TWD crash on connecting

[DjNDB]

That's great.
Basically we have disabled all IP communication from the network device, and the game works.
Now what happened on the network when only the WAN was unplugged and it still crashed?
That's something i would love to see in a wireshark log. Without WAN the distracting traffic to the internet will not be in there too.
You can PM it to me of course.

Also, are any other Devices connected to the router than the PC?

[perilomo]

Nope my PC is the only one and i disable wireless network when i don't use it as i am connecting with a cable so i never need wireless unless i have guests.

I'll give you the wireshark log + program monitor log when i am home

[DjNDB]

I found out that the game does not try to connect, if it can't DNS resolve the domains.
For some reason it still can do that, if it's firewalled as we tried earlier, even if the dnscache is flushed before.

So here is what i figured out.
The game doesn't try to connect, if it's firewalled, and the DNS Cache is disabled. That way you should be able to start the game, without disabling your entire network.

I wrote a little batch file for your convenience. You might have to change the path to the WalkingDead101.exe in the firewall rule.

Then right click the TWD_Disable_DNS.bat and select "run as administrator".

Start The walking dead, when the Batch file instructs you to. If TWD is in the menu Once you are done playing, you can switch back to the Batch file and press any key, to disable the firewall settings and restart the dns cache.
If you just close the window, the settings will not be reverted, so always end the batch file properly.

Sadly we still don't know why wanting to connect crashes the game in the first place, even if it doesn't even send anything on the network.

If you do another wireshark log, make sure you flush the dns cache first, so we can see when the DNS request is sent. You can do that on a command line by running
ipconfig /flushdns

[perilomo]

Yea sorry it took so long to arrive back home >_> any ways i am gonna go to work again in 3 hours. Only thing is that i will make sure i can connect to my PC remotely and thus be still able to do testings which do not require PC restart or cutting off network.

Gonna try your idea now with the batch file and try to save some Wireshark logs


So yeah it works! I managed to still stay online and the game finally ran! While skype was open...

Gonna send you a PM with Wireshark logs now. Want me to make a process monitor as well? Or it is not necessary no more?

I could do debugging if that helps (With the program you specified earlier)

[DjNDB]

I am glad it works that way.

I think process monitor won't show anything new.

Debugging without the source code is insanely difficult, even if experienced.

[perilomo]

New problem hehe... I am gonna find you guys a lot of work (Sadly for me as well T_T)

Have just encountered the following. After running the game i switched tabs and finished the process of the batch file to start DNS again BUT! As soon as i click on "Play" on Ep 1 it closes the game with the same error...

And when i kept the batch file running it got me to an "Offline mode"? I dunno, but i had to choose between 3 save files which i didn't need to when restarting DNS before the "Play" ingame....

[DjNDB]

The crash on clicking "play" is interesting. Is that when clicking "Play" in the main menu or later?

Does that also happen if you run the game by disabling the network adapter, but disable it again before pressing play?

The 3 savegame slots to select sound like the normal behavior, or do you mean something else?

[perilomo]

Well here what happen. When i first ran the Batch file i got to the menu after the first "Connecting" thingy. It skipped it (Just took a long time to load). After getting to the main menue i click on "Start game" or whatever i cannot recall and have no time to check now. When i do so it asked me which type of game i want to start (Standard with hints or the one with less hints). After choosing that it got me to the menu of choosing an episode. After clicking the "Play" button while seeing the Ep1 picture in the background it crashed.

Second time i tried to run it (While batch file was still running in background and before i re-started DNS) i got the following: Clicked on "Start game" got straight to 3 save files - Chose the first "New Game" and got to the background of Ep1 again where i clicked play and it just started the game

[perilomo]

Oh and by the way i cannot unplug my network cable right now because i need the internet at the moment badly...

[DjNDB]

Okay, i just checked. The game skips the choice of the save slot the first time, so the game behaved normal, except for the crash on "play".

I don't know why it crashed though. I couldn't see any network traffic caused by the game right after pressing "play".

The good news for the workaround is, that you still can use your network while playing, even without reenabling the DNS cache. It will just send DNS requests as needed, which will cause a slight delay and extra traffic.

It is likely though, that the dns cache service starts itself at some point, unless you set it to manual in the services. But that would make the workaround more cumbersome.

[perilomo]

So that's a "Back to the drawing board" kind of -.-

Basically it seems like something in the games attempt to connect to it's servers or even the thought of it makes it crash for some reason.

Do we have a way to contact TellTaleGames tech support about it all? -.- I mean you are awesome man, but they might actually find this issue >_> and give more answers (Specially with the source code which i believe is crucial for debugging...)

I am officially out of ideas >_> i would do any test necessary, but this is so far beyond my knowledge i cannot even start thinking of what might cause it

[DjNDB]

I updated the batch file above, included your experience, and made sure the service doesn't automatically restart.

I am also at a point where i can't do much more myself. I'll try to get some attention to this issue in our Mod forum.

[perilomo]

How do i restart the service in that case?
Gonna take a look at the batch to see what was changed

[perilomo]

I don't see a difference between the two batch files really. I believe that if i will not Alt+Tab while in game and will not finish the first Batch it will still run and do all good. The second batch basically is just having the text edited but does the same. It restarts the DNS service only after i finish playing and exit the game.

So basically if i will not "Press any key" on the first one while still playing it'll be just the same (Just finish the process after finish playing).

I was about to use that as a temporary solution any way. Just i want to make it work without anything and hopefully make it work for other people as well that are having a similar issue.

[DjNDB]

The new batch does the same but has two extra lines.
sc config dnscache start= demand
and
sc config dnscache start= auto

They prevent the dnscache service from restarting automatically while you play, which could happen otherwise. It's just an extra security measure, so the game doesn't crash unexpectedly because of that.

[perilomo]

Fair enough. Thanks a ton! At least now i can play with that in the background while still using Skype and other network related things! That's awesome.

I would still be happy to see this resolved. And please give me a PM or anything or even post here (As i have subscribed to the post) so i can execute any sort of test or logging needed

[DjNDB]

Will do.
I am glad we at least found a workaround that is less restricting.
I just posted the thread in the Mod forum.

Now it's time for a break and making some popcorn...

[perilomo]

Hahahaha!

Sorry for causing you so much trouble man, and thanks so much again for cooperation!

[DjNDB]

I just reviewed some of the past things we talked about.

We still have not excluded your router from the equation.
Does it also crash, if you connect your PC to the internet in any other way?
Also, what's the type and speed of your internet connection?

I saw in the UPNP data that the router identifies as NETGEAR DGN2200v2BEZEQ RangeMax NEXT Wireless Router.

[perilomo]

Thing is i don't think it's a router. I have changed my router from D-Link 2650U which i used before (Because it was old and probably broken) and it had the same issue.

I have an additional router which is a D-Link 2760U but i think it'll have the same issue as it must be something with the program and not hardware. As i said, having this problem for quite some time now