DCS VR - SteamVR has encountered a critical error

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In a way I’m happy it’s not the mods though, it was hard not to use this Reshade one, so some good came out of it at least :slight_smile:

EDIT: Spent an hour on the Caucasus SAR map, with all VR mods on and no issues. So it looks like I’ll avoid Syria in MP until I get that 4080 with more VRAM.

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I did some investigation of that crash on the Syria map, as thought I should at least report it formally with the proper SteamVR crashdump. Ironically in enabling the log debug it seems to have fixed it. I posted the following in the ED forums but will put here for anyone that comes this way via google etc;

Hello Everyone!

I too get this issue periodically. Like others in this topic have said, it seems to happen when the system is under heavier load, so things like:

  • Syria Map

  • 2080 with 8GB VRAM

  • Multiplayer Server, often with heavy scripting

  • Switching views or to the F10 map often

  • SteamVR render resolution put higher, say 150% on a Reverb G1 (2696x2640) using PD 1.0

I can use DCS for about 30 mins and it tends to happen like clockwork. Obviously a bit frustrating as it seems random and I’ve tried all combinations of Nvidia driver/SteamVR/WMR for SteamVR/DCS no mods etc. I have a lot of sympathy for the tester and dev crew here because it is very hard to list discrete issue recreation steps, and that would make it easier to find and fix.

I can also eventually recreate it on single player on Caucasus and lower resolutions, it just takes longer - indicating some sort of leak or timing error perhaps.

I have potentially found something that helps, for those who find there way here. As the crash happens on the vrserver.exe side of SteamVR I thought I’d enable that stack’s console log and be able to track it down a bit more. To do that you can do the following:

You should now see a live log for SteamVR. If you don’t then you may need to enable the web interface console manually, which you can do with the following steps:

  • In your Steam install, find the file config\steamvr.vrsettings, so a typical location would be X:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings

  • Enable the web console for a live view. To do that add the following new lines (shown in bold, including the comma above the line “WebInterface”: { ) to steamvr.vrsettings :

},
“steamvr” : {
“installID” : “141154210184184536”,
“lastVersionNotice” : “1.17.4”,
“lastVersionNoticeDate” : “1617323792”
},
“WebInterface” : {
“WebEnable” : true
},
}
(EOF)

The odd thing is that I did this to find the exact crash reason but now I can’t recreate it - a sort of quantum observable fix! :grin:. Before this I’ve never managed to run more the 20 mins or so on the SAR Syria MP server and with the log running in a browser window it now doesn’t seem to happen anymore, at least for over an hour I tried. My best guess is that there is some pause from the DCS side moving textures in memory and that upsets the timing on the vrserver side, and the outputting via this local webserver is now impacting that timing. Weirder things have happened I guess.

Can anyone get the crash using the above technique, or does it help anyone else?

EDIT: Eventually I do get a SteamVR critical error crash after about an hour. So no silver bullet unfortunately. No entry in the SteamVR console as well.

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I bought fpsvr yesterday and tried it in DCS flying in Syria used 17+Gb Vram and 24ish system RAM

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Excuse Me Reaction GIF by Mashable

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RAM is a resource that gets allocated if it’s free and available rather than required. If you had 36 GB of VRAM it would use it, as it wouldn’t need to evict older pages as there is capacity.

If out of a cacheable resource then it should just hurt performance rather than crash.

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Sadly I can still recreate it with the log running, but no useful info goes into the log at crash time. As this isn’t really Reshade related anymore I’ll fish out my crash posts and make a new topic.

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I am also suffering random crashes, nothing at all with the rift. I also havent used the reshader mod, to assist in your troubleshooting

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So I can get this crash in single player, just doing the Huey ‘Operations Mission’ (forget the exact name, the one with red/blue and you can client select between the four helos in the snow on Caucasus - with lots of VRAM free).

I have a working theory on why it worked well with the logging on. When I enabled it I was fiddling around with SteamVR settings files, to try to enable the web console log and I think I broke it with bad formatting, e.g. an extra comma etc. What SteamVR will do in this case is go ‘Ah, that’s junk, I’ll make a new fresh one’ so it effectively reset my SteamVR settings back to vanilla.

