Game freezing but not crashing or sending report

[kaeroku]

About once every 60-180 minutes of gameplay I get a screen like this, usually when transferring between and informational screen (crew manifest, ship detail, etc) and a map or port screen. 

I'm unable to use any keys, the screen will not change, and it is unresponsive to clicking as well. I've tried letting it sit for 5-10m but nothing changes.

Since it does not generate a crash report it's probably something you guys aren't aware of. Since it's not possible to interact with the screen, I'm not sure how to provide more helpful information aside from a screenshot of the screen at the time of freeze and a description of the common situation around when it happens.

Thanks guys!

[kaeroku]

That image link may not be working; image can be seen here, for what its worth:


imgur.com/a/JvEyPK2

[fallen]

Sorry to hear you are getting this freeze. Can't think of anything that would cause it, first report of a freeze like that without a crash ... ever?

Is it always the same screen?

What operating system? Update graphics drivers?

[kaeroku]

(PC) Win 10 Home v10.0.19042

Not always the same screen, no. I'll look for other examples and screenshot when it is reproduced. This has happened at least a dozen times. If you look closely on the one posted before you can see the starport screen is superimposed over the crew screen (most obvious in the corners to me.) What is consistent about this freeze/crash is that it occurs when changing from one screen to another, and I've seen that same superimposed visual anomaly each time.

NVIDIA does say there is a driver update available, looks like I am currently one version behind. I will try that and report back if the issue resolves.

[kaeroku]

Update: drivers updated, crash still present on similar timeline (about 60-90m in game.)

No superimposed image this time, I had hit 'esc' while on the hold screen. (This shouldn't be relevant, because there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the era of the game, but: I was checking my cargo to see what planets I should be looking for to sell on my route back to Calagan Faen to pick up Valencia.)

This is the screen it froze on:

i.imgur.com/LVSosU6.png

[fallen]

Any info on the task manager activity?

Not sure what we'll be able to do, as you're the only user to ever report this issue in 3.5 years.

Hopefully its driver updates or windows update conflicts that will go away in a few update cycles.

[kaeroku]

What task manager info would you like? No unusual cpu or memory spikes or dips. I can provide a detailed data dump of system info if you give me a location to send it to, rather not post details on forums though. Does the game create a log file somewhere I can send? Do you want dxdiag or anything else?

Happened again a few minutes ago. I was selecting talents then exiting back to the planet/starport screen. Superimposition is clear in this one.


i.imgur.com/eBLRf09.png

[kaeroku]

Aug 16, 2021 20:24:58 GMT -5 fallen said:

Not sure what we'll be able to do, as you're the only user to ever report this issue in 3.5 years.

Adding:

I am not losing game progress. The game's autosave feature appears fairly robust and reload resolves the issue every time. I'm reporting mostly because I thought you'd like to know about a stability issue.

Honestly, had I not been active on the discord and forums already I probably wouldn't have reported it, as I wouldn't have a) known to come here nor b) thought it significant enough to worry about.

[fallen]

Glad to hear you are not losing progress.

As you've mentioned it is due to screen transitions, is there any pattern to the method which you are transitioning screens? Clicking middle mouse, ESC key, clicking UI button?

[kaeroku]

Aug 17, 2021 11:53:20 GMT -5 fallen said:

Glad to hear you are not losing progress.

As you've mentioned it is due to screen transitions, is there any pattern to the method which you are transitioning screens? Clicking middle mouse, ESC key, clicking UI button?

Seems to be primarily hitting ESC key to exit a screen/return to previous. I have been trying to pay attention to see if it is other hotkeys at other times, and I will update if I am able to gather further info. One thing though, it is *always* a hotkey immediately before the freeze. I navigate around the interface using hotkeys wherever it will allow me to.

[Cory Trese]

Aug 17, 2021 8:07:59 GMT -5 kaeroku said:

Aug 16, 2021 20:24:58 GMT -5 fallen said:

Not sure what we'll be able to do, as you're the only user to ever report this issue in 3.5 years.

Adding:

I am not losing game progress. The game's autosave feature appears fairly robust and reload resolves the issue every time. I'm reporting mostly because I thought you'd like to know about a stability issue.

Honestly, had I not been active on the discord and forums already I probably wouldn't have reported it, as I wouldn't have a) known to come here nor b) thought it significant enough to worry about.

Thankfully we have enough people playing the game on Windows that we hear about stability issues loud and clear via email.

Obviously, we still take every crash and unexpected shutdown event seriously. While it doesn't generate a crash report, the type of freeze you are describing would show up in our Steam analytics. I did some testing by manually freezing out the GPU thread and ensuring that the resulting non-close was correctly flagged, and it was. So I can say with reasonable confidence that the game is as stable now as it was last year.

It is possible something is changing with the NVIDIA device drivers or a new bug has snuck into the OS-driver-gamemode-GPU stack and we're tripping it in a new and novel way. We will keep an eye out for any other reports of freezing.

I've setup a half dozen different VM to run non-stop tests where the game is exercised via the keyboard until it crashes. So far they've been running a few days without stopping. I'll let them run until one crashes or I run out of AWS credits.