[NO REPRO] CMO freezes, crashes, or displays a red X on map display

[SDRobot]

I'm having issues with stability with this game. I've had the giant red X appear where the map should be a few times. I'm also experiencing frequent freezing issues where my entire PC will slow down to a crawl for 5 seconds or so. Usually, the game will recover but sometimes it will crash to desktop. I'm running Windows 7 and not using TacView. I've tried shutting down other programs running in the background, running in windowed mode as well as full screen, and shutting down sound and music. I've also tried different compatibility settings for the .exe but it still runs quite poorly. My PC exceeds the recommended specs and I'm able to run CMANO without issues.


I've only played the the flight school tutorials so far and have had freezing/crashing issues in every scenario. I thought it might be linked to ALT-TABbing out of the game so I switched to windowed mode at the suggestion of someone on another forum. I think that's helped lower the frequency of the red X but it hasn't helped with the freezing issue. I then thought it might be linked to the loading of sound files as it seemed to occur when planes were taking off but disabling sound didn't help either. I'm really not sure what's causing it but it's making the game unplayable because I cannot trust it not to crash at any given moment.

[kevinkins]

Hey SDRobot, welcome to the Community. The Developers are going to need a saved file from just before you encounter the problem and the computer system specifications you are running CMO with. CMO does not require a super computer. But an older computer might need updated video drivers etc.. We are all here to help.

Kevin

[Dimitris]

Hi,

1) If this is on Steam, can you make sure that Steam overlays are disabled for the game, and that using DirectWrite is disabled on the Steam client entirely?

2) Can you turn off any hardware vendor-provided "helper" apps like MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner etc. ?

3) Can you give this update a try and see if it improves stability: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4723214

Thanks.

[SDRobot]

Still seems to be crashing.

[tjhkkr]

The time it has happened to me appears to be when the game is trying to download terrain, and the internet messes up.

[SDRobot]

Still freezing and crashing on me.

[guanotwozero]

ORIGINAL: SDRobot

Still freezing and crashing on me.

What sort of PC do you have?

[SDRobot]

Windows 7 home premium 64 bit (updated regularly)
Intel i7-3930K 3.2 GHz
ASA P9X79 PRO mobo
16 GB RAM (2666)
Radeon RX 570 8GB w 19.9.2 drivers

[guanotwozero]

Well, it sure looks like a machine that should have enough oomph to run CMO; I can only speculate there might be a GPU issue.

[SDRobot]

Still experiencing the same issues.

[DWReese]

It happens to me too, and I'm not using any fancy maps, nor am I using TacView, nor anything else extra. I am using bare bones CMO so much that it looks like CMANO.

To me, the problem seems like it may have a database component. To that, I mean, that it is thinking about loading something, or thinking about getting something, and it just can't. So, it just sits there until it finally surrenders by waving the Big Red X.

The DLCs, and the Live scenarios, and the homemade scenarios were all created at different times with different databases. Most don't have an ini file. Even those that do, most of the game players don't always use them. So, the game likely runs into a situation where it can't do something. That's why it works well for some, but not for others.

The database option screen doesn't seem to be as transparent as to what should work and what doesn't. In many cases, the game won't even start at all if you update the scenario. So, this can drive you nuts by not knowing what database you should be using, etc. I really believe that this represents a large portion of the problem.

That being said, the programming could probably fax a few things that are patently obvious as well.

[BeirutDude]

Happens to me as well, with a brand new ASUS "Tuf Gaming" Laptop with 16 GB of RAM. IMHO, its the game and not the machines, and I just added a thread about it not saving when it goes "unstable" as well.

[Dimitris]

Haven't received a response, so posting these questions again:

1) If this is on Steam, can you make sure that Steam overlays are disabled for the game, and that using DirectWrite is disabled on the Steam client entirely?

2) Can you turn off any hardware vendor-provided "helper" apps like MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner etc. ?

3) Can you give this update a try and see if it improves stability: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4723214

[SDRobot]

I've tried steps 1 and 3 above. (As for step 2, I'm using AMD Radeon 19.12.2 drivers. I've got all the slider options set to OFF on the GAMING tab in the Radeon GUI. I don't know if there's anything else I need to turn off).

It's more stable with the update in step 3 but it still freezes from time to time. I haven't had a red X in a while but I haven't really played all that much recently due to time constraints and past issues with the game.

[SDRobot]

Any updates?

[Dimitris]

This is one of our top investigation priorities ATM, but it's impossible to give a timeframe. We may be able to solve it tomorrow, or it may (hopefully not) take years.

[Dimitris]

BTW, if you are still running Win7 you are now one of the easiest targets for malware authors. Let go and move to Win10.

[SDRobot]

Still having issues.

[Dimitris]

ORIGINAL: SDRobot
Still having issues.

Can you please elaborate? Which build are you running? What issues are you still having? Are the issues happening randomly or under a specific set of circumstances ?

[Dimitris]

Also, can you try this: Create a shortcut to [CMO]\Command.exe and put it on your desktop, and run Command directly from this shortcut (ie. don't use the Steam UI).

Before you try that, place the attached text file inside the CMO installation folder (Steam uses this).