Occasional crashing/freezing in TDU2

[AbsoVincent]

Hello guys, I've been playing TDU2 for a few days now, and I'm encountering a problem every now and then. The game simply crashes/freezes at random moments, which can occur in freeroam, races, buildings or even in cutscenes. Interestingly enough, the game never sent a crash report whatsoever, just says "TestDrive2.exe is not responding". I am using a legit copy of TDU2 via Steam.

What I've already done trying to fix the issue:

 

1. Enabling the SecuROM service in Command Prompt.

Somebody on Steam told me that the problem has to do with SecuROM being disabled by Microsoft due to hackers using it as a backdoor, and that the problem can be fixed by typing "sc start secdrv" into CMD. This however gave me an error that the service is not installed on my computer, and could not find any way to install it.

2. Using the Universal Launcher

At first this was promising, but it still crashed after 10 minutes or so, still with no crash report.

3. Using a "No CD" patch to bypass SecuROM

There is no patch for DLC2 v034, which is needed for TDU World to run. Replacing the old TestDrive2.exe with the patched one will result into problems in the launcher, so I used the Universal Launcher with it. Still freezing.

4. Putting the game into Windows 7 compatibility mode

This did not only not fix the issue, it also results into poor performance, such as massive stutters.

5. Downgrading the DXVK file

I had DXVK 1.7.3 installed before and downgraded to DXVK 1.6.1 to see if it makes any difference. Still crashing, however a bit more rarely.

 

I am not going to install the unofficial patch as it will break online play. At the moment, I cannot attach a log here, as there is no crash report being sent.

 

For those who need it:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H 3.7 GHz max

RAM: 8 GB

GPU: GeForce GTX 1650

Disk: Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AA SSD (512 GB)

 

Would be glad if someone would have a solution

 

Edited August 19 by Absowarr
Typo

[Ryzza5]

https://turboduck.net/files/file/413-4gb-patcher-for-older-games-that-require-more-than-2gb-of-ram-and-crash-to-desktop/

[AbsoVincent]

Thank you for the response. I have actually already applied the 4 GB patch. Before applying it, the game did actually also crash to desktop, which does not occur anymore, but it is still freezing randomly as stated in my post. So it probably is something else causing the problem.

[Ryzza5]

Ah ok, I'll wait and see if others here have suggestions for you.

[AbsoVincent]

Update:

I did some extra research and found out that maybe Steam is causing a lot of problems in the game. So I removed the steam_api.dll file from the root folder and played for a few minutes. It crashed after appr. 15 minutes, but it finally filed a crash report! Apparently, Steam prevents the game from creating reports. 

My last resort would be deleting the d3d9.dll file (aka map fix for new generation nVidia cards) from the root folder, as for some people it might cause these problems. There is an alternative fix so that the map won't crash, that is Alt-tabbing out of the game, open it again and quickly zoom out. Unfortunately, no matter how quick I try, it never works. It always crashes before I can even zoom out. For now, I'll just wait for further solutions.

[AbsoVincent]

Update II:

Apparently, my theory that DXVK might cause the issue has been confirmed. The problem is that the d3d9.dll file is not using enough memory for the game to run, causing it to crash when running out of address space, thus failing to assign more memory. That's probably also the reason why the 4 GB patcher didn't fix the problem, as it only patches the TestDrive2.exe file and not other files. I've put the DXVK log here if someone needs it.

Unfortunately, the developers of DXVK said that it's a known issue and they don't have a solution yet, so until then I'll just play with my integrated graphics when doing longer races, just to be safe.

There's also a megathread regarding this issue on GitHub, and apparently the issue is on both Windows and Linux, and not only TDU2 is affected.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 - Windows 10 Crash · Issue #1819 · doitsujin/dxvk · GitHub

Out of Address Space Megaissue · Issue #1318 · doitsujin/dxvk · GitHub

TestDrive2_d3d9.log

[KamilT97]

Any update? Maybe someone has figured it out? I've even bought PS3 to play this game but it is painful to play it in 30FPS..

[AbsoVincent]

I've created a GitHub account to explain the issue to the developers some months ago, but my message wasn't taken into consideration and has potentially even been deleted. That's very unfortunate, because this issue persists for a very long time (basically since RTX and GDDR6 graphics in general have been released), and isn't unknown either. I really would like to find out the thing that's causing the problem, but this is a huge blockade and I honestly don't know how to proceed.

[KamilT97]

So the only solution is to buy an older graphic card and perhaps maybe downgrade the OS to Win7 or older right?

[AbsoVincent]

Downgrading can be a possibility but the game runs on Windows 10/11 just fine. I have a PC tower with no graphics card (just integrated Intel HD Graphics) and Windows 10, and although it needs to be set to 720p and mid settings to run the game decently, I haven't encountered a single crash. So it's definitely not the OS's fault.

