Crashing seconds after takeoff with VR, instantly without VR

[fattymcg]

Constant crashing both with and without using a Rift.

With Rift on I can get all the way into a plane, begin take off, and within probably 15 seconds of getting wheels off the ground it crashes to desktop with the attached .dmp file. Changing air fields has the same results though I havnt tried switching countries yet. All planes crash in the same way. However vehicles crash the game the instant I click the direction to launch with one.
Weird thing is if I take off the rift, disconnect it completely from the computer, and just run aces high as a normal desktop game it will crash as soon as I click to enter offline mode or any of the arenas.

The crash text I get every time is always: "aceshighsteam.exe has stopped working."

Another bit of information is if I have the rift on and click to enter the main arena, It will crash within seconds of entering the tower.

I've already:
Removed and reinstalled aces high
Removed and reinstalled AMD drivers
Restarted windows

This has been occurring for about a week without fail. Its happened before about a month ago but when it happened then I just came back the next day and there was no more crashing.

I've attached dxdiag as well.

edit:
Just discovered something very very interesting. I can sit in a plane on the runway in the offline arena for as long as i want without crashing. However... if I gently just bring the engines up and taxi directly off the runway, the second i touch dirt the game freezes! Realized this after I couldnt spawn a tank without crashing then tried to spawn a plane at the "H" hanger direction and it immediately crashed.

Alright I think I've narrowed this down pretty good. Let me know if theres any additional logs or things you want me to try.

[Bizman]

Your DxDiag output reveals that you have the AMD audio drivers installed and active. Since you obviously use the Rift for game sounds and possibly the Realtek for speakers, disabling the AMD audio in Device Manager and then uninstalling its driver would be worth doing. The video card audio drivers can conflict with other installed audio gear.

[fattymcg]

I disabled them AMD Audio driver and tried with Rift and no rift but it still crashes in the same way.

Tried to also install the device/driver but it decides that it doesn't like that and just instantly reinstall it for me.

edit: Finally got the uninstall to stick but still acts the same.

[FLS]

Did it work previously and just start crashing?

Are you running any anti-virus?

Did you just update Win10?

[fattymcg]

Been working fine for the past month or so. It had this issue probably about a month ago but it only seemed to last one night and next day it was fine so i ignored it.

Just the built in windows 10 antivirus. I can try disabling that as deep as I can (before it auto turns it back on for me) and try that out.
edit: disabled windows defender and the fire wall and no change.

I tend to do the windows 10 updates as I see them so theres a chance it could have been updated when it started. I also did an update this week while its been having the crashing issue and it kept crashing before and after.

Tomorrow I might try rolling back some of the windows updates and also uninstalling the game again and installing it on another drive, maybe theres some kind of permissions thing going on or something

[Bizman]

If you've got the latest Creators Fall Update 1709 installed just as the issues started, that may be the culprit.

[Randy1]

Hit Ctrl-I and watch your frame rate.

[fattymcg]

Its a fairly new install of windows 10. Maybe 2+ months now. The attached picture shows all the windows updates since then. 1709 was installed on the 6th or 7th but the issue was there for several days before that.

[fattymcg]

Keeps getting weirder. Following reasons it crashes:
Touch plane to non runway surface
Touch vehicle to non runway surface
Fly plan too far from base (maybe 15 seconds worth)
(NEW) Spawn a plane from a carrier and it runs great but the second I fly over land it crashes
(NEW) Fly plane too high above the starting runway (was crashing generally between 1500-1900 altitude)

So with that info, i can jump in a brewster, stick 300 feet off the ground, and just circle the runway in a tight turn. Can do it for several minutes and it doesn't crash.

Also, now I can get into the main arena without it crashing right away with tonights current map. So I can repeat all the above things in main now as well with both the rift on or off.

And final also. Spawning in boats causes no crashing.

[fattymcg]

And like that the problem is gone.

Uninstalled and reinstalled a third time but this time I installed it to my HDD instead of my normal spot on the SSD. All issues went away. Then I transfered the install back to the SSD and the problems continued to no longer exist.

So, I want to say something in my install was corrupted but I just dont know. In any case I got to participate (poorly) in the large furball at 87 (I think) tonight so I'm happy again.

[Bizman]

So you had your original install on an SSD? That may be the culprit. AH does quite a lot of rewriting during the game, something that an SSD may struggle with.

The simplified semi-tech explanation as I've understood it goes like this: On a HDD files can be overwritten instantly. On an SSD the new file has to be put into a temporary location, then the original file can be removed and the new file reinstalled where the original was - along with all the instructions how to do that. Many steps where things can go wrong.

[hitech]

Are you launching this from steam? If so how do you choose where to install.

The dump looks like it is a lack of memory issue, or possible a corrupt install. Previously when you reinstalled, did you ensure your settings folder had been removed?

Thanks
HiTech

[fattymcg]

Launched from steam. I have a SSD for C:\ and a HDD for D:\. I was telling it to install to SSD on C:\ when I reinstalled it the first time and still had its problems.

I actually was given the suggestion to backup the settings folder and then delete it.  I tried that but it had the same results.

I believe the first time i uninstalled it I just did it through steam and then had it redownload back to the same spot on on the SSD. Tehres no garentee it removed everything as i didnt check. The next time I uninstalled it I did it through steam but when I reinstalled it did it to the HDD. Thats when the crashing was fixed. I then made sure the SSD steam location was not there in any form and then had steam transfer the install location from the HDD to the SSD. The crashing is still gone. I'm guessing this is probably coming back to a corrupt file/install like you mentioned.

[Bizman]

Try reinstalling on D:\, it might just work better on a HDD. The only issue with it is that you'll have to keep an eye on where to install the updates and even that may happen automatically. The game has no problems to run from whichever disk you choose, the recommended C:\ is mainly for simplifying trouble shooting by uniformity.

There's likely a reason for the game being in C:\ rather than in C:\Program Files so it might be a good idea if you installed it directly on D:\ as D:\HitechCreations\*. At least it will keep the path names short enough.

[Skuzzy]

I moved this thread to Tech Support as it does not seem to have anything to do with a game bug.

There have been bugs with some SSD's which can cause corruption when we patch.  I know when we patch we check to ensure the patch was successful and report any files which it fails on.

If you patch through Stream, I am not sure they do that.  I would think they do.

That said.

How did you install the game on your fixed disk?  What were/are the directory paths for the game on both drives?