TLDNR Give Me The Fix Now:
Having poor frame rate with diablo 3 patch 1.0.5 during Maghda Encounter? I have a quick fix!
Simply make…
c:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo III\D3Debug.txt
Read-only by right clicking the file, selecting properties, then check “Read-only” under Attributes.
Introduction
Two days ago, during the Maghda Encounter with Diablo 3 on my Hardcore Character, I had extremely poor frame rates which ultimately killed my character due to less than 5 FPS with periods of no updates for many seconds.
I was pissed. I blamed it on my computer and an extended play session, even though I never encountered any issues before.
Today, I fired up an old Hardcore Witch Doctor that was level 9 and decided to give it a go.
Once again, I walked into Maghdas Chamber (after gaining eight levels) and even the movie stuttered. A rapid death I suffered.
Now, I am really pissed.
Look, Look, and Look Some More
I did the standard issue things, farted with video settings and nothing would fix it.
I then wandered off to c:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo III while I had a capped character playing normal and defeated Maghda. The frame rate issue was still present and I noticed that D3Debug.txt in the root folder of the Diablo 3 install directory was gaining in size… rapidly. The log looks a bit like this:
2012.11.05 17:56:24.245951000 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.246137300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.246417300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.246651300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.246808300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.246948300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.247087300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.247260300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
2012.11.05 17:56:24.247428300 ERROR: Trying to lock an invalid SNO 241787 which doesn’t exists or is not part of the SOUND_SNO group
The above cut and paste is not even a full second of data. I quickly concluded it was a sound issue (SOUND_SNO group… duh?) so I thought a very quick fix would be to just plain disable sound.
Wrong!
Disabling sound did not fix the issue. What was the next thing I did?
I made c:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo III\D3Debug.txt read-only by right clicking the file, selecting properties, then check “Read-only” under Attributes.
I went back to town with a portal before surfing the install directory, so I just hopped back into the portal and the frame rate was fine. I then created a new game and went back to kill her and, even though the FPS went from around 90 to 80… it was indeed possible to complete the encounter.
It is a known issue with Blizzard and I hope it is patched tomorrow, but for those that cannot wait and are basically stuck, give this a go… it just might fix it.
As a side note, after this is fixed by Blizzard, you should put the D3Debug.txt back to read/write.