Recent custom map made the whole game unplayable

[4xC]

Custom Map #2691 tags that clearly warned about being laggy and unplayable weren't wrong. Now my whole game can not be played.

I tried turning the game off, my cpu off, uninstalling and reinstalling the entire game, but nothing changed. Even lowering the performance settings didn't change anything. and I didn't even need to change anything until now because I'm using a cyber power desktop and things were downright breezy.

Now it seems like I'll have to buy a whole new desktop to ever play CW4 again. 

Suggestions?

[Grabz]

We can't really infer any useful information from "whole game can not be played". Please describe step by step what exactly is happening to your game when you try to play it.

[Karsten75]

Custom Map #2691 tags that clearly warned about being laggy and unplayable weren't wrong. Now my whole game can not be played.

I tried turning the game off, my cpu off, uninstalling and reinstalling the entire game, but nothing changed. Even lowering the performance settings didn't change anything. and I didn't even need to change anything until now because I'm using a cyber power desktop and things were downright breezy.

Now it seems like I'll have to buy a whole new desktop to ever play CW4 again. 

Suggestions?

There is no way that a map can affect the base code of the game. It's just not possible.


You may want to look at https://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=34722.0 and provide us with the player.log file.

Also open Task manager and report on CW4 and overall CPU utilization.

[4xC]

Custom Map #2691 tags that clearly warned about being laggy and unplayable weren't wrong. Now my whole game can not be played.

I tried turning the game off, my cpu off, uninstalling and reinstalling the entire game, but nothing changed. Even lowering the performance settings didn't change anything. and I didn't even need to change anything until now because I'm using a cyber power desktop and things were downright breezy.

Now it seems like I'll have to buy a whole new desktop to ever play CW4 again. 

Suggestions?

There is no way that a map can affect the base code of the game. It's just not possible.


You may want to look at https://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=34722.0 and provide us with the player.log file.

Also open Task manager and report on CW4 and overall CPU utilization.

Tell that to the map. I checked the directories based on the file location post and I don't seem to have a player log. I may be confused, what's "localappdata/low"?

overall cpu utilization is over 55% and memory is over 1350 MB

What's going on is the whole game, inside a level or on any of the menus, it is at about 1 frame per second or less.

[Grabz]

Tell that to the map. I checked the directories based on the file location post and I don't seem to have a player log. I may be confused, what's "localappdata/low"?

The file paths are structured in a way so they can be copy pasted in windows search or file explorer to directly take you to where you need to go. So if you were to copy-paste
%LOCALAPPDATA%Low\Knuckle Cracker\Creeper World 4\
it will take you directly to the folder where Player.log is located. Alternatively you can go the manual route and navigate to
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Knuckle Cracker\Creeper World 4
(make sure you have showing hidden folders enabled or AppData will not be visible).

[4xC]

Tell that to the map. I checked the directories based on the file location post and I don't seem to have a player log. I may be confused, what's "localappdata/low"?

The file paths are structured in a way so they can be copy pasted in windows search or file explorer to directly take you to where you need to go. So if you were to copy-paste
%LOCALAPPDATA%Low\Knuckle Cracker\Creeper World 4\
it will take you directly to the folder where Player.log is located. Alternatively you can go the manual route and navigate to
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Knuckle Cracker\Creeper World 4
(make sure you have showing hidden folders enabled or AppData will not be visible).

Got it, I think. Is this it?

Attached what might be another player log.

If you need me in the map itself, I will try it, but again. the whole game, in-level and on every menu runs at 1 frame per second now.

[Karsten75]

I'm looking at the log file you attached:


Direct3D:
    Version:  Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
    Renderer: Microsoft Basic Render Driver (ID=0x8c)
    Vendor:   
    VRAM:     4079 MB
Dedicated video D3D11 device creation failed (error: 0x887a0004). This device is used specifically for video decoding, we will use software video decoding instead.<RI> Initializing input.
:
:
:

Processor Type = Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Processor Count = 4
Processor Frequency = 3293
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphic Device Name = Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Graphic Device Version = Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Graphic Memory Size = 4079
Graphic Shader Level = 50


Indications are that you don't have a GPU and that you don't have the correct drivers for the Integrated Graphics on the Sandy Bridge Processor.

That would account for poor performance.

Additionally, you may have somehow lost the correct DirectX software or it may have been corrupted. You can try to reinstall that as well.

[4xC]

Alright, I'll check for corrupted files and directx checkups, but until I tried this map, everything was running so fast and smoothly I had no need for a dedicated GPU and the integrated processors were working perfectly, so why would the whole game go from seamless high-speed performance to what it is now just by logging onto a laggy map?

I don't deny that something else may be the cause, but the fact remains that this all started the instant I tried to play this map.

I recently downloaded directx directly from Microsoft. How do I make sure 11 is running instead of 12?

UPDATE: it seems that the windows system updated itself after I downloaded 11 and the game is still slow.

[4xC]

I'm looking at the log file you attached:


Direct3D:
    Version:  Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
    Renderer: Microsoft Basic Render Driver (ID=0x8c)
    Vendor:   
    VRAM:     4079 MB
Dedicated video D3D11 device creation failed (error: 0x887a0004). This device is used specifically for video decoding, we will use software video decoding instead.<RI> Initializing input.
:
:
:

Processor Type = Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Processor Count = 4
Processor Frequency = 3293
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphic Device Name = Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Graphic Device Version = Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Graphic Memory Size = 4079
Graphic Shader Level = 50


Indications are that you don't have a GPU and that you don't have the correct drivers for the Integrated Graphics on the Sandy Bridge Processor.

That would account for poor performance.

Additionally, you may have somehow lost the correct DirectX software or it may have been corrupted. You can try to reinstall that as well.

I did some digging and you were right. Somehow I didn't have everything up to date.

I just now got AVG Driver Updater and that fixed everything. Even other games I had that required certain extensions or files were not working properly by now. After updating all my drivers, everything "handles like a dream" again shall we say.

Thanks for the guidance.