Infinite Loading Screen

[toyotaDL]

Hi,

 

Iam just playing the Base Defense Mission. I have about 4 save slots. But the newest one I cant load. Everytime I tried the icon of xcom is spinning around for minutes (dont know how long it would spin).

 

And now we getting to the strange part. If I load the second savegame it loads a bit long but it loads... I can play servel rounds (lets say 5 Rounds).. but if I save the game after the first 1-2 rounds I can play on with no problems, but if I wanna load these new save... same as i wrote first. So I can make these "bugged" savefiles... but how can i solve this? Where does this bug came from? Anybody here with a guess?

 

Thx

[mealstormx]

I have the same problem, it started yesterday...

 

My old files load just fine, and if I play more rounds , the loading time gets worse ans worse until the game simply crashes.

 

I also noticed some lag that is also getting worse and worse . Mind you I never had any lag at all before.

 

I am currently at the EXALT base and saved many many many times. I erased most of my old saved files.

Edited July 23, 2014 by mealstormx

[dubiousintent]

Sounds like you need to see this section in the "Basic Guide to installing mods" wiki article.

 

-Dubious-

[hudiny]

Hi

 

I have the same problem which was described by "toyotaDL" and "mealstormx".

I have read and tried the possible solution: Increased Load Times

But it doesn't helps. The workaround is for XCOM: Enemy Unknown

In my case the mod installed on Enemy Within.

There is no repeated lines like this "MapName=Command1" in my XComEngine.ini

I have reinstalled the whole game, mod.

recreated My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\SaveData folder, profile.ini file.

 

What else i should try?

Can't continue my campaign :( Pls help!!

[dubiousintent]

Just a shot in the dark: Have you seen this section about "save files" in the "Steam and Mods" article? If your save files in the cloud are exceeding 99 files, it might be related. If you are clearing some out on your local drive, then they are being restored from the cloud.

 

-Dubious-

[LukeH]

Hi,

I just got the game on steam on the winter sale and I found this old thread which describes a problem similar to mine.

I'm having the issue in the base defense mission, yet the load time didn't increase gradually, it just went from ok to ~10mins form some saves, 30mins sometimes and never of others in the turn when two discs enter the central room.

I use Windows 10 (yet tryed to load those saves on Ubuntu 14 with same results too), all dlcs, absolutely no mods. What I noticed is that in task manager mem usage for the game goes over 1G and then increases slowly after.

Is there any new info regarding this? Should those links apply to no modded game? I tryed to do what's on the links on wiki but first of all there no such values in the XComEngine.ini in My Games folder under user home. I found some better resembling in in some XComEngine.ini under the game folder in steam library, there were two folders under some DLC folder (don't recall exact path, I'm not at my home PC right now). Should I mess with those files there? Already tried to change . with + as described yet with no luck.

Edited February 21, 2017 by LukeH

[dubiousintent]

There is no new information of this issue since the entry posted in the "Basic Guide". But let's see if we can clarify what you have tried a bit.

 

Which version of XCOM are we talking about: EU or EW? (This is the forum for the 2012 release of the game. If you are running XCOM2, then you need to be asking in their forum.)

 

Do you have any mods installed? In particular, do you have any major overhauls: like "Long War"?

 

That you are having the problem under both Windows and Linux strongly suggests it is the "loading times" problem in the game and not OS related. So let's focus on the problem under Windows as that what the game was originally designed for. (Linux version has a slightly different folder structure, but the basics still apply.)

 

The "loading times" issue should only be occurring if you have a DLC (Slingshot, etc.) installed under EU. (Note that EW is technically a DLC.) See the "Loose Files" section of the "Basic Guide" for details on where all DLC files are stored, which has the following:

 

Some of these DLC files may also be duplicated under your local Windows account <My Games path>\XCOM folder as well:

* i.e. "C:\Users\<your account name>\My Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown" and subfolders,

 

* or "C:\Users\<your account name>\My Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within" and subfolders.

If you don't have the DLC's XComEngine.ini file in your Users folder, then you don't have the DLC installed or that specific problem.

 

Looking at other potential causes: Older, 32-bit games (like the 2012 XCOM) can have problems under Win10.

 

While Win10 comes with DirectX12 installed and is backwards compatible with older DX versions, older games do not know that and are looking for specific versions of DX library files (i.e. d3d9_32.dll) and not finding them. So you need to install the appropriate "DirectX End-User Runtimes" as well: ones which are compatible with Win 8.1+. Note that you need the 32-bit version for 32-bit games. I make it a practice to always download both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of any libraries I manually install, so I am covered either way. (There is a reason they published a version for both 32-bit and 64-bit. They are not "interchangeable", and are separate installs going into different locations.)

 

(Games that used DX7 and 8 are murky territory. Many will run on OS's newer than XP, but may require fixes/tweaks. Always use the latest available "runtime" versions of those DX libraries.)

 

Some games try to install an older DX version they come bundled with. Those versions may not be compatible with the later versions of Windows, which is why you should manually install the version you know is compatible. Then those games will see that DX version is already installed and not try to install their bundled version causing incompatibility problems.

 

* For DX9, manually install the DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) which is Win 8.1+ compatible. Download the full runtime package. DO NOT use the "Web Installer" version.

