Game keeps crashing when resuming in Denerim, now it just freezes when loading save (Origin Version)

[AuraGuardianXIV]

I'm not the most savvy when it comes to modding DAO so please bear with me.

 

Hello, I only relatively recently just started playing the game and now have almost thirty hours on my first character. I did the 4gb patch and installed a couple of mods that I was recommended. (IA, Grey Wardens of Ferelden, JB3, the standard bugfixing mods, and a couple of others related to Alistair) At first the game ran smoothly, no problems other than the occasional crash here and there. All my mods were working with little to no issue. I've heard that Denerim is possibly the most crash prone area of the game and at one point could not load any save that was located there. I initially solved this by changing the affinity and changing my graphic settings to the lowest possible; though this only worked for a while. I managed to get through more of the game after that. (Broken Circle and a bunch of other side quests). I returned to Denerim many times after that and by this point I had made it a habit to save frequently. While going to hand in part of "The Trial of Crows" the game once again crashed and no matter what I did, I could not resume that save. I was able to reload the one before that (Right before finishing Broken Circle) but since that point I've gotten into the habit of quicksaving rather than doing it manually and my last manual save outside of Denerim was quite a while back.

 

Changing the affinity did nothing and I had no Idea what to do at that point. Out of desperation I made the possibly incredibly stupid decision of using Origin's repair option. I had noticed that after the "repair" was done, the icon of the dragonage.exe file had went back to what it was before the 4gb patch and I assumed that the "repair" might have gotten rid it, and so I patched it again. The icon remained the same and the game would still crash while loading my latest save. I then had the "bright" idea uninstalling and reinstalling the game. This also seemed to remove any DAZip files I had installed so I had to reinstall those as well. At this point none of the saves I have will load. My latest one in Denerim crashes as usual and the other just freezing at the loading screen. They don't crash or anything, the symbol that spins in the center while loading just stops while the music in the background keeps playing. I'm completely at a loss as what to do now. I feel like I may have completely f*#@ed up and broken my game now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[balmz]

REMOVE JB3 IMMEDINATLY

 

that mod is 99% likely causing the crashes

[AuraGuardianXIV]

REMOVE JB3 IMMEDINATLY

 

that mod is 99% likely causing the crashes

That seemed to work, thank you. I never realized just how broken JB3 is. I still have much of the game to go through so I'm just wondering if there is any notable visual difference without it?

 

Still have no idea if the 4gb patch has be applied correctly :sweat: Guess I'll find out eventually...

 

Edit: Nevermind... Game keeps crashing and even when it doesn't, my FPS is much lower than before. It's now even crashing in camp along with the same problems are before. Still freezing at loading screen and now even during gameplay. I feel like I may have completely broken my game :sad:

Edited August 20, 2021 by AuraGuardianXIV

[balmz]

immersive atmosphere is fairly broken too, i'd rremove it

[theskymoves]

Denerim market can be very crash-prone, even in an unmodded game, as there are quite a few scripts firing and a large number of NPCs in the area. Both JB3 and Improved Atmosphere have a history of exacerbating that crashing behavior.

 

While JB3 can be removed mid-playthough without any ramifications, Improved Atmosphere makes many changes that are 'baked into' the saves, and removing it from an on-going playthrough will result in issues like NPCs without any gear equipped, at least in any area that has already been visited.

 

Barring not using JB3 and IA, patching with 4GB/LAA, and reducing graphics settings, there is little that can be done to alleviate the Denerim crashing issue, as it is inherent in the game, though if you are not using mods to remove VFX from weapons and talents, it may be worth trying... I've used a combination of VFX removers for years, and very rarely have any issues in Denerim, even with a extensive mod selection and the highest graphics settings.

 

As you unfortunately experienced, the Origin 'repair' function can completely trash a modded install. Any previously installed DAzip mods have to be reinstalled after repairing, and even then the game may ask you to 'force load' because of 'missing mods' that are actually installed. (I don't know why it will insist that a reinstalled mod isn't there, but I've encountered the issue a number of times.)

 

The 4GB patch should have created a backup of the original, unpatched executable (called daorigins.exe.Backup), in the bin_ship folder, which can be used to 'unpatch' the EXE.

 

Some additional information that might be helpful would be a complete list of installed mods, and what installer or manager you are using for DAzip mods.

Edited August 20, 2021 by theskymoves

[AuraGuardianXIV]

Denerim market can be very crash-prone, even in an unmodded game, as there are quite a few scripts firing and a large number of NPCs in the area. Both JB3 and Improved Atmosphere have a history of exacerbating that crashing behavior.

