resolved 2.7.0.4625 Open Beta crash at second mission load

[orcrist]

dxdiag attached

DxDiag.txt

[Raven434th]

Numerous crashes yesterday when changing settings in options , also strange black textures on Merkava tank, they looked black in the shkval screen on the black shark WHILE ALIVE, but had LIVE textures when dead/destroyed. They were reversed.

[Alpiinoo]

Same here.

[applepiefrost]

On 4/14/2021 at 6:37 PM, Flappie said:

Hi, please try emptying this folder: "C:\Users\your-name\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openbeta"

This solved the issue for me.

[Wali763]

2 hours ago, applepiefrost said:

This solved the issue for me.

Not for me.....

 

Just a brief history of my system:

 

New CPU/MB in March, new GPU in April. With the Systemchange also new Windows and complete fresh install of DCS. No mods except for SRS.

 

Did a repair of DCS, renamed Savegame-folder. Used Fullscreen off or on. Tapped Alt+enter numerous times. Nothing worked. Lshift+R will kill DCS in most cases.

 

I just started the download of Stable.

 

Also did a cleanup of DCS removing SRS. Maybe this will help and I dont have to move to Stable.

 

Edited April 24, 2021 by Wali763

[Flappie]

Thank you for all the dxdiag logs.

 

The only thing I found in common in the 6 dixdiag logs I've compared is the Windows version : "Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19042) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)". This is the latest W10 release version from October 2020, nicknamed "20H2".

 

I have no idea which version my PC is running on, and I'm currently not at home.

 

 

@applepiefrostThanks for your feedback. Please report back here if the issue comes back, after a PC reboot for instance.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Flappie

[Cathnan]

I've had this problem too, multiple times in the last few days. It's always the second mission I start from the mission editor. The missions always had the F14 as playable option. It didn't happen yet when I start the same mission from the normal mission loader. My windows version is win 10 2004 build 19041.928.

[84-Simba]

Soooo ... it is back.

BUT ...

It only happens on a second load.

Let me explain :

 

Again, force fullscreen when entering the cockpit and if I quit in fullscreen the game crashes on the second load (be it ''Fly again or loading from the ME).

 

If I switch back to windowed before exiting the mission and refly or load again, no problem.

 

Now is the weird part.

If during that second load I force fullscreen and stay in fullscreen when exiting, the game won't crash.

 

I tried 5 or 6 successive launches and the game did not crash.

 

That is very weird, like if the second launch is a problem but if you pass it, you are good.

 

Note something though :

When the game crashes on the loading screen saying ''Mission load done'' DCS stays on top (as it did before)

 

Just before closing DCS with Task Manager the game shows the Hornet burner screen asking me if I want to quit or not.

At the same time I another box telling me DCS has crashed and asking to send report.

So it crashed ... but sees that I want to quit.

 

And just before going completely off it shows a player view of inside the cockpit, roughly centered around the bottom DDI and IFEI with the battery on but no engine running

(IFEI is on but fuel numbers to 0)

 

Yesterday, it was working ... so what would have changed ?

 

Maybe ... the state of the aircraft when exiting the mission.

 

All of my previous testings I did launch and exit the mission pre-flight (aircraft cold and dark) or after my mission (aircraft completely shut off)

 

I experienced DCS crash again today when I tried to ''Fly again'' after being killed.

 

I will try different scenarios with fullscreen and windowed and different states of the aircraft.

[84-Simba]

I maybe onto something again, aircraft state might be a factor.

 

Here's the tests I did :

Start windowed, forced fullscreen, aircraft cold and dark (inital state), exited while still on fullscreen, Fly Again - PASSED multiple times in a row.

 

Start windowed, forced fullscreen, aircraft cold and dark (initial state), back to windowed, exited while windowed, Fly Again - PASSED multiple times in a row.

 

Start windowed, forced fullscreen, aircraft running and airborne (after a complete startup and take-off from cold and dark), exited while still on fullscreen - CRASHED 3 times in a row

 

Start windowed, forced fullscreen, aircraft running and airborne (after a complete startup and take-off from cold and dark), back to windowed, exited while windowed, Fly Again - CRASHED 3 times in a row.

 

 

So maybe not related to fullscreen but the aircraft state, meaning if you start cold and dark you'd better be cold and dark when you want to fly again.

That is a problem obviously, because it forces me to quit the game entirely if I get killed.

Realistic in a sense, but not very practical.

 

The good thing is, I now know the Hornet startup procedure by heart !

 

[Flappie]

My friend who was having this bug told me he got rid of it emptying the Temp/DCS... folder. I know some tried this with no result, but some others got more lucky. Please, please, try this:

 

1. Go to %USERPROFILE%/Appdata/Local/Temp/
2. Delete folder named "DCS"
3. Delete folder named "DCS.openbeta"

[the_jovian]

29 minutes ago, Flappie said:

My friend who was having this bug told me he got rid of it emptying the Temp/DCS... folder. I know some tried this with no result, but some others got more lucky. Please, please, try this:

 

1. Go to %USERPROFILE%/Appdata/Local/Temp/
2. Delete folder named "DCS"
3. Delete folder named "DCS.openbeta"

 

This doesn't help unfortunately. Crashing pretty consistently the second time I load a mission. I've been submitting my crash reports.

