Is there a way to downgrade?

[blazespinnaker]

Right after I upgraded to 1.1.19, factorio started crashing frequently on autosave. This is a pain.

I tried downgrading, but now it's complaining that map version 1.1.19 can not be loaded when I try running a saved game with 1.1.16

[bormand]

Unfortunately, I don't think you can load new save in older versions.

Computer completely becomes unusable after crash, have to power cycle. Crazy.

Try to run some stress-tests for your hardware, update your drivers. Games themself cannot crash/freeze your PC, they just stress your (broken) hardware or drivers. Better to fix root cause of the problem.

P.S. May be related: 95109

[blazespinnaker]

"Games themself cannot crash/freeze your PC"

Unlikely, perhaps, but cannot?

Sir, let me introduce you to the halting problem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem

[bormand]

halting problem

Halting problem is totally unrelated to that. User mode application cannot crash/hang PC as a whole if underlying parts work right. And if they can, it's a bug or design defect in OS, driver or hardware.

Anyway, I seen some motherboards that freezed during heavy I/O. Driver update helped in that case. So, some stress-tests wouldn't harm, I think.

P.S. Saving time was optimized in last versions of Factorio (see FFF 364), so it can be more stressful for your system than in previous versions.

[blazespinnaker]

As someone who makes pretty much all of his living off the fact the halting problem exists, I can assure you that your statement is precisely what it refers to.

But, I am probably being semantic here as I'm sure you really were just trying to say that you think it's very likely a hardware problem.

It could be, but I do not really wish to make environmental changes for v1.1.19 factorio alone, as it could break more important things which are all functioning perfectly fine. Until I see an issue with those things, not going to change anything.

Everything is on the cloud, so not particularly worried if the drive goes.

And in truth, Factorio itself was functioning just fine until I upgraded. It's possible that my computer simply can't handle v1.1.19, in which case I will need to either buy a new computer (nah), or settle on 1.1.16.

Which looks like it means I have to start all my games over again. Que sera I guess.

[bormand]

I'm sure you really were just trying to say that you think it's very likely a hardware problem.

Yeah

I tried to say, that even if you find some solution, i.e. revert to older version or ask devs to add some option like "save-slowly", it wouldn't fix a bug that lurks on underlying levels. It's just a temporary workaround that sweeps problem under the carpet.

Which looks like it means I have to start all my games over again.

Portable version of latest Factorio on another drive worth a try, though.

[blazespinnaker]

Yeah, chkdsk is clean. Running it via windbg. FPS seems ok. Wube includes the PDB as well, so hopefully something will be informative.

I'm more of a linux development guy than windows, so excuse me if this seems like a weak approach.

[jodokus31]

I'm more of a linux development guy than windows, so excuse me if this seems like a weak approach.

You can use the linux version of factorio.

[blazespinnaker]

Yeah, I may resort to dual booting if this doesn't get worked out. A lot of my biz critical stuff is not on linux, though, so that's a pain.

Fortunately, it looks like it runs more stable on windbg. Haven't hit an autosave crash yet, though autosave is noticeably slower. Non deterministic / timing bugs sometimes reduce in occurrence under debug conditions.

Looking at the logs, there are a few first chance escalated C++ exceptions, but that could be handled other ways.

As I mentioned, FPS is pretty good. Mostly 60

[jodokus31]

Yeah, I may resort to dual booting if this doesn't get worked out. A lot of my biz critical stuff is not on linux, though, so that's a pain.

Ok, dual boot sucks

Fortunately, it looks like it runs more stable on windbg. Haven't hit an autosave crash yet, though autosave is noticeably slower. Non deterministic / timing bugs sometimes reduce in occurrence under debug conditions.

This would support @bormand theory. because of debug mode, the hardware is not that stressed.

You try to run factorio zip version from a different HD/SSD or usb stick

[blazespinnaker]

Uhm, it would support a lot of theories. Lol. Really not sure how you made that leap.

Happy to take donations for a factorio external storage though. Maybe a gofund me? Not entirely sure what kind of external storage will have the same perf characteristics as my built in SSD tho.

Anyways, there are no errors or OS events related to the hardware and the driver is the up to date one provided by microsoft. Chkdsk is clean.

I also have written DS applications which stress the drive waaaay more than factorio ever has or could, considering it is single core, and they function perfectly.

If I had to speculate what is the cause, most likely Factorio is just doing some non standard thing via C++ which isn't handled very well by what I have on the laptop.

Actually, now that I think of it, it is probably Kaspersky. I'll try turning that off, though that's a definite non starter, and external storage certainly won't help in that case.

edit: There is a way to add a folder exclusion as well. Not sure all the folders autosaves touches tho

[blazespinnaker]

Apologies for the snark, btw, but - the ask really was "Is there a way to downgrade?" Starting to suspect the answer is sure, but you can't use your previous saved games.

1.1.16 was working perfectly. Sometimes computers just can't handle performance requirements of upgraded games and the only real alternative is to buy a fancy new computer. Sure, you could invest time and energy in doing a root cause analysis, but honestly, if the impact is very narrow (just my env and factorio v 1.1.19) and there is a perfectly fine alternative, it's not worth it IMHO. The truth is that game engineers have a tendency to do fairly clever things for the sake of performance sometimes and it's been my experience that these clever things just aren't relevant to anything else I do, so there is rarely a need to track them down. Changing drivers is always a minefield and using things like external storage really would prove nothing that I can think of.

I don't usually upgrade unless there is a security need or compelling feature. Not sure what possessed (chrome, you have a lame spellcheck) me to agree to the prompt when it recommended 1.1.19

One thing for sure, I'll start backing up my saves before upgrading from now on.