Distant Worlds 2 - Latest Update (1.0.2.8)

[Erik Rutins]

Distant Worlds 2 - Latest Update (1.0.2.8)

Download Link: HERE
Latest Troubleshooting FAQ: HERE

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are still having any crash or launch issues with DW2 after updating to 1.0.2.8, we recommend taking the following steps to make sure corruption from previous crashes is not causing any ongoing issues:

1. Delete the gamesettings and gamestartsettings files in the /data/ sub-folder of your installation directory (In Steam right-click on the game in your library, then choose Properties -> Local Files -> Browse. On GOG you can find this through Manage Installation -> Show Folder).
2. Delete any old saved games in the /data/savedgames sub-folder of your installation directory.
3. Verify all installation files (in Steam right-click on the game in your library, then choose Properties -> Local Files -> Verify Integrity of Game Files. On GOG it is Manage Installation -> Verify/Repair).
4. If you still experience issues, please check in on the tech support sub-forum at Matrix Games or Steam and follow the reporting procedures there to share your log files with us.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is now a new SessionLog.txt log file in the /data/logs sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

This is also where any crashdump logs are located. If you are experiencing an issue, please share both your SessionLog.txt and any Crashdump logs for us along with the issue report.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a new GameSettingsOverride.txt in the /data sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

The settings here may help some players experiencing a black screen on load issue. Details on this are in the Troubleshooting FAQ above.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are experiencing performance issues use the key combination Shift + ~ to enable an overlay on the top left which will confirm for us which GPU DW2 is using on your system as well as other performance parameters.

GENERAL NOTES: We hope that the content streaming memory fix and the improved rendering memory management could fix some of the reported crashes and help with performance dropping over time for some players.

We found a system that duplicates some of the persistent black screen and battle crash issues and are working to continue investigating them and addressing all possible causes through this and future updates.

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Changes in the 1.0.2.8 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed savegame corruption when save while expired messages are being purged (note that some past saves were corrupted and if these do not load in 1.0.2.8 they are unrecoverable)
- fixed hang on save due to fighters incorrectly taking their parent carriers 'Prepare and Attack' missions
- fixed rare crash when iterating fleet ships
- fixed rare crash when sending message to empire
- fixed rare crash when iterating empire messages
- fixed crash when clearing pursuers from target

RENDERING FIXES
- changed how vertex buffers are handled to reduce video memory usage and reduce crashes
- now more carefully check for missing buffers when rendering shield impact effects

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- now take more care to ensure nearby ships are added to fleets, thus better preserving fleet cohesion
- exclude ships with manually assigned attack missions when determine whether to break off attack against a target (target jumps outside engagement range or fuel range, etc)
- fleets and ships now better at retaining attack missions against targets that jump to another location, especially when target remains in same system
- fixed bug blocking direct attack fleet missions
- shortened wait time before attacking when fleets regroup at a waypoint (Prepare and Attack), i.e. fleets commence attack phase faster once reach waypoint

OTHER
- ensure freighters with short hyperdrive jump range are not selected for distant transport missions (should fix freighters with Skip Drives sometimes dumping cargo)

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Changes in the 1.0.2.6 build:

CRASH FIXES
- adjusted how some vertex buffers were created to improve stability (more to come on this)
- fixed bug where shield impact model vertices were sometimes setup incorrectly
- fixed rare crash when ship is turning
- fixed rare crash when initiating particle effect
- fixed rare crash when assigning ship mission

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- increased multi-threading support for some game logic, improves performance, especially for large late-games

FLEET AND SHIP COORDINATION IMPROVEMENTS
- added full Prepare and Attack missions for fleets (attack, raid, capture, bombard). This is the default right-click fleet attack mission type and will also be used by automated fleets. Fleets will now automatically refuel (when need fuel) or waypoint (if need to regroup) before undertaking their attack mission. If they do not need refuelling or regrouping then they will attack the target directly. When refuelling or regrouping the fleet will synchronize their final jump to the attack target.

