Troubleshooting

This page is intended to troubleshoot basic, common (or maybe not so common) issues with Fortress Forever. This page should be the first one that a person checks in order to get help with a problem. As new troubleshooting information becomes available and verified, please add problems and their solutions to this page. This page is organized by problem. Look in the table of contents for your problem and then click it to view the solution(s). First Things First Before you take any troubleshooting steps, please verify that you pass all of these preliminary "tests." Try Other Source Games First Some people have mentioned that they're experiencing crashing/bad fps/whatever problems, but fail to mention if they have attempted trying other Source-based games. Please make sure you try other Source games first and state this in your post, as not only does this avoid confusion and uncertainty for others, but it will also give the devs a chance to pinpoint if the issue is caused by FF or not. Some problems occur as a direct result of issues with the Source engine itself, which the FF developers obviously have no control over themselves. Problems may also occur as a result of your PC simply not being up to the task in one way or another. The devs and others on the forums here will do everything possible to help with PC matters, such as performance and maintenance tips for instance, but sometimes you just have to realise that upgrading your 1800+, 512mb of RAM and 9800 pro is really the best solution to your problems. Finally, making sure you respect these points will give a better overall impression of the mod itself! Failing to do so can result in unfair allegations about its general stability, and could put potential newcomers off. Please keep this in mind! Common Problems & Solutions Connection Problems Problem: I can connect to an FF server but I get dropped after a minute or two. Solution: You may need to adjust your firewall to forward the ports properly. Problem: Upon joining a server I get an error message that reads "OnGameRulesCreationStringChanged: missing gamerules class 'CFFGameRules' on the client." Solution: You may have downloaded the server archive instead of the windows client .exe installer. If you are certain you've installed the client files, stay tuned for a solution. Sound/Audio Problems Problem: My sound is REALLY quiet. Solution: Check to make sure your system's audio settings match your audio set-up (e.g., if you have 2 speakers then select 2 speakers; not 5.1) Crashing on Startup In no particular order: Run the "Source SDK Base" 'tool' manually via the steam games menu at least once Remove the gamestartup mp3s from the FortressForever/sound/ui directory Server Uses Different Class Tables Problem: I get a "Server uses different class tables" error. What's up with that? Solution: You have a different version of FF than the server. So far we have released: Fortress Forever 1.0 (exe) Update 1.1 Update 1.11 Update 2.0 The updates are available as: Individual Incremental .zips Individual Incremental Executables Inclusive Executable ( 1.1 and 1.11 updates combined ) Make sure you have FF updated to the latest version. Unfortunately, some servers operators are slow to update their servers. So it's possible to have an updated FF installation and get the error from an old FF version on a server. Installer Skipping Files If you run into the installer skipping files, delete your clientregistry.blob. It will be located somewhere similar to: C:\Program Files\Steam\ClientRegistry.blob. However, your ClientRegistry.blob may be located in a different place. Follow these steps: Close Steam. Delete ..\Steam\ClientRegistry.blob. Restart Steam. Reinstall Fortress Forever. Crash Problems from Video Drivers Some players have experienced complete lockups and had other similar issues due to driver issues. This is often solved by uninstalling old drivers and reinstalling new ones. When reinstalling drivers, make sure you do the following: USE a driver uninstaller or follow your mfg recommended uninstall. We recommend Driver Cleaner Pro. If you use it, please follow the readme instructions EXACTLY. They will tell you how to remove drivers for your card. See the DriverHeaven.net forum for more information. Download the latest drivers. ATI Users Download (don't install yet) the latest video drivers: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html If not using Driver Cleaner Pro, uninstall old ATI drivers and software: Click on Start, then Control Panel, then go to Add/Remove Programs. At the top of the list you should see several ATI entries. Select the entry entitled ATI Software Uninstall Utility, and click Change/Remove. You will be prompted to restart your system once the uninstall is complete. Once restarted, check the Add/Remove Programs list again for any remaining ATI software. If any ATI software is still listed, click Change/Remove on those entries to uninstall each one individually. Next, please scroll through the list until you find an entry called DAO (see screenshot below). Select DAO, then Click Change/Remove to uninstall this program. Install