PlatinumQuest 2.10+ Feedback and Bug Report thread

Since the PlatinumQuest update 2.10.0, which introduces 64-bit support, a modern renderer, and MacOS compatibility, has been released very recently at the time of writing. Any thoughts, feedback, and bug reports are greatly appreciated and should be posted here.

Please note the updated system requirements to run the game. These are conservative estimates, not the absolute minimum:

• 2GB RAM
• A Vulkan/DirectX 11 compatible dedicated or integrated graphics card (MacOS users need not worry about this requirement).

If the game doesn't run on Windows on trying to run the exe, please download the VC++ Redistributable from aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

Additionally, there is currently a known bug affecting players using Intel HD Graphics 4600 integrated graphics. Despite barely meeting the system requirements, these players are unable to run the game. This issue stems from a bug in the graphics library used, and its resolution depends on an update from the maintainers. The estimated fix timeline is 1-3 months from the time of writing.

UPDATE: This has been resolved by switching the graphics library to a more maintained one in 2.10.1

even though I passed the requirements for PQ 2.10, my laptop can't run it because my OS only supports 32-bit programs. to switch to 64-bit, I will need a clean install and that requires a storage device. but I don't have one. any other alternatives to help me fix this issue?

There has been an issue with how the game handles inputs now, for the first 5 minutes of running the game everything was working just fine, I alt + tabbed out of the game then tabbed back in only to find my input being snappy and not-so-responsive in terms of keyboard input. The camera also becomes choppy and the sounds cut out of nowhere.

Demonstration video:  streamable.com/cnxwm9

I am running the game using an i5-12400F and an RTX 3050 graphics card as of now.

Game is working great so far for me on a Ryzen 9 6900HX with a Radeon 680M, PQ 2.9.4 had problems but PQ 2.10 seems to fix all of them (previous levels like Shifting Hallway and Crystal Garden used to crash my game, with some official levels like Speed Attack from Platinum and Tree House from Ultra doing the same). Game seems a lot more snappier too.

My only issue so far is that creating thumbnails with the level editor seems to grab the whole screen (Edit: Seems like creating thumbnails in windowed mode outright crashes the game). As a level creator, that's not very good. Though, I am aware that you are currently attempting to fix it.

PlatinumQuest 2.10 Review
Hey all, the fact that PQ 2.10 finally brings support for macOS Catalina and newer (thanks to the reversed engineering) was certainly the best Christmas surprise ever for this year as I have been waiting to finally play PQ natively on newer Macs, including those with Apple Silicon. The fact that PQ is a Universal binary app (it runs natively on ARM without Rosette translation) is also a plus.

I don’t want to rain on someone else’s parade, but PQ 2.10 on Mac is far from perfect, and it comes down to a few things.
*First, installing PQ on Mac was initially a hassle (though it has now been resolved thanks to RandomityGuy)
*Second, it crashes or freezes significantly at random occurrences; so far I’ve been only playing PQ on the Leaderboards to get the re-added MBP Easter Eggs. It could happen when I exited a level, entered into the Level Select screen, or even after collecting an Easter Egg, and so on. So far, I’ve never had any crashes (if ever at all) when playing PQ on my PC.
*Finally, there’s a massive flickering effect when playing back .rrec’s (at least for the ones that I generate though the app)

I know that this is the first time PQ is re-engineered for the modern 64-bit architecture, so I should treat this as a first-generation product as things tend to glitch or fail. Heck, when Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, it was launched as a beta feature, so everyone would criticize the imperfections that AI brings. There are several things that should be considered before I jump to conclusions (maybe there were a few developers who have a Mac to test PQ, hence limited test on that platform). I know the developers are working very hard to iron out those bugs, glitches, and crashes, but for now, I’d still be playing PQ on my Mac if I have to (like when I’m not near my PC).

Leaving this on a higher note, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas!!!🎄🎁🎅🏻

Game crashes on launch every time

If you are running macOS Catalina (or possibly this is just an Intel Mac issue in general), the game will often crash on startup due to lack of WebGPU stability. You may have to try running the game from the .app (in /Users/[your user]/Applications/PlatinumQuest.app) several times before it decides to work. I'm hoping this can get addressed soon—as eNetro said, this is effectively a first-generation product, and it's proven to be a bit of a rocky start. It would at least be helpful to know what your system specs are, and that way the devs can know how better to assist.

Also eNetro, I noticed the flickering effect when playing back .rrecs too. I hope that gets fixed in the next update.

For any Steam Deck users:
2.10 will refuse to launch under Gaming Mode in my testing. It works under Desktop Mode (so regular Wine/Proton users on desktop Linux should be unaffected) but not Gaming Mode. 2.9.4 is the last version to work without issues on the Deck.

People have been talking quite a bit about the feature where the music speeds up if the marble goes above a certain speed, since many people haven't seen that before. It used to be a Mac only feature when PQ launched in 2017. Then, after some update (no idea when), the feature went away even on Mac. Now, with PQ 2.10, this happens on Windows only, and not on Mac. I hope the feature makes its way back to Mac at some point.

