[SenorPickle]

Just to reiterate what I encountered:

I didn't encounter any crashing until I started doing battles. Once I started doing battles I would freeze the moment the final hit of the battle was landed. Hard lock, no button response, had to hard-reset the PS3.

So I deleted installed data, deleted the disc data, re-extracted the rars, transferred the game to my USB HDD, transferred the game from USB to Internal using Multiman, renamed the folder to omit the -[Ni No Kuni] stuff, set permissions, then I just picked back up where I left off.

Now I can't say that whatever the problem was is fixed because we don't know what the problem is, right? What I can say is that before doing this I was crashing consistently within 15 minutes of playing, and how fast it happened seemed directly related to the number of battles I had (i.e. more battles, faster crashing). What I can also say is that since I did what I said above I haven't had a single crash, slowdown, hiccup, whatever.

That said, I'm sure someone will come back saying "but its random, it could happen after 10 seconds or 10 hours." Since I don't know the source of the problem this could very well be true, but it hasn't proven to be so far.

[kyogo]

I think I found the cause of this freezing issues. Upon playing a new game, the 2 things I changed the moment I access the in game Menu Settings was the Vibration and the Text Speed Display slider.

Their default settings are - Vibration is off / Text Speed Display slider in the middle.
I turned on Vibration and maxed out the Text Speed Display slider.
After defeating Ruff in the battle tutorial, I tried to fight a Minor Byrde: The game froze right before I land the fatal blow.

That moment, I remembered changing my settings in my previous and first save file. I haven't had a single freeze for 8 hours BEFORE changing these settings. So I said to myself why not turn it on. Then the freezing galore happened..
I thought the problem occured only on these parts of the map.
I couldn't last 30 minutes.

It's either the Vibration option that's causing it, is it the Text Speed Display slider, or both.

The Difficulty settings doesn't and will not cause a freeze.

On my third new save file, I decided NOT TO TOUCH THE SETTINGS. Managed to reach Al Mamoon and I've been grinding the Shimmering Sands with ease.

There's nothing wrong with your disc, your PS3, or even your HDD.
I need everyone to help me on this one because I even bought an original Ni No Kuni but the freezing issues persisted if the settings were changed. With the settings untouched, all is well.

[klown07]

Originally Posted by SenorPickle Just to reiterate what I encountered: I didn't encounter any crashing until I started doing battles. Once I started doing battles I would freeze the moment the final hit of the battle was landed. Hard lock, no button response, had to hard-reset the PS3. So I deleted installed data, deleted the disc data, re-extracted the rars, transferred the game to my USB HDD, transferred the game from USB to Internal using Multiman, renamed the folder to omit the -[Ni No Kuni] stuff, set permissions, then I just picked back up where I left off. Now I can't say that whatever the problem was is fixed because we don't know what the problem is, right? What I can say is that before doing this I was crashing consistently within 15 minutes of playing, and how fast it happened seemed directly related to the number of battles I had (i.e. more battles, faster crashing). What I can also say is that since I did what I said above I haven't had a single crash, slowdown, hiccup, whatever. That said, I'm sure someone will come back saying "but its random, it could happen after 10 seconds or 10 hours." Since I don't know the source of the problem this could very well be true, but it hasn't proven to be so far.

Did a similar thing by deleting the -[Ni No Kuni] from the game title. I'm playing via external this time though, internal previously. So far got through a whole dungeon and saved, without a freeze. I will also try the Vibration and text setting thing the other poster has suggested, if I do encounter a freeze down the line.

