Analyzing mdmp/crash/dump files: How, help and ideas?

[Wolves In The Throne Room]

I have searched Twcenter and the internet high and low, I know modders have a way to hunt down the cause of battle crashes, but it seems to be a very closely guarded secret. Can anyone help me, I'm helping the creators of a certain mod and this is my task, I need some help getting started.

Thanks

[crzyrndm]

I know modders have a way to hunt down the cause of battle crashes

Um, don't break it?

A mod which crashes is a dammed nightmare to debug, and being able to read the mdmp files is no help at all (attached image show their content, the exception is just about always the same for mods because a crash is normally caused by a floating db reference which is an unassigned memory location). .mdmp gives the exception details, OS version, and all .dll files running when the crash happened, thats it. Basically, there is no secret, just a lot of experience dealing with particular tables.

You can delete tables until it stops happening, which gives you a good idea of which set of tables is causing it, but past that it's just triple checking all the linkages for typos.

[Wolves In The Throne Room]

Thank you, I feel like I've been hunting the holy grail lol. Well I'll abandon this mdmp goose chase now.

Anyway to tell if it's a RAM/processor related crash vs hunting tables as you described?

The problem I'm hunting happens to a lot of people, but only 1 in 5 battles roughly and happens to me mostly when my gpu is least taxed (small battles). If it was a typo in a table for example wouldn't it produce more consistent CTDs?

[crzyrndm]

Oh, that sort of crash. Those are even more annoying :p

Those can be caused by the stupidest things. I made it happen in Rome 2 by reapplying inciendary damage too many times which caused a boat to *stop* burning, and then crash.

The only help I can give is that the crash will be caused by a new or modified mechanic, almost guaranteed. Record matches, take pictures of army setups, start narrowing down the possible causes.

[Wolves In The Throne Room]

Thank you! I appreciate you saving me from wasting a lot of time looking in the wrong place and the wrong way!

Hopefully I can get it narrowed down because a lot of people have had crashes thus I can get a lot of scenarios without relying on mine alone.