PREVIEW: Effects ddraw 2.0 with enhanced GPU support

[blue_max]

Hi bluemax

Hello!

I will try to get some crashdumps with actual installation (i´m afraid of, it´s not difficult) and post the links here Is it ok, if i rename the dumps like "crash_01.dmp ... crash_02_dmp ... ?

Yes, this is OK.

I think maybe your hooks need to be updated (?) Try moving your hooks to a different directory and then download the latest versions using Jeremy's hook downloader (see the Downloads section).
This i have already done - also before reinstalling and trying. The actual hooks are saved and will be restored after every reinstallation of XWAU - otherwise my hotas is not working

Well, then maybe you need to use older hooks. I guess you already did this: but did you try with the original hooks that come with XWAU Update 5? The reason I keep insisting on the hooks is that the address for the crash (from your previous dump) seems to be outside the XWA binary. So either the crash dump itself was corrupted, or it's happening in one of the hooks (or I could be wrong, of course, maybe looking at other dumps will shed more light here).

Ah - ok. I´m not using VR - just a sinlge monitor. Yes i have one Win10 pc here and can check this.

Yes, please try again in Win 10. I already know there are some subtle differences between OSes. So maybe switching to Win 10 will let you play.

Many thanks for your support and your endurance !

Thanks for your patience while we work these issues out!

[blue_max]

Disabling MSAA also gets rid of the issue. This means that the white outlines only occur when SSDO and MSAA are enabled.

Thanks! I'll try this to see what's going on. BTW, you can also try FXAA instead of MSAA. It's faster too, so it's better for VR. You can enable FXAA in DDraw.cfg (I think) or you can press Ctrl+Alt+F while flying

[blue_max]

I have the same problem as syncopic.
The last version that worked for me was ddraw.dll 3-3-2022

Thanks for the additional information. What OS are you running on?

[marcelo999]

Windows 7 64 sp1

[blue_max]

Windows 7 64 sp1

Any chance you could try Win 10? Like I said before: we're aware there are some differences between these OSes when it comes to shaders and effects and I don't have easy access to a Win 7 PC to fix these issues. If this is not a good option for you, then I can suggest you try a different shading setting. For instance, if you're running SSDO or SSAO, try the Deferred shading option (you can select this setting using Babu Frik)

[syncopic]

Interesting ... we both are using Windows 7 SP1.

After i got a crash again (non speedup version) with windows reported "dsound.dll-crash", i´m frustrated enough for today.
Tomorrow i will check following:

1. Reinstall again "non speedup version" without newest hooks (except the joystick hook for my hotas). I want to have a "stable" version without speedup, before i try to speed up - logical step by step

2. Try installing on my Win10 PC - it´s cpu is not as fast as the "game-pc", but also 4 core cpu ... before i have to change the graphic card to a better one and do maybe a little oc on the cpu ... ... we will see.

I will report / save dumps as we said.

For now ... good night rebels !

[blue_max]

Disabling MSAA also gets rid of the issue. This means that the white outlines only occur when SSDO and MSAA are enabled.

I see the problem on my end, but unfortunately I don't have a good answer or fix at the moment. All I can suggest is that you disable MSAA and enable FXAA instead (set EnableFXAA = 1 in DDraw.cfg). Or you can keep MSAA and switch to the Deferred shading mode. I'll keep looking for a fix, though.

[LinusWP]

Thank you, I just switched to FXAA. There does not seem to be a noticeable visual difference, so it's perfectly fine. I used to have Deferred shading, but the additional performance headroom from your latest technical wizardry allowed me to switch to SSAO/SSDO, which does look noticeably better.

[Gutersnipe]

hey @blue_max

I think I have been able to reproduce the FPS drop issue in a consistent way (I tested in Non VR). In the Prologue - Mission 3 where you have to examine all the containers. I am averaging 200FPS but when I got to Cargo Area 2, it drops right away to 40 fps and the frame time and cpu usage spike. This happens as long as the single ship trying to steal the container is there. Once it is destroyed, we are back up to 200fps.

I am not sure why a single ship is causing so much problems for the CPU and rendering.
Cheers

[blue_max]

I think I have been able to reproduce the FPS drop issue in a consistent way (I tested in Non VR).

Hey, thanks for reporting this. It would also help if you could post a film file of this section so that we can replay it inside XWA to see the problem. I think this might be a problem with the hook system, so maybe @JeremyaFr might be able to get more information out of this. I'll also try this on my end. Do you know if this happens when a specific ship or container is within view?

[syncopic]

Just a short report.

