A Land Far Away

In testing this evening, it seems that if all the players on the server revert to the old, standard, 3D default portraits, it suddenly and inexplicably restores the ability of DMs to log on.

This works regardless of whether the DMs are using the "new" hak I distributed or not.

Will post if I can confirm these results with more than 12 players. But for now, not only did this restore ability to log in (when I couldn't without it) - it actually re-started the frozen loading bar of my pending login attempt, leading to a successful login.

So- spread the word- if you see players with custom portraits, please pass along the advice to disable them for now, until we have a better longterm solution.

Does this apply to all 2D portraits or just the ones that were custom added in?

In order to be safe, best to keep your portrait as NWN2/MotB standard (the one that looks like your PC's head, zoomed in- changes when you put on a hat, etc).

I'll post if we learn more. For now the portrait-disabling has allowed crash-free DM login and ATing with up to 15 players on, will likely need to wait till tomorrow to try more.

Well, well, this is certainly an interesting situation.

If 2d portraits are disabled, DMs can log on, but it also means the game skips to nigh unplayable for some people the moment they join a party.

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Was that a party which consisted entirely of players using only 3D portraits, with no familiars summoned? Most the problems I've heard about come from mixed parties and/or familiars/animal companions in party.

This is an interim solution, in any case- I'd recommend giving it a try, and keep us informed of reproduceable problems.

AcadiusLost wrote:Was that a party which consisted entirely of players using only 3D portraits, with no familiars summoned? Most the problems I've heard about come from mixed parties and/or familiars/animal companions in party.

This is an interim solution, in any case- I'd recommend giving it a try, and keep us informed of reproduceable problems.

Biggest party i have been in of all 2d portraits is around 10, no issue whatsoever.

The moment a single 3d portrait is enabled in the party, the frame rate drops so horribly i need to disable every single additional graphics option and turn shadows completely off to make the game playable again.

I don't know what the problem is, considering i have a top of the line machine (4 gig ram, Core2Duo E6600, 640 meg 8800GTS), but 3d portraits destroy my framerate =x

Shouldn't be an issue for me though, the tuesday session with indio usually only sees the aussie group on which is about 6-7 atm, so leaving 2d portraits enabled then should be ok. I also don't mind doing it, but this server is so damn pretty if you can have NWN2 running full detail that it hurts to have to disable so much

I withdraw all my past comments about Obsidian.

To be able to produce such incredible and amazing bugs requires such a skill and artistry that I get tears in my eyes just thinking of it.

Bravo, Obsidian, Bravo!

Glad that we are making some progress with this problem, it has been incredibly frustrating from the DM side of the fence. The only plus is that we have been getting more building accomplished.

I played on another NWN2 server for over a year before coming to ALFA and 3D portraits were never reported as a lag issue there. That server did not have a 2D portrait option, so this leads me to the very unscientific conclusion that it is the 2D portrait/3D portrait mix that may be the issue.

Swift, I too have a top end rig like yours and was not experiencing lag on my end using a 3D portrait in a party of 2Ders. However a party member asked me to switch to 2D because I was lagging the party, and when I did so it seemed to solve the problem for them. I don't know if this will help to identify and resolve the issue, but I post it here FYI.

The mixed 2D/3D portrail thing is unworkable. I was in the group with Swift the night we discovered this - I had not yet DLd the portrait package, so I (and one other) were relegated to 3D portraits. If we were unpartied, the game flowed smoothly (even at hi res, high shadows, etc.). The moment I joined the party with the others, performance dropped through the floor. It was not livable even 800x600 w/no shadows or anything else, and if I turned up to hi res and high shadows, the game simply stopped moving for me. The moment I dropped out of party, everything was happy again. We spent the rest of the night in two parties - one of about 6 people w/2D portraits, and one of 2 people w/3D portraits. Things worked much better that way.

if everyone respects the request, then there won't be any 2D/3D mixing. If people don't want any DMs on, then by all means ignore the request.

Mikayla wrote:The mixed 2D/3D portrail thing is unworkable. I was in the group with Swift the night we discovered this - I had not yet DLd the portrait package, so I (and one other) were relegated to 3D portraits. If we were unpartied, the game flowed smoothly (even at hi res, high shadows, etc.). The moment I joined the party with the others, performance dropped through the floor. It was not livable even 800x600 w/no shadows or anything else, and if I turned up to hi res and high shadows, the game simply stopped moving for me. The moment I dropped out of party, everything was happy again. We spent the rest of the night in two parties - one of about 6 people w/2D portraits, and one of 2 people w/3D portraits. Things worked much better that way.

Don't think the mixed portraits were the issue for you, i suspect you are getting exactly the same issue i do. If i am not in a party, i can have my portrait as 3d without a worry, its when i party up and anyone else has a 3d that performance asses out.

Swift:

Don't think the mixed portraits were the issue for you, i suspect you are getting exactly the same issue i do. If i am not in a party, i can have my portrait as 3d without a worry, its when i party up and anyone else has a 3d that performance asses out.

Um, nope. Like I said, when I am in a party of just 3D portraits, I don't seem to have a big problem. If I am in a party of one or two other people with 3D portraits, I have no problem at all. In a party of 6-8 with 3D portraits, I have a little problem that is perfectly livable.

When I was in a party with mixed 2D and 3D portraits, I could not play the game.