 

* When the DX installer asks where to install the files to, you choose any folder you like, but generally have it unpack the files to a folder on the desktop or one dedicated to that purpose anywhere, because this folder can be deleted or emptied after the final install is done. (DirectX does not actually get installed at this point. The files are only 'unpacked' from an archive)

 

* Once the files are unpacked to this folder you open the folder and locate DXSETUP.exe (the actual installer).

 

* Run this installer (as an Administrator) to finalize the DirectX re-installation.

 

* When the installer is finished delete this folder.

 

Each game uses a specific DX file, or files, (e.g. d3dx9_32).

 

A newer game may use two DX files (e.g. d3dx9_42 and d3dx10_42).

 

See the MS article How to make Win10 run DirectX 9.0 for more details.

 

You can also see about applying the LAA flag (4GB fix) to the game. See the "2-4GB game memory limits and solutions" article in my signature.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 21, 2017 by dubiousintent

[LukeH]

Thanks for the answer.

As I mentioned I have XCOM 1 both EU and EW and all other official dlcs (got the whole package on steam promotion).

As I mentioned I have no mods, not even LW.

I'm playing EW and have this problem in the base defense mission, I believe that mission is only in EW, right?

 

Have to look at all this DX things you detaliated but I doubt is that (or "only" that if you wish). As you noticed, I sayed this reproduces on linux.

 

One thing I just found out, I belive from the wikis linked, is that I should have started EU first. I didn't do that but started playing EW directly (hence I had only My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within in my user folder). Do you think that could be the problem? I did start EU (but not new game in it) now and it messed all my graphical settings yet after I went back to EW saves the issue wasn't fixed. Do you think this could be it? Should I make a clean install, start EU, then EW, then manually put my saves up?

 

My bet would be on a multiple resource loading as is pointed out in the wikis as mem usage increases while load is stuck and sometimes on fresh start it even loads them on 30+ minutes, yet my XComEngine.ini doesn't look like described there especially under the user folder (in the game folder there are those . instead of +, but didn't noticed duplicate lines) Any chance those ini were revamped in updates?

 

PS: I ran in other bugs too like negative money after clicking somehow on the satellite productions, save game rolling issues on real world month change. Can't believe they didn't fix such things in such an old game.

Edited February 22, 2017 by LukeH

[dubiousintent]

The complete list of patches for both EU & EW are in the "Patches" section of the "Basic Guide" article. The last patch for EU was on 25 Nov 2013; and for EW on 05 Mar 2014. And "no", they did not fix all the problems in the game. After all: "it's only a game" and "patches don't make money."

 

You do need to run up to the Main Menu for both games first, so they get all the patches installed. EW uses some files from EU and it's folder tree, as well as some identically named replacements that are stored in it's own folders. No one has bothered to determine if any patched files are used by both, so play it safe.

 

You are supposed to manually change the "." in the "XComEngine.ini" entries to "+" as the fix to the problem. However, if you are not seeing duplicate lines in the copies in your "User" folder, then this is most likely not the source of your problem. But again, suggest you play it safe and make the changes.

 

The Base Defense mission (it is indeed only in EW) has long caused problems without a known solution, especially for those playing Ironman. Suspicion is that it exhausts video memory and corrupts the save file afterwards. Some people have gotten past the bottleneck by loading an earlier save and forcing the enemy AI to make different choices by changing their tactic decisions at certain points.

 

Did you apply the 4GB LAA flag fix AFTER you ran up to the Main Menu twice, and AFTER you employed all the "Recent Discoveries" techniques (to include running in "offline" mode) to prevent Steam from "fixing" the modified game executable? Otherwise Steam will just replace your "corrupted" executable with one from it's server.

 

ENBoost is a memory management feature of the ENBSeries to address some of the limitations of 32-bit games. In the context of that very general statement it is similar to the 4GB LAA flag fix that enables 32-bit games to use more than 2GB of RAM. However, it works differently by providing dynamic caching of video object geometry in system memory when the video adapter runs out of room, instead of CTD. This most commonly occurs when higher resolution texture mods are used. (For a more detailed explanation, see the S.T.E.P. Project Guide:ENB article.)

 

ENBoost is a stand-alone component called "enbhost.exe". It is not involved with nor require the post-processing, so it does not impose the FPS loss that the ENBSeries is known for. Therefore, it is recommended for all users. See the S.T.E.P. Project ENBoost Quickstart Instructions on how to install and configure for only this feature.

 

The "negative money" bug is not fixed, and occurs sporadically when you hit the escape key in "home base" in both EU & EW. It also sounds suspiciously like a memory problem.

 

The "save game rolling over on real world month change" is because the game numbers save game files without leading zeros. Never fixed either.

 

Do let me know if the LAA flag and ENBoost additions help. That information can then be added to the "Basic Guide" for others later.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 22, 2017 by dubiousintent

[LukeH]

Thanks for your answer. Will try all those suggestions as soon as I have time...which is a bit of a problem for me.

Just curious: if I get past the base defense mission somehow starting from a file that loads in half hour already (no more save/loads, ironman like) should I be out of problems once over it? What is known regarding this from the ones that experienced similar issue?

Edited February 23, 2017 by LukeH