fixed AI F-14 Game freezing/not responding

[ECV56_FOXONE]

I'm not flying the F14, last night I didn't even have it installed, because I reinstalled the DCS and only installed what I was going to fly last night, and I still have the same problem, unrecoverable crash

[Sandman1330]

I may be a victim of this as well.

Twice it happened to me, crashed in the same location each time: Flying F18C, Night time, gray and rainy, Persian Gulf map, flying from Al Minhad out to the boat to practice Case III. Inside of 10NM from the boat (once it happened 4 or 5 miles, the second time around 9 or 10), DCS freezes. This was on a multiplayer server.

I'm not sure if it's related to the Tomcat bug. There are AI Tomcats flying in the mission, and static Tomcats on the boat. Though there were also static tomcats sitting next to me when I departed Al Minhad, so it wasn't the first time those textures were loaded.

Unfortunately no track as it hard crashed.

I did do a few successful Case III where I departed off the boat and returned to the boat. The crash only happened when I departed Al Minhad for the boat. This could be due to the length of time, as it took longer departing from Minhad, or due to something else.

There is also this line in my log: 2022-08-10 21:28:35.648 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'wet_map_map' not found. Asked from ''

Makes me wonder if it was something to do with the Carrier's wet deck, but I've had no issues loading directly onto the carrier...

 

  dcs.log

Edited August 10, 2022 by Sandman1330

[boerdi]

To be able to enjoy MP, I only joined servers with no AI Tomcats.

Last couple of days I tried joining Hoggit's PGAW again and kept to the western side of the map, not taking off from one of the carriers in the east and staying "out of visual range" of the friendly AI Tomcat patrol. Things looked promising and I had no freezes doing CAP and AG stuff in the western part. Even engaging the Iranian AI Tomcats didn't cause a problem in several rounds.

That changed today when the game froze again... An Iranian AI Tomcat fired a Phoenix at me and I went defensive when the game suddenly started stuttering like hell and FPS dropped to single digits and then became slide show with a frame every couple seconds until it froze completely.

I did not even view any Tomcat with the external cam, it seems to be the mere presence (in visual range) of an AI Tomcat that starts spinning the "will-DCS-freeze-or-not" wheel...

Here is the log (detailed mode enabled):dcs.log

It's really super frustrating

[Sandman1330]

20 hours ago, Sandman1330 said:

I may be a victim of this as well.

Twice it happened to me, crashed in the same location each time: Flying F18C, Night time, gray and rainy, Persian Gulf map, flying from Al Minhad out to the boat to practice Case III. Inside of 10NM from the boat (once it happened 4 or 5 miles, the second time around 9 or 10), DCS freezes. This was on a multiplayer server.

I'm not sure if it's related to the Tomcat bug. There are AI Tomcats flying in the mission, and static Tomcats on the boat. Though there were also static tomcats sitting next to me when I departed Al Minhad, so it wasn't the first time those textures were loaded.

Unfortunately no track as it hard crashed.

I did do a few successful Case III where I departed off the boat and returned to the boat. The crash only happened when I departed Al Minhad for the boat. This could be due to the length of time, as it took longer departing from Minhad, or due to something else.

There is also this line in my log: 2022-08-10 21:28:35.648 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'wet_map_map' not found. Asked from ''

Makes me wonder if it was something to do with the Carrier's wet deck, but I've had no issues loading directly onto the carrier...

 

   dcs.log 74.16 kB · 1 download

 

Following up on my issue, I removed the rain from the mission and flew the exact same profile again. The only difference was no rain (no "wet deck".) And the game did NOT crash.

Seems like a separate issue for me.

Edit: Spoke too soon. This time, clear weather, approaching the boat for a Case I. About to call see you at 10, so right around 10NM from the boat. Same style crash, just a freeze. This time I have this in the log:

Quote

2022-08-11 18:07:36.846 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'lha_05_wm_map' not found. Asked from ''
2022-08-11 18:07:36.848 INFO    NET: Current ping: 0.7ms
2022-08-11 18:07:37.122 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'lha_02_wm_map' not found. Asked from ''
2022-08-11 18:07:37.138 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'lha_01_wm_map' not found. Asked from ''
2022-08-11 18:07:37.159 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: texture 'lha_04_wm_map' not found. Asked from ''

So, the wet deck may have been a red herring. In both cases, it seems to be an error loading textures of some type. Tomcat, perhaps?

dcs2.log

Edited August 11, 2022 by Sandman1330

[HeavyGun1450]

Honestly at this point I'm pretty fed up with this, with the freezing/lockup issue here makes me not even want to play DCS at this point. What is even the point of wasting my time starting up the jet, launching, only to freeze halfway to the AO 25-50% of the time. Honestly ED you need to prioritize working on your game engine and that is literally held together with popsicle sticks and gum from the early 2000's and also prioritize working on fixing bugs and core game mechanics rather then just releasing a new module every year that we dont need. (end of rant)

[jethead]

Amen to that brother.

