Ironhand

Talk about back to the future...

DCS Crash 5-13-21.txtWell...this is a first. First time I've ever had the 2nd mission crash on a fresh startup. New user acct. Used the default settings in the control panel. Accidentally started the 2nd instant action for the Su-25T, Caucasus. Flew 1 minute. Exited, selected fly again, and froze at mission loaded. Never entered cockpit. DCS Crash 5-13-21.txt dcs.log-20210513-160820.zip

@Wali763, @Flappie OK. I think this approach is far too chaotic to generate any useful data. I have no idea how Flappie could see if extra files are generated, etc with so much going on. There are too many variables. It's sort of a free for all until we get a crash and then--eureka, it crashed! Send the crash report. I would suggest that, after setting up a separate user account, we start the sim and no extras like TIR, etc. Accept the default DCS settings with no changes. Run Flappie's suggested mission for a minute. Exit the mission and hit Fly Again and fly. If no crash, quit to the Desktop. Wait 8 hours, restart the sim. Fly the mission twice. Rinse and repeat until it crashes. That way, it should be easier to tell what's happening and, hopefully, why. Thoughts?

It took until a restart this morning for it to crash making this truely a 2nd mission crash. Flew about 10 times last night closing the sim and restarting a few times. But no crash until I started the sim up again this morning. dcs.log-20210513-105012.zip DCS Crash.txt

My fear is that the same number of files will be generated but one of ours will be corrupted. But one step at a time. It’s a good place to start. If I have time after work tonight I’ll join this new hunt.

Unless you and the logs are a part of the hallucination...umm...let’s not go there...

Nor do I. Maybe it’s a mass hallucination...or a community-wide very bad dream. Give it a day or two...but I hope you’re right.

Funny. I had thought of that, too. Mine would never survive the shipping, though. I literally have rubber bands holding some of the HDs in place.

Until they can reproduce it, there’s no hope of fixing it. And, so far, no one on their end has experienced it. I think it’s more realistic to think in terms of weeks or months rather days for a fix.

New account created. But it might be a few days before I can be sure of the answer unless it crashes right off. Unfortunately I have to leave for work now. Hopefully i’ll Have time later today to run the sim. EDIT: Decided being a few minutes late for work wouldn't mark the end of the world for anyone. No 2nd mission crash after my first startup. If this plays out as it does in my normal account, a crash won't happen until sometime tomorrow evening or so.

@Flappie Is there anything we can do to try to nail this down? Are there any avenues we can help investigate, since the devs seem unable to reproduce it?

Latest crash. Crash log attached. dcs.log-20210512-030846.zip

Out of curiosity, is it the same 5 files and, if so, what are they? Your mention of the sim working fine for a day or two before another freeze occurs piqued my interest. That’s the same time period that often occurs in the “second mission bug”.

Oh, we’re not going to figure it out. I’m hoping that something we observe will finally provide the clue that will lead to the solution.

Doesn't really explain, however, why I was able to run the sim for 96 hours straight through many missions without issues until I purposely quit to the Desktop and restarted the sim only to have it crash on the 2nd mission I tried to open. And, for that matter, it doesn't even have to be a complex mission--just a simple "you sitting on the runway" for some free flight. Enter the mission the first time, sit for a second, exit, restart the mission, BANG! (With or without the new clouds.) @II.JG1_Vonrd Did you try either or both of the options a few times? After the 96 hour marathon, I did the delete folders that had always worked and it didn't work the first time. I did it a 2nd time and it's worked since then.

I get that as well. You can wait until the cows come home and you won't see something different because, behind the screen you are seeing is one that says the sim has crashed and asks if you you want to report it. It's actually the active window but the frozen video display won't let you see it. You'll see it, though, if you alt-tab. The way to access it is to alt-tab to the frozen screen and click the close app "X" in the upper right corner. That will allow the crash request to come to the front as the frozen window changes to one asking if you really want to exit. It won't accept any response but it'll close after you respond to the crash report window.

@Flappie Don't know if this is of any use nor do I know how idiosyncratic my crashes are. I've been deleting the folder in LOCAL/TEMP as well as the XFO folder. As long as I did it once a day I experienced no issues. I could open and close the sim as often as I wanted and fly as many missions as I wanted. But, if I didn't delete once a day, I would experience the 2nd mission crash somewhere between 24-30 hours after the last deletion of those folders. Here comes the interesting part. I have kept DCS open (not exiting to Desktop) for the last 96 hours. During that time I have started and quit numerous missions without issue. During that same time I have been using my computer normally for other tasks including browsers, Photoshop, a video editor, etc). Finally exited to the Desktop. Restarted DCS. Ran the 1st mission successfully. 2nd mission crashed. dcs.log-20210509-184846.zip

Calm down. I'm one of those people, too.

Well...it sounds like a lot but... Say this has been going on for 3 weeks --21 days--23,000/21=1095 (rounded to the nearest whole number). Assuming most people, like me, are checking the thread multiple times a day. Say 5 times a day: 1095/5=219. If it were to average out to be 10 checks per day, that'd only be 110 people.

That’s what I was wondering. But, as far as I can tell, they aren’t being saved anywhere. Just loaded directly into memory and, then, dumped.

Not anywhere else in the Saved Games or Temp folder either that I can see. They must be loaded into memory and dumped after each session. The little update after 2.7?

@Flappie, when is the metashaders folder in use with 2.7? I have checked it before, during, and after flights and never seen it populated.

If that’s the case with this “bug”, then I would think that never closing the sim or restarting the computer should make it happen sooner rather than later. So far, I’ve had my longest run without the crash by not closing DCS.

I’ll have to doublecheck when I get home tonight but I believe i’ve had game mode turned off for the last year or so.

Might be due to the type of radar you locked. The Phantasmagoria pod can identify more radars than the anti radiation missiles can. IIRC, EWR is an example of one type.