[Boogdud]

41 minutes ago, Flappie said:

My friend who was having this bug told me he got rid of it emptying the Temp/DCS... folder. I know some tried this with no result, but some others got more lucky. Please, please, try this:

 

1. Go to %USERPROFILE%/Appdata/Local/Temp/
2. Delete folder named "DCS"
3. Delete folder named "DCS.openbeta"

Crashed after the first mission after doing this. Not surprising though, I've done 2 clean installs of DCS since the patch and still have the issue. It was a valiant effort Flappie.

[84-Simba]

51 minutes ago, Flappie said:

My friend who was having this bug told me he got rid of it emptying the Temp/DCS... folder. I know some tried this with no result, but some others got more lucky. Please, please, try this:

 

1. Go to %USERPROFILE%/Appdata/Local/Temp/
2. Delete folder named "DCS"
3. Delete folder named "DCS.openbeta"

Well, it passed in the exact same conditions it was crashing previously so maybe you nailed something here.

 

I'd suggest you have a look at the tests I did since it's been the most consistent way to make the game crash or pass.

 

I'll now fly my missions normally and see if I get to crash again.

 

Thank you

[XPACT]

1 hour ago, Flappie said:

• Go to %USERPROFILE%/Appdata/Local/Temp/
• Delete folder named "DCS"
• Delete folder named "DCS.openbeta"

 

Ok I need a little community help

 

I need someone to delete DCS TEMP folder and choose a single mission that he will do the test on, it must be the same mission.

 

1. After deleting DCS TEMP folder from AppData launch the game and load that mission you choose

2. It should load fine, fly for a few seconds then, this is very important, QUIT TO DESKTOP using ESC menu

3. Launch the game again and try to load same mission restart/fly again few times, if it works close the game and go to step 4

4. Launch the game again just to test if the specific mission is still loading fine multiple times if it does exit the game

5. Again delete DCS TEMP folder from AppData launch the game again load the mission but this time don't quit to desktop, try to restart/fly again, did it crash?

 

 

That is the question I am after, because so far it is behaving like that consistently for me, but we all know that these crashes are so unpredictable that it may be just pure luck.

 

 

[unknown]

10 hours ago, XPACT said:

 

Ok I need a little community help

 

I need someone to delete DCS TEMP folder and choose a single mission that he will do the test on, it must be the same mission.

 

1. After deleting DCS TEMP folder from AppData launch the game and load that mission you choose

2. It should load fine, fly for a few seconds then, this is very important, QUIT TO DESKTOP using ESC menu

3. Launch the game again and try to load same mission restart/fly again few times, if it works close the game and go to step 4

4. Launch the game again just to test if the specific mission is still loading fine multiple times if it does exit the game

5. Again delete DCS TEMP folder from AppData launch the game again load the mission but this time don't quit to desktop, try to restart/fly again, did it crash?

 

 

That is the question I am after, because so far it is behaving like that consistently for me, but we all know that these crashes are so unpredictable that it may be just pure luck.

 

 

EDIT: info about the temp folder(always empty) is wrong, i was looking at the wrong folder....

 

Any specific mission?

F-16, instant action, caucasus, AAR mission

- start, flying, quit to desktop

-start DCS, load same mission

- flying, quit to desktop

- start DCS, flying same mission

- quit to desktop

- folder AppData/temp/DCS... still empty

- start DCS, flying same mission

- quit, clsoe, exit DCS

- start DCS, flying same mission

- quit, close, exit DCS

-start DCS, flying same mission

- quit, close, exit DCS

- folder AppData/temp/DCS... still empty

- start DCS, flying same mission

- quit, re-fly

- flying same mission

- quit, re-fly

- flying same mission

- quit, re-fly

 

Or short answer, no problem.

Edited April 25, 2021 by unknown

[XPACT]

10 minutes ago, unknown said:

Any specific mission?

 

Try something custom on Caucasus, simple mission like taking off from runway. It's weird that temp folder was always empty in your case. It should have some data inside after first exit to desktop. 

[Ironhand]

5 hours ago, XPACT said:

...Again delete DCS TEMP folder from AppData launch the game again load the mission but this time don't quit to desktop, try to restart/fly again, did it crash?

 

Yes, it did.

 

Funny you should be looking at that. I had come to the conclusion earlier this afternoon that that folder was somehow causing the problem and was experimenting as well.

 

EDIT: Here's the contents of that folder after the crash. Normally, IIRC, there would only be 1 ~mis0000..., tr0000....bin,  while the mission is open. I'm not sure about the tr...txt. Instead there are multiples.