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Changes in the 1.0.2.4 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed game hang that was causing saves and loads to fail
- fixed rare crash when applying nebula effects to ships
- fixed rare crash while initiating particle effects

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- altered asset streaming timeout to reduce video memory usage

FLEET AND SHIP FIXES
- now exclude ships that cannot jump when determining fleet jump speed (previously was blocking some missions)
- improved logic for fighters boarding their carriers when the carrier is preparing to jump. Normally when carrier is jumping they will wait for fighters to board, unless very distant. But when carrier is escaping then fighter boarding time is reduced and fighters may be left behind (destroyed)
- improved performance of exploration ship mission selection when in late-game and most systems explored
- fixed bug where ships were sometimes overcautious about travelling to locations with effects, e.g. black holes with ranged damage effects

OTHER FIXES
- reenabled maximum research queue limit of 15 projects

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Changes in the 1.0.2.2 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed some further DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED errors
- fixed crash when calculating population defend strength at a colony
- fixed crash in Abandoned Ship and Bases list when use sort 'Distance from Spaceport'
- fixed rare hang when ship attack mission gets stuck

RENDERING
- IMPORTANT CHANGE: Changed default back buffer format to use Standard Range rendering. This may help some who are experiencing black screens at startup, but it will also reduce the quality of some visuals. If you were not previously having problems with black screens or crashes then you can revert to High Dynamic Range rendering in the in-game Game Settings to restore the visuals to their previous quality.
- improved performance when long range scanner map overlay enabled

TROOPS
- changed meaning of colony automation setting 'Automate Infantry Recruitment and Garrison' to now include all troop types, i.e. 'Automate Troop Recruitment and Garrison'
- lowered attack troop recruitment levels, especially for large empires
- added automation icons to Selection Panel to indicate colony automation status for troop recruitment and resource stock levels

HIVE AND PLANET DESTROYER
- added diplomatic incident and reputation impact from using planet destroyer against colonies
- improved movement of planet destroyer ship to better avoid clipping planet surfaces
- capped maximum bonus levels for Hive ships when salvage debris or raid colonies and bases

OTHER
- improved calculation of optimal attack range against targets based on weapon ranges (ship/base attacks and bombarding colonies)
- reviewed policy setting for intelligence mission caution so that aligns with revised mission difficulties. Tooltip explains success chance per level
- empire systems no longer start inside nebulae
- fixed occasional faulty ETA display for transferring artifacts
- fixed population policy window not scrolling with mouse wheel when colony detail panel also open
- fixed blank or incorrect startup colony and base stock levels when colony stock level automation is manually controlled
- Additional data fixes for a few missing weapon sounds, certain missing component/hull resource costs, a few event fixes

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Changes in the 1.0.2.1 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when rendering empire territory
- fixed rare crash when scrapping advanced ship with tech bonus, but your empire has not yet researched a relevant project
- fixed rare crash when calculating military ship strength
- fixed rare crash when evaluating threats to a ship

RENDERING CRASH HANDLING
- more graceful recovery when texture or vertex buffer creation fails due to display adapter crash, reset, or change in performance mode. This should greatly reduce the number of DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crashes

DIPLOMACY
- improved diplomacy so that relations now more likely to rise to higher levels (top-level treaties) when you work at improving relations with a faction. Remember that you can directly set diplomatic strategy per faction, which will also help improve relations (Befriend, Ally, Close Ally)

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- fixed bug where ships and fleets could sometimes teleport to edge of galaxy when assigned a mission while already jumping
- fleet jump speed coordination now applies to all fleet missions, not just attack missions (ships travel at same jump speed)
- Fuel Tankers no longer use fleet jump speed when part of a fleet

OTHER
- now properly review maximum colony population level as tech improves (colonization modifiers) and planet quality changes (terraforming, etc). This fixes issues with migration missions sometimes not completing
- ensure that player's per-role ship design automation settings are reset between each game (not remembered from previous games)
- Fleet Template screen no longer generates empty fleet when do not have enough money to build
- ensure scroll position in Empire Policy screen is reset to top when open again (previously settings were sometimes not appearing until scrolled up)
- reduced estimated resource demand for fuel so that more accurately aligns with actual usage
- changed default game start settings for research to fixed paths and colonization range limit to 300M
- Data fixes and changes to correct resource costs for some components/hulls with no resource costs or incorrect costs
- Added missing fallback paths for some armor techs
- Fixes for some story event issues
- Extended range for dedicated bombardment weapons
- Simplified main menu scene to assist with consistent startup crash troubleshooting

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Changes in the 1.0.2.0 build:


DISPLAY AND RENDERING
• Reduced asset streaming memory budget to allow more memory for other rendering
• Fixed bugs when auto-detecting display mode with highest refresh rate
• Reenabled fixed timestep updates
• Added more logging to data/SessionLog.txt file: display adapter selection (including primary monitor detected), display modes, galaxy settings
• Added new setting to GameSettingsOverride.txt: GraphicsStreamingMemoryBudget allows specifying video memory in Mb allocated for asset streaming
• Added new setting to GameSettingsOverride.txt: DisableFixedTimeStep: when set to true allows disabling fixed time step (higher FPS, but also higher GPU temperatures and power usage)