 

While JB3 can be removed mid-playthough without any ramifications, Improved Atmosphere makes many changes that are 'baked into' the saves, and removing it from an on-going playthrough will result in issues like NPCs without any gear equipped, at least in any area that has already been visited.

 

Barring not using JB3 and IA, patching with 4GB/LAA, and reducing graphics settings, there is little that can be done to alleviate the Denerim crashing issue, as it is inherent in the game, though if you are not using mods to remove VFX from weapons and talents, it may be worth trying... I've used a combination of VFX removers for years, and very rarely have any issues in Denerim, even with a extensive mod selection and the highest graphics settings.

 

As you unfortunately experienced, the Origin 'repair' function can completely trash a modded install. Any previously installed DAzip mods have to be reinstalled after repairing, and even then the game may ask you to 'force load' because of 'missing mods' that are actually installed. (I don't know why it will insist that a reinstalled mod isn't there, but I've encountered the issue a number of times.)

 

The 4GB patch should have created a backup of the original, unpatched executable (called daorigins.exe.Backup), in the bin_ship folder, which can be used to 'unpatch' the EXE.

 

Some additional information that might be helpful would be a complete list of installed mods, and what installer or manager you are using for DAzip mods.

 

The most game breaking mods I have installed are IA and JB3, the latter of which I have since removed. Qwinn's Ultimate Fix Pack is the only other mod I have that I guess you can say causes massive changes to the game.

These are the other mods I have installed:

• Extra Dog Slot
• Unique Face Textures for Companions
• Grey Wardens of Ferelden (IA Compatible Version)
• Alistair Male Romance and Marriage (with edited VO and Fixes)
• A bunch of others that add custom Alistair romance scenes mostly by Tinimause and DahliaLynn
• More Detailed Tooltips
• Other than those previously mentioned, nothing other than just some hair and skin tones

I have been using the included daupdater for installing my DAzip mods.

 

And this is probably kind of a silly question, but how would I go about "unpatching" the .exe? This is my first time ever modding a DA game so I'm still not completely familiar with its intricacies.

[theskymoves]

 

Denerim market can be very crash-prone, even in an unmodded game, as there are quite a few scripts firing and a large number of NPCs in the area. Both JB3 and Improved Atmosphere have a history of exacerbating that crashing behavior.

 

While JB3 can be removed mid-playthough without any ramifications, Improved Atmosphere makes many changes that are 'baked into' the saves, and removing it from an on-going playthrough will result in issues like NPCs without any gear equipped, at least in any area that has already been visited.

 

Barring not using JB3 and IA, patching with 4GB/LAA, and reducing graphics settings, there is little that can be done to alleviate the Denerim crashing issue, as it is inherent in the game, though if you are not using mods to remove VFX from weapons and talents, it may be worth trying... I've used a combination of VFX removers for years, and very rarely have any issues in Denerim, even with a extensive mod selection and the highest graphics settings.

 

As you unfortunately experienced, the Origin 'repair' function can completely trash a modded install. Any previously installed DAzip mods have to be reinstalled after repairing, and even then the game may ask you to 'force load' because of 'missing mods' that are actually installed. (I don't know why it will insist that a reinstalled mod isn't there, but I've encountered the issue a number of times.)

 

The 4GB patch should have created a backup of the original, unpatched executable (called daorigins.exe.Backup), in the bin_ship folder, which can be used to 'unpatch' the EXE.

 

Some additional information that might be helpful would be a complete list of installed mods, and what installer or manager you are using for DAzip mods.

 

The most game breaking mods I have installed are IA and JB3, the latter of which I have since removed. Qwinn's Ultimate Fix Pack is the only other mod I have that I guess you can say causes massive changes to the game.

These are the other mods I have installed:

• Extra Dog Slot
• Unique Face Textures for Companions
• Grey Wardens of Ferelden (IA Compatible Version)
• Alistair Male Romance and Marriage (with edited VO and Fixes)
• A bunch of others that add custom Alistair romance scenes mostly by Tinimause and DahliaLynn
• More Detailed Tooltips
• Other than those previously mentioned, nothing other than just some hair and skin tones

I have been using the included daupdater for installing my DAzip mods.

 

And this is probably kind of a silly question, but how would I go about "unpatching" the .exe? This is my first time ever modding a DA game so I'm still not completely familiar with its intricacies.

