[IDENTIFIED - UNITY BUG] BATTLETECH - System crash during missile impacts [Linux]

[Supay]

One line summary of your issue
System crash during missile impacts

What platform are you running the game on?
Steam

What operating system do you use?
Linux - Arch

Which version of the game are you running?
1.9.1-686R

What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, Shadowhawk Pack, Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
I have been experiencing complete system crashes during missions. This only happens during missions, never during startup or while in the game menus or other screens. The whole system will reboot with an instant black screen, no audio or hangs, just an instant reboot.

I wondered if this was a memory or overheating issue or something similar. I have run the game repeatedly and cannot see any overheating issues, and my memory tested as fine. I have however noticed one common factor. This always happens when missiles impact in the game. I hear an NPC fire missiles and as they strike, the explosion audio starts and the whole system crashes with an immediate reboot. This does not happen on every missile fire, but I have realised it only happens during missile fire.

There are no DumpBox files for this, I assume due to the immediate and total system crash.

I have been playing a RogueTech modded game lately so not sure my current save helps. I can try and reinstall again to a clean setup and get one from that if needed.

I have this issue both in vanilla and modded with RogueTech. I have also tried completing wiping and reinstalling with a clean install, both vanilla and modded. As this only happens when missile fire strikes, I wondered if this is related to an audio or texture file, but I really don't know. If there is a tool I can run during this, or if I can try and take a video of it in action I can do that.

Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Play the game. Missiles fire, and crash occurs during impact.

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

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
File(s) attached

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
File(s) attached

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#/
File(s) attached

Attach screenshot / video
File(s) attached

 

[AndrewT]

The only possibly significant error I see in there is:

0:23(1): error: syntax error, unexpected '[', expecting end of file

Note: Creation of internal variant of shader 'Terrain/BT-TerrainTesselation' failed.

Lots of those. They read like a corrupted game installation in fact. I don't have a clean installation process for Linux, but that's why I'd recommend at this point - the Steam/SteamApps/common folder, the .steam/steam/userdata/*steamuserID*/637090/ folder, and the ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/ folder to be deleted or cleaned out, then install again. Obviously copy your valued save games from .steam/steam/userdata/*steamuserID*/637090/remote/C0/SGS1/ to somewhere else first.

Then see if you can duplicate the problem in an unmodded campaign or career. Good luck!

 

[Supay]

The only possibly significant error I see in there is:

Lots of those. They read like a corrupted game installation in fact. I don't have a clean installation process for Linux, but that's why I'd recommend at this point - the Steam/SteamApps/common folder, the .steam/steam/userdata/*steamuserID*/637090/ folder, and the ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/ folder to be deleted or cleaned out, then install again. Obviously copy your valued save games from .steam/steam/userdata/*steamuserID*/637090/remote/C0/SGS1/ to somewhere else first.

Then see if you can duplicate the problem in an unmodded campaign or career. Good luck!

Thanks Andrew. I tried this and had the same issue in unmodded career still. I see all those errors about shaders in my player.log. Checking online I see this is a common issue across all platforms and appears to be related to Unity. It also explains why it is all Unity games giving me grief. Battletech, 7 Days to Die, and Valheim all show me these problems. Many, many reports online of shader issues in many different Unity games relating in game or total system crashes. I assume this is something beyond yourselves as must be Unity engine related, but seeing how long this has gone on for and how many people report such issues going back years, I doubt my report is going to change anything even if I report it to Unity directly. I think I will just avoid purchasing Unity engine games from now on as I cannot guarantee their stability. Battletech is amazing, but too frustrating to play due to this.

EDIT: Found more where it may actually be something breaking between Unity and AMD drivers. So again assume totally out of your hands and reliant on Unity/AMD working whatever it is out between them.

 

[AndrewT]

. I see all those errors about shaders in my player.log.

That is normal on Mac and Linux, as Unity looks for DirectX and (unsurprisingly) doesn't find it, so uses openGL instead.

But are you still getting those syntax errors? they are not normal at all IMO.

 

[Supay]

That is normal on Mac and Linux, as Unity looks for DirectX and (unsurprisingly) doesn't find it, so uses openGL instead.

But are you still getting those syntax errors? they are not normal at all IMO.

I am still getting the syntax errors. I did a clean install again and grabbed the player.log from the first startup to get it as fresh as I could. No mods or changes made to the default install by me.

