Freezing badly at specific points in Return to Ostagar and Denerim

[BattyRae]

So I don't have any mods installed but Nexus tends to be really good with this sort of thing.

 

I have discovered two points in the game where everything freezes up so badly that I can't even alt-tab out of the game. If I open task manager using ctrl-alt-delete the game minimizes and i can see my desktop, but the cursor is still the one that shows up in game, and i cannot interact with anything. at this point the best thing I can do is sign out so the game shuts down and try again. through this i have managed to figure out exactly where the problems are happening, though not why.

 

first place is in everyones favourite crash zone, the denerim market. this is where i first encountered the mega freeze and while i have found a lot of forums on CTD in this area and attempted to apply the fixes for this similar problem i have had no luck and have found no information on the specific problem i am having. the game freezes when i move the camera to a specific point near the entrance of the street behind the gnawed noble tavern where the wonders of thedas is. it doesnt freeze if i send a character on ahead without moving the camera into that spot, and i was even able to enter the wonders of thedas using this technique, but the game will not load when i try to exit the store. there is also an area surrounding the freeze zone where saves just kinda... dont load if i save there, which is probably related. i know for certain that the game is freezing and not lagging massively because i left it to load overnight to no effect.

 

the second place is two specific and related points in return to ostagar. near the very beginning, but after the group of darkspawn that can be fought to obtain cailan's greaves, i go down the ramp thingy to fight more darkspawn, near where dog is, and cannot move the camera past the second fortification. i attempted to lure the darkspawn back up the ramp, and succeeded, but as soon as the last of the darkspawn fell i got hit with that freeze again. this is really ruining the DLC for me, since i cant play it and all.

 

any help anyone has would be amazing, as i have been stuck in this cycle for ages and have things i need to Get Done.

[BattyRae]

so after playing for a while and being super careful with my camera i seem to have triggered something that lets me move around just fine. i think it might have been rescuing anora but i cant be sure on that.

[valerie1972]

I don't know if this is the issue you're having or not, but the solution tends to solve a bunch of problems with game crashes and slowdowns, so I suggest it as a general improvement for game performance.

 

DA:O uses only 2GB of RAM, because back in 2009 most operating systems were 32-bit and needed to keep some memory in reserve for the OS. With a 64-bit operating system, you can use all available RAM if you need it.

 

So, if your computer has 4 or more GB of RAM and you're on a 64-bit operating system, try using Large Address Aware or 4GB patch. I'm not sure what the technical difference is between the two, but I've used them both at various points and they work well.

 

Note that you will have to rerun the patch if you repair or reinstall the game.