Performance Issue: Massive slow down/hanging.

[crusader007]

Yeah it works fine without steam. But then it`s impossible to play the dlc campaigns.
.

Yes, but if you start the game normally, start the dlc and then save, you can exit, start the game via the exe file only and then load the save file and be able to play with no slowdown.

For me, this is much easier than having to save, quit and restart the game every 5 minutes cause of the slowdown!

i tried this but it would not start the grand campaign

[Ralle]

I also tried it. But sadly it doesn`t load the savegame without steam.

[fpulido]

Ok, stupid steam overlay has somehow developed a memory leak in conjunction with our beloved panzer game but I can't find where its coming from either...try this workaround that I tested and at least works for me so far and still gives you access to the dlcs and saved games.

Start the game via steam as usual, control/alt/delete to get to task manager, under apps you should see steam client bootstrapper...end task on that program. Hopefully steam is gone, panzer corps should still be running with dlcs and saved games still accessible and no slowdown.

Let me know if this helps!

[smokeybear]

Ok, stupid steam overlay has somehow developed a memory leak in conjunction with our beloved panzer game but I can't find where its coming from either...try this workaround that I tested and at least works for me so far and still gives you access to the dlcs and saved games.

Start the game via steam as usual, control/alt/delete to get to task manager, under apps you should see steam client bootstrapper...end task on that program. Hopefully steam is gone, panzer corps should still be running with dlcs and saved games still accessible and no slowdown.

Let me know if this helps!

Tried it this morning 4 turns into GC '39 Poland and same slowdown and hanging.

I don't understand why it would work for you and not me?

I am Windows 10 64bit AMD graphics card, bags of memory and i7 4th gen processor just for info and comparison.

What I am planning to do is uninstall all steam items including Steam, and try it using physical discs which I also have (except PC Grand Campaign disc which is on the post to me) although I do have Slitherine's download for that.

Has anyone tried this already?

[Tarrak]

What I am planning to do is uninstall all steam items including Steam, and try it using physical discs which I also have (except PC Grand Campaign disc which is on the post to me) although I do have Slitherine's download for that.

Has anyone tried this already?

I am playing all the time the non Steam version of PC and i have no slowdowns at all. My computer got an i5-4690 CPU, Nvidia GTX 970 graphic card, 8GB of RAM and Windows 10 64 bit as OS. I haven't tried the steam version in ages so no idea if it slows down but i find some time spare i will have a look.

[HalfLifeExpert]

Wow, I cant believe its been a month and still no solution.

I'm not blaming the devs, they clearly see the issue themselves and must be working to fix it.

I am firmly convinced it has to do with something done to the Steam client on or about March 1st. That is when the problems started appearing. 1.25 and Soviet Corps were released on February 18th, and there were no updates to PzC between then and March 1st, so it cannot be with Soviet Corps/1.25.

It cannot be with any sort of hardware, drivers or OS, as this is reported on a range of machines. The computer that I have logged most of my PzC hours on is actually a non-gaming laptop, and I never had issues with PzC on that, or my gaming desktop, until this.

It really amazes me that this problem is that hard to solve. I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just amazed.

[Resolute]

This morning I was downloading a game from Steam and during the download I was able to play through two scenarios without issues. For the sake of it, I then paused the download, restarted PCorps and after around turn 9 the perfomance issues were once back. Eventually resumed the download, restarted PCorps and played through another scenario just fine. Probably just a coincedence but was still weird.

[fpulido]

In my searches for new ideas, I ran across this reply in the steam forum...

Slitherine_Iain [developer]

Unfortunately the Steam overlay cant work with PzC. It requires a complete rewrite of major chunks of the engine to make it work and it isn't really feasible at this point.

Wow, so am I to understand that the developers have given up on the fix and will just continue to release new dlc for those where the game works?? The rest of us can just take it or leave it? Someone tell me this isn't true!

[pipfromslitherine]

I'm pretty sure that date on that post would be a long time ago. The overlay proper (e.g. bringing it up ingame and being able to use it) only works for DirectX based games. That is what he was talking about. The team (and indeed myself) are working hard to try and find the issue, but given it takes 20mins+ each time you want to replicate it, I am sure you can see how it would slow down finding and fixing the cause.

