TT 3677 - FaceGen Affected by Update

[Jayhawk]

I loaded the latest patch on the 2 computers I run the game on and it seems to have shut-down FaceGen. In both new games started after the patch, and in old games started before the patch, new players do not have their images created. In old games, the images still exist. New players get either blank images (different colors) or an image of a ball field.

[Nutlaw]

Could you go to the "Player & Picture Options" screen under "Game Setup"? Under the heading of "Fictional Player Options", could you let us know what the "Player Pictures for" and "Create Player Pictures" options are set to?

[Jayhawk]

"All Players"
"On Demand"

[Nutlaw]

Hrm. That's odd. Which operating system do you use? Do you have the latest drivers for your graphics card installed?

Since it happened right after patching the game, however, maybe something didn't get installed correctly. I would first try reinstalling OOTP.

[Ramzzz86]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

I loaded the latest patch on the 2 computers I run the game on and it seems to have shut-down FaceGen. In both new games started after the patch, and in old games started before the patch, new players do not have their images created. In old games, the images still exist. New players get either blank images (different colors) or an image of a ball field.

Same exact thing happened to me. I posted something like this about a week ago but no one paid any attention to it. I don't think it's a graphic card issue because when the game was installed it didn't have this problem. This is unless the patch tweaked something with player picture generation which I don't recall either doing.

Anyway for the sake of finding out if its an operating issue...My system is an:

E-Machine
3.19 GHz
504 MB of RAM
Windows XP


I hope this is looked into now that I know I'm not the only one with this problem.

[Jayhawk]

I'm seeing the same exact problem on 2 different PC's: one running XP Media Center and the other running XP Home SP2, both current with the latest Windows patches.

Another data point: players existing when a new season starts get their images generated. Players added during a season don't until the next season.

I'm also seeing the appl crash every time when exiting. Note - this is on both PCs. I'll try a clean install of the original game and the patch on one machine and post the result later.

[Nutlaw]

In the player profile, try playing around with the "Picture" pop-up menu in the lower right corner. If you select "New Picture", does that generate something for you?

If that doesn't, try going to the "Player & Picture Options" screen under "Game Setup", and under the "Player Picture Functions", choose "Update/Generate Player Pictures".

[Nutlaw]

Also, are these missing pictures tied to any particular teams/uniforms?

[Ramzzz86]

This was odd. Just after posting my last message on this thread...the face gen started to create player pictures again randomly. Then just today after playing it a couple days with no problems generating player pics...it starts messing them up again. I am confused. The only thing I do in terms of my computer, that I can think of maybe affecting anything is that after two hours of no use my computer goes into stand by mode. Sometimes the application (OOTP) is still on when the computer goes into stand-by.

I guess the question after all this still remains...why didn't it do this before the patches?

[Nutlaw]

Originally Posted by Ramzzz86

This was odd. Just after posting my last message on this thread...the face gen started to create player pictures again randomly. Then just today after playing it a couple days with no problems generating player pics...it starts messing them up again. I am confused. The only thing I do in terms of my computer, that I can think of maybe affecting anything is that after two hours of no use my computer goes into stand by mode. Sometimes the application (OOTP) is still on when the computer goes into stand-by.

I guess the question after all this still remains...why didn't it do this before the patches?

If you restart your computer, everything works fine when you start playing the game again? Can you say for certain that the picture generation only stops after your computer has gone into standby?

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by Nutlaw

In the player profile, try playing around with the "Picture" pop-up menu in the lower right corner. If you select "New Picture", does that generate something for you?

Jayhawk, Ramzzz86, please try the above.

Also try going to the "Player & Picture Options" screen under "Game Setup", and under the "Player Picture Functions", choose "FORCE Update/Generate Player Pictures".

[Ramzzz86]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

Jayhawk, Ramzzz86, please try the above.

Also try going to the "Player & Picture Options" screen under "Game Setup", and under the "Player Picture Functions", choose "FORCE Update/Generate Player Pictures".

I did those things before and they didn't work.

Last night though I decided to shut down my computer completely and not let it sit in stand-by. This morning when I got on the computer and started everything up and opened OOTP, I generated a couple pics and it worked without a problem. I can say with confidence now that the problem (at least for me) with generating pics is affected when I go into stand-by mode with my computer. But why?

[Andreas Raht]

OOTP uses an OpenGL "handle" to access the OpenGL features. OpenGL is software which is working together with the computer hardware, i.e. the graphic card, as part of the driver software. May be that the handle goes lost when the graphic card shuts down during stand-by mode? So OOTP would have to see that and to renew the handle.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

I loaded the latest patch on the 2 computers I run the game on and it seems to have shut-down FaceGen. In both new games started after the patch, and in old games started before the patch, new players do not have their images created. In old games, the images still exist. New players get either blank images (different colors) or an image of a ball field.

Originally Posted by Ramzzz86

I can say with confidence now that the problem (at least for me) with generating pics is affected when I go into stand-by mode with my computer. But why?

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

OOTP uses an OpenGL "handle" to access the OpenGL features. OpenGL is software which is working together with the computer hardware, i.e. the graphic card, as part of the driver software. May be that the handle goes lost when the graphic card shuts down during stand-by mode? So OOTP would have to see that and to renew the handle.

These forums are great. I was noticing this problem, decided to search for "blank FaceGen" and up popped this thread.

I can lend my support, if only by circumstantial evidence, that this is true. I play OOTP on my laptop and sometimes close the cover so that the computer goes into standby mode. I had done so today and experienced this problem, as I now recall, and I tested it just now after reading the above. When I closed the cover and went into standby, then "woke" the machine up, all new FaceGen pictures from that point on, either on demand or requested by the Picture button, were background only. I had to restart the program to refresh the capability of creating faces.

I hope this can be fixed in the next patch, but I am grateful just to know what causes the problem and how it can be avoided. Thanks to all here.