Thank you all for the feedback.

There has been an issue with how the game handles inputs now, for the first 5 minutes of running the game everything was working just fine, I alt + tabbed out of the game then tabbed back in only to find my input being snappy and not-so-responsive in terms of keyboard input. The camera also becomes choppy and the sounds cut out of nowhere.

My only issue so far is that creating thumbnails with the level editor seems to grab the whole screen (Edit: Seems like creating thumbnails in windowed mode outright crashes the game). As a level creator, that's not very good. Though, I am aware that you are currently attempting to fix it.

These issues have now been resolved as of 2.10.1

Second, it crashes or freezes significantly at random occurrences; so far I’ve been only playing PQ on the Leaderboards to get the re-added MBP Easter Eggs. It could happen when I exited a level, entered into the Level Select screen, or even after collecting an Easter Egg, and so on. So far, I’ve never had any crashes (if ever at all) when playing PQ on my PC.

The update 2.10.1 switches the graphics library to a more well-maintained one and it has been tested to work better on Mac than the previous one.

Game crashes on launch every time

Any additional information that you can provide? Check if the update 2.10.1 resolves the issue. Otherwise if you have the "MBP Shaders" texture pack installed, please remove it as it has been known to cause such crashes.

2.10 will refuse to launch under Gaming Mode in my testing. It works under Desktop Mode (so regular Wine/Proton users on desktop Linux should be unaffected) but not Gaming Mode. 2.9.4 is the last version to work without issues on the Deck.

Check if it works with the new update? I changed a few things regarding how graphics drivers are chosen.

for some reason my game wont update. and idk why.
when i start it from the launcher it does the normal things as if it had no updates!
 

Launcher > Settings > Run full update

it still says 2.10.0

Visit C:/Users/<Your user>/AppData/Roaming/.mblaunchercache (AppData is a hidden folder)
and delete the folder named 'pq'

now the launcher wont open up.
(the launcher hates me i guess)

Looks like you'll have to manually update.
Download all the zip files from: marbleblast.com/pq/where/yeahboii-1/
and unzip them

An update to the launcher that fixes your launcher bug will be fixed at a later date.

Download the launcher again, it has been fixed regarding this bug. It'll autoupdate for existing players.

im not dumb, but where is the launcher download?

marbleblast.com/index.php/games/pq/category/10-pq

I was excited to see a major update after a number of years (?). But after installing the update, the game runs slowly on my system. And I don't mean low framerate-slow - even the gameplay suffers.
What influences the game's speed?
Thanks!

Please send us a console.log (found in the game's root directory) here so we can inspect it and figure out what's wrong.
There was a bug in 2.10.0 where it ran terribly on certain old hardware but that has been resolved as of 2.10.1

The preloaded level animation is slow and sluggish. When I run the actual level, the timer also runs slowly, and any input I feed into the game is delayed.

I've checked your console log and it's a bug in the code the selects the appropriate graphics driver to use for rendering. It's choosing the CPU renderer for you but it should choose the integrated graphics instead. Even then your integrated graphics driver only supports DirectX 12 which I've known to have some issues (it will be definitely faster than the CPU renderer it's choosing currently). I'll fix this bug and let you know. For the long term I suggest upgrading your PC since it is on the borderline of meeting the minimum system requirements.

Here is the fixed executable for your issue for now. These fixes will be live in the next update.
Just replace marbleblast.exe in your PlatinumQuest folder and run the game directly outside the launcher, otherwise it will overwrite it.

an idea i just had a while ago was: marble blast rtx?
maybe you could make a shader for pq that has rtx shading

Unfortunately RTX is not simply about "shaders" and requires significant time and effort to implement, not to mention that the current graphics library PQ now uses does not support RTX at all.

Sometimes I can’t do anything: pressing any key does nothing except make a noise. The only way I can see to proceed is force quit the game. I'm on a Mac and I can't even play Marble Blast Ultra due to this.

Also, opening the game and then doing “fullscreen —> window —> fullscreen” changes the fullscreen mode.  

 

Try updating the game from the launcher, Settings > Full Update: click Update button. Additionally, try setting Max FPS to VSync from the options menu.
The freezing bug has been fixed very recently (~1-2 days ago)

Will investigate into the fullscreen bug.

I just updated and am still getting the "freezing bug" (I only downloaded the game yesterday).

And, to be clear about the fullscreen thing, the game opens with what I think is the "wrong" fullscreen option. Switching to windowed and then back to fullscreen gives what I think is the correct fullscreen version. (I'm on a Mac)

Just in case that the launcher downloaded the cached and old executable of the game (which happens quite often), here are the latest binaries as of 2.10.1 that the game required. Replace the Contents folder of your game ( PQ.app > Show Package Contents) with the Contents folder in the zip file.
If this still doesn't fix the freezing bug, please let us know your MacOS version, your game settings (fullscreen/windowed mode, max fps) and any possible steps of replication of this bug.
Link: drive.google.com/file/d/1dV6G07URBnLpqbe...sXe/view?usp=sharing