Cycolonic

Cool. And thanks much. But I've been saying from the beginning that the track files will not contain the error that we're seeing and are therefore a diagnostic dead end. That's why I questioned the gathering of track files in the first place. IMO, it's a waste of time. I have a feeling you don't quite agree with that sentiment quite yet and that's fine. I only ask that you keep that possibility in your mind when you go through the track files and hopefully sooner rather than later, you can get the devs to concoct somekind of debug executable that would provide a deeper dive into the render pipeline that will be useful in hunting down the problem. I didn't record a video cap of my session but this is pretty much what it was like except instead of looking down, i was looking at my head rest looking right and left:

AHA!!!!!! I confirmed it for myself - you will not see the black block in the track file! I just tried playing back that track file that I sent you and the black block is not there even for me! When the black block showed up for me during play, I start looking around wildly left and right because I was surprised by the black and seeing if I can see around it or get it to disappear before settling in on looking forward so I can show that the plane ID labels are still visible through the black block. But in the track file playback just now, everything's fine. I just start erratically looking around for no apparent reason until the track file ends. Further - this means that for someone who does not suffer from the black block problem, no matter who sends you a track file, you will never see a black block. And for someone like me, who does suffer from the black block problem, I will probably never see the black block manifest in the same way twice. Sometimes, my playback will look just fine. No black block. Other times, I'll get a black block, but it will be spontaneously generated in real time at different points in the trackfile play back and in different ways - for any given playback session. I suspect that the reason why this is is because the black block is not a predictable phenomenon in the graphics processing path. Sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn't. And that is true even down to the track file recording. Correct me if I'm wrong but the things that the track file is recording is the kind of things that would be sent from my computer to a multiplayer server - it's just the data necessary to update the sim. You want the track files to be as small as possible so why would the devs include debug level information being sent to and received from the graphics card? Can you confirm that you do not see the black block in the track file? I'm not a game dev but I'm a pretty informed PC gamer with decades of experience. I suspected the track file would not replicate the black block. Especially if you don't see the black block at the end of my track file, please believe me that a track file is the wrong way to pursue this problem. And I want you to believe me because if you pursue this problem down this path, you will never be able to fix it. And I really want you to fix it. --------------- Now then, what can I do to help you help me? What OTHER diagnostics can I run on DCS running on my system to help debug what is happening at the deeper levels where this bug is occurring? Is there a debug or diagnostic version of the executable that I can run or something? It can be slow as molasses, that's fine. I just want to help you help me. EDIT: oh, I just read that you are not an ED employee? Am I talking to the wrong party? If so, sorry for pestering you. Can you direct me to the right party? Thanks, CC

Hi, Ok, I played until the black block showed up and completely obscured my front view. Take off was ok but a few minutes into the mission, a big black block takes out the entire front view. You can see me move my head from side to side and you can see how I can kind of see the head rest looking back left and right. One thing to note is that even with black block, I can see the plane ID's through the black block. So that might be a clue as to what is futzing up here. Some kind of lens flare effect gone bad? Fog? If you are able to see the black block that I am seeing, that is... After you take a look at this, can you confirm whether you can or cannot see the black block? And to be clear, the last parts of this clip is all black block. Thanks. CCBlackBlock.trk

Thanks. Will continue the conversation over there.

Was directed here by Flappie from another post. It's definitely not an AMD graphics card only issue as I'm running a geforce1080. So considering that the track files which are relatively small and unlikely to capture what's happening at the rendering level (where the bug is occurring - actually, I read somewhere that someone who has this bug could play someone else's perfectly clean track file and see the bug when he plays it back on his system!), what can we do to help you guys figure out what's going on? If the track file is not going to be of diagnostic utility, is there a debug mode or something that we can turn on that can capture a deep dive on the state of the sim at a particular frame that we can run for you? I really want to be able to play without constantly having to scrub a mission because I got blacked out again. How can I help you help me?

Hi, Just wanted to say that I have this issue as well and also point out that it seems to me that a track file would not contain the error. You guys are not recording anything out of the video card right? No images? The track files themselves are not very large so I'm assuming there is nothing image related. So if the problem is a video bug, and the track file is only recording game state data, if you play the track file back on a computer system that does not have this problem, you're never going to see it. Is there anything else that those of us who have this problem can do on our end to provide additional diagnostics? Can DCS generate a more comprehensive debug output? I can video capture an example but i don't think a movie file will help you except to confirm that there is indeed a problem. And there are examples on youtube already showing the issue. This happens to me very frequently and it really takes away from my enjoying my Sabre.