[1.0.10.15] Possible Resource Allocation Error, Heavy Graphical Artefacting

[KrumStrashni]

The community has been grappling with this problem when using high-content modifications - primarily Warfare Expanded: Reloaded (WE:R) mod (which adds a huge amount of assets and CV) in combination with mods like Urban Complexity (UC) or City Styles (CS).

Users have also reported problems on larger maps, or using mods which add natural wonders. Mid and late game instability has also been reported using WE:R even alone. (this could be related to an issue reported here )

The problem was first reported around the first week of October 2020, which places it right after the 24 Sept update of the game.
People have reported it no matter whether they have NFP or not.

Please refer to below image for reference. The intensity varies. No specific units seem to be impacted. It is random. Sometimes in a mild manifestation of the glitch, just assets or models are missing.

We have identified a specific error report appearing in the Renderer logs:

[2021-02-18 11:10:36] Error: ResourceList.AddResource(), attempting to add more than 8192 items.
or
[2021-02-18 10:10:10] Error: ResourceList.AddResource(), attempting to add more than 16384 items.
[2021-02-18 10:10:11] Error: ResourceList.AddResource(), attempting to add more than 16384 items.
[2021-02-18 10:10:15] Error: ResourceList.AddResource(), attempting to add more than 16384 items.
[2021-02-18 10:10:27] Growing UpdateSubresource invocations
[2021-02-18 10:11:21] Error: ResourceList.AddResource(), attempting to add more than 16384 items.
and
combinations of these.

This appears already from turn one, when using WE:R and UC or CS.
WE:R alone does not cause this in the log at start.

Details of the mods:

WE:R: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2044522714
CS: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2169097417&searchtext=city+styles
UC: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1677748412

By far, it seems the elephant in the room is WE:R.

We tried splitting BLPs into separate smaller packages not to create an enormous BLP file. But this did not alleviate the issue.

To summarise:

- The game engine seems to struggle adding new art when the amount of items is very high.
- Modding fixes alone do not seem to remove the issue.
- Quite possible there was some limitation introduced in Sept 2020 that triggered the issues.
- Breaking WE:R leaves the developing team with two years of effort wasted. The mod is used by thousands on Steam.

Logs and dumps attached.

We are aware that this does not seem to be a problem for the basegame, but reporting it to Firaxis is the only way we could still save this modding experience loved by so many.

Thank you. I remain available to answer more questions.

 

[Paulo Eduardo Leme]

TYVM KrumStrashni for that. From my end it definitely feels Firaxis unilaterally introduced the problem. It happened for me ever since Jan 28th 2020 update (version v.1.3.9 at Launch screen, and v.1.0.9.9 (213860) at Menu screen) kicked in, introducing a graphical glitch that rendered the game unplayable. Yield lens went offline and jerseys broke down, clearly a widespread graphic glitch. This issue cost me a good chunk of love to the game a a whole month of troubleshooting (I'm no IT wizard, granted) to finally find WE:R discussion thread on it and confirm so many other people were experiencing the same thing. Hope this gets picked up by Firaxis, SOLVED, and they take measures to avoid whatever happened in the future. This has not been fun. Wish Firaxis were more RESPONSIBLE AND SUPPORTIVE with Modding and our community, without which many of us would not be playing and buying CIV VI at all, myself included.

 

[Leugi]

As part of this, I can confirm there have been crashing issues being reported with my City Styles mod since October 2020, even though I didn't update at the time. Aside from that there have been some random glitches which not everyone has (which makes it impossible to truly pinpoint a single cause).

Recently the crash reports have increased, so here you can find a couple:

Spoiler :

Aside from this one player is having a funny error that puts a palace in the middle of the canals:

Spoiler :

None of this issues is directly related to City-Styles as not all players report them and I myself can't reproduce them.

As for a crash with Warfare Expanded, I can definitely confirm it happens and the Renderer log is pretty much what Krum posted there.

I would also like to point out that there have been more errors that are not even linked to mods, like the map going all black and warriors getting the zombie sound from the Red Death scenario every now and then (and that can only be fixed by Verifying Game Files with steam).

 

[KrumStrashni]

An update:

The glitching seems to be impacted by the use of NFP content. Turning off Byzantium & Gaul, Babuylon, and Maya packs shows a clean Render log at least at the beginning of a game. There is no observed artefacting either.

 

[KrumStrashni]

No change whatsoever after the update today. Disappointing....

 

[KrumStrashni]

An update on the behavior of this glitch by Leugi:

- It does seem to be a limit in terms of size sadly. And in my tests the number of .blps didnt really help, as in, splitting or joining .blps had no effect whatsoever.
- Rn the limit we are touching with WE+CS+NF is around 10 MB or so. Deleting that amount of MB in blps, regardless of the blps seems to prevent the crash. The same in terms of removing assets from xlps before baking.
- Since the October patch didnt really include any heavy blps, it still seems that its an in engine error introduced by it.
- Sadly it does lead us to having no real options for us. As in, the largest our .blps are the higher the chances we get crashes and glitches.

 

[KrumStrashni]

An update:

- I just ran an autoplay game for 500 turns on "standard" settings.

- I used WE mods, UC suite full, no Byz&Gaul, no personas and no scenarios I got no unit glitching and just once the render log error

- it was actually linked to a very minor screen rip when using the "go to" function dragged a long way across the screen. Only murky part is that AI does not make a lot of units. But I spawned some extra ones and no glitch.

I will continue testing