Strange, I thought I had installed the most recent versions of everything just the other day. At any rate, I made a fresh install with the latest mods, and still no dice, if anyone moves into that area it crashes.

Ya that's latest of everything. And yes, if you could upload your entire installation directory someplace (rapidshare, megaupload, mediafire, etc) and then send me links on SHS that would be awesome. At least then we might be able to see whether its system specific or problem with game files. I'd recommend using 7zip or winrar to break the game files into 50 or 100mb rar files. I think game is usually ~1gb.

Now, if it still doesn't crash we'll have to try and figure out what you and cyberneticbarry (and others) have in common. Maybe some similar program that is interfering with PST.

edit:
Just thought I'd add that I'm running win7 x64 too and haven't run into that crash.

I don't know if this is of any help but I am running win7 x64 SP1 with all recent updates, and I have an ATI 5770 with the 11.12 catalyst drivers @factory settings.

I'm afraid I won't be able to upload my whole installation directory anywhere, as my connection's upload bandwidth is quite limited and really really unreliable + bad. Also, that directory is currently about 2.57GB. Even if I broke it down to segments of 50Mb it would still take days to upload.

But since you are running win7 x64 too with no crashes, then it's something I am doing wrong both on the win7 host and the win xp sp3 @vmware, so I guess I'll keep trying different configurations to see if it is resolved.

No worries. One suggestion would be to make a duplicate installation of your game and then modify resolution of widescreen mod. Try something smaller and see if it still causes crash. The newer versions of WS mod should give you option to fix saved games when changing res now. Still good to do any kind of testing like this with duplicate install in case something else breaks. Btw, what res did you use for XP VM?

@cyberneticbarry: What kind of graphics card do you have? I'm curious if maybe this is ATI issue (I'm using nvidia).

One other option I'll put out there for anyone affected by this. If you're willing to let me remote into your computer for 10-20 mins using realvnc or teamviewer, I can easily track down code location that is causing crash. I would want to swap details on SHS just because I don't think GOG supports PM.

So, I think it's now FIXED! Hurray!

I did as you suggested (I am listing all the steps):
1. replicated the installation directory to a new path at "H:\Games\Planescape Torment"
1b. I removed the files from the "cache" and "temp" folders
1c. I edited the torment.ini to match the new path
1d. I renamed the folder of the original installation to prevent programs (and me) from using links and shortcuts to that one.
2. I ran the widescreen mod to change the resolution. I set (lowered) the new resolution to x=1280 y=800.
2b. I said Yes when asked to update the save files
2c. I DID NOT enable the support for multiple resolutions this time (I think I did originally)
2d. I let it ran the whole patching workflow. Btw, I find it extremely neat that it actually handled that for me, well done! :)
3a. I changed the PlaneScape Torment desktop shortcut and the start menu shortcuts to point to the new directory as target and execute from there (two fields in the shortcut properties).
3b. Ran the game, loaded up a save game that crashed in the gallery and had no crashes. A part of the gallery was now shadowed (as unexplored) but other than that (which is not even an annoyance) no crashes!

+ I repeated the same process and set the resolution to 1440x900. Again, no crashes.
+ Again the same for 1600x900. And again no crashes.

What first occured to me was that initially (when I first installed the game) the resolution I had tried was x=1920 y=1200. But the game crashed immediately with some error because my monitor (23'' Dell UltraSharp U2311H) is 16:9 and did not natively support that resolution.

So then I looked up the "Monitor resolution" options for Win7 x64 (by right clicking on the Desktop) and picked a supported resolution from there. Hence, for Win7 x64 I tried 1920x1080 and 1600x900. For WinXP @VmWare I tried 1280x720 (if I remember right).

However, I just thought that none of these resolutions are actually listed in the guide in the list of "common resolutions". So this time, I picked one from the list that is also supported by my monitor and voila! Problem solved. Oddly enough though it now works with the 1600x900, so maybe it is the new path that fixed the issue? Or the fact that this time I did not enable support for multiple monitors? I don't know for sure.

I have not tried this in the Windows XP SP3 installation (yet).

