CMBN: We'll Start Here - CTD on Uncle Red

[Shadrach]

Hi, on the third scenario of the We'll Start Here campaign - Uncle Red - the game crashes to desktop after freezing for some seconds.

I'm attaching several crash dumps as well as system NFO and DXdiag files in the following zip:
https://0x0.st/XObs.zip

What I've tried so far:

• Followed the briefing recommendation of cancelling shore bombardment and movement first turn, still crashes
• Removed mods - I only had two: Juju's UI for CMBN v6 and Gridded Ground (I use these for all CM games)
• Removed Reshade
• Disabled Antivirus (Avast)
• This is an "old" system (2015) but performs well in most games I play.
  CM is slow and very low frame rate, but that's nothing new...

GPU drivers are at 552.44 so not the latest (560.70), I guess that's what I'll try next but I doubt it'll help here.
EDIT: Nope, updated drivers, still crashes.

When looking at the process memory use in Process Explorer, it rises to 2.1GB during scene load, then stays at 1.8GB during the setup before the crash.
I have 32GB RAM and upgraded the GPU last year.

I'm playing real-time, on 1920x1080 60hz.

The only related post I could find was this one, mentioning the insane amount of fortifications on the map:

Any tips to proceed in the campaign appreciated

System information:
OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version    10.0.19045 Build 19045
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    32,0 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
 

Edited July 31 by Shadrach

[Artkin]

It was a poor choice adding this scenario to the cam. Sorry Ith but there were something like 4 or 5 pages of fortifications in the independent scenario which is a big no-no. 

[Vacillator]

1 hour ago, Shadrach said:

Any tips to proceed in the campaign appreciated

There are some hints in the thread you linked.  I had crashes in La Madeleine when I issued lots of complex orders on the first turn.  I then tried very simple 'unit' orders and it worked okay on my system (detailed in the thread).  I think however Uncle Red is not La Madeleine?  As a quick test I tried Uncle Red with full on bombardment and very simple movement and it was okay for me.

I note however you say you've tried no movement on the first turn without any luck, so hopefully others will have better suggestions than me.

Edited July 31 by Vacillator

[Ithikial_AU]

8 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Any tips to proceed in the campaign appreciated

System information:
OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version    10.0.19045 Build 19045
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    32,0 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
 

How many other programs do you have running in the background tapping into the use of your CPU? Remember CMBN is stuck using only one processor. In the options menu you may want to tell CM to take priority over other tasks. Computer should hopefully shift other processes to other cores.

[chuckdyke]

Settings, Gaming Game Mode turns all applications off in the back ground.

[Shadrach]

7 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

How many other programs do you have running in the background tapping into the use of your CPU? Remember CMBN is stuck using only one processor. In the options menu you may want to tell CM to take priority over other tasks. Computer should hopefully shift other processes to other cores.

I've been gaming since the 90s when we had to run from a floppy to boot into DOS mode with nothing else running. So out of old habit, I always shut down anything running before launching (most) games. 

Of course, there's always small things running in the background.
I've tried with the AV disabled of course (uninstalling it would be a tough call...).
I've also turned off a small program called SunsetScreen I always have running, it made no difference for the crash.

As for Game Mode - never saw the use or seen it do anything good/bad at all. Apparently it's Enabled by default so I checked and it was.
Tried turning it OFF just in case, still crashed.

I guess I could start stopping system services, but I always try to keep those to a minimum of what's needed anyway...

Unfortunately, at this point I think a developer will have to look at the dumps, and if so a fix will have to be coded, which could take weeks or months in the Battlefront world. Unless of course this is so common it happens to all CMBN owners but doesn't look that way...

Edited August 1 by Shadrach

[Ithikial_AU]

2 hours ago, Shadrach said:

I've been gaming since the 90s when we had to run from a floppy to boot into DOS mode with nothing else running. So out of old habit, I always shut down anything running before launching (most) games. 

Of course, there's always small things running in the background.
I've tried with the AV disabled of course (uninstalling it would be a tough call...).
I've also turned off a small program called SunsetScreen I always have running, it made no difference for the crash.

As for Game Mode - never saw the use or seen it do anything good/bad at all. Apparently it's Enabled by default so I checked and it was.
Tried turning it OFF just in case, still crashed.

I guess I could start stopping system services, but I always try to keep those to a minimum of what's needed anyway...

Unfortunately, at this point I think a developer will have to look at the dumps, and if so a fix will have to be coded, which could take weeks or months in the Battlefront world. Unless of course this is so common it happens to all CMBN owners but doesn't look that way...

Since it's the start of the scenario, can you try turn based mode to see if you get by the first minute or two. No orders or just the naval guns for the first minute.

[Shadrach]

3 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

Since it's the start of the scenario, can you try turn based mode to see if you get by the first minute or two. No orders or just the naval guns for the first minute.

Good tip, however it's not possible to change on turn 0. If I was smart I would've spared the save from the last battle, so I could change on the switchover, but I tend to start at 000 on each new battle and delete the older ones to keep things in order

I just now tried to launch the game in 1024x768 res but it still crashed on pressing the red button...

[Centurian52]

23 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Good tip, however it's not possible to change on turn 0. If I was smart I would've spared the save from the last battle, so I could change on the switchover, but I tend to start at 000 on each new battle and delete the older ones to keep things in order

I just now tried to launch the game in 1024x768 res but it still crashed on pressing the red button...

Hi. I had problems with this scenario as well. Issuing movement orders was painstakingly slow (it would take a solid 10+ minutes after each click for the waypoint to appear). And when I did finally get around to clicking the red button I got a crash to desktop. On my second attempt I reloaded from one save further back (the last save of the previous mission), and didn't bother issuing any movement orders on the first turn (I only gave my bombardment orders). After that everything was (comparatively) butter smooth from the second turn onwards. This was when I was beta testing the scenario, and I believe the advice to not bother with movement orders on the first turn made it into the notes of the release version of this scenario based on this experience. But in retrospect reloading from one save further back was probably the key in avoiding further crashes.

IIRC a crash to desktop may indicate that the save file itself is corrupted. I've only had this issue a handful of times over the years. But after the first time (and learning that the solution was to reload an earlier save) reloading an earlier save became an automatic response when I encountered the issue again later on. So I probably neglected to make a bigger deal of the "reload an earlier save" part of what I did differently on my second attempt than I should have, so I'll take the blame on that advice not making it into the release version.

Unfortunately it sounds like you don't have an earlier save. There's a chance you may yet be able to recover it. If you're running Windows then the earlier save files likely went to your recycle bin when you deleted them (if you're running Mac then you'll need to see if someone else knows whether the files can still be recovered). If you haven't emptied your recycle bin then it should still be possible to restore those save files. If for whatever reason you can't restore the save files then, unfortunately, this issue may have ruined this run of the campaign for you. If that's the case then I sincerely hope you enjoyed the campaign up to this point and are willing to give it another go at some point, though it's understandable if your too demoralized to start over again right now.