Installed on Win10 the XWAU 2020 with Megapatch 5 and only newest Hook_Joystick_ff.dll seems to work without crashes - but i only could try two missions, because unfortunately the graphic card in this pc has given up ... i ordered a replacement card and will report when i will have installed the new card (maybe 2/3 days).

Now i will reinstall the "non speedup version" of XWAU / Megapatch 5 on the Win7 PC with delievered hooks (only with newest Hook_Joystick_ff.dll) and check - i´ll give report

May the force be with - especially - the friendly people here !

[Gutersnipe]

Hey @blue_max

Here is a private YouTube link to the fps dip happening. I have Fraps running in the top left corner: https://file.io/ERJQ1h6m9Gjl see from 2min onwards

As it is a prologue mission, there is just 1 enemy ship trying to grab one container and this is where is happens and it has be reproducible 100% of the time. Hopefully it helps narrow something down

P.S. Let only Blue Max download please as it is a single use download

[blue_max]

Installed on Win10 the XWAU 2020 with Megapatch 5 and only newest Hook_Joystick_ff.dll seems to work without crashes - but i only could try two missions, because unfortunately the graphic card in this pc has given up ... i ordered a replacement card and will report when i will have installed the new card (maybe 2/3 days).

I'm sorry you're going through this trouble. Hopefully this will allow us to narrow down what's the problem here. Thanks for your continued patience and support.

[blue_max]

Here is a private YouTube link to the fps dip happening. I have Fraps running in the top left corner: https://file.io/ERJQ1h6m9Gjl see from 2min onwards

I got the file thank you. Yes, I can see that as soon as you hyper into the second region, the FPS drops dramatically. There doesn't seem to be a good explanation for that either. I mean, I would understand it if maybe there were lots of ships, or lots of things going on, but this is not the case. Maybe it has to do with the ship itself docking into the container (?) Anyway, I'll investigate this issue. Thanks for reporting it!

[syncopic]

Hi bluemax
what should i say ... it was an old AMD HD 6870 (the "heat-repair" fails) - so i ordered a "brand new" HD 7850 just 45,- Euros with guarentee for testing ok.

ok ... and here are the votes of the german jury ... - on Windows 7 Pro 64bit pc

XWAU + Megapatch 5 + only newest Hook_Joystick.dll seems to work within game (also with music so long) - only on returning to windows = crash (see dump-file 01)

XWAU + Megapatch 5 + only newest Hook_Joystick.dll + newest DDraw.dll works only without music in game, BUT back in hangar - go to debriefing = crash in Hook_Normals.dll (see dump-files 2/3 with an "s") - it doesn´t matter which mission. Then i tried:

XWAU + Megapatch 5 + only newest Hook_Joystick.dll + older DDraw.dll (from first thread) - the same ... go to debriefing / back to mission selection = crash in Hook_Normals.dll (see dump-files 4/5 with "so").

It seems that going from 3D speedup to "no" 3D speedup the game is crashing (i think, the debriefing is without speedup ? ).


And here are the dumps:
http://www.syncopic.de/download/crash_01.dmp
http://www.syncopic.de/download/crash_02s.dmp
http://www.syncopic.de/download/crash_03s.dmp
http://www.syncopic.de/download/crash_04so.dmp
http://www.syncopic.de/download/crash_05so.dmp

Hope this will help to figure out, what´s going on while crashing. Thanks a lot !

[marcelo999]

The error is not from hook_normals.dll, that is a common error but it is not the one causing the crash.
The cause of the ctd is the first error that appears, which in my case is StackHash_3ac7.

[blue_max]

Hi bluemax

Thanks for all the details and crash dumps. I'll take a look, but there's one thing I need to ask, just to check. The hook system will load any file that has a name like "hook*.dll" (and probably other files with names that end in *.dll?). I notice that you frequently say that you disable the joystick hook. By that, I hope you're renaming the extension to something other than ".dll", is that correct?

If you have multiple versions of the same hook but they all end in ".dll", that's very likely to cause random crashes.

[syncopic]

Hi bluemax

Thanks for all the details and crash dumps. I'll take a look, but there's one thing I need to ask, just to check. The hook system will load any file that has a name like "hook*.dll" (and probably other files with names that end in *.dll?). I notice that you frequently say that you disable the joystick hook. By that, I hope you're renaming the extension to something other than ".dll", is that correct?

If you have multiple versions of the same hook but they all end in ".dll", that's very likely to cause random crashes.