What this means is that it worked for so long before because:

  • SteamVR was on ‘Auto’ which for my G1 is a 100% setting.

  • WMR and SteamVR swtiches are all off for reprojection, so that’s off as well.

If the workaround is to run at a lower resolution then that’ll sort of suck as it works fine for 20 mins, looks great, so downgrading so I can’t see things is sort of sad.

I’ll try with reprojection off but normal resolution and see if that’s triggering it.

One other vague plan I have (never get between someone bored and a problem that doesn’t matter) is I might try rolling back SteamVR back, say, 1 year and see if that impacts it. Getting older versions out of Steam is do-able it’s just a PITA, so I’ll need coffee to do that.

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You don’t use reprojection?

There’s no amount of coffee in the world that would make me understand how you do that, so I still consider you a super hero.

animation yes GIF by Woodblock

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No, no I do, I need it actually :slight_smile: it was just because SteamVR had reset my settings (due to me editing the file wrongly) and it because reprojection is all off by default (and a lower res), and then it worked fine for a longer period than usual. I’m trying to link if those initial settings (which I don’t like or want to use :slight_smile:) could then indicate an underlying cause of why DCS crashes VR.

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Ah!
Pilot.
Need checklist.

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And menus with pictures…that way you can just point and grunt :monkey:

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When Covid is over, I need to go to the US and have lunch…!

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We can just as easily come your way…! Would really enjoy that… Does Widerøe have like a travel pass you can buy that allows you to make multiple hops over a couple of weeks (Qantas had one of those)? That can be a kind of cool way to explore a region…

Sorry…back OT. I still have nothing to contribute. I’m still unpacking.

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Yeah. ‘Norge Rundt’ the All Around Norway ticket. They cancelled it last summer, because of Covid. Not sure about this year… But with that ticket you can travel as much as you like for two weeks.

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Well, to keep it on topic…I think I’ll explore the route we’d take in VR and MSFS first…! :+1:

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Managed to grab the exact crash error in the event log. This is sort of like throwing a snowflake into a storm, but I logged the bug on the SteamVR side as well.

I’m going to have to park DCS for a bit I guess. Onward…

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Things I’ve tried:

  • Updating from Nvidia driver 457.30 (which works pretty sweet on a 2080 still) to 465.39. Cleared DCS shader cache.

  • Verified all files in DCS Open Beta using ‘slow verify’, plus removed all mods.

  • Tried SteamVR latest beta and non-beta. Also WMR for SteamVR beta and non-beta. Fresh installs and reset settings.

  • Tried a SteamVR build from 13 months ago (v1.10.32) and SteamVR public branch for v1.15.12, both crash the same.

  • Checked process priority of vrcompositor etc not set from defaults.

  • Set manual Windows page file to 64GB over the 32GB RAM.

  • Turned off any CPU, GPU and memory overclocks. Prime95 stress tested with no errors for 1 hour.

  • Turned off USB Power Mgnt sleep mode.

  • Exceptions for virus checked folders for DCS installs and Saved Games\DCS.

  • Disabled DCS Write log (tried on or off).

  • Tried DCS non Open beta and Open Beta versions.

  • Has crashed the same on the Caucasus map, so not just Syria. Can take about 10 mins longer or so.

  • Tried SteamVR at 50%, 100% and 150% render resolutions with PD set to combinations of 0.5 and 1.0 - the only delay being how long it takes to crash.

  • I get the VR ‘SteamVR has encountered a critical error’ in both SP and MP, it just happens quick (sub 15 minutes) in the latter.

  • Crushed an eye of newt and revolved around three times, finishing facing East.

I don’t really want to reinstall Windows completely, but I guess I could. It’s a DCS bug for sure, but if not everyone gets it then it could be anything. I think it might be wiser to just wait for 2.7 next week (?) and then see then.

So you are only making it about 10 minutes per session and then the crash? We have fairly similar systems (i9/2080ti/32GB). I’m going to hop on now and see…last night I had no issues and was running Syria. I might do the Frog server again (it is pretty low key…just enough stuff going on but without the pressure of having to actually accomplish anything…LOL…)

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