Game Crash at end of Episode 3 (Final Cutscene)

[Karsten Vermeulen]

Hey guys,

I know there is already a topic on this subject, but due to it being old, it was suggested that I start a new topic.

I just want to find out more about this horrible bug that causes the game to crash at the end of Episode 3. It is not a gameplay bug, but rather upon loading the final cutscene. I noticed a few others have had similar issues but nobody has found a fix.

I ran the game on 3 different computers, all with the same exact error! One was a newer desktop PC with a ATI Radeon Graphics card, running Windows 7, the second was a Alienware Laptop with a NVidia graphics card also running Windows 7. The third computer was an old laptop with just a graphics chipset running Windows Vista. All three computers crashed! What is the cause of this?

I then installed Episode 3 seperately and tried (as I was using the complete Ep 1- 4 pack previously). This worked for some strange reason, BUT the character models did not animate, ie they appeared as if they were directly exported out of the 3D modelling application (T-shaped). See image below :

Anybody have any ideas? This is the craziest bug ever!

[wilco64256]

Yeah we haven't ever been able to nail down exactly what causes this to happen, as it doesn't happen for everyone and we haven't been able to find a common link between the people it does happen to.

[Karsten Vermeulen]

What a pity, it's a really strange bug indeed.

Well, I have in the meantime viewed the ending cutscene on YouTube, so it's not a major concern, but I do hope you guys find a fix eventually.

[GrahamRocks!]

YES!!! I really want that as well!

[Karsten Vermeulen]

Hey GrahamRocks!

I read your earlier posts about this issue, I know how you feel

Have you watched the ending on YouTube at least? The only problem with that sometimes is the people recording these "Let's Play" videos throw in their comments during the cutscene drama which kills the atmosphere a little

[GrahamRocks!]

Yes, I have! Toegoff's LP made me get the game in the first place!

[Rosella]

I worked very hard to make sure I could properly view the Episode 3 cutscene and also to ruin the drama with comments as much as possible.

[Numbers]

This has got to be fixed. It's a huge deal. Not everybody is going to come onto the forums and ask for help, and not everybody is just going to settle for some YouTube video with somebody talking over it. In fact, I think the vast majority of people are just going to rage quit. I don't know how it can be fixed; maybe when episode 5 comes out, and the inevitable bug-fixes are released alongside it, the core TSL team can try to nail the problem down before moving on to other things. Either way, as long as this problem exists, TSL has a game-breaking bug, and nobody likes those, least of all the people who worked on the game itself.

[Karsten Vermeulen]

Nicely put 929572!

I believe Ep 1 - 4 were made with the outdated Torque Engine, and Ep 5 is being made with Unity. I wonder if that has something to do with it. Or maybe this bug has something to do with the video codec, because the crash occurs with a cutscene and not during gameplay, so it could well be a video codec conflict with Windows. I experienced a similar issue whilst playing Gabriel Knight 3 on Windows 7, the cutscenes crashed.

I suppose if the TSL team is really up for it they could port their Torque engine code to Unity and "remake" Ep 1-4, but speaking as a programmer myself I know that sounds like a lot of work.

  

[wilco64256]

Yeah it would be a tremendous amount of work to rebuild the first four episodes in Unity. Hopefully sometime between now and the end of the year I'll have some time to revisit this issue and see if I can determine what might be causing it.

[Icerose]

I have the same problem is there still no patch avaible?all the others episodes worked fine just episode 3 keeps on crashing i hope episode 4 will not crash to at the ending..

[wilco64256]

There won't be a patch for this. If I can figure out how to fix it we'll just put up a new installer. It's been so long since we've worked with the old engine and installers we made, putting together a patch to cooperate with those isn't really practical.

[Karsten Vermeulen]

Despite the bug issue, I must say you guys have made an excellent game, it has really captivated me, and I really look forward to Episode 5!

 

[GrahamRocks!]

*nods and smiles in agreement*

[daventry]

I too am experiencing this Bug, but apart from it all, TSL it Incredible

[MarkoH01]

Here may be a solution for those with the problem that the gaame crashes before the final cutscene (mine did too):

http://www.postudios.com/blog/forum/index.php?topic=11715.msg359995#msg359995

[SteveHNo96]

Here may be a solution for those with the problem that the gaame crashes before the final cutscene (mine did too):

http://www.postudios.com/blog/forum/index.php?topic=11715.msg359995#msg359995

I just had the same problem. I would like to find a copy of the 1-3 installer you were talking about and work it.

[Oldbushie]

I managed to track down the original TSL Episode 3 installer, extracted out the exe file, and added it to the download page with instructions. Hopefully this workaround allows the final cutscene to work for everyone now. Thank you for the suggested fix, MarkoH01! I apologize for not seeing your other post sooner.

[SteveHNo96]

I managed to track down the original TSL Episode 3 installer, extracted out the exe file, and added it to the download page with instructions. Hopefully this workaround allows the final cutscene to work for everyone now. Thank you for the suggested fix, MarkoH01! I apologize for not seeing your other post sooner.

It worked!! (for me at least)

you know, that felt awesome.

[Oldbushie]

Excellent! I got confirmation from Marko that it works too. We'll notify people via social media so they're aware.