Condor 2 stops responding shortly after entering simulation

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losnively
Posts: 37
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: Castle Rock, CO

Condor 2 stops responding shortly after entering simulation

Post by losnively » Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:13 pm

Hi, Folks. I've been flying Condor (1 and 2) for a long time and have run into a problem that's preventing me from doing so on a consistent basis. I don't know what has changed that's caused the problem, but it now is happening about 50% or more of the times when I try to fly a task. The problem presents more frequently in on-line tasks, but I've had it happen with off-line flights as well, but probably less than 25% of the time.

System: Windows 10 running on an iMac under Bootcamp and OS X Catalina (10.15.6). The Mac hardware is adequate for Condor performance, but not top-of-the-line. Windows and Condor are run from an external flash drive that has about 200 GB of free space. I've run Condor 1 and 2 (now 2.1.3) on Macs for almost 10 years under Bootcamp with various versions of Mac OS, and under both Windows XP and 10. This problem became acute sometime after the start of 2020. In looking back through the error log, this failure did occur earlier than that, but not often enough to be a problem. I didn't notice that it started after either OS or Condor 2 was updated, though all 3 have had updates since that time. The failures could have been associated with an update, but it wasn't obvious.

This problem would be easier to diagnose if it were repeatable and reproducible. Unfortunately it is an intermittent problem, and the symptoms are not fully consistent for each occurrence, including that sometimes I can start and fly a task without a problem. Here's a description of the behavior:

After "Start Flight", Condor goes through its startup with the scenery's splash screen, as normal. It then enters the simulation. The problem occurs somewhere between 5 and 60 seconds after the simulation starts -- Condor or Windows freezes. In other words, I enter the flight, all appears normal, NMEA output has begun, controls operate, there's a connection with the server, and so on. Then, the screen goes black. The first time this happens, the program usually runs for another 10 to 20 seconds (with the screen black) before Windows apparently goes to sleep. (I use an external PDA and can see the flight continue during that time.) After about 20 to 30 seconds, the screen will become active again and I can usually reenter Windows from sleep mode. Sometimes Condor is still running and the simulation is partially continuing. However, the NMEA stream has shut down, all controls are disconnected, and often the WiFi connection has shut down, though not always. Sometimes, Windows will show an error dialog saying that Condor has stopped responding. On the occasions that Condor is still running, if I don't "escape" out of the task within another 5 to 60 second period, Windows crashes again, but this time with a complete shutdown of the computer. (Not a restart - a complete power off.) On the times that I can exit the flight before that occurs, Windows does not crash. However, it does require a reboot back into Windows to reconnect the WiFi and to have Condor recognize the flight controls and restart the NMEA stream on my next entry into the sim. Sometimes after that reboot, I can fly a task. Most of the time, it still crashes.

This happens in multiple sceneries including but probably not limited to: AA2, Nephi, Yellowstone (last night's NMS task scenery), AFA, New Zealand, and New South Wales. I have also flown successful tasks in all of those sceneries at other times during this period. I can't recall having a failure in Slovenia, but I don't have a compete record of every time this problem has happened.

It appears, especially for a failure during an off-line flight, that I can clear the problem, at least temporarily by rerunning the current "Hanger Update", following a complete reboot. This has occasionally worked for an on-line lockup, but less effectively. It also seems that, sometimes, I can select a different aircraft in the "Hanger" prior to the start of the flight, start the flight, exit normally, and then select the aircraft I want to use, restart the flight, and the lockup doesn't occur. But, this doesn't work most of the time.

