IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

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Bre901
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IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by Bre901 » Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:45 am

I have been hit repeatedly by the chat bug since last Wednesday :shock: (Windows 10)

After some investigations I found out that the bug was biting if I hit the Backspace key when (or close to) the Windows background image changed (my background wallpaper was set to random slideshow changing every minute)

Disabling the slideshow or increasing the period so that the image doesn't change during the flight solves the problem.

Incidentally, that image change also causes a periodical drop in FPS due to a high CPU usage of Explorer (that's actually what got me on the right track)

If you have been experiencing the chat bug recently, please could you check if you have the slideshow enabled, and, if yes try disabling it, and then report here, thanks in advance
CN: MPT — CondorUTill webpage: https://condorutill.fr/

olevold
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by olevold » Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:52 am

I have been hit by this bug a couple of times lately, but I don't have a slideshow wallpaper. The first time I tried to type numbers using the numpad, but I'm not sure that caused it
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mumblecake
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by mumblecake » Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:36 am

Just adding my voice to show that the chat bug is still very much alive and thriving. Haven't tried the slide show bit yet but shall do so.

I wonder if the problem could be some performance issues by the server. We hosted a little 'lead and follow' excercise on dvaec yesterday and we both lost our keyboard at almost the same time half way through the task. Our instructor was stuck with his air-brakes open but being the skilled bad -ass that he is he still managed to finish the task. I was less lucky as I lost my keyboard when auto-pilot was active (as I wanted to type a message) which meant that I couldn't regain control of the aircraft. Could be total coincidence that it happened to both of us in quick succession (wasn't exactly at the same time ... 1-2 min apart) but might be worth looking at.
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dpluigi
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by dpluigi » Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:02 pm

Hi,

I experienced this "chat bug" for the first time yesterday April 1st twice over three multiplayer sessions, and it was no joke. My PC does not have a slideshow wallpaper as first described here on this thread by Marc T. (MPT), it has transparency effect, however (this has been set this way all along).

The first time was during a multiplayer flight Nouzachalles - 2.
It occurred after several minutes after the FPS suddenly dropped from 90fps (in VR) to 14-25fps. Under Auto Pilot, I initiated the Chat and no text could be entered. There was no keyboard response apart from escape key, trim, rudder pedal, and the mouse. I was able to escape the flight and the irony is that I got scored 0pts (time of 240km flight in about 2h reduced to 0h0min0s?!). Note also, that at this session had been restarted since I experienced a -5m/s bug after rejoining the session a second time in the very beginning.

The second time at the end of the Condor Grand Prix 2020 Day on Server B. Luckily it was after crossing the finish line and was not locked under autopilot and was able to continue flying to land with the only issue is the loss of flap controls and the results table display key (i.e. keyboard).

Note that in between these two occurrences, I took part in the Tchin Tchin 17h30 server A, and also experienced a slow FPS under VR from the set 90fps down to 25-45fps. This is very rare and usually happens only on the crowded start line and not in flight, however, the unusual low FPS was experienced throughout this session. My system has an RTX2080 graphics card, and no memory shortage issue.

I kept a copy of the Condor Logs directory for each of these three sessions if an details could be mined. Upon inspection of the error logfile there was no issue reported yesterday April first, the last one was March 23rd.

There was no change applied before yesterday's flights. A couple of days ago a Condor VR session might have been killed since the VR headset was not responding (rare and probably related to Steam VR).

At this point, it is not clear if there is a pattern and I will report here if I found out more. Let me know if I can help track this issue.

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.
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Tomzy
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by Tomzy » Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:10 pm

dpluigi wrote:
Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:02 pm
Hi,

I experienced this "chat bug" for the first time yesterday April 1st twice over three multiplayer sessions, and it was no joke. My PC does not have a slideshow wallpaper as first described here on this thread by Marc T. (MPT), it has transparency effect, however (this has been set this way all along).

The first time was during a multiplayer flight Nouzachalles - 2.
It occurred after several minutes after the FPS suddenly dropped from 90fps (in VR) to 14-25fps. Under Auto Pilot, I initiated the Chat and no text could be entered. There was no keyboard response apart from escape key, trim, rudder pedal, and the mouse. I was able to escape the flight and the irony is that I got scored 0pts (time of 240km flight in about 2h reduced to 0h0min0s?!). Note also, that at this session had been restarted since I experienced a -5m/s bug after rejoining the session a second time in the very beginning.

The second time at the end of the Condor Grand Prix 2020 Day on Server B. Luckily it was after crossing the finish line and was not locked under autopilot and was able to continue flying to land with the only issue is the loss of flap controls and the results table display key (i.e. keyboard).

Note that in between these two occurrences, I took part in the Tchin Tchin 17h30 server A, and also experienced a slow FPS under VR from the set 90fps down to 25-45fps. This is very rare and usually happens only on the crowded start line and not in flight, however, the unusual low FPS was experienced throughout this session. My system has an RTX2080 graphics card, and no memory shortage issue.

I kept a copy of the Condor Logs directory for each of these three sessions if an details could be mined. Upon inspection of the error logfile there was no issue reported yesterday April first, the last one was March 23rd.

There was no change applied before yesterday's flights. A couple of days ago a Condor VR session might have been killed since the VR headset was not responding (rare and probably related to Steam VR).

At this point, it is not clear if there is a pattern and I will report here if I found out more. Let me know if I can help track this issue.

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.

Would it be possible to get those 2 Condor logs, when the chat bug occurred?

dpluigi
Posts: 243
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Location: Lyon, France

Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by dpluigi » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:03 am

Hi,

I just noticed your reply from Friday just as I was going to report another occurrence of the Chat Bug this evening under multiplayer mode - the third one in a week.
These logs folders can be compressed into a zip file unless you want just specific log files as an attachment. Do you want the posted here or over an email?

