Vista/Stalker save game crashes [FIXED]

indigo74 · 25 Mar 2007 at 17:29

Right-o, like a lot of people I've been pretty "annoyed" at not being able to play stalker without crashing to desktop in Vista every time I save, hit escape, etc. etc. when running in DX9 mode....

Finally this afternoon a working solution! I've been playing for the last 2-3 hours without a single crash, I can save, running at 1920x1200 res with everything maxed....

You need to manually patch the binary using the Microsoft Binary File editor to large memory addressing and also adjust the boot parameters of Vista. I believe it's slightly different in 64bit Vista (which I'm not running) but I'm sure someone can add to this post once that's been worked out.

Copy the XR_3DA.exe to a safe location (In case it all goes wrong)
For a command prompt (run with admin rights)
editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE XR_3DA.exe
BCDEDIT /set increaseuserva 2900

Now the only problem with this solution is sourcing the EDITBIN utility that comes with Visual Studio (For those with VS, Find it in the VC98\BIN directory under the main Visual Studio directory).

BCDEDIT is part of Vista so that's not a problem....

Coolasmoo · 25 Mar 2007 at 17:48

Theres a similar solution in the GSC forums

http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums

As many of you, when i pressed Escape to go to the menu to save i got dropped to desktop.
Like on "supreme commander" on vista, memory management seems to be the problem.
So you can fix that with this patch: http://files.filefront.com/3GB_enabler2zip/;6791818;;/fileinfo.html
this patch/solution was release for supreme commander but it works for me on stalker.
Just replace all "supremecommander.exe" with "XR_3DA.exe" on the startme.bat file.
This patch will modify the header of XR_3DA.exe to have this option: "Application can handle large (>2GB) addresses"

Not tried it yet though

Coolasmoo · 25 Mar 2007 at 18:08

ok, ive moddified the XR_3DA ok,

Is there any ill effects to adding the BCDEDIT /set increaseuserva 2900 to vista , and can it be reversed so to speak

Coolasmoo · 25 Mar 2007 at 18:38

Well if anybody wants to try this, ive manged to find out how to back up and restore.

bcdedit /export "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Creates a backup to a pre-created folder, in this case “BCD Backup” on drive D:

bcdedit /import "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Restores the backup previously created

Will report back later to see if its fixed

indigo74 · 25 Mar 2007 at 18:55

It worked brilliantly for me, and yes you can reverse the changes made by bcdedit to the boot files

Coolasmoo · 25 Mar 2007 at 19:02

Seems to have worked here too

Only had a brief go, but saved loads of times, escaped and quick loaded with no problems

cool

killer_uk · 25 Mar 2007 at 19:27

Excellent, I was waiting for a fix for this issue so I can start playing STALKER. Thanks.

tomanders91 · 25 Mar 2007 at 20:03

nice one, maybe i can get this game afterall

Plunk13 · 25 Mar 2007 at 20:05

YAY. It now works in vista64. Dead easy to do as well.

tomanders91 · 25 Mar 2007 at 20:15

is this only for 64bit? i have vista 32bit.

Arkanoid · 25 Mar 2007 at 20:28

tomanders91 said:
is this only for 64bit? i have vista 32bit.

I've not had any crashes on Vista 64 with 8800gtx

Coolasmoo · 25 Mar 2007 at 20:31

tomanders91 said:
is this only for 64bit? i have vista 32bit.

Vista 32bit is what im using

BlairH · 25 Mar 2007 at 23:44

Where can I legally obtain this editbin utility?

Vtec9k · 26 Mar 2007 at 13:45

HERE

All you need is in that zip, jsut change supremecommander.exe to XR_3DA.exe

Orgun · 26 Mar 2007 at 14:21

All I did was download a No dvd crack and that seems to have sorted it, on Vista 32bit.

v0n · 27 Mar 2007 at 02:00

Let's rehash what this does - the first line makes sure the game executable can access more than 2GB of memory while the second line specifies the amount of memory for user-mode virtual address space (in this case 2900 which is 2969.6Mb of memory). The rest of the memory would be used by windows as kernel-mode address space.
So, since the author didn't explain what it does - for anyone with 2Gb this is won't fix anything and setting user space to more than physical memory will allow the game to temporarily use more of it, creating placebo effect, until game and windows progs in the background eventually run out of memory and start crashing.

celliott · 27 Mar 2007 at 02:03

Why would you want to run in DX9 Mode / How :confused:

I just installed it and used straight away so I assume its on DX10

BlairH · 27 Mar 2007 at 02:18

celliott said:
Why would you want to run in DX9 Mode / How I just installed it and used straight away so I assume its on DX10

Nope. Stalker has been in production since DX8's high period, it's just good fortune really that the devs added dx9 effects.

The first games that make use of DX10 are a wee while away yet.

hardc0re_tid · 27 Mar 2007 at 09:25

im having the same problem in xp sp2. i *think* i had no problems untill i used a no dvd crack from megagames.

cant even play a multiplayer - go to connect to server and quits to desktop

Master_X · 27 Mar 2007 at 13:33

I am having the crash problem too, but i am running XP sp2!! i cant even get past the first mission as it crashes ALL the time and needs a restart!

I also have an ATI card and aparently this is also what is causing the problem as they focused more on the Nvidia cards then ATI

BRING OUT A PATCH AND QUICK!!!