Crash under high CPU load

[Yohoki]

I'm curious if anyone else has noticed D4W crashing when the PC lags? My wife's been having some issues with it crashing when exiting Ryujynx, and I think I had it happen a few times loading games as well, but I hadn't thought anything of it. I can open an issue with more details when I get a chance to grab a log if needed, but she mentioned the log saying something about a ViGEmBus error (I know, she was specific there, wasn't she) . I'll have to go any try to get it to crash a few times and see how often she's having it crash and if I can get some logs. But the only way to fix it is just to force-close D4W and re-open.

So, since it mentioned ViGEmBus, I don't know if I should mention it here, or on their github, either.

So, really, for now....

1. Has anyone else noticed it crashing under CPU loads?
2. Should I open an issue here, or one on ViGEmBus, Both?

[Yohoki]

I was able to get a log this morning from a crash. It really is just as generic as it sounded.

"09/05/2022 11:37:17: ViGEm Device Plugin Failed. Likely an internal ViGEmBus problem. Closing connection. If the issue persists, please close DS4Windows and then reboot Windows."

The part where it switches from XBox to DS4 is the game closing and D4W switching back to my default "mouse control" profile. Afterwards, the ViGEm failure happens, and D4W tries to close down, but doesn't really accomplish this. It DOES stop, so new old controllers are disconnected and no new ones are loaded. But the "Stop" button stays saying stop, and never changes to start. It also freezes shortly afterwards.

But, again, I'm still not sure if this is a D4W problem or Driver.

Log File

09/05/2022 09:40:06: DS4Windows version 3.1.4
09/05/2022 09:40:06: DS4Windows Assembly Architecture: x64
09/05/2022 09:40:06: OS Version: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19044.0
09/05/2022 09:40:06: OS Product Name: Windows 10 Home
09/05/2022 09:40:06: OS Release ID: 2009
09/05/2022 09:40:06: System Architecture: x64
09/05/2022 09:40:24: Running as Admin
09/05/2022 09:40:24: HidHide control device found
09/05/2022 09:40:25: Starting...
09/05/2022 09:40:25: Using output KB+M handler: SendInput
09/05/2022 09:40:25: Connection to ViGEmBus 1.21.442.0 established
09/05/2022 09:40:25: Searching for controllers...
09/05/2022 09:40:25: Using Exclusive Mode
09/05/2022 09:40:27: Plugging in virtual DS4 Controller
09/05/2022 09:40:27: Associate DS4 Controller in slot #1 for input DS4 v.2 controller #1
09/05/2022 09:40:28: Controller 1 is using Profile "Mouse Control". Battery level is 100%
09/05/2022 09:40:49: Disassociate DS4 Controller from slot #1 for input DS4 v.2 controller #1
09/05/2022 09:40:49: Unplugging virtual DS4 Controller
09/05/2022 09:40:49: Plugging in virtual X360 Controller
09/05/2022 09:40:49: Associate X360 Controller in slot #1 for input DS4 v.2 controller #1
09/05/2022 09:43:20: Controller 1 is using Profile "Yuzu v2 (Controller)". Battery level is 100%
09/05/2022 09:46:47: Controller 1 is using Profile "Yuzu v2 (Mouse)". Battery level is 100%
09/05/2022 09:46:49: Controller 1 is using Profile "Yuzu v2 (Controller)". Battery level is 100%
09/05/2022 11:37:08: Disassociate X360 Controller from slot #1 for input DS4 v.2 controller #1
09/05/2022 11:37:09: Unplugging virtual X360 Controller
09/05/2022 11:37:13: Plugging in virtual DS4 Controller
09/05/2022 11:37:13: Associate DS4 Controller in slot #1 for input DS4 v.2 controller #1
09/05/2022 11:37:15: Controller 1's latency over 10ms (285.15 ms)
09/05/2022 11:37:15: Controller 1's latency now under 10ms
09/05/2022 11:37:17: ViGEm Device Plugin Failed. Likely an internal ViGEmBus problem. Closing connection. If the issue persists, please close DS4Windows and then reboot Windows.
09/05/2022 11:37:17: Stopping Virtual Output Controllers
09/05/2022 11:37:17: Closing connection to ViGEmBus
09/05/2022 11:37:24: Controller 1 was removed or lost connection
09/05/2022 11:37:24: Stopping DS4 Input Controllers
09/05/2022 11:37:24: Stopped DS4Windows

[Yohoki]

@nefarius
This is the issue I mentioned on the other bug report. (not related, so not putting the issue number)

I can reliably get it to put D4W in a softlock by opening and closing something really laggy, like Ryujinx playing Odyssey. Log shows a "ViGEm Device Plugin Failed. Likely an internal ViGEmBus problem." Funny enough, I've been noticing it happening sometimes when starting a game, but more often it happens when stopping, or changing tabs. So "MAYBE" it has something to do with switching from XBox to DS4 modes. I'd have to check more, as I'm only just now realizing this.

The program then goes into shutdown, but locks itself up.

But, I think that's an entirely different issue.

IIRC, from what I saw trying to debug this on my own, the error calls a Stop() method, but VS shows it is not referencing an instance (magic mumbo jumbo) and can't continue, so the shutdown never fully happens. Can't restart because it's not done shutting down. I believe I tried changing to a Roothub.Stop() instead, but that didn't work either.

[nefarius]

These internal errors are typically non-recoverable ones that are unsolvable by either driver or SDK. I'm afraid the solution depends heavily on some issue on the system in question, if ViGEm can't attach a virtual device for whatever reason, it returns an error. Why could it not? Can't tell you that without dissecting the system it happens on I'm afraid.

[Yohoki]

Sounds reasonable. Lag causes issues. Didn't really expect it to be a fixable issue if it really was ViGEm getting messed up during the swap. But again, I had no idea if it was ViGEm returning an error, or D4W assuming it was one because of the lag.. It's not the biggest issue, since it really only happens when switching profiles, so not mid-game. Seems to work just fine even on the heaviest lag in-games, so it's not interruptive. It's just becoming part of the start-up procedure. I may just start loading a .bat before these games to close D4W and start it back up after a set time to mitigate the issue some.

I'm curious though, would it matter to know that it can also happen when disconnecting the virtual DS4 to swap to XBox emulation? I was under the impression that ViGEm only handled the DS4 emulation.

Either way, if this really is an unrecoverable error, I suppose I'll look into D4W a bit more to see if I can find out why the Stop() method fails here. I'd like to simply hit the start button again instead of force closing and restarting. I'll look into that a bit more. AFAIK this is the same method called when clicking the stop button, but maybe there's a difference.

[nefarius]

ViGEm does both the x360 and DS4 emulation. The software stack can't do much if device spawn fails, it is an asynchronous operation on Windows and if these errors happen something seriously went wrong like some call taking way too long to expect success, IIRC I coded the threshold to be one second, if the device isn't operational by then I assume failure because normally we're talking about micro to milliseconds at max.

[Yohoki]

Ah. Nice to know. I suppose I should have know that since it's called "Video Game" not "Sony". lol

I see. Ya, That's probably it, then. The entire computer isn't frozen, keyboard still works during that time. But the lag I'm experiencing lasts more than a second. Taking 10+ times longer than normal is a fair cutoff.

I'll have to see if there's anything else that can be done on the D4W side, then Aside from simply shutting down the whole app.