Hello, everyone. Before the holidays we submitted a new IB PC patch to MSFT for certification and signing. This finally cleared that process and is now live.

For those of you hoping that this fixes the so called “scrap stutter” bug, we are sorry to say that it does not. After extensive investigation, we believe that issue is somehow unique to the signed, release GFWL version of IB PC, a version that is nearly impossible for us to test directly (we lack the signing key required to create these exes). We’ve discussed several possible ways to work around these restrictions with MSFT, but so far have not been able to get the support necessary to actually debug and fully resolve this issue.

With that out of the way, the good news is that this patch does include fixes pretty much everything we are able to improve, including some parts of the network code. Specifically:
* We overhauled the way the game calculates individual player lag, which should address the persistent lagging/stuttering many players experience. In the new logic, players with good connections will have less lag, and only players with worse connectiosn will have more lag. Regardless of connection speed, no player should experience stuttering or glitching.
* We also enabled a new feature called host forwarding. This should address the situations where due to NAT/firewall issues, some people couldn’t join other people’s games, especially 4 player sessions. If two players can’t talk directly, the game will now route traffic through other players. It may not work in 100% of cases, but it should work in, like, 99% of cases.
* We’ve modified the engine so that there should be a lot less kicking/dropping in general, and players with sporadically bad connections will not be penalized nearly as harshly.
* Music and SFX play properly on all systems, regardless of the number of speakers.
* We fixed the glitch that could cause controller lockout if you brought up the GfWL screen while in a non-pause menu.

Aside from the “scrap stutter” bug, the only known serious issue in this build is that if you bring up the GfWL overlay *right* after you get the Victory/Defeat screen, you may get a loss of control scenario.

I’ll repost what I posted over at SPUF since someone else might find this bit of information useful (if they’re desperate enough to go through the hours a fix like this would need, and that’s if this sort of fix would even work for others):

I decided to give this update a whirl since it’s been a while since I’ve played some IB, and the update seems seems to be functioning well.

I also have a tentative update regarding my situation with the scrap stutter bug. It was previously bad enough that it made me reluctant to play, but since I’ve last launched the game, I’ve done a full wipe and reinstallation of my OS for unrelated reasons, and it looks like that may have inadvertently fixed the scrap stutter.

I say “tentative” because it also seems that my save was wiped from the cloud so I’m not able to test with the stages that usually gave me the most trouble, but it’s been smooth so far.

Of course, reinstalling an operating system is a pretty drastic thing that I doubt most people are willing to do just so they can play a game, but it seems that it may be a potential (but incredibly bothersome) fix for the scrap stutter.

Ok, with this patch I have music now but it also broke my sound. Every 2nd game or so the sound goes completely kaputt.
Just some random loud noise so that I have to turn off the speakers/ take off the headphones. :(

Shimrod - 01 February 2013 03:58 AM

Ok, with this patch I have music now but it also broke my sound. Every 2nd game or so the sound goes completely kaputt.
Just some random loud noise so that I have to turn off the speakers/ take off the headphones. :(

Hey Shimrod! Could you make sure your drivers are all up to date and also verify the integrity of your Game Cache from within steam? If the issue still persists, please let me know your system specs and we’ll go from there to try and get you fixed.

A weird thing happened!

For a while, the scrap stutter was gone. Today I decided to play a co-op game with a friend, and half-way through the match, my computer locked up (main screen was black, the other screen had faint stripes, and sound effects were repeating). I restarted my computer, started the game back up, rejoined with my friend, and the dreaded scrap stutter had returned.

In an attempt to fix it, I did a system restore to the previous day, and now the scrap stutter is gone again! That lockup seemed to have done something to trigger the bug (corrupting a file, maybe?), and a system restore was able to undo whatever that thing was. I don’t know if that little bit of information would help with anything since you guys seem to have your hands tied until Microsoft decides to help out on their end, but I thought I’d report on that incident anyway.

So in order to fix bugs we first have to %#$@&! our computer up?

EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! I always did have more problems with clean computers than old ones that had tons of viruses on it!

Dr.ROBOTUSSIN - 04 February 2013 08:49 AM

So in order to fix bugs we first have to %#$@&! our computer up?

EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! I always did have more problems with clean computers than old ones that had tons of viruses on it!

My computer usually runs pretty great. I had built it myself two years back and that crash was the first crash I had gotten in a long time (I’m willing to bet GFWL caused it, as faulty as that piece of software can be). I just thought it was pretty intriguing since that crash seemed to have triggered the scrap bug, and a system restore fixed it. That leads me to believe that it’s a corrupted (likely GFWL-related) file that causes the stutter.

IT was a joke cause you know, your computer %#$@&! up and then some how ended up fixing everything.

Syd - 04 February 2013 09:12 AM

Dr.ROBOTUSSIN - 04 February 2013 08:49 AM

So in order to fix bugs we first have to %#$@&! our computer up?

EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! I always did have more problems with clean computers than old ones that had tons of viruses on it!

My computer usually runs pretty great. I had built it myself two years back and that crash was the first crash I had gotten in a long time (I’m willing to bet GFWL caused it, as faulty as that piece of software can be). I just thought it was pretty intriguing since that crash seemed to have triggered the scrap bug, and a system restore fixed it. That leads me to believe that it’s a corrupted (likely GFWL-related) file that causes the stutter.

You and me both, Syd. You and me both…

Sorry to come back so late to this Justin. My problems got even worse. I de-installed the game and re-installed it freshly.
It was running fine in my quick test. Next time I tried to load it, it fails to start. It hangs before the loading screen (just a black screen)
and CTD’s with a Windows error message - something like IronBrigade.exe encountered a problem and had to be terminated.

I only installed one piece of software in between these two tests - the Brütal Legend beta.
Drivers are up to date. I tried full screen and windowed. Any ideas anyone?

<EDIT> Hmm, after rebooting my computer the game starts again. The broken sound never happens in the first round only from the second match onward. When it happened again I quit the game and restartet it and I could play 3 matches in a row without the bug happening. Weird…