Illumination flares--game crashes

[Javolenus]

I just generated a "Meeting--Engagement" scenario & added artillery guns afterwards in the XML file for both sides (player & AI). I then created a fire mission for illumination of given area. The fire mission began, and several rounds were fired, but then the game immediately crashed. I checked the error log but nothing is there.
***
Replayed the scenario but did not create illumination fire mission. Instead I created several smoke missions. Everything worked fine--no problems. Interestingly, the AI created an illumination fire mission (again, worked fine--no crash), and--even more interestingly--this illumination apparently caused my AA units to "see" the AI's helicopter and fire at it (first time I seen my AA units fire!). Cool!

[BeirutDude]

I have experienced the same with Illumination rounds. Seems like when multiple illumination rounds are in use. Also noted when you restart it plays well with multiple rounds, only the initial use of multiple rounds seems to crash the game.

[Javolenus]

Ah--OK. Sounds like that's the problem. Thanks for letting me know.

[Veitikka]

The illumination round crash can be a video card driver issue. If not, we should find out the exact steps to replicate the crash so I can fix it.

[Javolenus]

Thanks for this. Here is my DxDiag.txt if it helps...?

[BeirutDude]

Well in my case it was multiple Illumination rounds fired from onboard mortar/SPA units simultaneously. OBA units didn't seem to have a problem. Like I said, I had one crash early in the scenario and then I could launch illumination rounds until I used them up with no problems after that.

[zacklaws]

I did come across this in Alpha or Beta testing and raised the issue but I cannot find the thread to see what was causing the issue or what the resolve was. I do recall a large amount of Illum rounds burning at the same time caused it, maybe 26 comes to mind. But I think I narrowed it down to two sections firing illum and just a few rounds, but it would not always happen and I could not see anything repetitive that I could repeat that would cause it. I was not even sure if it was illum rounds being fired or in flight that was the issue and not just them burning or maybe a combination of all. Maybe it was background activities running at the same time and at the wrong time caused my PC to run out of memory or as mentioned the graphics card.

But since then, I have never seen the issue raise its head again.

[BeirutDude]

So just tried it out and firing 16 Illumination Rounds OBA (NATO - UK) locked it up. Restarted the game and so far no problems (fired the 16 rounds on the restart).

[nikolas93TS]

You were using FV432 mortar carrier then?

The issue with this problem is that we cannot replicate it on our computers which as mentioned above might imply it is connected to driver.

[zacklaws]

I have just tried replicating it with no success. Only with FV432 Mortar Carrier. Nine sections and various combinations of different things, but nothing.

But what I did find was something that I have noticed before. I can only get the illumination effects for so many illum rounds burning on the map. I took some screenshots of 3 sections of mortars firing each section having its own mission, only the effects of one section showed up. The only way that I could see that the other two sections had fired was by zooming out and seeing the "Burn Rings". Each section fired 10 rounds, so at a guess, only the effects of 10 rounds was being displayed and the effects of 20 rounds was not.

Is it possible that if the game attempts to display more effects of illum rounds burning somehow, it crashes?

I was a bit rushed so I had no time to replicate it with clearer screenshots, but I also have a feeling that the more Illum rounds burning on the map, the less brighter they are displayed until they do not show up at all apart for the rings. 90 rounds burning, did not display at all apart for the rings.

[zacklaws]

Zoomed out.

[Veitikka]

It makes a big difference if the game crashes when the shell is fired, or when it's midair, or when the shell bursts. That should be noted.

Currently the game renders illumination shells as less bright when they are close to each other. I think it was zacklaws who initially proposed this. It's very exceptional that you have a dozen or more illumination shells on the map simultaneously.

[zacklaws]

ORIGINAL: Veitikka
It's very exceptional that you have a dozen or more illumination shells on the map simultaneously.

There was only that many Illum rounds burning simultaneously as I was trying to track down the source of what may be causing the crash.

Being a "Mortar Man", usually, one round should be just bursting, one half way through its burn time and one about to burn out. Based on a 40 sec burn time, that should be about 3 rounds a minute. But, that is in good conditions, if there is a strong wind, then the rate would be higher.

Also there would be more rounds burning if an area illum is in effect, So a platoon of 4 sections could have 24 rounds burning minimum simultaneously to illuminate a large area in good conditions, a lot more in bad conditions.

Currently the game renders illumination shells as less bright when they are close to each other.

It is not the fact that they should be "less bright" but when illum rounds where close together before the effects where modified, that they would create a "Sun" like glowing yellow ball over the tgt area and no map detail or anything could be seen. Realistically, they should not be less bright, but just slightly brighter. It was the accumulative effects of multiple Illum rounds creating a "Sun" on the map that I meant should be "Less Bright".

[BeirutDude]

So it could be my laptop as it is kind of stretching things WRT this game. Attached is the scenario were the illumination rounds are locking up the game. Like I said earlier, in this one OBA locked it up, but in another, similar, scenario it was Russian SP Mortars that were doing it.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: zacklaws

Currently the game renders illumination shells as less bright when they are close to each other.

It is not the fact that they should be "less bright" but when illum rounds where close together before the effects where modified, that they would create a "Sun" like glowing yellow ball over the tgt area and no map detail or anything could be seen. Realistically, they should not be less bright, but just slightly brighter. It was the accumulative effects of multiple Illum rounds creating a "Sun" on the map that I meant should be "Less Bright".

Only the cosmetic effect of a flare is less bright, so together they don't create a "Sun". They still illuminate the target effectively.

[nikolas93TS]

It seems we succeed to replicate this bug in one of the new scenarios. It seems there was an unitiated variable for flare rotation which probably would enter into loop and freezed/crashed the game.

Being unprectictable and rare occurance, we are not yet 100% if it is the real reason behind this issue but we will see if it happens again after the next patch.