This is correct. I "deactived" the Hook_Pilot.dll by renaming it to "ALT_Hook_Pilot_dll.ALT" , so i never had "double dlls".
But this time all original hooks from Megapatch 5 are "enabled" and the newest Hook_Joystick_ff.dll to get my HOTAS working.

[syncopic]

The error is not from hook_normals.dll, that is a common error but it is not the one causing the crash.
The cause of the ctd is the first error that appears, which in my case is StackHash_3ac7.

Yes - the "StackHash_3ac7" i recognized often when game is crashing. But the sequence of the crash errors is not really verified.

[blue_max]

The error is not from hook_normals.dll, that is a common error but it is not the one causing the crash.
The cause of the ctd is the first error that appears, which in my case is StackHash_3ac7.

Yes - the "StackHash_3ac7" i recognized often when game is crashing. But the sequence of the crash errors is not really verified.

I don't know how you guys found the StackHash error, but here's a couple of suggestions for you @marcelo999 and @syncopic:

1. The web says that StackHash* errors happen because of Data Execution Prevention (DEP). DEP is known to cause problems with XWA because the hooks do that precisely. So I suggest that you disable DEP for XWA and try again.

See this: https://www.lifewire.com/exclude-progra ... ata-153349

2. hook_normals.dll is actually not needed for ddraw-2.0. You can disable it by renaming it to hook_normals.dl_ or just move it outside the XWA root directory. Please do that and try again.

I checked all the crash dumps, but I couldn't get any useful information out of them :S

[syncopic]

The error is not from hook_normals.dll, that is a common error but it is not the one causing the crash.
The cause of the ctd is the first error that appears, which in my case is StackHash_3ac7.

Yes - the "StackHash_3ac7" i recognized often when game is crashing. But the sequence of the crash errors is not really verified.

I don't know how you guys found the StackHash error, but here's a couple of suggestions for you @marcelo999 and @syncopic:

1. The web says that StackHash* errors happen because of Data Execution Prevention (DEP). DEP is known to cause problems with XWA because the hooks do that precisely. So I suggest that you disable DEP for XWA and try again.

See this: https://www.lifewire.com/exclude-progra ... ata-153349

2. hook_normals.dll is actually not needed for ddraw-2.0. You can disable it by renaming it to hook_normals.dl_ or just move it outside the XWA root directory. Please do that and try again.

I checked all the crash dumps, but I couldn't get any useful information out of them :S

Hi bluemax,

the DEP already was set to "only Windows files" (as mentioned in your link), so this - likely - is not the cause.
I also deactivated the Windows Defender (there is no other virusscan or firewall on this pc) and "disabled" the Hook_Normals.dll, but no change - after mission in hangar, click "go to debriefing" = crash (see below)

Problemereignisname: APPCRASH
Anwendungsname: XWingAlliance.exe
Anwendungsversion: 2.0.0.2
Anwendungszeitstempel: 3765a9b7
Fehlermodulname: StackHash_3ac7
Fehlermodulversion: 0.0.0.0
Fehlermodulzeitstempel: 00000000
Ausnahmecode: c0000005
Ausnahmeoffset: 1f590061
Betriebsystemversion: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Gebietsschema-ID: 1031
Zusatzinformation 1: 3ac7
Zusatzinformation 2: 3ac7b95e5273afc4a91adb0208cac5b3
Zusatzinformation 3: 2681
Zusatzinformation 4: 2681ab590962a9a1529662a5149ac0f2

And after crash in hangar with report above, this crash followed (i think caused on ending the game with crash):

Problemereignisname: APPCRASH
Anwendungsname: XWingAlliance.exe
Anwendungsversion: 2.0.0.2
Anwendungszeitstempel: 3765a9b7
Fehlermodulname: Hook_Opt_Limit.dll
Fehlermodulversion: 1.0.0.1
Fehlermodulzeitstempel: 6019a349
Ausnahmecode: c0000005
Ausnahmeoffset: 00023be1
Betriebsystemversion: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Gebietsschema-ID: 1031
Zusatzinformation 1: 1cae
Zusatzinformation 2: 1cae4467dd0241babd8790cf2a00cc15
Zusatzinformation 3: d6c2
Zusatzinformation 4: d6c2ea677d605c61f840e8e45baeb449

I also googled about this HashStack-thing, but found nothing really helpful - it seems to be "possible for anything"
Maybe we could get closer, if i understand what is going on (technical) in game, when - after a mission - you press "go to debriefing". For my understanding, the 3D speedup is "unloaded", right ? Is there a change from using DDraw.dll while switch to debriefing ? I think, it´s weird ... loading a mission, flying a mission, all is working, but with going back from "3D" to "2D" game is crashing all the time. Without the DDraw-speedup there is no crash in game when you go to debriefing.

