logs and a huge number of graphics are not being found. There are a *lot* of log entries saying this or that graphic is not found, and the number of entries being written explains the moment of freezing, before ut finally gives up and just crashes.

Another thing i was going to say to the original poster is that maybe they have some hardware issue with ut3, but in my case, i have resolved all such things and can play ut3 with very little issues so i know it's nothing like that.

Issue would seem to be caused by the large number of graphical assets not being found, and in my experience ut3 loves to crash when it can't find things.

I'll post a snapshot of some examples of the logs when i get a chance, but it's a lot of stuff like this or that bone not found and etc.

Also, I highly suspect that it's because there is some graphic package from some other mod or whatever that invasion also uses and which i may already have installed which doesn't have the latest stuff invasion needs, but becuase it's found in runtime install area, it won't update from cache. if such is the case then deleting package off hard drive will fix. I will attempt to identify if this is the case or not and get back to you.
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DW_TigerRaptorFX
DW Clan Member
Posts: 117
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:16 pm

Should also take into consideration that Anti-Virus and/or Anti-Spyware software running background services will add on to the load time.

Just now I ran a quick test with a program called Game Booster, and I did notice MM3 started up a little quicker. Not by much, but it was noticeable. In game mode it disabled 10 background service on my PC. Also freed up about 80 megs of ram. Might be worth looking into.

The free version should do just fine. When the it asks to install additional software. Uncheck that box.
http://download.cnet.com/Game-Booster/3 ... 13645.html
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