CRASH FIXES
• Fixed crash when determining attack targets
• Fixed rare crash when sorting some lists in Control Center
• Fixed rare crash when opening Research screen
• Fixed rare crash when determining locations for new monitoring stations
• Fixed rare crash when changing map overlays

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
• Increased difficulty of some intelligence missions, especially steal tech when targeting higher level research projects
• Altered how intelligence mission success chance is calculated so that always a chance of failure (even without counter-intelligence)
• Slightly increased effectiveness of counter intelligence missions (more likely to intercept enemy spy missions)

OTHER
• Fixed bug where default keyboard settings were sometimes not being generated at game startup
• Fixed bug where ships would avoid bombarding a colony that had imprisoned characters
• Fixed bug where invading characters that were killed at a colony were sometimes not removed from the colony
• Avoid executing advisor messages twice when automation is set to Suggest and Execute, e.g. building planetary facilities
• Data fixes to various events, facilities, research projects, ship hulls and artifacts (only available with a new game)

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Changes in the 1.0.1.9 build:


DISPLAY AND RENDERING
- fixed faulty display resolution detection at game start
- improved resolution of correct display adapter when specific adapter requested
- disabled fixed timestep updates (higher FPS)
- allow toggling on-screen FPS and other rendering data using shift-Tilde (top-left corner of most keyboards), which allows seeing which display adapter is being used
CRASH AND HANG FIXES
- fixed crash when empire has revolution and changes government
- fixed hang where fighters at colonies would lock up when their parent colony was wiped out
- fixed hang where exploration ship attempts to explore a location that has nebula sensor disablement that exceeds its scan power
EXPLORATION
- asteroids are now explored much quicker than planets, moons or stars (for both scan and survey)
- ensure all necessary resources in prewarp home system are discoverable at initial tech levels, even when already present
DIPLOMACY
- reduced envy factor in diplomacy when have positive diplomatic strategy for other faction ('We are envious of your huge strength and power')
- envy factor in diplomacy now grows more gradually
OTHER
- more careful about evaluating systems inside nebulae and related logic
- rebalanced loading of game processing for large games with many ships
- fixed ships sometimes getting stuck salvaging debris when has bonuses but came from one of own empire's ships
- construction ships now more careful to avoid building at distant locations (even in same system) when do not have hyperdrive
- no longer generate error sound and effect when move mouse off scrollbar while scrolling a panel or list

[LordMM]

Distant Worlds 2 - Latest Update (1.0.1.9)
EXPLORATION
- asteroids are now explored much quicker than planets, moons or stars (for both scan and survey)
- ensure all necessary resources in prewarp home system are discoverable at initial tech levels, even when already present
DIPLOMACY
- reduced envy factor in diplomacy when have positive diplomatic strategy for other faction ('We are envious of your huge strength and power')
- envy factor in diplomacy now grows more gradually

YES!, these are some very good changes....

[OrnluWolfjarl]

Thanks for the rapid updates! This game is great and I'm sure any release issues will be ironed out soon enough!

[actrade]

1.0.1.8 introduced all of my keybindings being wiped out and also crashed at the splash screen everytime (it would start on a second attempt) so after trying a fresh install of 1.0.1.8 to fix it (which didn't work), I went back to a fresh install of 1.0.1.6 which worked fine. Just updated to 1.0.1.9 and again, no keybindings and crash on the first attempt to load the game at the splash screen every time (it does load on the second attempt). Sigh....back to 1.0.1.6 which sucks because I want those gameplay changes!

[Erik Rutins]

1.0.1.8 introduced all of my keybindings being wiped out and also crashed at the splash screen everytime (it would start on a second attempt) so after trying a fresh install of 1.0.1.8 to fix it (which didn't work), I went back to a fresh install of 1.0.1.6 which worked fine. Just updated to 1.0.1.9 and again, no keybindings and crash on the first attempt to load the game at the splash screen every time (it does load on the second attempt). Sigh....back to 1.0.1.6 which sucks because I want those gameplay changes!

Before you revert, could you please provide us more information per the troubleshooting FAQ, including crash logs? We won't be able to solve this without more information from those who are affected.

Also, when you say that on 1.0.1.9 "it does load on the second attempt" did the game work fine after that and if so why are you reverting?

