F-14 Freeze

[Clunk1001]

I've posted this a few places on the forum (apologies for the repetition), but I felt this should go in the F14 section as the issue is reproducible for me only with the F14.

I've been experiencing intermittent random freezes with DCS, usually about 30+ minutes into a game.  I fly single-player Liberation campaigns, in the F-14.

I spent the full day yesterday trying to find the cause, I have been unsuccessful, but I can replicate it 100% of the time now with a Caucasus mission generated from DCS Liberation.

To replicate, I use the attached .miz,  sit on the carrier for 32 minutes (i.e. fast forward to 32 minutes into mission, any time after 32 mins will trigger the crash),  then launch, gear up, press F3 (flypast view) and the game immediately freezes in cockpit (doesn't reach external view).  End Task is the only option at this point.   I've tried this now 30-40 times with various settings on/off  - I've tried everything I could find from all the forums, not just in-game settings and reinstalls etc, but down to turning hyperthreading off, ethernet off, usb unplugged etc).  Nothing makes any difference, it always freezes at exactly the same point.  Even with graphics on lowest possible settings.

Interestingly, this does not happen with the F18  (if I edit the mission and put myself in the F18, it works fine).  Hence why I'm putting it in this forum  (I'm not saying this is a Heatblur issue - it could be DCS, or Liberation, or my PC).  I'm just saying that it's an issue I can replicate consistently in the F14. 

Also, there seem to be quiet a few people (mainly with Nvidia cards) suffering 'random' freezes.  And so I though it might be useful to share a freeze that is not random, and is 100% replicable (at least on my system).

The DCS Log file stops just before the freeze, so doesn't record any crash info.  But I've attached it, just in case there's a clue in there which I haven't spotted.

The .miz file was generated by Liberation  (not sure if it's playable without Liberation installed though).  I've attached it anyway.

In terms of system, I'm running an i7-10700, GTX3070, 64GB RAM and it isn't being challenged. I've attached a screenshot of task manager, for this last test I'd reduced all graphics to low, and even reduced game resolution too, and you can see on the GPU the point where I launch off the carrier, and the point where the game just freezes.  I don't think this is a memory/cpu/disk bottleneck  (a hardware issue would generally manifest itself intermittently and would not be reproducible at an exact point like this is).

So, I'm asking, no I'm pleading, for some help/advise here.

In order to play Liberation missions which last longer than 30 minutes I need to fly the F18.  It turns out I hate the F18 , and I only want to fly the F14.  Please help  

 

edit: I believe the .miz can be run without liberation installed as long as you have the following folder created  C:\dcs_liberation.5.2.0\dcs_liberation

edit2 : The issue seems to be late activation.  I've a flight of 4 F-14s which activate at about 28 mins.  Removing this one flight prevents the game crash.  Though there are many late activation groups being activated by triggers, I'm not sure why this flight of F14s would cause the crash.  However, I removed the late activation F-14s and I've been able to complete the mission with no freeze.   Although this does sound like a DCS issue....it only happens when flying the F14.

 

Thanks

dcs.log

liberation_nextturn.miz

Edited May 22, 2022 by Clunk1001

[Dentedend10]

I’ve also posted in the Cage the Bear Campaign thread. I cannot complete the mission without the game freezing. Other campaigns, specifically Zone 5, works fine, even though the gameplay can reach 2 hours. Cage the Bear, there is no specific time when it freezes but it always does

[cazub]

Cage the bear mission 5 and using liberation on any map i see this. For me it is always if i am 1 , NOT in VR like usual , 2 no head tracking but instead using keyboard numpad to 'move my head' around and view. It is always at about 20 to 30 min as well and always holding Numpad+6 and turning my head all the way right.

nvidia 1080ti here