BATTLETECH - Random crashes in Battles

[amalric]

One line summary of your issue
Random crashes in Battles

What platform are you running the game on?

Steam

What operating system do you use?
Windows 10 Professional 64 bit
Which version of the game are you running?
1.90-680R
What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint,
Urban Warfare,
Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
Hello, I played Battletech without any issues on my Windows 7 system (64 bit profesional) with an MSI GTX 970 4G graphics card from release until January 2020.
At this time I changed to Windows 10 because of end of support for Windows 7. Also I decided to upgrade my graphic card to an ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2070S OC 8 GB card.

Since then the error occurred that the game crashes every few minutes when I play a battle. In the Argo sequences it never crashes at all.
I tried many things, Steam verifying game data, complete uninstall and reinstall, run as administrator, run compatibility mode for Windows 8 and Windows 7, several graphic settings down to minimum.
I did run several stress test with 3D Mark to ensure the new graphic card is not the problem.

I have many other games that are working perfectly well, only Battletech and Mass Effect Andromeda make problems since the changes to my system.

I hope you can help as I liked the game very much, but this way it is unplayable.
Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Just load game and play any battle for a few minutes.

Attach DxDiag (PC), System Info log (Mac), or run sudo lshw -html > specs.html and uploaded specs.html (Linux)

Attach Output Log
Windows: \Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\output_log.txt
Mac OS: Users >{name} > Library > Logs > Unity > Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/Player.log

If the game crashed, please attach the crash file with the time stamp closest to the crash.
Windows: [Steam library folder]\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\DumpBox
For v.17 and beyond try here: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
OSX: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps > common > BattleTech > DumpBox
Linux: [Steam library folder]/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/DumpBox

If a save game was loaded at the start of the game session, upload it. Please make sure to upload the save game with the timestamp closest to when you loaded it.
Windows:
Steam: [Steam installation folder]\userdata[SteamID]\637090\remote\C0\SGS1
GOG: 'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\50593543263669699\Storage\Shared\Files\C#\SGS#'
Vanilla:'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BattleTech\C#\SGS#'
OSX:
Steam: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > userdata > [SteamID] > 637090 > remote > C#> SGS#
GOG: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > GOG.com > Galaxy > Applications > 50593543263669699 > Storage > Shared > Files > C# > SGS#
Vanilla: Macintosh HD > Users > [username]> Library > Application Support > unity.Harebrained Schemes.BattleTech > C# > SGG#
Linux:
Steam: /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[steamID]/637090/remote/C#/SGS#
GOG: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
Vanilla: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/

Attach screenshot / video

 

[AndrewT]

There's no crash or other issue in that output log. Was it taken just after one of these crashes?

If not please trigger th eproblen again then send in a new output log from it, thanks.

 

[amalric]

Okay sorry I reproduced it, no problem as it occurs safely always after more or less time in combat (1 - 10 minutes).

I also added the other two files as hinted to in the output_log.txt.

I hope that enables you to find something.

Thank you.

 

[AndrewT]

This should not be in the crash stack:

C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender Security\atcuf\264491114759673238\atcuf64.dll

Make sure BattleTech.exe is in the BitDefender exceptions list, AND in the separate Safe Files list.

The crash happens just after a save game operation so I think that is likely to help.

You should also expand your Windows paging file:

8575 MB process peak paging file [8171 MB used].
5185 MB process peak working set [5020 MB used].

Make it at least 32gb.

 

[amalric]

Okay thank you.

I put the whole Battletech directory in the Safe Files List and Battletech.exe is in the exceptions list.

Also I changed the pagefile size to 32 gb but in my opinion the maximum was 30000 also before but managed by the system not manually.

You can give a minimum and maximum size for pagefile.sys if you do it manually.
The system tells me minimum size should be 4.9 gb so I set this as minimum and 32 gb as maximum.

Is this correct?

Have no time for intensive testing today (late here already), but will report if the problem is solved.

 

[amalric]

Okay it seems the last changes helped a lot.

I could play in a battle for more than an hour with several saves, before it crashed again.
If it stays that way it is at least playable.

I attached all the files from the crash and the last save game.
Hope you can find something additional to perhaps eliminate the crashes totally.

Oh the version got patched today to 1.91-686R

 

[AndrewT]

BitDefender is still in the crash stack, you may need to contact them on how to 100% let BattleTech.exe through.

Are you confident you successfully increased the paging file to 32gb max?

 

[amalric]

I manually changed it with the command sysdm.cpl, see attached picture.
Is this correct?

Regarding Bitdefender it seems strange that this should cause the problem now.
I had Bitdefender all the time too while I was running Battletech under Windows 7 without a single crash ever.

Do you have reports from user players that Bitdefender makes problems?

 

[AndrewT]

BitDefender is the most common cause of the hang during game load while scanning for saved games in this game. But I'm not aware of it being a contributor to crashes, no.

However the fact it is listed in the game's crash stack means it has its hooks into the game in some way, I just wanted to eliminate that as a possibility (as I don't really have any other ideas!).

 

[amalric]

Okay thank you.

If crashes again occur more often I will try a game with Bitdefender totally deactivated.

Is the virtual memory configuration correct as shown in the picture?

Or should I raise the minimum amount to 32 gb too?

 

[amalric]

So I could play more than 2 hours including two missions without crash.
But then at the beginning of the third mission another crash occurred during battle.

I disabled Bitdefender while playing, so I hope this time it will not be the culprit.
At least I did not find an entry about Bitdefender when searching in the output _log for it.

 

[AndrewT]

I think your VM setup is fine now. Interesting that appeared to help in some degree, but not fully.

You are right, there's no sign of anything outside the game in that one. I'm no programmer but I don't think the Unity errors leading up to the crash are significant, we've seen those for several game versions so i think they are cosmetic.

@HBS_SpaceCollie are you okay to check into that .dmp file? Do we need anything else to diagnose this?