 

 

EDIT: I should add that I had deleted the folder this afternoon. started the sim, and was able to fly multiple missions (experimental) in a row without a problem. So it seems the critical factor in your experiment is quitting directly to the Desktop rather than exiting to either the ME or Mission folder and backing out from there.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Ironhand

[Witz]

Hello, I was having the same issue with crashing on second mission load after upgrading to 2.7.  I was using a few sounds mods located in C:\Users\(your name\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta.  This does not appear to be the issue (at least for me).  What I noticed after upgrading to 2.7 was this folder located in my install directory - C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\_backup.000.  After deleting this folder (backup.000) I have been crash free and my sound mods work with no issues.  Not sure why the upgrade created this folder but hope this helps!

 

Witz

[XPACT]

3 hours ago, Ironhand said:

Yes, it did.

 

Thanks for participating and also for other info as well, since it was behaving the same for you I will focus all my attention to temp folder, have some ideas how to know for sure if it's caused by it, I will test this in a few hours

[Flappie]

10 hours ago, RoxSy said:

I'd suggest you have a look at the tests I did since it's been the most consistent way to make the game crash or pass.

I'll have a go once I get back home.

[unknown]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:26 AM, XPACT said:

 

Try something custom on Caucasus, simple mission like taking off from runway. It's weird that temp folder was always empty in your case. It should have some data inside after first exit to desktop. 

Sorry for the wrong Info about the temp folder above, it was a little late and i looked into the wrong folder... 

 

I did the test again this morning and recorded everything, i'm uploading the video right now to YT and will embed it here(it's 20min so it will take some time until YT will have processed it)

In that video you will see:

- local/empty temp/dcs folder

- start dcs -> ME -> open simple test mission JF-17 takeoff from runway (Syria, caucasus doesn't change anything on the behaviour on my side)

- takeoff -> esc -> fly again.... about 3 times

- takeoff -> esc -> ME -> fly....about 3 times

- takeoff -> quit to desktop -> start dcs again -> start mission from mission main menu -> esc -> fly again... a couple times

- quit to desktop -> delete folder -> start DCS/mission -> esc -> fly again....

 

To be honest, i forgot what combinations i tried, switched several times from DCS in game or while DCS loaded the mission with alt+tab to the temp folder so you can see what was created there. At some point i replaced the JF-17 with the F-16 and did some of the tests above.....

 

Never had a problem loading, but i have to say, if i would have tested this with the F-14(or maybe Viggen) i'm not confident that it would have be this problem free. The only DCS stops loading a mission problems i had were with the F-14(Viggen once), no problem in any other module so far.

 

EDIT:

@XPACTVideo attached, atleast YT finally processed the video to 1080p(was 360p before, you couldn't see anything on that), should be 1440p after it is finished. I don't know if this will help you in any form. BTW, Win 10 pro with HAGS=off, DCS settings in signature.

 

EDIT2:

Video removed, not relevant anymore.

Edited April 28, 2021 by unknown

[XPACT]

Ok, after some extensive testing... Sadly nothing can be concluded except that it won't crash on the first loading at least it never crashed for me so far.

 

Temp folder does have some weird behavior, first is that Mission folder within it will be left empty or populated depending on the way you exit the game. If you use QUIT it will be empty if you use QUIT TO DESKTOP it will remain filled with files, but that doesn't seem to impact crashing sadly.

 

*Also game is creating pairs of the same files every time you press "Fly again", they are named differently but contain same data (every bit is the same), not sure why it's like that but that also doesn't seem to affect crashing.

 

At this point this is sadly getting out of my reach and volunteering territory, would need deobfuscated DCS.exe without DRM to run full debugging line by line

Probably only way for this to ever get fixed is that developers need PC that is misbehaving to run required debugging but it seems they don't... at least for now.

 

*

Edited April 25, 2021 by XPACT

[applepiefrost]

17 hours ago, Flappie said:

 

@applepiefrostThanks for your feedback. Please report back here if the issue comes back, after a PC reboot for instance.

 

 

Unfortunately, the problem returned after a reboot

[FELIX2013BRASIL]

Follow my LOG files for solution.

Felix. Thanks.

dcs.log-20210425-115321.zip dcs.log-20210425-120045.zip

[Flappie]

20 hours ago, RoxSy said:

So maybe not related to fullscreen but the aircraft state, meaning if you start cold and dark you'd better be cold and dark when you want to fly again.

I've just tried this with the Hornet (start a first mission cold and dark, takeoff, leave the mission, edit mission so aircraft starts in mid-air, launch mission). I get no crash at all.

 

Did you get rid of these crashes for good, @RoxSy?

 

Thanks for the logs, Felix.

It seems all users having this issue are running the latest W10 version (Windows NT 10.0.19042). I'm running the previous version (10.0.19041). I'll update right now to see if I can reproduce.

 

EDIT: I'm now running the latest W10 version (Windows NT 10.0.19042) and I'm still unable to reproduce the second mission loading crash.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Flappie