So I got a new machine, which should be pretty adequite to run L2 with (though its only running a 32 bit OS)
AMD64X2 4200+
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
Promise SuperTrak EX8350 128 Mb Cache, RAID 5
3xSamsung 200 Gb SATA drives in RAID 5 configuration
2xGeforce7800GT in SLI
4 Gb Corsair CL2 memory (2,8 Gb avaliable to OS)
But when I run L2 (Both C3 and C4), especially when running more than one client, the game will either go spastic or totally dark.
When it goes spastic, the whole HUD and character names (and the rest of windows) is fine, but the actual game environment starts flashing through the basic 16 colors, 1 color at a time in the whole screen.
When it goes dark, the sky will turn into colors of green and everything else will be completely black, if you zoom in on your character, you will be able to make out the character in weak shades of grey. Again HUD and character names will stay intact.
When this happens, on rare occations it can go away on itself, sometimes you just have to relog (without restarting client), sometimes you have to restart the client totally and on a few occations you have to restart the whole machine.
I have tried various graphics setups and disabling SLI, but none of it seems to stop this.
Run only one client.... reboot the entire machine soon as it happens again..... aside from that... ncsoft's position on dual cores and 64bit oses (i might add, soon as you can, get xp pro 64bit ... it's a **** nice oses.. specially with that 4gb of ram you got there :) )
NCSoft officially has said that Dual Cores and 64bit OSes, are unsupported. As far as that says... don't hold your breath for anything.
In simplier terms, the only solution is to downgrade to a single core cpu and do not run higher end video cards, specially nvidia video cards in SLI.... ;)
personally any talks i've had with the issues i've mentioned.. which officially don't fall under any of the things ncsoft says is supported... they just say nothing of being able to support it let alone fix it in the future...
IMO, if they don't do something VERY soon, and for sure by C5... ncsoft is going to have more problems then they can possibly deal with.... hundreds of thousands of players calling for help....
Prebuilts, (dell/compaq.... so on so forth)... are now shipping machines not only with Dual core cpu's... but with XP 64bit installed as the default OS... every day, EVERY DAY, someone is receiving a machine, hundreds of people are reciving a machine that ncsoft doesn't support and hasn't said if they will support them in the future at all....
yes.... try having a if valued by store prices.. retail...... 15 grand machine, being pretty much unable to even remotely play the game... guess how i feel :(...
Agree. Got an amd64 since one year with a 6800Ultra.
Not to mention that since C3 I'm not able to play L2 from linux anyomore thanks to the really bad code on the client. Not to mention the artifacts appearing sometimes when teleporting into cats/necros and the client unstability.
NCSoft always replied me that they were aware and told me its going to be fixed on c4. True, at least on c4 I don't have the artifacts anymore and seems to be far more stable. Still to try it with cedega.
Please do not assume.... it doesn't put you in a good light at all..
And please, do tell me even a initial price on a dual core dual cpu (opteron) with 8gb of ram and 8 400gb drives in raid 5 would cost just for a start (and find a motherboard that can do it all) Just for those main basic parts.. price?
it's my own Main dedicated File-Game-TS Cluster-Media center-Render farm server...
It handles everything and anything i want.... fast... and stable....
It's my TV 24/7.... it can record for months on end... in high quality DVD mode.... it provides several TS severs for many many people....several hundred.... it also provides game servers, such as UT2004 and much others..
I've even considered dumping a L2 server on it if it's ever possible... i'd then be bandwidth limited if i asked for anymore then 500 players to attempt to join....
Using 3D renderes such as 3D MAX or Bryce or Lightwave, i can transfer the work over to the server, startup the app, and take full advantage of the pure cpu power it holds..... rendering something that would take days on a single machine.. only a few hours on it..
It's also availble for some specific testing related to dual core or multi cpu programs. It's the most powerful rig in my home... but i rarely EVER use it specifically as a computer.... it's a server.. it'll remain one..
Please do not assume.... it doesn't put you in a good light at all..
And please, do tell me even a initial price on a dual core dual cpu (opteron) with 8gb of ram and 8 400gb drives in raid 5 would cost just for a start (and find a motherboard that can do it all) Just for those main basic parts.. price?
Tyan K8WE (S2895UA2NRF) $534.40
Muskin Pro3200 DDR CL2.5 1GB $131.00 each
Seagate 400GB SATA II $254.40 each
Opteron 280 Dual core 2.4Ghz (retail box) $1324.00 each
although good start on those figures... those are not what i paid.... much higher.. this was pretty much on the initially launched of those CPU's and ram... and i'm not running that type of ram.. firstly... it's 2gb a stick.. and secondly it's full ECC DDR..... wow.. boom... instantly 3x the price ;)...
Good start.. but i'm working with canadian dollar figures as well... and not whole sale.. or off website.... these are more expensive (from retail stores)..... within my area which charged an arm an a leg.... but ****, pretty **** close to it..
The case isn't cheap....
It's a media center, i run more of a "crossfire" configuration.. .but it's not quite like that....
The memory is Registered ECC, the price is from Mushkin's website. Which makes that MSRP, so you should be able to find it for less than that. Going with 2GB sticks about doubles the price though.
A Silverstone TJ-03 case is $273, a pair of Silverstone Zeus SST-ST65ZF 650W Power Supplies are $320 for both.
These are online prices, but they are also not the cheapest online prices either. ^^
I'm in Minnesota, and I can come close to those prices by visiting a couple stores to buy the parts. of course then I'd have to pay tax on it. :p
The memory is Registered ECC, the price is from Mushkin's website. Which makes that MSRP, so you should be able to find it for less than that. Going with 2GB sticks about doubles the price though.
A Silverstone TJ-03 case is $273, a pair of Silverstone Zeus SST-ST65ZF 650W Power Supplies are $320 for both.
These are online prices, but they are also not the cheapest online prices either. ^^
I'm in Minnesota, and I can come close to those prices by visiting a couple stores to buy the parts. of course then I'd have to pay tax on it. :p
ah... well i don't use nor have seen any Mushkin ram around here..
I can get myself OCZ/Kingston and cosair.... but that's about it aside from REALLY gernica piles of crap...
The case i got was roughly 400 bucks without a PSU.... Remember i've gotta fit 8 hardrives in it (with 2 extra drive slots to fit a total of 10 hd's in the hd portions of the case).. ontop of that i've 2 HD hot swap drive bays and 2 DVD-DL-RW drives for on the fly burning and backups...
The case is a meer example of the price i have to pay for something i like... plenty of room and enough 120mm fan space to effectively cool everything and keep it relatively quite (all hd's have accoustic noice preventitives)
although good start on those figures... those are not what i paid.... much higher.. this was pretty much on the initially launched of those CPU's and ram... and i'm not running that type of ram.. firstly... it's 2gb a stick.. and secondly it's full ECC DDR..... wow.. boom... instantly 3x the price ;)...
Good start.. but i'm working with canadian dollar figures as well... and not whole sale.. or off website.... these are more expensive (from retail stores)..... within my area which charged an arm an a leg.... but ****, pretty **** close to it..
The case isn't cheap....
It's a media center, i run more of a "crossfire" configuration.. .but it's not quite like that....
although good start on those figures... those are not what i paid.... much higher.. this was pretty much on the initially launched of those CPU's and ram... and i'm not running that type of ram.. firstly... it's 2gb a stick.. and secondly it's full ECC DDR..... wow.. boom... instantly 3x the price ;)...
Good start.. but i'm working with canadian dollar figures as well... and not whole sale.. or off website.... these are more expensive (from retail stores)..... within my area which charged an arm an a leg.... but ****, pretty **** close to it..
The case isn't cheap....
It's a media center, i run more of a "crossfire" configuration.. .but it's not quite like that....
peace peace... at least we all agree that l2 runs pretty buggy on x2.
I still get intermittent 'black textures' or rainbow flashing screen bugs in the game even after the m$ patch.
Most games that had problems with dualcores are easy to fix. Just set affinity. But this **** game doesn't allow that. Remove gameguard and let us set cpu affinity, problem fixed.
THere are still bots running around near aden, EV and BS. I don't see how gameguard is helping. It is just screwing legitimate gamers with compatibility issues.
I did the fix yamaguchi mentioned and installed the MSHotfix... now im getting Blue Screens and it says "BAD_POOL call" or something like that then the whole computer restarts... it also seems like the computer VPU recovers sometime before this happens... u guys got any idea how to fix this?
Mine was working for a while after the fix posted by hardocp forums, then it started generating bsods randomly but no color artifact. After that, the weird colors started happening but no more bsods.