Note: I do have the ddraw fix on top of the mods and patches suggested in the guide (PST-Drawfix: v2.1.1)

scientt, no luck there, I'm using an nvidia gtx570. I'm not using windows 7 though, I'm running 64-bit vista. I also just tried lowering my resolution from 1920x1080 to 1280x800, but that didn't work either.

I should also note that I'm using the 2CD version, not the GOG version, I forgot to mention this basic stuff before.

And have you installed the game outside of the "Program Files" folder?
Have you tried the PST-Drawfix (this comes with a warning about some graphical glitches though) ( http://www.shsforums.net/topic/48732-ddraw-fix/ ) ?
Did you try the steps as I described them above?

Btw, if I find some time today or within the week, I am going to retry the installation (from scratch) in WinXp SP3 on VMWare to see if the problem is gone there as well. :)

All my games are installed to a separate hard drive, so it's not in program files. And yeah, I'm using the pst-drawfix.

I just tried another fresh install, and a few other, lower resolutions than my normal 1920x1080, and still no change. Scientt, I just signed up to the SHS forums, I think I'll send you a PM there if you're still willing to do a remote session to find the cause.

If you guys do figure out what's wrong and how to fix it, could you post it in a separate topic ("How to fix art gallery crashes" or something) and see if we can persuade a moderator to make it a sticky? Thanks.

@cyberneticbarry: There seems to be some problems with SHS atm. I sent you a PM on here with some details so we can get you set up for me to remote in and find crash cause. I may not be able to fix it but this will at least give me where the code is crashing which might help in finding a solution.

I had the same issue. I found a solution on SHS forums. The crash occurs if any character (including npc) walks into red area visible on attached picture.
The solution consists of two steps:
1. Editing game files to keep NPC from walking into red area.
2. Not walking into red area yourself ;)

You will need to download Near Infinity editor: [url=http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/NearInfinity.jar]http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~joh/ni/NearInfinity.jar[/url]
It is used for editing game files.
After you download and start Near Infinity, navigate to 'BCS' branch and find "0608PAT4.BCS" file. This is a script that controls behaviour of NPC that walks into red area when you get close to him (this NPC is close to Yvanna). Open the script (double click).
Change lines:
"IF
True()
THEN"
to:
"IF
False()
THEN"

This will disable loop that moves NPC around. Click "Compile" and then "Save".
Now, NPC near Yvanna should stay in place, so all you have to do is to avoid red area yourself... :)

Enjoy :)


The original post is available here.


PS. If you feel that this post helped you, please consider using this referral link to Dropbox service :P

I'll give that a try, kalee. Not the best solution, but certainly better than nothing. In my fresh game, however, I've come up against a new problem. Going to the highest level of the godsmen foundry in order to convince Sandoz not to end his life is no longer possible apparently, it just crashes instead of loading the area.
Still hoping scientt and I can organise a time to debug the game and see what's going on.

I do not think that there is any other solution for this issue at the moment, so, so far, this is the best solution ;)

And when it comes to Sandoz - I had exactly the same problem. I suppose you are using 2CD version, right?
The solution is here: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/37824-please-report-crashes-here/page__view__findpost__p__505262

There is some problem with packed files (cbf) from 2CD version. Sometimes these files are unpacked uncorrectly.
You can either ask someone with 4cd version to send you a "AR0511.bif" file (and copy it to your 'cache' directory) or you can extract it manually from "AR0511.cbf" file using CBF2BIF tool (link here: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/46956-cbf2bif/).

Good luck! :)

Ah, thanks again kalee, I just extracted the file with the tool you linked and it worked right away. Can't believe I missed that while I was searching around to solve that problem.

By best solution I just meant that the best solution would be to find what was causing the crash, not just manually avoid going to that area. I agree, it's a fine workaround, but ideally we could find out what's going on and fix it. I did do a remote session with scientt today and he said it seems like it's something in the widescreen mod or maybe ghostdog's ui, since it makes a call to a video section of the code, or references the resolution somehow, apparently. So hopefully it can be fixed properly.