 

To 'unpatch' the executable, just delete the patched copy of daorigins.exe, and rename the backup from 'daorigins.exe.Backup' to the original daorigins.exe

 

Using daupdater is good. That eliminates the method of installation as an issue. *thumbs up*

 

Your mod list is not especially large, and nothing jumps out as especially crashy, other than IA... Qwinns has some bugs, and I believe makes extensive changes to the Denerim area files, but it also cannot be removed mid-playthrough. Qwinns and IA have some compatibility issues out-of-the-box, but as long you followed the instructions for making IA compatible (and have installed the Improved Atmosphere fixpack from the IA comments page) they should work together.

 

The only other mod in the list that I know can have issues is Extra Dog Slot, but those are mostly with scripted events not triggering, and I've never heard of it causing crashes in Denerim.

 

Unfortunately, almost ANYTHING can be the cause of CTDs or the game refusing to load... I've encountered hairstyles that caused my PC to bluescreen, and clothing items that caused CTDs when equipped on a companion, but that were fine when equipped on the player character.

[AuraGuardianXIV]

 

 

Denerim market can be very crash-prone, even in an unmodded game, as there are quite a few scripts firing and a large number of NPCs in the area. Both JB3 and Improved Atmosphere have a history of exacerbating that crashing behavior.

 

While JB3 can be removed mid-playthough without any ramifications, Improved Atmosphere makes many changes that are 'baked into' the saves, and removing it from an on-going playthrough will result in issues like NPCs without any gear equipped, at least in any area that has already been visited.

 

Barring not using JB3 and IA, patching with 4GB/LAA, and reducing graphics settings, there is little that can be done to alleviate the Denerim crashing issue, as it is inherent in the game, though if you are not using mods to remove VFX from weapons and talents, it may be worth trying... I've used a combination of VFX removers for years, and very rarely have any issues in Denerim, even with a extensive mod selection and the highest graphics settings.

 

As you unfortunately experienced, the Origin 'repair' function can completely trash a modded install. Any previously installed DAzip mods have to be reinstalled after repairing, and even then the game may ask you to 'force load' because of 'missing mods' that are actually installed. (I don't know why it will insist that a reinstalled mod isn't there, but I've encountered the issue a number of times.)

 

The 4GB patch should have created a backup of the original, unpatched executable (called daorigins.exe.Backup), in the bin_ship folder, which can be used to 'unpatch' the EXE.

 

Some additional information that might be helpful would be a complete list of installed mods, and what installer or manager you are using for DAzip mods.

 

The most game breaking mods I have installed are IA and JB3, the latter of which I have since removed. Qwinn's Ultimate Fix Pack is the only other mod I have that I guess you can say causes massive changes to the game.

These are the other mods I have installed:

• Extra Dog Slot
• Unique Face Textures for Companions
• Grey Wardens of Ferelden (IA Compatible Version)
• Alistair Male Romance and Marriage (with edited VO and Fixes)
• A bunch of others that add custom Alistair romance scenes mostly by Tinimause and DahliaLynn
• More Detailed Tooltips
• Other than those previously mentioned, nothing other than just some hair and skin tones

I have been using the included daupdater for installing my DAzip mods.

 

And this is probably kind of a silly question, but how would I go about "unpatching" the .exe? This is my first time ever modding a DA game so I'm still not completely familiar with its intricacies.

 

To 'unpatch' the executable, just delete the patched copy of daorigins.exe, and rename the backup from 'daorigins.exe.Backup' to the original daorigins.exe

 

Using daupdater is good. That eliminates the method of installation as an issue. *thumbs up*

 

Your mod list is not especially large, and nothing jumps out as especially crashy, other than IA... Qwinns has some bugs, and I believe makes extensive changes to the Denerim area files, but it also cannot be removed mid-playthrough. Qwinns and IA have some compatibility issues out-of-the-box, but as long you followed the instructions for making IA compatible (and have installed the Improved Atmosphere fixpack from the IA comments page) they should work together.

 

The only other mod in the list that I know can have issues is Extra Dog Slot, but those are mostly with scripted events not triggering, and I've never heard of it causing crashes in Denerim.

 

Unfortunately, almost ANYTHING can be the cause of CTDs or the game refusing to load... I've encountered hairstyles that caused my PC to bluescreen, and clothing items that caused CTDs when equipped on a companion, but that were fine when equipped on the player character.

 

 

Thank you so much, this seems to have worked... so far :sweat: It's the best it has been working since the trouble started, again I really appreciate the help.