Edited August 15, 2022 by jethead

[Istari6]

Just found this thread, as we're experiencing the same issues and started looking for solutions.  It's getting frustrating as it is occurring consistently in our Liberation co-op campaign.  Same pattern as others have described: flying MP F-14s with other F-14 Ai in the mission, DCS freezes up once closing to within 50 nm of the carrier.  No crash, just completely frozen, and we need to shut it down via Windows.  

Is there anything we can provide that would help isolate the issue?  There isn't a crash per se, are the other logs that might provide information?

 

Also, has anyone else here found a workaround while the bug is being isolated?  Does removing all AI Tomcats from the mission help?  

[rmk80]

The workaround is to remove the F-14s from your Liberation campaign. All freezes have disappeared for me this way. 

Unfortunately part of the enjoyment has disappeared as well,

[Sandman1330]

On 8/14/2022 at 2:43 PM, HeavyGun1450 said:

Honestly at this point I'm pretty fed up with this, with the freezing/lockup issue here makes me not even want to play DCS at this point. What is even the point of wasting my time starting up the jet, launching, only to freeze halfway to the AO 25-50% of the time. Honestly ED you need to prioritize working on your game engine and that is literally held together with popsicle sticks and gum from the early 2000's and also prioritize working on fixing bugs and core game mechanics rather then just releasing a new module every year that we dont need. (end of rant)

I've been playing DCS for... jeez, at least 10 years.

I've invested a lot of money. I have most modules, most maps.

And I'm getting so frustrated lately I'm considering walking away from it all.

What good are phenomenal modules like the Hornet, Viper, Apache, Tomcat.... Just about every module, just phenomenal work - what good are they when the base engine is a dinosaur? High end PCs can't make this game work well in VR, and crashes like this... I just lost another Liberation mission due to this crash. At 50 miles, check in for Case III approach, and crash. No other game I play requires so much work just to get it running smoothly, or crashes so frequently.

I'm just finding more frustration than enjoyment lately.

I truly, truly hope they are close to the engine revamp they are promising. Because all of the wonderful work on the modules is for naught when you can't use them to their potential.

I want to help in any way I can, I really do, but aside from reporting bugs that often go unacknowledged, I don't know what else to do.

[curben]

I can confirm the issue and solution on my end. Had consistent and repeatable freezes on the Persian Gulf map when playing a liberation campaign. It always froze when I was returning to the carrier - every single time. Now I started a new campaign and replaced the F14 squadron with a F18 squadron and I don't get the freeze.

So yeah, it seems it has something to do with the F14.

[Kondor77]

To add a bit more to this...

I haven't been having as frequent crashes as others, but that may be due to the server I played on mostly - Grayflag. This server was on the Syria map and additionally does not include AI F-14s. Just in the past few days, it's changed to a different scenario, in the PG map AND using AI F-14s. I've now had two separate CTDs while flying the F-14 and an hour plus of flight time. Reading between the lines of everyone else here, it's clearly something related to AI F-14s unfortunately, which usually manifests itself after a fair amount of flight time. The CTD can even be 'accelerated' by increased use of F2 view as well. So is this some sort of memory leak issue?

[rmk80]

4 hours ago, Kondor77 said:

The CTD can even be 'accelerated' by increased use of F2 view as well. So is this some sort of memory leak issue?

I does look like it is related to high memory usage. So complex missions, high textures and lots of changing views seems to increase or speed up the chance of the freeze happening. 

On the other hand I highly suspect it happens when the AI F14's return to the carrier. Does anyone also get these feezes in complex mission which include AI F14s but lack the carrier?

 

[Kondor77]

In this specific case there are AI F-14s, but they are on the Iranian side, so no carrier interaction with them. Obviously on the Blue side there are, and my CTDs did happen to occur when I was on my way back to the carrier, but nowhere near (at least 50nm away) each time. 