the new drivers. See this for more detailed instructions on driver software installation. NOTE: If you're going to install and use the latest ATI Catalyst Control Center, which is part of the normal ATI Catalyst Software Suite, you must first install the Microsoft .NET Framework (Version 2.0) on Windows XP. You can also get this VIA Window/Microsoft Update. nVidia Users We are in the process of putting together a more detailed guide for nVidia users. In the meantime, you might find some useful info here: http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11141 Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_1.html FPS Issues & Tweaking If you are having issues with low FPS, please make sure that you've updated your video card drivers to the latest stable versions. Please also make sure that your system meets the requirements for Fortress Forever. After you have checked that, you can go about trying the various tweaks that have been compiled by our forumers. Apathy has created an excellent guide for FPS tweaking. There are also other tips and tricks posted by others in that thread. FPS/Lag Fix: Disable Steam Friends Steam friends is a packet hog, and can cause a massive decrease in FPS. If you disable this feature, you may increase your FPS substantially. From In-Game To disable Steam Friends during games, join a server. Press Shift + Tab. Enter Settings, click the third tab. There should be a check box that is checked that says "enable steam community during gameplay" or something similar. Uncheck that. Restart Fortress Forever, and your FPS should go up substantially. You can do this above in any HL2 game, and it will also effect FF. So if you can't run FF, try it in another game like HL2: DM. From the Friends List In friends go to View > Settings > Friends Tab and uncheck "Automatically start friends when I launch STEAM". If you have manually logged into friends, be sure to restart STEAM before playing games so as to log out of friends. Datacache.dll Issues There is an old bug in all Source games involving the file datacache.dll crashing at 0x0000b423. Apparently Valve knows about this issue, but these are some work-arounds that FF forum users have found to work: Go to the Games tab in Steam, right-click on Fortress Forever and open Properties. Click the advanced settings button and put -dxlevel 80 into the box. This forces the game to use DirectX 8 instead of 9. Some users have also observed using -dxlevel 100 on systems with DirectX 10 to work, but this is not recommended as the Source engine does not even support DirectX 10. Completely uninstall Steam, clear out your mod folders, and reinstall from scratch. Problems from Steam Updates Sometimes Steam Updates seem to cause problems with Source SDK Base games (of which Fortress Forever is one). This is a collection of issues from the Steam forums that other users have had with other Source games. They may be of help to you if you are experiencing an issue similar to them. There is a large list, so please see this forum thread for the whole list of issues. Select important issues have been put here for your convenience. There are also many more threads like these on the Steam forums, so try browsing those as well. Steam Run rediculously slow Ever since... Ever since I downloaded the orange box and pre installed team fortress 2 and I also downloaded older games that i owned like DOD source etc... steam has been running really slow. Other games work great like WOW but if I run steam my computer practically freezes to the point I have to shut it off and restart it. Any Ideas? thanks. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597958 my games randomly drop their fps from max to 10-20... Yeah like maybe 15 minutes into any game (cs 1.6, cs source, dod: source, tfc) it just drops from max to like 10-20 (max is like anywhere between 40-200 depending on what map and what game). I haven't drastically changed my system or anything. What can I do to stop this? http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=591693 None of my games are loading anymore... Whenever I try and launch a game it launches, then closes. With CS it shows the menu screen (the pic of the two CT's) then closes With CoD2 the screen goes black then it closes With Deus Ex I get an error message Everything was fine a couple of days ago. I am using the same PC, nothings been changed. Any ideas? http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597382 My Problem Isn't Here! If you're problem isn't listed on this page, that could mean a few different things. It may be that your problem hasn't been encountered before, or it could be an issue that has yet to be added to this page. There are any number of other reasons, but regardless, you should try the following if you can't find a solution to your problem on this page: Check and SEARCH the FF Technical Support Forum. Browse for threads that may have your issue in it. If not, try posting a new thread describing your issue. Check and SEARCH the Steam Help & Tips Forum. This forum should be used for issues pertaining to Source game and Steam issues in general. Article Rating Good