[Resolved w/ workaround] Unable to enter my own POT

I ran perfmon /report. The only problem it reported was the following warning:

Severity:
Informational
Symptom: Missing Events in Event Log
Details: Investigate why 16% (4,996) events were lost during data collection. The settings for Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) maximum buffers and buffer size may not be optimal depending on which data sets are being collected.
Related: Event Tracing for Windows

 

Bingo! Ran event viewer and noticed something at the exact time I was trying to enter my POT:



Looks like the GPU software restarted. Also, from the application log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Hang
Date: 19/01/2018 1:52:32 PM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: (101)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
The program Shroud of the Avatar.exe version 0.0.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
Process ID: 2a68
Start Time: 01d390d3b882fa74
Termination Time: 5
Application Path: E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\SotA\Shroud of the Avatar.exe
Report Id: de7b4b1b-d198-4848-b210-bee6ad4c982c
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Maybe it is the power supply! The failure is repeatable and triggered by game data (the contents of specific scenes). In any case, I'm guessing it is unlikely to be a widespread problem.

TIP: If anyone else wants to use the same process, note the time that you encountered a problem, then:
1. Right-click on the Windows icon in the taskbar - a menu will pop-up.
2. Choose Event Viewer
Look for anything interesting with a matching timestamp.

 

But 'The Forest' is using a Unity 5.x engine. As far as I recall, early Unity 5 engines did not have the 'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered' issue with any ATI/AMD Radeon HD GPU.

If you are looking for another Unity game that will crash your system, I recommend trying out the free demo of Lonely Mountains: Downhill.

 

I tried Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Crashed as you predicted. Not sure what this demonstrates, but it happened in atidxx32.dll:

Unity Player [version: Unity 5.6.2p1_8a29de46e0a0]

atidxx32.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module atidxx32.dll at 0023:66640a3f.

Error occurred at 2018-01-19_222510.
C:\Users\Game Playing\Downloads\Lonely Mountains Downhill Demo\LonelyMountains_Downhill_OneMinuteDemo_Win_x86\LMD_OneMinuteDemo_Win_x86.exe, run by Game Playing.
56% memory in use.
0 MB physical memory [0 MB free].
0 MB paging file [0 MB free].
0 MB user address space [3522 MB free].
Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.

 

Out of curiosity, I decided to try a few other games made with Unity. I have previously played these on my now dead gaming PC, so they were already in my Steam library.

1. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition. Played for 10 minutes. No problems encountered. (Unity version of game released February 14, 2017).
2. Firewatch. Played for 10 minutes. No problems encountered. (Game released February 9, 2016).
3. Tacoma. Froze when placing palm on AR figure's palm. (Log message: "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered.") (Game released ‎August 2, 2017).
4. Yooka-Laylee. No problems (apart from apalling controls on PC). (Game released April 11, 2017).
5. Wasteland 2. Played for 20 minutes. No problems encountered. (Game released September 19, 2014).

 

Is there any reason why you play in Directx11 and not 12? Would you be willing to give that a whirl?
Do you play through Steam client or do you run the launcher directly through us? (Steam users have the option of both, depending on whether you have the game linked or not)
@Womby

 

I apologize for providing incorrect information. It is an old PC and I assumed it was still running Directx 11. However, I ran dxdiag and it turns out I am running Directx 12.
I generally do not launch through Steam. I have played both the release and QA versions with the same results.

It seems to me that something in the version of Unity that you are using causes one or more types of AMD GPU to reset in certain circumstances. I can reliably cause this to happen with Tacoma and the current release of SotA, both Unity-based games released in the last six months. The resulting problem is not limited to scene loads, as I have experienced a freeze while walking in the Blood River starting scene.

@Lexie

PS: I assume you are continuing to pursue this because it affects/may affect other players. It won't be a problem for me much longer as I'll be switching to a more powerful PC that uses Nvidia. I'll still have my current PC, however, so if you want me to try anything else I'm happy to oblige.

 

It doesn't surprise me as Tacoma is using the Unity 5.6.1p1 engine.

If you know more Unity games that crash on your system, please feel free to PM me.

 

The crash in the AMD driver code is propably caused by a single shader which heavily uses Geometry Shader to subdivide triangles (no default tessellation).

 

@Lexie I came across a plausible explanation of what is happening, and a workaround for it here.

I haven't tried it because I have since repaired my main PC which doesn't have this problem.

 

Excellent detective work, @Womby

 

Nope, that workaround does not work. Adjusting the TdrDelay does not resolve the issue. This has been externally known.

 

@Lexie FYI, this issue has not been resolved and it does not have any workaround.

 

The unique case for the reporter has had its own workaround/resolution discovered. If this issue persists for you or others, please create a new thread to look into your unique case.

Thanks