[0.12.13] Intermittent crash when loading games on Mac

[NPE]

Hello,

Thanks for making such a great game.

I am getting frequent crashes when loading a game (about 20% of the time). The problem is intermittent, and does not seem to depend on the save, so the same save will most likely load the second time. This has been happening since version 0.12.11. I have also got similar crashes when generating a new map.

I am running on Mac OS 10.9.5.

Here is the log from the latest crash: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5n3o2cwa6iyd ... b.log?dl=0
Here is my system info: https://www.dropbox.com/s/46gwc4t7blqaq ... w.rtf?dl=0
Here is my graphic card info: https://www.dropbox.com/s/otn0r095urr4m ... d.rtf?dl=0
Here is the save file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x78eficfsytwd ... b.zip?dl=0

[kovarex]

This might have something to do with graphics memory requirements. Can you try to change the video memory usage from "all" to "normal"?

[NPE]

Thanks for the quick reply, but changing the graphics memory usage to medium does not seem to help.

Here is the log file from the latest crash: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlyaapjuht54r ... 7.log?dl=0

[NPE]

I upgraded to 0.12.14 (auto-update worked this time ) and did some tests to try to get more information.

First, I tried loading a save, quitting to the main menu, and reloading. I was able to do this 20 times in a row without a crash.

Then, I tried starting the game, loading the same save, quitting, exiting the game, and repeating. When I did this I got 4 crashes out of 20 (20%). So it seems like the problem is happening during the game startup/initialisation and manifesting later.

Logs are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s0qk25frrc4r ... ZcIqa?dl=0

Next, I installed the gfxCardStatus utility, and used it to force use of intel integrated graphics. I then repeated the previous test and got 6 crashes out of 20 (30%). So it does not look like this problem is linked to the graphics hardware or drivers, though of course it may be graphics related.

Logs using intel graphics are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qitu52ash5ow ... tiMma?dl=0

And the save file I used is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ztvt6leedcof2 ... 0.zip?dl=0

[kovarex]

I looked at it again, and it seems like it might not be relevant to graphics indeed. It seems like some kind of threading issue, for some reason, the game is changed while rendered (probably). The strange thing is, that it is not happening to other people. What is your settings of max threads used? Can it affect the problem?

[kovarex]

This is probably the same problem: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =7&t=18010

[NPE]

Thanks for taking another look. Yes, that was it. Max threads was set to 6. I must have adjusted it at some stage and forgotten about it.

I managed to script starting factorio to get some numbers, using --load-game to load a save:

With max threads set to 6: 100 runs, 21 crashes.
With max threads set to 4 (the default for my machine): 100 runs, 2 crashes.
With max threads set to 1: 100 runs, 0 crashes.

These are for Mac OS 10.11.1 and Factorio 0.12.19. Hardware as before.

So the problem does still happen with max threads at 4, but it is much rarer. This explains why no-one else was bothered by this, except as an occasional glitch.

[HanziQ]

I tried running the game with larger amounts of threads on my Mac machines, but I didn't have any luck reproducing the issue. The solution for now, is unfortunately running with 4 or less threads, even though that decreases the performance. Moving to known issues until we know more.

[kovarex]

Hello, we fixed a small problem in the cirtical method, and I'm 99% sure it is related to this problem.

If you could test it in 0.12.21 (to be released soon, probably today), it would be great.

[dmorneau]

I was also hitting this bug and unable to start a new game, but with 0.12.21 it worked fine. Thanks!

[Spiffyman30]

I've been having this same problem but with a ~70% fail rate. Im on 0.12.20 and the max threads were at 4. I just changed it to 1 thread and it worked the first try. If this doesn't fix it Ill let you know and try the update.

[jull]

NPE I wanted to know how did you managed to change the settings on the graphic options, so Factorio starts with it. I've been looking for days in the hole forum but, no way. The config file is empty, I created a config.ini with:
[graphics]
video-memory-usage=medium
graphics-quality=low
max-texture-size=4096
But still does not change a thing. Ends exactly like this:
0.016 Graphics options: [FullScreen: false] [VSync: true] [UIScale: 100%] [MultiSampling: OFF] [Graphics quality: normal] [Video memory usage: high] [Light scale: 20%] [Screen: 255]

It's the demo version: factorio_demo_0.12.29. I'd really like to end buying the game, but if the demo doesn't event start I dont know how to do it.

My specs are:
Software OS X 10.9.5 (13F1603)
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M, VRAM (total):512 MB
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Please help me!

[Koub]

Are you sure the game doesn't start on the HD Graphics 3000 ?

[cube]

NPE I wanted to know how did you managed to change the settings on the graphic options, so Factorio starts with it. I've been looking for days in the hole forum but, no way. The config file is empty, I created a config.ini with:
[graphics]
video-memory-usage=medium
graphics-quality=low
max-texture-size=4096
But still does not change a thing. Ends exactly like this:
0.016 Graphics options: [FullScreen: false] [VSync: true] [UIScale: 100%] [MultiSampling: OFF] [Graphics quality: normal] [Video memory usage: high] [Light scale: 20%] [Screen: 255]

It's the demo version: factorio_demo_0.12.29. I'd really like to end buying the game, but if the demo doesn't event start I dont know how to do it.

My specs are:
Software OS X 10.9.5 (13F1603)
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M, VRAM (total):512 MB
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Please help me!

That is weird. Where exactly did you put the config file?

[HanziQ]

If the system insists on using the integrated video card, you can use something like https://gfx.io/ to force it to use the dedicated one.