[snkysnake02]

Originally Posted by kyogo I think I found the cause of this freezing issues. Upon playing a new game, the 2 things I changed the moment I access the in game Menu Settings was the Vibration and the Text Speed Display slider. Their default settings are - Vibration is off / Text Speed Display slider in the middle. I turned on Vibration and maxed out the Text Speed Display slider. After defeating Ruff in the battle tutorial, I tried to fight a Minor Byrde: The game froze right before I land the fatal blow. That moment, I remembered changing my settings in my previous and first save file. I haven't had a single freeze for 8 hours BEFORE changing these settings. So I said to myself why not turn it on. Then the freezing galore happened.. I thought the problem occured only on these parts of the map. I couldn't last 30 minutes. It's either the Vibration option that's causing it, is it the Text Speed Display slider, or both. The Difficulty settings doesn't and will not cause a freeze. On my third new save file, I decided NOT TO TOUCH THE SETTINGS. Managed to reach Al Mamoon and I've been grinding the Shimmering Sands with ease. There's nothing wrong with your disc, your PS3, or even your HDD. I need everyone to help me on this one because I even bought an original Ni No Kuni but the freezing issues persisted if the settings were changed. With the settings untouched, all is well.

Im sorry but thats rubbish, I have text speed all the way up and changed some other ingame settings and havent had these issues. I think the issue is people are trying to play it on internal. If everyone remembers right, there are games that can only be played on internal and games that can only be played on external.

Ive noticed that the people that have switched over to external like I have mine, havnt had a crash since they did it. course they deleted the game data and re-copied the game to the external as a precaution step.

Non the less, if you look back the two people that switched to external that were having the crash issue are not having it anymore.

Just put the game on external , it may just be one of those games that runs better on external.

[mcrenas]

@kyogo That is not it man. Sorry. I am playing without issues with the text speed foul and vib on.

[Inspectah_Deck]

The solution for now is to download the PSN version and activate it with ReactPSN.
You can get the pkgs and rap file with PSNStuff:
http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?p=527837

[donglehater]

Originally Posted by snkysnake02 Im sorry but thats rubbish, I have text speed all the way up and changed some other ingame settings and havent had these issues. I think the issue is people are trying to play it on internal. If everyone remembers right, there are games that can only be played on internal and games that can only be played on external. Ive noticed that the people that have switched over to external like I have mine, havnt had a crash since they did it. course they deleted the game data and re-copied the game to the external as a precaution step. Non the less, if you look back the two people that switched to external that were having the crash issue are not having it anymore. Just put the game on external , it may just be one of those games that runs better on external.

I first played it on external and after it began to lag on the audio I put it onto the internal where it also lagged on the audio and then finally froze. I came back in here and read this thread and then just deleted it from both internal and external.

[klown07]

Walking all over the overworld fighting monster after monster, still have not got any hard locks or freezes. I have altered the text speed, and turned vibration on. External worked for me (so far) No lag on audio, only short time to load wizard book.

[cfwprpht]

Let us try to explain it in detail... KDSBest already explained it rough via Twitter.

It looks like the audio thread of the game causes the crashes.

