Random game crash

[krilton]

What would cause the game to randomly crash?

 

Here though is the kicker. When it does crash, I'll lose random progress "BUT" any zombies killed will remain yet I have had times when it respawn them or flipped where I have been in an area\building (which I know I have been in) because I leave the front door open and will have a zombie(s) in there. This all started when I lost power in my SP game. I use the solar panel mod for power instead of the generator though I do have one as a failover. First time this happened, I was in Muldraugh and got all the way to the first gas station on the main strip. I began to back track, I got to a clothing store and cleared it out then paused the game to eat. When I came back, the game crashed and I was like WTF. So, I started the game in debug but instead of using continue, I went to the "load" option and the picture was back at when I originally started this game. I was in the clothing store with the 5 zombies revived, thankfully I was in a sneak position and they all had there backs to me. Time reset back to an hour before the grid failed. All of the map I had explored, reset except for where I was and all notations were also gone. Instead of having the game put a random water/power off time, I set it to 85 days after (this is FYI not sure if it matters). I am afraid that I will be in an area cleared out and crash then restart that game normally and get mauled horrifically. This has now happened a total of 5 times over the last 5 days of play. Since then, every time I find something "sweet", I instantly get to a cleared out area and quit\restart just so I keep what I have.

[Beard]

Weak PC specifications or mods can both cause the game to crash. Would either be applicable to this situation?

[krilton]

If anything, it would have to be a mod. I started this game back on 1/22 of this year, so why all the sudden. Is there something in a log file that would possibly say what could have caused it? What if the game suddenly lacked enough memory. The reason for mentioning, if a DS doesn't have enough to start that it will fault (if that is a correct term) and not start.

[Beard]

You can try sharing the logs.zip file found in C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid folder and I can have a look.
You may also need to share the the latest “hs_err_pid” file found in your main game folder “Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid” as that can contain further info depending on the crash.

[krilton]

Absolutely! The next time this happens, I will certainly share it. One thing I thought about, is it possible the game could crash if something would kick it into the background?

[Beard]

It would certainly be possible, sometimes Windows cannot handle application switches like that at full screen and may just crash the app instead (happened to me a few times while playing with overlays)
If it would be caused by that, it may be fixed by playing in Borderless or even Windowed mode.

[krilton]

I did 2 tests, I ran the game in the foreground but paused while I was at work. When I got home, 7 hours later, it was still running. Then I did it again but in a minimized state overnight while I was sleeping. When I got up, it was still going. So either whatever was causing it to crash wasn't running or it just decided to be a twit and not do it.

 

Just an update with everything.  I'll likely be playing in the next couple of days. If it happens, i'll post the asked for info.

[krilton]

I was playing and it just happened. All I could get/find was the logs.zip, the other file you mentioned wasn't there. I can't attach it as it is 10MB in size, so here is the link to the file.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UFHi3_vne0xYVmiZmGrqIjjfDeJ2mQVP/view?usp=sharing

[krilton]

Does the version of java, if applicable, have anything to do with it. Maybe? 

[Beard]

The game uses its own Java version, so it is unlikely that would cause it.
As for the logs, it seems like the last 5 game logs, which the game saves, have all closed down normally by quitting to the desktop, have you shared the logs right after the crash? You may instead need to share the "console.txt" file from the Zomboid folder, as that is the last log that the game saves, while the Logs.zip is the last 5, which may not be created right after a crash.

[krilton]

The zip file shared was right after the game crashed. Next time it happens, I'll upload the "console.txt" file you suggested.

[krilton]

Apparently, it was a program that I was using that was giving the game an issue. The only thing I can think was it was pulling focus and causing the game to crash.

 

 

[krilton]

Well, I was wrong on the program that caused PZ to crash... so here is the console.txt file you asked for.

console-PZ.zip

[Beard]

The latest crash seems to show that the game ran out of memory. Do you perhaps have any specific memory heavy mods enabled? Usually mods that add a lot of very high texture clothing can have a really bad impact on the memory and VRAM of the game, and may cause it to crash, usually after killing a lot of zombies.

[krilton]

How would you identify a mod that is memory heavy? 

[krilton]

One of the mods I run is a vehicle mod that adds a variety of them, in addition to that, I also run a mod that adds an interior to RV\trailers to this specific mod. I was in this interior when it crashed but other instances I was outside. 

[Beard]

As mentioned, mods that add large textures or very high quality textures, usually clothing.

[krilton]

Thought, if the driver package for the video card is out of date or has an issue... could that cause this? I had one game I played on a different laptop which had dual video: intel based for general and a dedicated one for games\video heavy content (same case here; dual video chips) where the game ran "great on the intel chip (forced) but glitched\bugged out at certain points on the dedicated. Cause was a driver, a newer version solved it. Can that be the case here. I also looked at the descriptions for the 2 clothing mods I use and nothing is stated.

 

FYI

[Beard]

With this specific error, I do not think the drivers would be able to cause the issue, I can only recommend testing your mods and perhaps lowering the texture size setting in the game Options, as that would be connected to the texture problems caused by mods.

[krilton]

I went into the options: Max texture size was already at its minimum, I lowered max vehicle texture to its lowest setting and enabled simple weapon textures. Let's see what happens now and time will tell. Another thought, could clothes that are really bloody clothing cause this? I also went to the 2 clothing mods pages and asked them about high textures. Nothing was stated in there descriptions and I hope they don't think that I'm blaming them for this.

[Beard]

If the question is specifically whether they can, then yes, as any mod could cause this issue. I am just specifying that clothing mods are the mod common culprits.

[krilton]

I got a response back from 1 of the 2 mod authors. He uses 256x256 with 32x32 for icons. I'll post when I hear from the other. I see regarding the common culprit.

[krilton]

Interesting info, the author of the following mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2861393067&tscn=1683049646, has used his along with this mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2847911733 and stated that he has not had the "out of memory" problem that I'm encountering. What else might cause it?

[Beard]

Are you able to reproduce the error? How long does it take to reproduce it? And in what situations does it happen?

[krilton]

Answers are given in the order that the questions were asked:

 

1) Not yet. I had one instance were the game began to stutter, so I quit and restarted. I did this due to of a fear that data will revert back some and be in a deadly spot. x.x

2) At this point, it seems random

3) Of the three instances, 2 occurred after a few zombie kills but the last one was after a sleeping session.