fixed Intermittent Hung Game on "Sim PostStart"

[FourSpeed]

Hi Fellow Pilots,

 

Lately (the past month or so), I've been observing cases where the sim hangs while trying to load / run a mission.  This always occurs in the "Sim PostStart" phase of the loading screens. That step typically takes ~ a minute, or two, when things are going ok, before moving on to later steps, but occasionally, it simply hangs there and never comes back....  The only way out at that point is to kill DCS with the Task Manager.

This occurs in both the standard OB version and the newer MultiThread version. It occurs on several (working) missions, most notably when I've been in the editor tweaking something, and then try to run it (with the green up arrow on the left vertical task bar).

In looking at the logs, the only thing I seem to see is that DCS looks like it's having issues trying to find things when it hangs.

Apart from a few liveries, Grinelli's F22 (not used in the recent hung missions), and TacView, I'm not running any mods that I'm aware of.

I'm including a couple log files (from today) for review. These were both from the standard OB client (not MT -- this time).  

In the first one (a failed, hung game) I was in the M.E., saved the mission, and tried to run it   --->  Sim PostStart  hang....

After killing DCS with Task Manager and restarting it I simply ran the mission from the Main Menu (Mission), and it succeeded. I copied that log at the point where I was able to select the flyable aircraft (after mission successfully loaded).

At this stage, I'm unable to pinpoint exactly what's causing the problem as it seems to happen intermittently, regardless of which OB client I'm running or which mission I'm attempting to edit / play.  Note, it doesn't always happen during editing a mission either, that just seems to be where I notice it most, like today's example). 

 

Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated.  Thanks in Advance

 

Regards,

4 ~S!~

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save_Failed_dcs.log Save_OK_dcs.log

[MAXsenna]

Get a live log viewer so you can monitor dcs.log in real time.
I'm not at home, so I don't remember which one I use. It's free.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[zildac]

Notepad++ has a tail option...works well

[Nealius]

Looks to be the same as my issue here. Your first log is kicking back errors on the deck crew "tables" just like mine is when I get Sim PostStart hangs.

 

 

[FourSpeed]

Thx for the replies.

 

@MAXsenna and @zildac:  While I do appreciate your suggestion, it doesn't really help me.  I'm not interested in monitoring my log minute by minute, and I don't much understand what's in it (or want to) -- I just want my game to work properly when I run it. 

The fact that this issue happens intermittently (with either client on missions that normally work) sounds a lot like an internal bug to me, and if as @Nealius points out, it's a problem with DCS loading an internal table of some type, then it's really something the devs should be looking at.

I'm only including the logs because A> It's not possible to get a track, as the crash occurs during loading...   B> The logs may be useful to the devs or folks who find it interesting to look at logs (I'm not one of them) to help pinpoint why this problem is occurring. 

If it is related to the SuperCarrier,as @Nealius implies, that might make some sense as the problem started fairly recently for me (and I know they added SuperCarrier features a couple patches back), and perhaps that may be the source of the problem.  I honestly don't know, I'm just hoping the logs can help a knowledgeable person find the issue so it can be fixed, and my game gets back to running properly once again...

 

Regards,

4 ~S!~

 

PS> I've also added the autoexec.cfg line (about full debug logs) to my config per BigNewy's suggestion (sorry, hadn't seen that before I posted the OP), so perhaps that will contain better information the next time the hang occurs....

Edited May 16, 2023 by FourSpeed

[Nealius]

Yesterday I was running into this issue and discovered that if exit DCS and clear my fxo and metashaders2 folders between every single mission load, the table errors would stop. I would still get a hang at Sim PostStart, but if I sat and waited for a few minutes the mission would finally load.

[FourSpeed]

Minor Update (and possible short-term workaround).

 

I've not had the chance to do much more testing lately, but the past few days, I have not had any Sim PostStart hangs with the problem missions that were regularly locking up.

Rather than clearing folders, as Nealius suggested, what I have done is this:

*  On the first start-up of one of the "problem missions", I start the mission up as a MP mission (before trying it in SP or before trying to edit it).