 

 

[AbsoVincent]

After thinking a bit about how to resolve this issue completely, I came to this conclusion:

The issue is definitely neither the game itself nor the OS (meaning Windows 10 or 11). It also can't be a CPU, RAM or whatever hardware failure/complication on my side because the game runs without crashes when using Radeon Vega 8 instead of GTX 1650. I can't blame nVidia for this because it's an eleven year old game which has been cut off from most platforms, and if it is a general GDDR6 issue, then it won't be the manufacturer's fault. 

Now, we only have DXVK left. And like I said before: The game runs stable when using integrated graphics, which doesn't need the wrapper for anti-crashing. I wrote an issue to the developers which has been removed and was probably never thought about again. I'll give them a second chance, first using their tool to read out errors when the game is crashing, and send everything to them. More information to follow.

[Djey]

Some people have been reporting the dgvoodoo2 wrapper does solve map crash issues as well, but settings have to be tweaked to eliminate artifacts.

[AbsoVincent]

I read somewhere that a similar wrapper (WineD3D for Windows) would fix both the map and random crashes, but when I played the game with it, it'll lag so badly (5-10 FPS) it's basically unplayable, even on lowest settings. They however wrote on their homepage that the DLLs are far from perfect and won't work with every game, and for errors I need to file a report to the developers of Wine, so I'll leave this out for now.

[Big Fish]

I had this problem when I started it with non-administrator privileges or I had a vga driver problem. only the universal launcher is willing to work in the game, but I turn it off before starting the windows defender.

here on the site I saw nvidia card solution, repair, but I don't know where exactly.

Edited February 18, 2022 by Big Fish

[KFR007]

Hi guys, sorry for my english, my TDU2 starts and a few seconds later it closes without warning. I have a more modest pc, GT 1030, 12 gb ram.

[Big Fish]

no problem, i also use a translator. 
i think try what i wrote.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Big Fish

[KFR007]

I understand,

At first, my TDU2 even ran longer, now as soon as I press play, a few seconds pass and it closes. The windows log says he has a problem with "KernelBase.dll" , but I've already repaired the windows in several ways and it didn't work. I have an nvidia GT 1030, 12 gb of RAM, windows 10. I don't know what else to do, in the past I could play games. My TDU2 is not original, on Steam it is no longer available for sale.

[Big Fish]

i don't know what could be wrong there. for me this game is installed and the accessories.

there may be a video card driver problem as well.

I think you can download this, copy it into the games library. see if it will be good or not.
if not good then what i put here should be installed. this is=  https://www.dll-files.com/kernelbase.dll.html

Edited February 18, 2022 by Big Fish

[KFR007]

I've already used the two methods you suggested, they didn't work. Even so, I thank you. I did some tests here, I managed to run the game in an old Build without the DLC's, the game ran fine, but when I install the latest version the game closes by itself.

[Big Fish]

I was reminded of these, I have no other idea, but there are others here who can help. 

[AbsoVincent]

Okay, I think I've overseen this, but I'm already thinking that writing them a second response won't make any difference. I'm sure this entire issue has to do with the game or the wrapper running out of address space due to it being a 32-bit game, and their developer wrote on their GitHub site that it's an issue they're aware of, but unfortunately can't fix.

Quote

32-bit games often run out of address space and will crash as a result. This is an inherent limitation of DXVK and cannot be fixed. Use wined3d for 32-bit games instead. [Common issues · doitsujin/dxvk Wiki (github.com)]

My goal now is to find a similar wrapper that fixes both the map and random crashing. As forementioned, WineD3D fixes the map crash, but lags terribly making the game unplayable. 

On 2/17/2022 at 6:57 AM, Djey said:

Some people have been reporting the dgvoodoo2 wrapper does solve map crash issues as well, but settings have to be tweaked to eliminate artifacts.

Did you try that already yourself or have a configuration that eliminates the artifacts? In my case, I had the same issue and after quitting the game, it wouldn't start again thinking I'm using an older DirectX version. Otherwise, the game runs fine and the map wouldn't crash anymore, but I'd need to test it out for a longer period to see if the game still crashes randomly or not.

 

 

[KFR007]

Guys, thanks for the reply. Apparently I managed to solve it, but I had to format the pc, it had been a long time. I did a clean format, the one that takes the longest, reinstalled windows 10 and left the original windows nvidia drive, installed TDU2 with the DLCs. Somehow the game started to warn me about the problems (before that didn't happen, only through the windows log). The first problem was the absence of "XINPUT1_3.DLL", then I started the game and it gave the following error, "0xc00007b", I went and installed "directx_Jun2010_redist" and the game worked. It's running perfectly without "leg" or "crashes", before even the old version that I could play gave light crashes. The curious thing is that these files that I installed now (except the "XINPUT1_3.DLL") I had already installed previously. Not sure but my problem was nvidia drive or windows restore not perfect, leaves some records unrepaired. but this is just speculation.

[RomanMan]

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