[actrade]

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 6&t=380950

In this thread.

[jbmoore68]

With this update on my 15" Windows 11 laptop with 3050 Nvidia card, the game started up with correct resolution on first try and settings stayed the same on several restarts of game, I changed nothing in the special gamesettingsoverrides.txt. I was previously having problems with the settings being changed every time I started the game.

[MasDai]

1.0.1.8 introduced all of my keybindings being wiped out and also crashed at the splash screen everytime (it would start on a second attempt) so after trying a fresh install of 1.0.1.8 to fix it (which didn't work), I went back to a fresh install of 1.0.1.6 which worked fine. Just updated to 1.0.1.9 and again, no keybindings and crash on the first attempt to load the game at the splash screen every time (it does load on the second attempt). Sigh....back to 1.0.1.6 which sucks because I want those gameplay changes!

Before you revert, could you please provide us more information per the troubleshooting FAQ, including crash logs? We won't be able to solve this without more information from those who are affected.

Also, when you say that on 1.0.1.9 "it does load on the second attempt" did the game work fine after that and if so why are you reverting?

Actually I have exactly the same issues with 1.0.1.8 and 1.0.1.9 as described above.
1. All hotkeys are now dissapeared and not working, f.e cannot press "Space" to pause/unpause the game. "Change key mappings" just showns empty window with no controlls and there is no way to add/change anything.
2. The game will never launch from the first attempt -> Start the launcher and press Play -> Can see the splash screen for a moment and then it closes (no DistantWorlds2.exe process) -> Start the game from the launched one more time and it will be successfully loaded.

P2. is not a big issue for me, but I also have to revert to 1.0.1.6 because of P1.

I also noticed that there it may happen that the game will not load if "Distant Worlds 2" splash screen will lose focus (f.e. by clicking on other window or desktop) before the game will completely load and switch to fullscreen.

[Nilserich7]

Nice updates. I like that you are working on it so hard and so fast.

I think it's almost a shame that I've only had one crash so far, but otherwise no problems. So I can't provide any information for help.

It's strange, though, that it's so hard to reproduce, although relatively many seem to have such problems. Is it possible that the problem only occurs with certain hardware or old driver version combinations?

[Cauldyth]

EXPLORATION
- asteroids are now explored much quicker than planets, moons or stars (for both scan and survey)
- ensure all necessary resources in prewarp home system are discoverable at initial tech levels, even when already present

Thank you for both of these! I had a prewarp start with the only Caslon in my home system locked in a brown dwarf behind a higher surveying level. And the brown dwarf had no other resources, so the advisor never suggested building a mining station there, which would've been the other mechanism of discovering it. As a result, my empire ground to a halt when the caslon ran out.

And yeah, those asteroid fields were massive time sinks for explorers.

[Erik Rutins]

Thank you for both of these! I had a prewarp start with the only Caslon in my home system locked in a brown dwarf behind a higher surveying level. And the brown dwarf had no other resources, so the advisor never suggested building a mining station there, which would've been the other mechanism of discovering it. As a result, my empire ground to a halt when the caslon ran out.

Unfortunately this was a bug we introduced shortly before release when making sure that the full range of exploration levels were used.

And yeah, those asteroid fields were massive time sinks for explorers.

Yes and our last attempts to make sure exploration ships didn't over-prioritize them didn't work very well, so we decided to use the big hammer.

[NStriker]

Not sure if this is a bug or if I'm just missing something:
1) If I get a pop-up for a relic site and I open the main menu before answering the prompt, I can never get the pop-up again. It's no longer in the side panel.
I've tried going into the Message history to access it again, but it just shows the message. No interactive prompt.
Have to reload a save.

Nice to haves:
1) Please separate refresh rate from resolution in the settings. My monitor (actually a TV) reports 23.976Hz, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 59.94 (again), and 60Hz for every one of 24 resolutions, resulting in 216 entries! As there's no scroll bar on that drop down, it's extremely tedious to select the highest option since opening the drop-down always starts at the bottom.

2) The new mining locations could really use the ability to filter out sites owned by other empires and asteroids again. My list is like 90% asteroids.

[Cauldyth]

Thank you for both of these! I had a prewarp start with the only Caslon in my home system locked in a brown dwarf behind a higher surveying level. And the brown dwarf had no other resources, so the advisor never suggested building a mining station there, which would've been the other mechanism of discovering it. As a result, my empire ground to a halt when the caslon ran out.

Unfortunately this was a bug we introduced shortly before release when making sure that the full range of exploration levels were used.