Cheers

Pip

[HalfLifeExpert]

This morning I was downloading a game from Steam and during the download I was able to play through two scenarios without issues. For the sake of it, I then paused the download, restarted PCorps and after around turn 9 the perfomance issues were once back. Eventually resumed the download, restarted PCorps and played through another scenario just fine. Probably just a coincedence but was still weird.

That is weird. It made me think of something.

There is the option to disable background downloads for specific games.

Go to Panzer Corps in steam games list, and go to properties. Under the updates tab at the bottom is a place to set whether or not to allow background downloads just for PzC.

Perhaps try playing with background downloads disables, perhaps there is a bug causing the slowdown when there are no downloads

UPDATE: I just tried my idea, and it did not work. But at this point any idea seems worth a shot

[fpulido]

I'm pretty sure that date on that post would be a long time ago. The overlay proper (e.g. bringing it up ingame and being able to use it) only works for DirectX based games. That is what he was talking about. The team (and indeed myself) are working hard to try and find the issue, but given it takes 20mins+ each time you want to replicate it, I am sure you can see how it would slow down finding and fixing the cause.

Cheers

Pip

Thank you for clarifying that. Its good to know its still being looked into.

Off to play Order of Battle!

[Tarrak]

I played the first two scenarios of GC39 in the steam version of the game with steam open in the background and i had no slowdown at all. Either this problem do not affect everyone or i haven't played long enough. I give a few more scenarios a go to see what happens. But in the case it's only affect special hardware/software combinations it may be worth to collect the info from all the affected people. Maybe this shows a pattern and helps the developers to find the problem.

[fliegenderstaub]

I played the first two scenarios of GC39 in the steam version of the game with steam open in the background and i had no slowdown at all. Either this problem do not affect everyone or i haven't played long enough. I give a few more scenarios a go to see what happens. But in the case it's only affect special hardware/software combinations it may be worth to collect the info from all the affected people. Maybe this shows a pattern and helps the developers to find the problem.

Allright, so here we go:

Intel i5 5200U CPU @ 2.20 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia 920M, Intel HD 5500 graphics (tried both - same result). I you need any more details, just say it.

[fpulido]

I played the first two scenarios of GC39 in the steam version of the game with steam open in the background and i had no slowdown at all. Either this problem do not affect everyone or i haven't played long enough. I give a few more scenarios a go to see what happens. But in the case it's only affect special hardware/software combinations it may be worth to collect the info from all the affected people. Maybe this shows a pattern and helps the developers to find the problem.

Try the soviet campaign...

Intel i7 4790K @ 4ghz, 16 GB, Asus GeForce GTX970, GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK motherboard

[Thrawn046]

Dear Team Slitherine/Lordz/Flaschback,

for the First, i have to say i love Panzer Corps very much and its very fine to find these Games Today between all the Call of....

My problem is the same.
I buyed the whole Game (over 70 Euros on Steam) and played the normal Game - No Problems.
The Performance Problems described here are only with AC and all Grand Campaigns + Sea Lion.

But this Thread is existing very long and no Patch/Fix in Sight ?
We all payed much money for this Game, and only want to play.

I also want to buy Soviet Corps and US/Pazifik Corps - But not with this Performance.

I habe the Problem with 2 very different PCs:

Core 2 Duo P8600(2,4Ghz)
4 gig Ram
Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT
Win7 X64 Prof.

Core I7 6700K
16 gig Ram DDR4 2666
MSI Geforce GTX 970 Gaming 4G
Win10 X64 Prof.

One Thing helps a bit, but is no Real solution. I get better Performance with Energy Options on full Power (I7 works always with 4200 Mhz on all Cores)

I hope the patch is not taking much longer, i only want to play this great Game without Problems..

When do we get the fix ?

[Thrawn046]

I played the first two scenarios of GC39 in the steam version of the game with steam open in the background and i had no slowdown at all. Either this problem do not affect everyone or i haven't played long enough. I give a few more scenarios a go to see what happens. But in the case it's only affect special hardware/software combinations it may be worth to collect the info from all the affected people. Maybe this shows a pattern and helps the developers to find the problem.

Try the soviet campaign...

