The following is anecdotal rather than conclusively proven, but the bits and pieces fit together.
Since I'm running a Windows client using a Whisky WINE translation in order to run in an M2 Apple Silicon chip, there's a lot of opportunities for "stuff to go wrong" with my client which might not present a problem for a more direct Intel Inside type of windows implementation.
Right now, there are two "hazards" which are highly repeatable/reliable under the software path that I am using for my hardware.
- RE-loading zones that I have been in previously (different character, doesn't matter, same problem) will cause some kind of memory leak that forces a massive degradation in textures to lower quality settings (ignoring the actual settings in Options). First time load to a zone, world textures are crisp ... second time load, world textures are blurry low rez garbage ... third time, fatal crash to desktop.
- Shotgun blasts cause a game client crash to desktop. Perhaps not the 1st or 2nd, but 3+ within camera view will cause a game client crash to desktop rather reliably. Audio is no problem, can HEAR shotgun blasts without any issues whatsoever for a while. Particle FX for Shotgun blasts going off in-camera (or even just CLOSE ENOUGH to be a "render concern") forces a crash to desktop.
The "reloading zone memory leak" (issue 1) is very likely a Whisky WINE issue, since I see in their issue reporting GitHub that other people have reported the issue happening in other games that load by zones (like City of Heroes does).
However, the shotgun blast issue is something that feels very unique and specific to City of Heroes.
So far, the "most egregious" zones where the Shotgun Crash problem manifests for me are in Atlas Park (lots of Hellions using shotguns there), in some parts of Mercy Island and in huge swaths of Port Oakes on redside. This issue is
so bad that if I create a new (expendible) Level 1 character, skip the tutorial to zone into Atlas directly, I'll automatically crash to desktop before completing the zone load (or seeing Ms. Liberty).
In Port Oakes, where there are Mooks shooting shotguns at each other in street battles all over the western half of the zone, just getting "too near" to the western side of Port Oakes causes a forced crash to desktop which is unrecoverable and cannot successfully zone in to move away from.
But the REAL tell is in the Rikti War Zone, inside the Vanguard Compound.For some reason ... and I'm still not sure why ... beside
Serpent Drummer and the Vanguard Quartermaster, there is a shooting range set up opposite from the Rikti Test Dummy targets. The dimensions of the shooting range look like something where people ought to be doing rifle practice (long distance to the target papers on clips downrange). Presumably, doing sniper training would be possible (150+ft range to target) given the dimensions and size of the shooting range.
Instead, there's 2 Vanguard NPCs there shooting SHOTGUNS, rather than rifles, on repeat.
I presume they're using
Assault Rifle: Buckshot (of some variety) as their attack that they keep endlessly repeating as fast as they can recharge.
They've got a rifle range (80-150ft to targets downrange) and they're blasting away with shotguns (40ft base range). Looks like Vanguard is still hiring from the Shallow End Of The Gene Pool™.
To be fair, since my game client crashes
so fast and so reliably it's hard for me to tell exactly WHAT attack they're using ... is it Assault Rifle: Slug? Is it Assault Rifle: Buckshot? Is it Assault Rifle: Bean Bag? Is it something else entirely that is an NPC only version of one of the above?
Bare minimum,
whatever attack it is that the trainees on the gunnery range inside the Vanguard Compound are using ... it's REALLY RELIABLE at forcing my game client to fatal crash to desktop. And since there's only 2 NPCs there who use that attack on autofire (and nothing else), whatever that attack power is, there's GOT to be some problem with how it is implemented that is causing my game client to reliably fatal crash to desktop.
Ideally speaking, I'd be happy if someone on the Rebirth Dev team could simply change the attack that those two gunners inside the Vanguard Compound like to use (may I recommend switching them to using
Assault Rifle: Sniper Rifle and/or Beam Rifle: Penetrating Ray instead of whatever it is they're doing?) ... but that doesn't solve the issue with the "shotgun blasts" elsewhere in the game in all the other zones.
My sneaking suspicion is that the particle FX for the shotgun blasts has some kind of "loose end" to it graphically, which when done repeatedly triggers the "reload at lower and lower graphics setting" issue like the loading into zones.
- First time = fine
- Second time = marked degradation
- Third time = fatal crash to desktop
If I'm right that it's just a matter of "janky particle FX" doing something "sloppy" which isn't a problem for most windows clients, but which creates a path to a fatal error memory leak on my wonky via Whisky WINE implementation of a windows client running on Apple Silicon via translation layer ... then a more global solution might be to "do something" about how the shotgun blast attack used by NPCs all over Atlas Park, Port Oakes and those two gunners at the firing range inside the Vanguard Compound in the Rikti War Zone would be the more complete solution.
This issue with shotgun blasts forcing my game client to crash to desktop does all kinds of weird things, making entire zones into "DON'T GO THERE" locations ... because once I fall into the Fatal Crash On Zone In issue trap, the only way to get out of it is to have a GM move that character to a different location (where the shotgun blasts are not present) so that I can successfully zone in (and move about).
Interestingly, this means that Praetorian zones and instances are "relatively safe" because there are hardly ANY shotgun blast attacks (of any variety) getting used on goldside. Most attacks are energy gauntlets (PPD) or "energy bursts" from rifles (Resistance) with hardly any shotguns to be found (except in the hands of Longbow or Arachnos, and thankfully they don't use their shotgun attacks much).
Redside is LOUSY with shotgun blasts going off here/there/everywhere almost constantly (especially in street battles between Mooks in western Port Oakes), but there are plenty of other locations on redside where shotguns are used PLENTIFULLY out in the open world.
Blueside is also pretty LOUSY with shotgun blasts happening all over the place in SOME zones, but eventually the blasting away with shotguns falls by the wayside ... except at the shooting range inside the Vanguard Compound.
I know that any sort of Debugging Effort to investigate this report is going to involve someone on the Dev team needing to equip a Flashlight, a Machete and a Very Long Piece Of String™ in order to dive down into the resources (somewhere) to find out where the problem could be. If I'm right, it's just a "never been updated" bit of legacy graphics FX used for the shotgun blasts which was poorly implemented and just needs a tweak to not be prone to causing fatal errors which can cause clients to crash to desktop. I know that other gaming projects have run into these kinds of "hidden flaws" in assets that they buy off the Unreal Engine Store, such that they've got broken geometry built into them (that causes massive memory leaks and other issues), which only show up later on as being issues for some people and not others.
Hopefully, the fact that the 2 gunners at the firing range inside the Vanguard Compound are really reliable in causing this issue would be a good starting point for being able to isolate the cause ... and ideally be able to correct it at its source, removing the issue from ALL NPCs in ALL zones.
I mean, it would be nice ...