I'm not sure the fix worked. I started a new game with 1.0.1.9, and after failing to find any Caslon in my home system, I opened the game editor. One of the gas giants I had surveyed to Level 15 had it, obviously requiring a higher level.

[martok]

This only started happening to me as of today (with v1.0.1.9)...

Playing as the Ackdarians, the Ancient Small Spaceport is now automatically rebuilt -- and then immediately disbanded afterwards. (I don't get the option to keep the rebuilt spaceport like I did before.)

Distant Worlds 2 - Latest Update (1.0.1.9)
EXPLORATION
- asteroids are now explored much quicker than planets, moons or stars (for both scan and survey)
- ensure all necessary resources in prewarp home system are discoverable at initial tech levels, even when already present
DIPLOMACY
- reduced envy factor in diplomacy when have positive diplomatic strategy for other faction ('We are envious of your huge strength and power')
- envy factor in diplomacy now grows more gradually

YES!, these are some very good changes....

Agreed, those are major improvements!

[Ranbir]

Cool patch. Still some issue of when technology gets discovered in an event that happened to be what you were researching and had "crashed" it; It will get stuck and take up a research spot. The screen says "completed" but it will still tick slowly to 100% as if you hadn't researched it.

[martok]

Another thing that just happened to me that I'd not encountered before the newest patch (though I realize that may only be a coincidence):


In the attached screenshot, I've officially encountered (established diplomatic relations with) 2 pirate factions. However, there's a 3rd pirate faction in my own home system (the Ackdarian Army) who I have *not* officially encountered, despite their base having fired upon two of my exploration ships already. Not sure if that's a bug per se, but it struck me as odd.


Also: Three pirate factions already, when I have pirates set to Very Few, *and* I've not even left my home system yet? That seems like a lot of pirates for "very few" -- that, or I'm really unlucky...

[StormingKiwi]

Another thing that just happened to me that I'd not encountered before the newest patch (though I realize that may only be a coincidence):


In the attached screenshot, I've officially encountered (established diplomatic relations with) 2 pirate factions. However, there's a 3rd pirate faction in my own home system (the Ackdarian Army) who I have *not* officially encountered, despite their base having fired upon two of my exploration ships already. Not sure if that's a bug per se, but it struck me as odd.


Also: Three pirate factions already, when I have pirates set to Very Few, *and* I've not even left my home system yet? That seems like a lot of pirates for "very few" -- that, or I'm really unlucky...

It seems that there is a passive pirate faction, that has no ships and no characters, and starts in your home system to give you some target practice

[martok]

Also: It's obviously not a super-pressing issue, but I'm getting a lot of occurrences where the game's soundtrack just...stops for a while. I'll get snippets of music (for 10-30 seconds, then it will suddenly cut off and the game goes quiet.

Sometimes the music starts back up on its own, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have to zoom out of the planetary/system view (to the galaxy-level view), as that seems to "force" the soundtrack to start up again. It never works for more than a few minutes, however -- sooner or later (usually sooner), the music cuts off again.

It seems that there is a passive pirate faction, that has no ships and no characters, and starts in your home system to give you some target practice

Which would be fine, it's just that I could establish diplomatic communications with them prior to this latest patch. Strange.

[CaesarAug]

Thought to modestly contribute here… Admittedly, I’m running Distant Worlds 2 from a Samsung T7 SSD (USB-C 3.2, 2nd gen) on an Intel 2019 MacBook Pro 16”, macOS Monterey, via Parallels Desktop Pro 17, Windows 11 Pro VM, with 8GB RAM allocated, everything running on the very latest updates. Should mention that Distant Worlds Universe and latest patched Stellaris +DLCs work fine from the same external SSD on a Parallels Windows 7 Ultimate VM.

Adjusting the graphics processor to exclusively dedicated ATI Radeon 5300 4GB does seem to help run DW2, though the screens are indeed very dark. But the latest version of the game that goes beyond the startup screen and actually plays is 1.0.16. That is, with patches 1.0.18 and 1.0.19, the game does not load beyond the initial DW2 startup screen.

Just thought to quickly mention this. Sorry I haven’t provided any DxDiag or crash logs…

[R_TEAM]

Dont know it is related to last patch - as i have this not happen bevore ... - but zooming in, on an system that is "in" a gas cloud drops the frame rate significant .. from smoth and stable 60fps all times to under 5 ....
Win10/12CoreXeon-16GB_RAM/AMD RadeonPro w8100 8GB_RAM

Regards