Downgrade Save File from 1.1.1.0 (FG) to 1.0.6.0 (AoM)

Grim Dawn Modding - Tutorials and Help
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G’day everyone, it’s been 6 months since I last played but I recently tried to get back into GD (because, y’know, it’s kinda awesome!), and started by reinstalling from my local GOG copy I already had (since my internet is pretty crap and it would’ve taken at least a few days to download the newest :o ). So the installer I had was for 1060 and so were my DLCs (I had AoM and Crucible already), and that’s what I set up on this laptop.

It’s only a GT525M with an i5-2430M and 6GB RAM but it was actually doing alright on mostly low settings (full res 1920x1080) and it was enjoyable to play… It was a blast starting from scratch again, at least that first time. :smiley:

I’m running on Normal Veteran mode, as a Necro/Necro “Grand Necromancer” under Grimarillion v064c, so I have 11 minions - 3 ‘pets’ (health bars etc at the top left) and 8 ‘summons’ (only showing at the bottom left above my bars). The summons are all mundane, only the three pets have procs/special attacks, one gives me an aura (Greater Domain from the Lich), and I have four buffs of my own (Electrifying Weapons, Impaling Weapons, Spectral Binding and Underworld Pact).

After the last two weeks of play in my free time I decided I’d at least check out the new FG expansion too since updates had just dropped, I now have the 1.1.1.0 downloaded and installed and have been playing it the last few days… But it’s not stable :frowning: My video driver keeps crashing (at least, that’s how I’ve managed to diagnose it); after anywhere from 3-20 minutes of play I get a black screen with cursor (DX11) or frozen game screen (DX9) with another few seconds of ambient sound then eventually crash reporter. :cry:

I have tried:

  • Upgrading graphics drivers to Nvidia latest for GT525M (391.35-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql)
  • Downgrading graphics drivers to something closer to this laptop’s era (347.88-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql)
  • Repairing DirectX install (no reported issues)
  • Running the game as Administrator
  • Disabling shadows and almost everything else set to low or off (including disabling soft particles - though I have left Depth of Field and Detail Objects on, I’ll try without them next)
  • Forcing dedicated graphics in Nvidia CP
  • Forcing Nvidia CUDA device
  • Forcing Nvidia CP settings all to low or off
  • Setting Vsync in Nvidia CP and disabling it in-game (this didn’t avoid the crash, and appeared to generate more heat, so I switched it back)
  • Windows 7 Compatibility mode (though I’m already on Win7 x64)
  • Repairing the game/resetting options
  • Disabling Antivirus (Avast Free)
  • Reset permissions on Grim Dawn save folder to allow Full Control for Everyone
  • Exiting all unecessary programs while gaming (already a very clean setup here, I police my autoruns)
  • Monitoring GPU temps (it was a bit high on DX11 mode but hovers at ~65-70C in DX9 which is pretty normal for a gaming laptop under load)
  • Monitoring GPU load (was hitting 100% on DX11, only 70-75% on DX9)
  • Elevating my laptop with a fan etc just in case (it’s now hovering around 60-65 while under load)
  • Monitoring RAM usage (game only ever seems to get to about 2GB, usually 1.7GB, no noticeable spike before crash as recorded multiple times by GPU-Z and observing Task Manager)
  • Tried fullscreen mode, fullscreen windowed mode, no change to stability
  • Tried dropping res to 1280x720x60 or 1280x720x40, no difference to stability
  • After all this, I still crashed 4 times out of 5 attempts to run from the burrwitch portal to the abandoned waterfront to pick up the 3 fabric (never got around to that quest earlier but trying to farm DC rep now lol), before even making it to the first fabric chest.

I would like to know if there’s some way to downgrade my save file so I can go back to playing on my 1.0.6.0 setup? I understand I’ll probably lose a couple of items. I’d just really like to be able to get through more than 20 minutes of play without a crash. :undecided: My only save backups on the old version are too far back to countenance reverting to them now, I stuck it out on the unstable newer version for too long, hoping and expecting I’d be able to resolve the issue.

I’ve tried the 1.1.1.1 Hotfix 2 and there was no difference to this crash (but I’ve kept my backup saves from 1.1.1.0 so they haven’t been ‘upgraded’ further).

If I load up 1.0.6.0 with the ‘upgraded’ My Games/Grim Dawn/gacache.bin and playmenu.cpn in place, it freezes shortly after showing the main logo. If I delete those files 1.0.6.0 loads to menu and displays my character, but makes an obnoxious “robot just farted” sound when I attempt to load it, and freezes there :rolleyes:

If I can’t fix this in the next couple days I think I’m just going to have to start over, which sucks but I mean, gaming with 20-minute (or less) crashing isn’t gaming at all :eek:

I realised I haven’t tried running around without pets/minions. I’m going to go try that now and see if it makes a jot of difference to this particular instabiity. I’ll report back! :wink:

Attachment: DarkIntentGloves.gif
Attachment: BalanceSword.gif
Attachment: NoobLoot.gif
Attachment: Stats1.png
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I just crashed after a few minutes of play, while I was on my lonesome (no summons/pets) and literally only two mundane enemies on the screen (killing some zambies in Burrwitch Village). It did happen right as the Doom Bolt from these gloves came down (red lightning), but that hasn’t been a consistent factor with the other crashes AFAICT.