[Padinn]

I can't speak for others but I have a freeze like this occur in the f14....I notice while streaming that my screen will render an image several minutes older then what is present on screen. I wonder if there is a buffer of some kind that gets filled up. I believe this is related to the f14 crash, since I started playing missions without it I don't have the issue nearly as frequently. 

[zZzMan]

Hey all, I like all of you have been try to track down this bug. I would ask those who have experienced this watch the video linked in this thread. Is this the same issue? Does this present the same way as you have all experienced? 

 

[Roosterfeet]

I've had 3 freezes on 3 attempts to finish Raven One Dominant Fury Mission 08. All occurred around 50 nm from the boat at recovery. Don't know for sure that it's the same cause as your refueling freeze but that Dominant Fury mission includes AI Tomcats and there have been multiple reports of freezes approaching the boat in missions with Tomcats.

[rmk80]

I was kind of excited to see the latest patch has a possible fix for the F14 freezing issue.

Unfortunately I just had another freeze, exactly the same as before. Anybody else seeing this as well after latest beta patch?

[Shibbyland]

I can't even get into the game. I've tried a repair. Total lock up. Also getting very fed up with DCS at this point. I'm putting more time into trying to find solutions to gamebreaking crashes than actually playing the game.

[Flappie]

50 minutes ago, Shibbyland said:

I can't even get into the game. I've tried a repair. Total lock up. Also getting very fed up with DCS at this point. I'm putting more time into trying to find solutions to gamebreaking crashes than actually playing the game.

This is no Discord, you're in a forum. If you come in with a problem to solve, please create your own thread and attach your dcs.log file (Saved Games/DCS.../Logs/dcs.log).

EDIT: I see you've already done that. Thanks.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Flappie

[Shibbyland]

21 hours ago, Flappie said:

This is no Discord, you're in a forum. If you come in with a problem to solve, please create your own thread and attach your dcs.log file (Saved Games/DCS.../Logs/dcs.log).

EDIT: I see you've already done that. Thanks.

 

I got around this one by renaming the user folder for DCS, restarting and then replacing the old config file with the new one. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Shibbyland

[Jayhawk1971]

Am 3.9.2022 um 22:10 schrieb rmk80:

I was kind of excited to see the latest patch has a possible fix for the F14 freezing issue.

Unfortunately I just had another freeze, exactly the same as before. Anybody else seeing this as well after latest beta patch?

Yes, got a freeze yesterday in mission 14 in Dominant Fury, towards the end of the mission, right when a scripted radio call was triggered.

Generally, it seems to me those freeze-crashes only occur when some kind of event is being triggered, like radio calls or units spawning? In another campaign I was heading back to the carrier in the Tomcat, and the mission froze just as  (Supercarrier) Marshal was responding to my inbound call (it froze as the radio call was played). 

[boerdi]

Can confirm that freezes also still happen on MP servers (e.g. Hoggit PGAW with AI Tomcats)

Just landed with the Hornet on the Washington in "carrier corner", F2 viewed another Hornet on the Stennis during refuel/rearm and game froze.
Two-ship AI Tomcat patrol nearby in the air.

This is a fresh DCS install on a new PC. Freeze identical to those on the older machine.
Detailed log attached.

dcs.log

[Nocke217]

I'd also like to confirm there is an issue with the F14.

We are a small group of people running liberation missions. In the beginning there were F14s involved, and we almost always saw terminal game (client) freezes after 40 to 50 minutes into the mission. After finding this thread, we removed the F14s - and have not seen a single freeze since.

[rmk80]

@IronMike Are you still looking into possible fixes for this issue, since the last OB unfortunately didn't fix it?

As for the event causing this. I strongly feel this is somehow related to (AI) flights returning from their sorties. Whether it has to do with communication between AI and carrier, available landing/parking spots on the carrier, or despawning events, I really don't know. I still do have AI F-14s returning and landing on the carrier just fine, so maybe it has something to do with the amount of AI units involved around the carrier.

I did notice that when I started my own flights in Liberation at the start of mission time, the freezes always happen in the 30-50 min timeframe. Which is when the first flights are getting back. In the latest Liberation you have the option to speed up/skip mission time, so I'm actually starting later. This immediately has its effect on the freezes which can happen within the first 10 minutes, when the actual mission is already 30 min on its way. This leads me to believe it is somehow tied to returning flights. 

 

 

 

 

[HeavyGun1450]

Just had it happen to me again after a week or two of no freezing, and just when I thought this update fixed the issue. Unbelievable that this crap still isnt fixed.