Regarding this evening, I was taking a screenshot with the Valve Index controller. It is not clear if that was the cause.

Here is the chain of event: after taking a screenshot the controller or my hand hit a key on my keyboard, and the HUD mode was activated and while fumbling to remove it (could not remember the exact key), I hit the Miracle key (at around 13h13m53s Condor time according to Condor Club's barograph display(FTR or IGC available as needed too)). Murphy's law, it is then when I wanted to notify the group this happened by mistake that the Chat Bug occurred - with the cursor for the chat in red.
Remember all this while under a VR headset, I did remove it to check my keyboard and tried a few things.

In the end, I continued flying with Auto Pilot (AP) engaged and was able to correct course with rudder and trim and continue on for two more TPs.
Unfortunately, I could not complete the task, which included a 180-turn on the last TP to come back cross the finish line a short distance after, and even with anticipation, I drifted onto a hill while slowly changing course. Note that I was able to drop the gear associated with a button on my joystick (per setup configuration in Condor), but again the AP button on the same joystick could not be toggle Off. I broke a wing on heavy landing uphill. I lived to tell (hopefully).

Gear on joystick worked
AP on joystick did not.
Escape worked.
Trim and Rudder on joystick worked.
Sounds indicated change PDA display worked from Joystick buttons.

The Space bar interpreted by OVRDrop to composite and Toggle On/OFF display of XCSoar or CoTASA in VR worked.

I can send the associated Logs directory/files too, which was duplicated after each occurrence. Do you want me to email them here or a separate email address like the Condor support email address?

Thank you again for looking into this.
Last edited by dpluigi on Tue Apr 07, 2020 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tomzy
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by Tomzy » Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:38 am

You can upload the zipped logs to drive, dropbox etc. and send me a link in pm. Will also forward the link to other testers, if someone finds any usefull clues.

Thanks!

dpluigi
Posts: 243
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Location: Lyon, France

Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by dpluigi » Fri Apr 17, 2020 7:43 pm

I had two more occurrences of chat bug (back to back) this week, at the end of Wednesday Condor GP, and after yesterday 17.30 TchinTchin.
Note that keys were inadvertently struck with the base of my Sidewinder FFB joystick, both resting on my lap during VR sessions, which somehow took focus out of condor (with scary erratic flight and spin), and I wonder if that could have been a trigger.

Is there anything useful for you in the Logs directory you want me to forward?

Thanks
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mumblecake
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by mumblecake » Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:42 pm

As a precaution I have bound the "start chat message" from backspace to the joystick. Once the chat bug struck that unfortunately didn't help at all. In fact it appears that the whole text overlay in Condor crashed. I was running the server and had the window visible on a different monitor and I could see people sending chat messages which in return did not appear in game. Notable to say that I had not in fact been chatting when the text overlay crashed (meaning that the term chat bug is probably misleading as I don't necessarily think that it has anything to do with chatting).

The text overlay crashing would also explain why certain functions would continue to work or stop working even when triggered from the joystick. Auto Pilot e.g. displays a text overlay. It could well be possible that once the text overlay has crashed that the auto-pilot cannot be engaged or disengaged anymore because the function call to change the overlay gets stuck or errors. Gear doesn't change the text overlay so that might avert that problem.

It appears to me that the keyboard input and the text overlay are coupled which again means that once the text overlay crashes the keyboard input doesn't work anymore. Except for Esc which seems to be read in a different manner by a different part of the software.

I would focus on investigating the text overlay rather than the keyboard input as I think that might be a red-herring. The random nature of things would indicate that it could well be some race condition between the text overlay process and another process.
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wickid
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by wickid » Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:51 pm

mumblecake wrote:
Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:42 pm
As a precaution I have bound the "start chat message" from backspace to the joystick. Once the chat bug struck that unfortunately didn't help at all. In fact it appears that the whole text overlay in Condor crashed. I was running the server and had the window visible on a different monitor and I could see people sending chat messages which in return did not appear in game. Notable to say that I had not in fact been chatting when the text overlay crashed (meaning that the term chat bug is probably misleading as I don't necessarily think that it has anything to do with chatting).

The text overlay crashing would also explain why certain functions would continue to work or stop working even when triggered from the joystick. Auto Pilot e.g. displays a text overlay. It could well be possible that once the text overlay has crashed that the auto-pilot cannot be engaged or disengaged anymore because the function call to change the overlay gets stuck or errors. Gear doesn't change the text overlay so that might avert that problem.

It appears to me that the keyboard input and the text overlay are coupled which again means that once the text overlay crashes the keyboard input doesn't work anymore. Except for Esc which seems to be read in a different manner by a different part of the software.

I would focus on investigating the text overlay rather than the keyboard input as I think that might be a red-herring. The random nature of things would indicate that it could well be some race condition between the text overlay process and another process.
This descibes you pressing the ~ key (to the left of the 1 key). That toggles the HUD. It makes the autopilot text, chats and some other stuff dissapear so you can make nice screenshots.

When you have the chatbug, you hit Backspace and it displays the chatline at the bottom of the screen but condor doesnt accept inputs anymore. You can still see other people chatting on screen.

Hitting ~ and then backspace looks similar to the chatbug because you also cannot control stuff. But this is because you are actually typing in the chatline. You just can't see it because you've hidden it. You can get out of this by pressing enter and then ~.
PH-1504, KOE

njoosten
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Re: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Chat Bug : recent instance

Post by njoosten » Sun Dec 27, 2020 12:26 pm

Another player and myself have had this happen repeatedly in the last few weeks. Chat messages disappear then when you press `~ to turn them back on the game crashes.

Not happy

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