    (ie. Select Mission --> "Launch as Multiplayer Server", rather than just click "OK") -- so far, the mission(s) have always loaded up without a hang at Sim PostStart.

* At that point, I can either:

   -- Fly it that way as an MP experience

   -- Exit the server, and then restart it as an SP mission the normal way

   -- Exit the server, and edit it (if I'm tweaking things), and it will load / run properly from inside the M.E. with the green arrow button.

 

Why does that work?  I have  NO  idea, but since I've started doing that with any missions involving the Supercarrier, I've had  *zero*  Sim PostStart lock-ups.   Go Figure...

Anyway, I hope that works for other folks as it has for me, and I hope that it might help the devs pinpoint what's causing the lock-ups in the first place, so they can hopefully squash that insidious bug outright...

 

Regards,

4  ~S!~

 

Update / Concession

I'll be the first to concede that this is *not* the ideal solution.   That said, I've experienced *zero* Sim PostStart lock-ups since I started the first (problem) mission start-up of the day / session as an MP server...  A pita, but so far, it seems to work for me, so in the absence of any other solutions, this is the one I've personally found to work for me ... YMMV

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by FourSpeed

[Nealius]

Might be related, but I observed similar behavior when running the same trouble missions on a dedicated server, then replaying the server's .trk file. I will still get the Sim PostStart hang but with much less frequency than when running it as an SP mission.

[FourSpeed]

On 5/26/2023 at 9:46 PM, Nealius said:

Might be related, but I observed similar behavior when running the same trouble missions on a dedicated server, then replaying the server's .trk file. I will still get the Sim PostStart hang but with much less frequency than when running it as an SP mission.

 

Interesting.   I've rarely (if ever?) tried to fly from a .trk file, so I'm not sure how applicable it is to the situation, but who knows?  In my case, I've just been flying standard  .miz  files (many of which I created myself, or modified from older missions as modules, terrains, and such other DCS game updates and features have been added to the sim).

 

Regards,

4 ~S!~

[Flappie]

@FourSpeed Can you please try renaming your "logbook.lua" file (from "Saved Games/DCS.../MissionEditor") to "logbook.lua.bak" (do NOT delete your logbook, your campaign progress and characters are in there), then see if you can play your campaigns? (use the "Skip" button to get back to the mission you were trying to play).

[FourSpeed]

Hi Flappie,

 

Just a point of clarification, the missions that lock-up are discrete, standalone missions, rather than campaigns.

That said, I did rename the logbook.lua file and restarted my PC & DCS a couple times, and the missions loaded successfully on those occasions.  However, when I restored the original logbook file, and restarted, the missions also loaded successfully, so I'm not sure what conclusions (if any) can be drawn from that, as I never got a lock-up during any of those tests.

 

Regards,

4

[captain_dalan]

On 6/10/2023 at 11:46 PM, Flappie said:

@FourSpeed Can you please try renaming your "logbook.lua" file (from "Saved Games/DCS.../MissionEditor") to "logbook.lua.bak" (do NOT delete your logbook, your campaign progress and characters are in there), then see if you can play your campaigns? (use the "Skip" button to get back to the mission you were trying to play).

A bit of a necro here. 
I recently got this kind of load freezes, after buying few new modules in the recent sale. I got the Mosquito, the Mustang and the Apache. I never had the bug happen to me before. Now it happens from time to time, both in campaigns and standalone missions. Sometimes renaming the pilot log to a backup, generating a new log and then replacing the content with the old one helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I experiment with editing the log right now, to see if it helps. But it sure is annoying to have a mission fail to load, seemingly randomly. 

[AKULA_OPTIMUS]

On 5/26/2023 at 11:04 AM, FourSpeed said:

Update / Concession

I'll be the first to concede that this is *not* the ideal solution.   That said, I've experienced *zero* Sim PostStart lock-ups since I started the first (problem) mission start-up of the day / session as an MP server...  A pita, but so far, it seems to work for me, so in the absence of any other solutions, this is the one I've personally found to work for me ... YMMV

 

 

OMG dude, thank you, thats indeed the ideal solution (the one that takes less effort and time), and the only one that really works every time, this should be even in the DCS manual.