Therefore i think, it depends on "unloading" or "unusing" the 3D-speedup. Maybe i´m totally wrong, i´m no expert in programming

By the way - i tried to set game exe to "execute as admin" and also "compatible with WinXP", but no change at all.
The new graphic card for the Win10 pc will be here at saturday (hopefully), then i can check on Win10 what´s going on there.

[blue_max]

I also googled about this HashStack-thing, but found nothing really helpful - it seems to be "possible for anything"
Maybe we could get closer, if i understand what is going on (technical) in game, when - after a mission - you press "go to debriefing". For my understanding, the 3D speedup is "unloaded", right ? Is there a change from using DDraw.dll while switch to debriefing ? I think, it´s weird ... loading a mission, flying a mission, all is working, but with going back from "3D" to "2D" game is crashing all the time. Without the DDraw-speedup there is no crash in game when you go to debriefing.

I don't think any hooks are unloaded while the game is running. The d3d_hook will still be there, but it won't be used when you go from 3D to 2D. When you land in the hangar and go to the debriefing I think some graphics resources are released and the voice over is activated (?) So it could also be one of those things (a bug in resource management, or a bug in the sound system). I'll keep trying to see if I can get a repro. What video card are you using and how much video RAM does it have?

[syncopic]

I also googled about this HashStack-thing, but found nothing really helpful - it seems to be "possible for anything"
Maybe we could get closer, if i understand what is going on (technical) in game, when - after a mission - you press "go to debriefing". For my understanding, the 3D speedup is "unloaded", right ? Is there a change from using DDraw.dll while switch to debriefing ? I think, it´s weird ... loading a mission, flying a mission, all is working, but with going back from "3D" to "2D" game is crashing all the time. Without the DDraw-speedup there is no crash in game when you go to debriefing.

I don't think any hooks are unloaded while the game is running. The d3d_hook will still be there, but it won't be used when you go from 3D to 2D. When you land in the hangar and go to the debriefing I think some graphics resources are released and the voice over is activated (?) So it could also be one of those things (a bug in resource management, or a bug in the sound system). I'll keep trying to see if I can get a repro. What video card are you using and how much video RAM does it have?

I´m using an AMD R9 270 with 2GB VRAM (and before it was an AMD HD 6870 / 1GB) and within the driver i made absolutely no settings for XWA. The game is also not recognized by AMD Radeon Software. In game i can activate FXAA without any low-fps issues, also with a lot of ships in mission. And my monitor is set to 60Hz (i read about problems with higher values in another thread). Interesting is that without ddraw-speedup the game is working and with speedup in hangar crashes everytime. It doesn´t matter if i fly or not - staying in hangar and want to go back / or debriefing alliance.exe chrashes.

I´m so sorry for that, but it would be great to get the speedup working - no matter with that crashing on leaving to windows, that doesn´t hurt me

[blue_max]

I´m using an AMD R9 270 with 2GB VRAM (and before it was an AMD HD 6870 / 1GB) and within the driver i made absolutely no settings for XWA.

What resolution are you trying to run the game on? I'd suggest 1920x1080 for now (higher resolution needs more memory).

... hangar crashes everytime. It doesn´t matter if i fly or not - staying in hangar and want to go back / or debriefing alliance.exe chrashes.

OK, so the fastest way to reproduce this problem is to select any mission, jump to the hangar, and then just select "Go to Debriefing"? That's it?

Can you remind me again which hooks you've disabled?

[Forceflow]

Hi bluemax,

the DEP already was set to "only Windows files" (as mentioned in your link), so this - likely - is not the cause.
I also deactivated the Windows Defender (there is no other virusscan or firewall on this pc) and "disabled" the Hook_Normals.dll, but no change - after mission in hangar, click "go to debriefing" = crash (see below)

If by this you mean it's set to the first option then this is not working how it sounds. For some reason this will still trigger the DEP protection even if it's not a windows program. At least this is what we have found in other cases.

c0000005 is a strong indicator of it being a DEP issue, to make sure that this is not the case please do this:

go to Windows Security -> App & Browser Control -> Exploit Protection Settings -> Program settings then click "Add program to customize", click "Choose exact file path" and add the path to the XwingAlliance.exe program. Which for me, is D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars X-Wing Alliance\XWingAlliance.exe. Then you override "Data Execution Prevention (DEP)" and set it to "off".