Here are the relevant sections from the error log entries from last night as I tried to enter the Monday Night Soaring, MNS, task. (This comes after a full restart and switch from Mac OS booting into Bootcamp and Windows 10. Previous to this restart into Bootcamp/Windows I had a normal flight and sim termination from a task last Friday and standard exit from Condor 2.):

...
[i]ENTERED SIMULATION AT 8:04:21 PM.
Resize device initiated.
Condor seems to be frozen: Draw ground objects.DrawAutoObjects: 20:04:48:535.
[/i]


The machine powered down after that, so there was a complete reboot of the computer and Windows from a cold start. I also ran the latest Hanger Update prior to "rejoining" this task, which has sometimes cleared the problem. This is the end of the error log from this next attempt:

[i]ENTERED SIMULATION AT 8:09:54 PM.
Resize device initiated.
Created RenderTarget View.
Created DepthStencil Texture.
Created DepthStencil View.
Created DepthStencil ShaderResourceView.
Resized Buffers.
Condor seems to be frozen: Window: Present: 20:10:33:809.
[/i]

There are times after a lockup that this message does not get written into the log. In other words, the failure occurs, but there's no new error log entry. I have gone back through the error log since last fall, and there are no different error messages than those shown above. The last one is the most common error log final entry.

I have not been able to detect a pattern to this. Sometimes I can fly several tasks and everything behaves as normal. Other times, I can't find a way to get the the simulation to last more than those 5 to 60 seconds no matter what "fixes" I try. That happened last night, and has happened frequently as I try to enter the Monday Night Soaring tasks over the last 6 to 8 months - MNS is my primary, on-line task flying. However, again, that's not universal. I have successfully flown several MNS tasks over the last few months, along with the several "failures". I have been able to fly other online tasks during that period. Other times, even with the same task, there's nothing I can do to successfully stay in a task even after half a dozen reboots of Windows. Obviously, eventually I'll try a task and Condor will operate again. As far as I know, other than another restart into Windows, nothing has changed between a successful shut down and the next entry into Windows and Condor.

I thought for a while that if I got into the simulation, then exited before the problem occurred and had a clean shutdown of the simulation that would clear the problem before the next flight start. Sometimes that seems to work. Other times, lockup occurs immediately on my next task entry after a clean shutdown, exit from Condor, and then reentry.

As I've said, this problem may have happened very rarely in the previous 8 or 9 years (Condor would "crash" after flight start once in a while), but it wouldn't happen again for some time, if it was really the same problem. Also, I had flown Condor 2 for at least a year or more without this being a problem, so it's not something that is obviously associated with Condor 2, in general. (Again, I didn't keep track of what update to Condor 2 may have occurred immediately before this began happening more frequently, just as I didn't note what Windows or Mac OS updates might have happened.)

Clearly, I'm a Mac guy, so I'm out of my depth trying to sort through what may be going on in the Windows environment. I've tried tracking down other Windows error logs, but have not been very successful at finding anything useful. I can send the full Condor error log if that would help, but I think what I've included above is the most relevant info.

Suggestions from the Windows/Condor experts out there will be greatly appreciated. However, please hold off, at least initially, suggesting a reinstallation of Windows and/or Condor. (Turn off the car, get out of the car, run around the car, get back in the car, restart...) I'm not a big fan of thinking that things in the Windows or Condor .ini files can get overwritten and corrupted. If necessary, I will do both of those things, but getting everything back to the current set up is tedious. I'd have to redownload several hundred gigabytes of sceneries just for Condor. (No, I don't have room or the ability to backup the scenery files to another disk.) Further, there's reinstalling all of the Windows extras to allow NMEA output to get to my tablet, CoTASA, and so on. I'll do it, if that's the only solution left to try, but I hope there may be other things that could reasonably be attempted, first.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for considering this problem and its solutions. I look forward to getting back to flying without having to fight the machine to do so.

Oh, and even though it goes without saying, I'll say it anyway. Thanks to all of the Condor Developers and Team for creating Condor in the first place, and to continuing to enhance it. As an older, RL sailplane pilot who doesn't get to fly outside much any more, it's a godsend. Your skill and commitment to creating a lifelike simulation is amazing and very much appreciated.

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Cadfael
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Re: Condor 2 stops responding shortly after entering simulation

Post by Cadfael » Wed Aug 26, 2020 4:31 pm

if you need keep your landscapes, just move contents of landscape folder to any temporaly folder out of the condor (not to the desktop, if you are planning reinstall windows, but C:\ or so) and keep only Slovenia2 at the Condor/lansdscape folder. Then you can uninstall and install Condor again, and move other landscapes back to Condor.
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