 

[Supay]

I did another clean install and I still get those syntax errors in the log but the crashes have stopped as mysteriously as they started. I have no idea why. I definitely fully wiped all those areas you advised, including checking for hidden files, but for some reason this time it seems happy. It continues to be purely Unity games I have these issues with though and the symptoms are identical for all of them i.e. sudden and total system crash to black screen and instant reboot with no warning or sign of system stress. 7 Days to Die and Valheim were the other two confirmed for this, but haven't played either since Battletech stopped crashing so will need to check them too and see if anything has changed there.

 

[AndrewT]

I see. I do not know what could be going on with your machine or OS installation to cause this. It smells like a hardware fault to me but why only Unity games is a mystery.

 

[Supay]

Sadly the crash has returned. Maybe I wasn't encountering the triggering texture or shader till then. It remains only Unity games as I have played hours of Stellaris and other Paradox games, as well as indie titles and others not using Unity and had no issues whatsoever. I think it is still likely something wrong with Unity and AMD somewhere but I can't work it out.

 

[Supay]

I just played Silicon Dreams, a graphically simple visual novel type game just released. However, also built in Unity, and it crashed really early into it as I opened up a tablet in the game to read it. So don't worry about my report any further, it is definitely something Unity related and I will have to hope it gets resolved.

 

[AndrewT]

Just so you know, there will almost certainly be no more patches for this game, so no update to the underlying Unity version in it.

In your position I think I'd be considering a clean reinstall of Linux itself, but I know that's a lot to contemplate to get a game going!

 

[Supay]

Just so you know, there will almost certainly be no more patches for this game, so no update to the underlying Unity version in it.

In your position I think I'd be considering a clean reinstall of Linux itself, but I know that's a lot to contemplate to get a game going!

I am pretty sure it is an issue somewhere in the mesa driversand for all I know it could also only relate to my specific chip as it is a Ryzen integrated GPU. It only came up recently after they moved up a major version, and I see a bunch of bug fixes due in 21.0.3 with some related to crash events. I can reinstall my system easily enough. I run Arch with i3wm and it doesn't take long with a few scripts to set it all back up and grab my dotfiles. Will wait to see what the mesa update does though.

 

[Supay]

Well, mesa 21.0.3 released and now it crashes on mission load, even before I can get in. So I am going to conclude that this is a mesa bug with the unity engine specifically affected for some reason and being made worse with every package release That will teach me to use a rolling release!

 

[Supay]

Andrew, out of interest I get a lot of failed Mono references in my logs. As below.

Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.dll
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.dll.so
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/user32.dll
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.so
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/user32
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.dll
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.dll.so
Fallback handler could not load library /home/james/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Mono/libuser32.dll


Checking my Battletech_Data directory there is no directory named Mono, only MonoBleedingEdge. As I understand it, Unity packages its own Mono libraries within the application so it would be using whatever BattleTech has installed itself rather than my system packages. I see these errors all throughout my BattleTech logs where it cannot load portions of these libraries. But surely this is something BattleTech is responsible for rather than my own system packages?

 

[AndrewT]

Those are normal, we see them with every log on every OS. They are a red herring I'm afraid!

 

[Supay]

Thanks AndrewT, I appreciate your help on this. I have identified a possible cause, however vague still. It seems to be when certain graphical settings are on and I can replicate it across all my Unity games. If I have settings up and switched on including bloom, AA, shaders etc then they all crash like clockwork, either on loading in or always within about 20 minutes of playing. I shunted all my graphics down and switched toggle extras off. And the crashes have vanished across all my Unity games. I still do not see them in any other game engines, even with settings pushed up high and with the various graphical features switched on that are now turned off in my Unity games. And I can still push my system harder with more RAM used and higher temps than I see in the Unity games. I can only assume that something in the Unity engine is making a graphical call that my system really does not like and results in an instant crash. I have checked logs but cannot see any entry to show what this is. I will try to tinker a bit and see if I can at least identify which option it is that causes this and replicate it across my Unity games, so that I can report that back to Unity themselves. I thought it may help if you start getting other similar reports from AMD GPU users as they get newer mesa updates.

 

[AndrewT]

Thanks for doing all that work! Unfortunately this game will have no more updates, most likely, so any new Unity fixes will not help you here.

I have seen claims elsewhere that Unity is more demanding on graphics than other game engines, and your findings seem to bear that out.

I don't see any other fix for you here than what you have already done, reducing the video settings. Sorry about that!

 

[Supay]

Well, it is probably the mesa end as they have pushed out a lot of updates lately. Though still odd it is only Unity games affected. Unless previous mesa versions had something that accounted for a certain Unity call that is now removed/changed. I will report to them both once I have worked out the affected setting. Just glad to play Battletech again!