Intel i7 4790K @ 4ghz, 16 GB, Asus GeForce GTX970, GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK motherboard

Or Sea Lion

[Tarrak]

I tested a bit more and i don't get any slowdowns at all even after around three hours of playing Panzer Coprs under Steam. At least not any noticeable slowdowns. It seems like it doesn't affect everyone. Obviously no idea if I am among the lucky few ones or the majority. For reference my computer specs are: Intel i5-4690 @ 3.5 Ghz CPU, NVIDIA GTX 970 GPU, 8 GB RAM on Windows 10 64 bit. All software on newest version, except the GPU drivers which are still 364.51 ... i didn't update them for a while.

[smokeybear]

I tested a bit more and i don't get any slowdowns at all even after around three hours of playing Panzer Coprs under Steam. At least not any noticeable slowdowns. It seems like it doesn't affect everyone. Obviously no idea if I am among the lucky few ones or the majority. For reference my computer specs are: Intel i5-4690 @ 3.5 Ghz CPU, NVIDIA GTX 970 GPU, 8 GB RAM on Windows 10 64 bit. All software on newest version, except the GPU drivers which are still 364.51 ... i didn't update them for a while.

Well I am shocked that you have no issues for 3 hours using Steam, things don't add up.

Here is my update, I have uninstalled all steam components for Panzer Corps and reinstalled from disc, i.e. all DLC's up to but not including Soviet Corps and patch 1.25.

There's a reason, I this is the second time I have done this but without the full clean up, when I installed Soviet Corps and Patch 1.25, Panzer Corps would not start, so I have done some self help as descrobed.

I will find out by loading SC shortly...........


Radeon Software Version - 16.3.2
Radeon Software Edition - Crimson
Graphics Chipset - AMD Radeon (TM) R9 200 Series
Memory Size - 2048 MB
Memory Type - GDDR5
Core Clock - 925 MHz
Windows Version - Windows 10 (64 bit)
System Memory - 24 GB
CPU Type - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz

[smokeybear]

The purpose of this post is to help anyone who has Panzer Corps on disc or downloads from Slitherine as I have but also had Steam versions and encountered problems with hanging etc. when using Steam version.

To pad out the explanation I have included a bit of old stuff as below.

Same issue with me, massive hanging, ever since I installed Soviet Corps I don't get more than a few turns in before it's uncomfortable to play. (I'm still playing Grand Campaign '43, and will finish before I go on to Soviet Corps)..................It's installed through Steam as well, so maybe an issue there?

I have uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail.

Windows 10 64bit Dell 8700 tower.

The above was my first post on this forum on the 4th March.

I have now dispensed with Steam Panzer Corps as in my previous post I said:- "There's a reason, I this is the second time I have done this but without the full clean up, when I installed Soviet Corps and Patch 1.25, Panzer Corps would not start, so I have done some self help as described.

I will find out by loading SC shortly..........."


Having installed from disc all DLC's except Soviet Corps and patch 1.25 - well I downloaded patch 1.25 tried the game for several turns runs infact one and a half scenarios everything is as smooth as silk.

The loaded Soviet Corps from disc, also runs smooth as silk after one complete scenario.

I therefore confirm this is a Steam issue and do not expect anyone playing and using Steam will get any joy as that is where the problem is, not with my hardware, not with my game downloads and not with my discs.

I don't intend at this time to reinstall from Steam Panzer Corps while the bug exists.

I'll keep an eye on this thread but anyone who has the discs should uninstall the Steam version, delete the folders as a belt and braces, run a registry cleaner if they have one and then install from discs, do as I did before installing Soviet Corps; install patch 1.25 then install Soviet Corps, not because I know that is right, but because doing it the other way by just installing Soviet Corps complete with patch 1.25 caused a problem that I had to clear it all off again and start again. May just be a hiccup maybe not, but that procedure as I have described has worked for me when installing from discs after having had the Steam version running like a snail.

I now ask myself why I bought the Steam versions as well?

The answer is it seemed easier to have both for complete system reinstall, not so good an idea currently though.

[HalfLifeExpert]

Yes, all the evidence seems to suggest that the most likely culprit in some way is steam. Also it does seem to be affecting DLC content, which in the context of steam means all scenarios other than those in the base vanilla game.

I remember when this bug started being reported, I did a test to see if I was affected, and it didn't appear so, but I was playing the vanilla Poland scenario. Subsequently when I played scenarios from Allied Corps and Soviet Corps, the issue would appear after 20-30 mins of playing.

It seems to make sense that this might have to do with something related to how steam handles these DLCs, especially since you cannot play any of the them without the steam client running.