lv2(2): #
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # system software version: 4.31 (DEX)
lv2(2): # revision: 49276
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # Lv-2 detected an interrupt(exception) in a user PPU Thread.
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): Trap00000000006037a8800000000002c03200000000002000008000000300039c4000000053a0f24a771
lv2(2): {??g?# Proc name : /dev_flash/vsh/module/vsh.self
lv2(2): # Proc ID : 0x1000300
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # Register Info.
lv2(2): # LR: 0x00000000006037a8 CR:0x28000022
lv2(2): # CTR: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # GPR 0: 0x00000000006037a8 GPR 1: 0x00000000d00090b0
lv2(2): # GPR 2: 0x00000000006f5210 GPR 3: 0x00000000000000ac
lv2(2): # GPR 4: 0x8000000000008032 GPR 5: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR 6: 0x8000000010005cc8 GPR 7: 0x800000000052d000
lv2(2): # GPR 8: 0x00000000007483c0 GPR 9: 0x0100002900000000
lv2(2): # GPR10: 0x0000000001000029 GPR11: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR12: 0x0000000028000028 GPR13: 0x0000000010007060
lv2(2): # GPR14: 0x0000000000000000 GPR15: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR16: 0x0000000000000000 GPR17: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR18: 0x0000000000000000 GPR19: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR20: 0x0000000000000000 GPR21: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR22: 0x0000000000000000 GPR23: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR24: 0x0000000000000000 GPR25: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR26: 0x00000000d0009fd0 GPR27: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR28: 0x0000000000710000 GPR29: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # GPR30: 0x0000000000000001 GPR31: 0x000000000d300000
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # XER: 0x0000000000000000 FPSCR: 0xaa202000
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # FPR 0: 0x3ff0000000000000 FPR 1: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR 2: 0x3ff0000000000000 FPR 3: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR 4: 0x0000000000000000 FPR 5: 0x0000000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR 6: 0x0000000000000000 FPR 7: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR 8: 0x3ff0000000000000 FPR 9: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR10: 0xbf42345680000000 FPR11: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR12: 0x3ff0000000000000 FPR13: 0x3ff0000000000000
lv2(2): # FPR14: 0x0000001000329000 FPR15: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR16: 0x0000001000329000 FPR17: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR18: 0x0000001000329000 FPR19: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR20: 0x0000001000329000 FPR21: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR22: 0x0000001000329000 FPR23: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR24: 0x0000001000329000 FPR25: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR26: 0x0000001000329000 FPR27: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR28: 0x0000001000329000 FPR29: 0x0000001000329000
lv2(2): # FPR30: 0x0000001000329000 FPR31: 0x4059000040000000
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # PRX Info: 1 PRX in process
lv2(2): # --/--: id-------- path------------------------------ version segments---
lv2(2): # 0/ 1: 0x23001603 [/dev_flash/sys/internal/sys_audio.sprx] 1. 1 2 segments
lv2(2): # ---/--- base------+filesz----+(mem-file) [flags-----]
lv2(2): # 0/ 2: 0x00760000+0x000a9d00+0x00000000 [0x00000001]
lv2(2): # 1/ 2: 0x00810000+0x0000455c+0x00039d8c [0x00000001]
lv2(2): #
lv2(2): # Continue... (Lv-2 is still running.)
lv2(2): #

lv2(2): # 1/ 2: 0x00810000+0x0000455c+0x00039d8c [0x00000001]


Crash is caused by (if we understand the crash log right):

seg001:000000000060379C add %r9, %r10, %r8
r9 = 0x0000000001000029 + 0x00000000007483c0 = 0x00000000017483E9
seg001:00000000006037A0 rldicl %r11, %r9, 0,32
r11 = 0x00000000017483E9

but what happened??? Should be caused by a thread syncing issue or a context switch problem (I don't think so )
r11 = 0x0000000000000000

seg001:00000000006037A4 lwz %r3, 4(%r11)
!Access Violation 0x000000000 is not mapped also called HTAB MISS

This causes the game to crash.
Important sys_audio.sprx is loaded so it has todo with the sound for sure

How come the r11 is cleared? Alot Syscalls does that, I would if possible do the processing on the SPU instead of bothering the PPU Thread... Dunno if this is possible...

So why does this bug happen on internal, external or blu-ray disc.
That is simple the game is written to work with blu-ray disc for sure. This works quite well because the thread keep getting in sync.
For all other media the Threads get out of sync cause the access to the data.

Why does it happen with legit blu-ray too?
That's simple to explain too. Since the blu-ray has slow downs and fast paces sometimes too. The Threads may get out of sync.

Sometimes recopy of data and stuff works quite well or reinstall of the game data.
Still a mysteri if the data is from Game Content Data from PS3 internal HDD or from Blu Ray. If it is from internal Data would explain directly why it happens on every sort of setup.


It is nearly impossible to patch this by hand in assembler... Timing issues in software engineering are very tough... Even with source in Hand it is a tough one.
Maybe that's the reason why the game gets delayed.

On USB the game should work more stable I got confirmed it looks like the internal HDD is too fast and let the threads get out of sync easier.

TeaM_AC1D investigated alot in that direction and sorry if it is roughly explained. Feel free to ask in TeaM_AC1D channel about this if you can't understand.

Kudos goes to KDSBest

[snkysnake02]

@cfwprpht

great explanation ^_^ it was a nice read and now can help people out better.

Guess my data installtion for the game just got lucky and works. Seems its just Install the data and hope for the best type thing then with this game.