Trying without the other graphics options I mentioned.

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Edit: Just crashed again with Detail Objects and Depth of Field unticked as well - with only 10 or so normal zombies on the screen. Despite that the rest of my system (and other games) have all been stable, I’m rebooting and running MemTest86+ for a few hours while I go get some sunshine.

Since we’re talking procs btw here’s what I have from my gear and skills during this latest crash… it does seem like I have a lot, but I’m not even that far through the game yet so surely it should be able to handle more than this…?

Northern Breeze aura (15% chance when melee hit) [weapon]
Freezing Nova (100% chance when melee hit) [belt]
Battle Cry aura (5% chance when hit) [torso]
Interruption (100% chance when hit) [boots]
Scroll of Oneiros (10% chance when hit) [artifact]
Sleep retaliation (10% chance of 1-2 seconds) [artifact]
Stun retaliation (5%+5% chance of 2 seconds) [pants+helm]
Lightning Bolt (5% chance on attack) [ring]
Fireball (5% chance on attack) [amulet]
Doom Bolt (5% chance on attack) [gloves]
Stun target (12% chance of 0.8 seconds on attack) [from Electrifying Weapons]
Reaping Strike (18% chance on default weapon attacks) [from Skill]
Necrotic Edge (8% chance on default weapon attacks and 2 target max) [from Skill]

Here’s the sword since most people might not know what “Northern Breeze” is:

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Have you tried playing without any mods?

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Thank you for replying sir, I love your work in TQ and here :smiley: But no, I don’t really think I could seriously consider playing vanilla, it’s just not enough of a challenge or excitement for me (even as cool as the original game is!).

The MemTest passed several times and the laptop is stable under furmark as well, I let FM run for 10 mins and though it reached 73C after 3mins50seconds, it didn’t reach 75 till almost the 6 min mark, and plateaued there for the rest of the time. It was only performing at 5fps that whole time, but that’s not unusual for Furmark (it was the stress test). A minute later it was back down to 41C.

I attempted to completely strip the character and both stashes of items and see if it would load in the older version, but no luck there either. So the character structure is different in some way that isn’t compatible even with no items… but wait! On a hunch, I repeated that process but actually deleted the stash files too… SUCCESS! The file loaded in 1.0.6.0!! :smiley: and I found out what that “robot farting” sound was - lots of achievements triggering at once haha!

Now my character appears to have downgraded successfully, quests etc look okay, skills all look good, XP and level and stats all good… Her face is a lovely aqua and red checkerboard, but I don’t care about that, it just means she’ll look like robocop when I put her helm back on :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m going to work on parceling back in my items a couple dozen at a time (with GDStash or something else) and I’ll report back after playing the same areas again to let you know what the stability is like.

Edit: it seems I may have got ‘lucky’ with the no-items downgrade. I backed up that working save (thank god) and first tried GDStash, but wasn’t having much luck in loading the old (third-full) stash files with it, it would peg the CPU for minutes and I gave up.

So then I was trying to test if I could just pull items out a dozen at a time with the newer (1.1.1.0) install, delete the gacache and playmenu files, and load the character in the 1.0.6.0 installation (I have them installed simultaneously)… But I have not been able to generate another “stable and will load on 1.0.6.0” save, except the one I backed up. Even if I extract the ‘working save’, load it into 1.1.1.0 and exit without adding any items, that character file crashes when trying to display it in the loading menu in 1.0.6.0 (even after deleting gacache and playermenu, and the stash files).

Fortunately I have that one backup that is working, so I’ll see if Item Assistant will work for this item import process, without having to load the character in 1.1.1.0 again :wink: I know I should be able to fix the face later with that commandline tool some other guy made for editing individual flags and values within a file. IA has downloaded now so I’ll see how I go :slight_smile: I consider this a minigame now, Can I Unf*ck My Save lol

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I was able to import+transfer almost all of the items from the 1.1.1.0 stash, to the 1.0.6.0-stable save file, with Item Assistant (a few showed up as Unknown so I skipped them, I think they were just a few newer blues since 1.0.6.0, nothing I care a lot about), it had issues with a couple of things like the Forgotten Souls (Grimarillion quest item) so I manually added those back, my aether crystals, potions, and a couple of other quest items, with GDStash. I was also able to view my crafting list on the old save, note down the differences and then give myself all the right formulas with GDStash.

Aside from the face texture (which I’ll try fixing tomorrow, it’s 2:30am now oops) I have everything working as it was, and I’ve been able to summon my full pet posse, clear the areas that were causing so many problems before (on 1.1.1.0), level up twice, collect awesome loot… including taking on a den full of about 8-10 hero monsters in the one screen… All with no crash :smiley:

It was a learning experience. I definitely know more about how to use some of these tools now, so that’s a plus. My brain needs a break now :rolleyes: But hooray for results :slight_smile: You can see the ‘aqua face syndrome’ below, like I said hardly gamebreaking, I never see it anyway :wink:

7

I’ve now been able to level up three more times (with even more minions in tow, and more procs) without a single crash. So glad this messing around was worth it :smiley:

Edit: Another 20hrs playtime, 15,000+ monsters and 500+ bosses later, and still not a SINGLE crash. Hell yeah :slight_smile: