Game Crashes - Progressive reinstall until crashes occurred once again.

[MonArchangel]

Hi,

 

Initially I have suffered exactly the same level of problem as reported in this thread https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=209279

 

After a couple of hours trying to understand this problem I elected to uninstall the beta software.

Cleaning up the install directory and the SavedGames/DCS.openbeta directory (moved this dir out of the way for reference) I began installing from the beginning.

 

Step 1 was to install the game as a vanilla install, no DLC's of all types installed.

Step 2 was to set the game resolution to low.

Step 3 was to test a basic mission startup on the ramp using the Mission menu. This worked. I checked this stage out on all four maps with no crashes.

Step 4. Installed all three Scenery DLC's.

Step 5. Retested mission startup as in step 3. This worked.

Step 6. Installed a few aircraft and repeated step 5. Swapped aircraft to the Hawk. Successful.

Step 7. Set graphics to high and repeated step 6. Successful.

 

Step n repeated the above cycle adding 10 aircraft at a time. Each time successful when starting a mission.

 

However after the last 10 aircraft had been added getting into the mission was fine, exiting the mission this time the program crashed. By this time though the app was using a fraction under 5Gb ram during the mission loading phases.

 

Error files attached.

dcs.log-20180524-203634.zip

Edited May 24, 2018 by MonArchangel

[David OC]

There is no need to reinstall MonArchangel

 

Once DCS is installed once, you can move or copy the install to anywhere and other SSD drives, DCS is not tied into windows registry except for the licencing.

 

You can force a clean, repair or version change (Release/Beta) on ANY installed versions of DCS that sit anywhere on your PC. Always just run a clean and repair, it's basically checking the install is OK.

 

Here is a quick post I made explaining all the different ways you can do this.

[MonArchangel]

Hi David OC,

 

Thanks for the advice here, but a black box solution was not what I needed to understand the possible root cause. The approach I took was what many skilled developers/testers might follow to execute a rigorous and disciplined approach to establish when do things start to break down. To do this one must start with a clean slate. One of the primary goals of a rigorous approach such as this is to establish behavioural patterns in the hope that this might assist in the narrowing down of a problem domain and/or discount possible interpretations of a problem that could be nothing more than misdirection.

 

For example.

 

This text is an example of the behaviour of the crashes experienced when starting a mission on any map. The only thing that changes in all of the logged events is the timestamp.

 

Faulting application name: DCS.exe, version: 2.5.2.17559, time stamp: 0x5b040a6c

Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.16299.248, time stamp: 0xe71e5dfe

Exception code: 0xc0000409

Fault offset: 0x000000000006b79e

Faulting process ID: 0xa878

Faulting application start time: 0x01d3f2ecff255085

Faulting application path: F:\Games\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll

Report ID: 4d3fa40c-832c-4fd8-961e-ed7a9353e83c

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

 

Of special interest here is that in each case, no exception handler intercept occurred. This thus meant that no log files etcetera could be generated for later examination by relevant personnel.

 

Contrast this error message with the one received when exiting a mission.

 

Faulting application name: DCS.exe, version: 2.5.2.17559, time stamp: 0x5b040a6c

Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000000000000

Faulting process ID: 0x4828

Faulting application start time: 0x01d3f39d3f705476

Faulting application path: F:\Games\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe

Faulting module path: unknown

Report ID: 4b7f2a16-3bf4-4f13-90dd-5f0f01e4be03

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

 

In this case an exception handler trapped the event and was able to generate all relevant details and packaged them in the dcs-log*.zip file ready for onward transmission.

 

In the first case it is a reasonable inference that a try/catch clause or piece of necessary defensive code is missing. It is also reasonable to infer that the problem is not related to use of a specific map but seems to be a more generalised problem. This is supported by other postings that assert mission start failures regardless of map choice.

 

In the second case there could be any number of reasons that could lead to this problem. There is little point in an outsider issuing an opinion on probable causes. The source code and map file will need to referenced to point the way here.

 

Now that I may well have established the root cause for problem one, (I could be off target of course), there is no reason for me to assume that my thoughts are going to be accepted.

 

This is because I have no credibility here in the forum (given my low posting count) nor is my technical knowledge known. Since everybody has an opinion on every topic under the sun, be it correct or otherwise the best I can do is provide the kind of report I did initially.

 

I can then expect, iff (if and only if) somebody actually looks into the logs etcetera that I have supplied, is to use the remarks made to follow what is reported in the log and at least provide a basic explanation of the changes they will observe.

 

So I guess to answer your observation, the decision to reinstall DCS depends on your goal. :thumbup: