Mordants Posted January 2 Posted January 2 On Boxing day I thought I would upgrade the nvngx.dlss.dll file located in the “bin-mt” folder, having read that it might improve the graphics. That decision took on major consequences and might have just been a co-incidence, but there after DCS would hang after a few seconds at the loading page. I was completely stumped as to what maybe stopping DCS from loading correctly. I did all the usual and got rid of mods and anything extra that I had used for DCS to no avail. A full repair, uninstall and reinstall of the program did not rectify it. A reinstall of win11 did not fix it. A full internet search for the next few days did not come up with the answer although numerous solutions were offered. I also deleted the “Saved Games “ folder which fixed the snag but I did not know why. I installed my backup “Saved Games” folder and the problem returned. I found and old install file for 2.5. and tried that. The game came up and seemed to operate ok, probably a false dawn! I had a backup nvme drive and ripped apart my computer and installed that to see if that would work. Nope same problem. I intermittently carried on searching the internet, DCS forums and Discord chat rooms looking for an answer. Eureka! I then found a reddit post that had the headline [Open Beta] Crash/Freeze in Start Screen [with Fix?] this was 5 years old with no comments below it. Today I installed the latest version of the beta, 2.5.6.43503. When I start the game with or without admin rights,the game loads into starting screen, music starts playing then stops and the windows error 'dcs not responding' comes up. I waited 30min+ but it didn't recover. I then started searching the web and came to the solution to delete the [...]\saved games\dcs.openbeta folder. This worked. I then started to investigate what exactly is causing the crash (deleted file for file and tested for the crash). Now the result is that deleting the 'ImagesShop' folder will fix the crash. DCS will recreate the folder + content and work just fine. I have now created a batch file to remove the file before every start of DCS. My question is why is this happening now and does anyone have a solution other than me running a batch file before every game? It took another few days to get my mods back working and getting DCS to run as before. A bonus to all this effort got my stream decks working faster after they inexplicably slowed right down, a consequence of re installing win 11 I think, so every cloud has a silver lining! SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
silverdevil Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) 2 hours ago, Mordants said: On Boxing day I thought I would upgrade the nvngx.dlss.dll file located in the “bin-mt” folder, having read that it might improve the graphics. That decision took on major consequences and might have just been a co-incidence, but there after DCS would hang after a few seconds at the loading page. I was completely stumped as to what maybe stopping DCS from loading correctly. I did all the usual and got rid of mods and anything extra that I had used for DCS to no avail. A full repair, uninstall and reinstall of the program did not rectify it. A reinstall of win11 did not fix it. A full internet search for the next few days did not come up with the answer although numerous solutions were offered. I also deleted the “Saved Games “ folder which fixed the snag but I did not know why. I installed my backup “Saved Games” folder and the problem returned. I found and old install file for 2.5. and tried that. The game came up and seemed to operate ok, probably a false dawn! I had a backup nvme drive and ripped apart my computer and installed that to see if that would work. Nope same problem. I intermittently carried on searching the internet, DCS forums and Discord chat rooms looking for an answer. Eureka! I then found a reddit post that had the headline [Open Beta] Crash/Freeze in Start Screen [with Fix?] this was 5 years old with no comments below it. Today I installed the latest version of the beta, 2.5.6.43503. When I start the game with or without admin rights,the game loads into starting screen, music starts playing then stops and the windows error 'dcs not responding' comes up. I waited 30min+ but it didn't recover. I then started searching the web and came to the solution to delete the [...]\saved games\dcs.openbeta folder. This worked. I then started to investigate what exactly is causing the crash (deleted file for file and tested for the crash). Now the result is that deleting the 'ImagesShop' folder will fix the crash. DCS will recreate the folder + content and work just fine. I have now created a batch file to remove the file before every start of DCS. My question is why is this happening now and does anyone have a solution other than me running a batch file before every game? It took another few days to get my mods back working and getting DCS to run as before. A bonus to all this effort got my stream decks working faster after they inexplicably slowed right down, a consequence of re installing win 11 I think, so every cloud has a silver lining! interesting find and good troubleshooting. i am not sure if this matters. when ED distributed the patch to unify the versions, i made a copy of my Saved Games folder. at that time the imagesShop folder had not as many JPG of the cover art for all the different modules, terrains, campaigns, etc. in the latest patch there are several JPG that have % in the file names. null wondering if you have any of these items? i have a feeling that the old names are being referenced and the DCS menu if having troubles. thus freezing. i have none of them so i do not see freezing. imagesShop-preunified.txtimagesShop-latestUpdate.txt Edited January 2 by silverdevil AKA_SilverDevil Join AKA Wardogs Email Address My YouTube “The MIGS came up, the MIGS were aggressive, we tangled, they lost.” - Robin Olds - An American fighter pilot. He was a triple ace. The only man to ever record a confirmed kill while in glide mode.
Mordants Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 (edited) I deleted those files and tried again, still freezes. Also put in an older "Images Shop" file from a backup. Still freezes for me. Edited January 2 by Mordants SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
silverdevil Posted January 2 Posted January 2 1 hour ago, Mordants said: I deleted those files and tried again, still freezes. Also put in an older "Images Shop" file from a backup. Still freezes for me. try to replace the %20 with a space in every file. %20 is web code for space. though as i said, i do not have any freezes in my system. i have the same contents of folder ImagesShop. AKA_SilverDevil Join AKA Wardogs Email Address My YouTube “The MIGS came up, the MIGS were aggressive, we tangled, they lost.” - Robin Olds - An American fighter pilot. He was a triple ace. The only man to ever record a confirmed kill while in glide mode.
Mordants Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 1 hour ago, silverdevil said: try to replace the %20 with a space in every file. %20 is web code for space. though as i said, i do not have any freezes in my system. i have the same contents of folder ImagesShop. I did that and the game ran normally which shows that those files with the %20 are the problem. On inspecting the folder after quitting showed the %20 files automatically readded along with the file names amended. The next attempt then showed the amended renamed files removed and the %20 remaining. The freeze reappeared as "not responding" SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
sleighzy Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) 3 hours ago, Mordants said: I did that and the game ran normally which shows that those files with the %20 are the problem. On inspecting the folder after quitting showed the %20 files automatically readded along with the file names amended. The next attempt then showed the amended renamed files removed and the %20 remaining. The freeze reappeared as "not responding" Can you upload a screenshot of the contents of that folder. Also what is the full path to that saved games location? Edited January 2 by sleighzy AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
sleighzy Posted January 2 Posted January 2 9 hours ago, Mordants said: I would upgrade the nvngx.dlss.dll file located in the “bin-mt” folder, having read that it might improve the graphics. Sorry, don't mean to tangent here but you need to replace the nvngx_dlss.dll file in the "bin" and "bin-mt" folder. Should be both (although you'll only be likely to be using the "bin" directory using the normal DCS shortcuts). AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
silverdevil Posted January 2 Posted January 2 9 minutes ago, sleighzy said: Can you upload a screenshot of the contents of that folder. Also what is the full path to that saved games location? hello. i have two txt files above and a screen shot of the offending file names. AKA_SilverDevil Join AKA Wardogs Email Address My YouTube “The MIGS came up, the MIGS were aggressive, we tangled, they lost.” - Robin Olds - An American fighter pilot. He was a triple ace. The only man to ever record a confirmed kill while in glide mode.
sleighzy Posted January 2 Posted January 2 1 minute ago, silverdevil said: hello. i have two txt files above and a screen shot of the offending file names. Yup, I only have a subset of those however. I'm curious as to whether or not he also has a subset, or any additional ones which we may not have. AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
silverdevil Posted January 2 Posted January 2 9 minutes ago, sleighzy said: Yup, I only have a subset of those however. I'm curious as to whether or not he also has a subset, or any additional ones which we may not have. you may know this already but in case. in file explorer browse to the folder. then in the URL type CMD and hit enter. command prompt will open. then type DIR /b /o:n > c:\temp\whatEverYouWant.txt this will be a listing of the contents. i did notice in my two examples. there were many other files in the folder since the preUnified example. and no %20 in the preUnified example. AKA_SilverDevil Join AKA Wardogs Email Address My YouTube “The MIGS came up, the MIGS were aggressive, we tangled, they lost.” - Robin Olds - An American fighter pilot. He was a triple ace. The only man to ever record a confirmed kill while in glide mode.
sleighzy Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) 47 minutes ago, silverdevil said: you may know this already but in case. in file explorer browse to the folder. then in the URL type CMD and hit enter. command prompt will open. then type DIR /b /o:n > c:\temp\whatEverYouWant.txt this will be a listing of the contents. i did notice in my two examples. there were many other files in the folder since the preUnified example. and no %20 in the preUnified example. I have a new ImagesShop folder, this is post the unification of the versions, which contains only %20 files (this is from DCS on a new PC from a few weeks ago) and no duplicated ones for spaces. I also have a backed up one from my old PC that contains files both prior to the unification and from when they unified it, which contains both the old (non %20) and the new (%20) file names for the "same" (duplicated) filenames. So would appear that somewhere along the way the packaging for these filenames isn't url decoding properly (or something of that nature) so isn't replacing the %20 with a space. My testing steps: Delete the ImagesShop folder and start DCS. The ImagesShop folder is created but contains no contents. Start a mission. The ImagesShop folder is then populated with the images. This contains the ones with %20 and no duplicate filenames with spaces. This is why it would appear to work the first time, as there are no images to load when DCS is first started, until you are flying. I then stopped DCS and started it again and it works as expected. I then stopped DCS and replaced the ImagesShop with my older version that contains the duplicates Started DCS and has no issues, the same as you and apparently most other DCS players except for the two reporters here. If @Mordants is deleting the ImagesShop folder then in theory when it is recreated it should only contain the ones with %20 and no duplicated ones with spaces. So I'm curious as to whether or not he gets duplicates, and/or he has any other files that we don't which may/may not be duplicates, and/or have %20 in the filenames. Edited January 2 by sleighzy AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
sleighzy Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) Missed a testing use case, going to retest with replacing the %20 with a space like Mordants did and see if they are renamed, and if any freezing occurs. EDIT: Retested. The files are not renamed, they are added again so you have duplicated ones, e.g. same filename, one with %20 and one with space. Edited January 2 by sleighzy AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
Mordants Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 22 minutes ago, sleighzy said: Missed a testing use case, going to retest with replacing the %20 with a space like Mordants did and see if they are renamed, and if any freezing occurs. EDIT: Retested. The files are not renamed, they are added again so you have duplicated ones, e.g. same filename, one with %20 and one with space. That’s the result I had after my earlier test. Sorry to have not been around earlier to answer your queries. Will have to do this tomorrow now. SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
Mordants Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 13 hours ago, sleighzy said: Sorry, don't mean to tangent here but you need to replace the nvngx_dlss.dll file in the "bin" and "bin-mt" folder. Should be both (although you'll only be likely to be using the "bin" directory using the normal DCS shortcuts). I did both but could not boot into the game having encountered the "freeze" scenario. So basically failed at the first hurdle and then the grief started. SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
Mordants Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 12 hours ago, sleighzy said: I have a new ImagesShop folder, this is post the unification of the versions, which contains only %20 files (this is from DCS on a new PC from a few weeks ago) and no duplicated ones for spaces. I also have a backed up one from my old PC that contains files both prior to the unification and from when they unified it, which contains both the old (non %20) and the new (%20) file names for the "same" (duplicated) filenames. So would appear that somewhere along the way the packaging for these filenames isn't url decoding properly (or something of that nature) so isn't replacing the %20 with a space. My testing steps: Delete the ImagesShop folder and start DCS. The ImagesShop folder is created but contains no contents. Start a mission. The ImagesShop folder is then populated with the images. This contains the ones with %20 and no duplicate filenames with spaces. This is why it would appear to work the first time, as there are no images to load when DCS is first started, until you are flying. I then stopped DCS and started it again and it works as expected. I then stopped DCS and replaced the ImagesShop with my older version that contains the duplicates Started DCS and has no issues, the same as you and apparently most other DCS players except for the two reporters here. If @Mordants is deleting the ImagesShop folder then in theory when it is recreated it should only contain the ones with %20 and no duplicated ones with spaces. So I'm curious as to whether or not he gets duplicates, and/or he has any other files that we don't which may/may not be duplicates, and/or have %20 in the filenames. If @Mordants is deleting the ImagesShop folder then in theory when it is recreated it should only contain the ones with %20 and no duplicated ones with spaces. This is the file from scratch populated at the start before selecting the mission. The saved games file for me is C:\Saved Games\DCS\ImagesShop Here is the image file. SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
sleighzy Posted January 3 Posted January 3 20 minutes ago, Mordants said: The saved games file for me is C:\Saved Games\DCS\ImagesShop This is not the standard path which would be under C:\Users\username , did you use the Windows procedure for moving the saved games system folder (right-clicking the folder and then choosing properties and updating the location to another root), or some other means? AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
Mordants Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 (edited) 7 minutes ago, sleighzy said: This is not the standard path which would be under C:\Users\username , did you use the Windows procedure for moving the saved games system folder (right-clicking the folder and then choosing properties and updating the location to another root), or some other means? Yes, during the debacle I found the saved games folder used by the game pointing to an "N" drive. This is an external SSD for backups etc. So I moved back to the C drive. I have just been starting and stopping DCS this morning , three times in a row and it has booted normally today. Before I had to always use my batch file to remove the images file before each start. So not sure whats going on now. Edited January 3 by Mordants SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
sleighzy Posted January 3 Posted January 3 1 minute ago, Mordants said: Yes, during the debacle I found the saved games folder used by the game pointing to an "N" drive. This is an external SSD for backups etc. So I moved back to the C drive. I have just been starting and stopping DCS this morning , three times in a row and it has booted normally today. Before I had to always use my batch file to remove the images file. So not sure whats going on now. Hmmm, yeah I’d noted an odd saved games path for the other reporter as well. So possibly just an issue with the saved games location and resolved now with moving it properly back to another location? AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
Mordants Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 1 minute ago, sleighzy said: Hmmm, yeah I’d noted an odd saved games path for the other reporter as well. So possibly just an issue with the saved games location and resolved now with moving it properly back to another location? Not sure because the problems were still there yesterday with the saved games folder on the C drive. I'll try again now this time shutting down the computer first. Will report back in a few minutes. 1 SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
sleighzy Posted January 3 Posted January 3 1 minute ago, Mordants said: Not sure because the problems were still there yesterday with the saved games folder on the C drive. I'll try again now this time shutting down the computer first. Will report back in a few minutes. Can you attach a dcs log file here after starting up completely into the game as well. AMD 7800x3D, 4080Super, 64Gb DDR5 RAM, 4Tb NVMe M.2, Quest 2
Mordants Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 7 minutes ago, sleighzy said: Can you attach a dcs log file here after starting up completely into the game as well. Definately working ok now, booted up and got into the game with no freezes, normally happened after about 10secs. Log file attached. dcs.log SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
Mordants Posted January 5 Author Posted January 5 I no longer have to run a batch file to to remove the images file in saved games folder. I don't know why but DCS runs ok now. SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
MatzWarhog Posted January 8 Posted January 8 On 1/5/2025 at 7:44 AM, Mordants said: I no longer have to run a batch file to to remove the images file in saved games folder. I don't know why but DCS runs ok now. Has that fix held up and you're no longer freezing up?? AMD FX8350 @ 4.2Ghz x 8, Asus M5A99FX Pro UEFI Board, 16Gb RAM @1600Mhz, EVGA GTX660 2Gb DDR5, 120Gig Corsair SSD SATA3 Boot Drive, Dual Corsair SSD FORCE 60Gig for gaming, TM Warthog HOTAS and Cougars, Saitek Proflight Pedals, TrackIR 5 w/Pro Clip, and WAY Too much time on my hands. :pilotfly:
Mordants Posted January 8 Author Posted January 8 5 hours ago, MatzWarhog said: Has that fix held up and you're no longer freezing up?? Yes still working. SYSTEM SPECS: Hardware Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 64Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, CONTROLS: VPC Rotor TCS Base, VPC Hawk-60 Collective Grip, VPC MongoosT-50CM3 Base, VPC Constellation ALPHA Prime [R], Thrustmaster Warthog – Throttle, Thrustmaster TPR - Pendular Rudder Pedals, Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control (For Anubis C-130 Hercules), Meta Quest Pro. SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows 11,
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