Couatl.exe CTD P3D v4

[ryanbatcund]

Hi I was attempting a flight on Pilot Edge online network tonite when P3D v4 CTD with the culprit being couatl.exe, specifically a dll issue possibly.  This happened after taxing around at KVNY, and I do have your KLAX v2 scenery activated in P3D v4.  I am also running Orbx SCA.  I had to manually disable a few FSDT files related to LAX and disable a few Orbx files.  I did this after viewing a post at orbx forums about running LAX with Orbx SCA scenery (see here): http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/107942-sca-compatibility-with-fsdreamteam-klax/#comment-971420

EDIT:  I also forgot to mention I just installed the P3D v4 hotfix #1 - perhaps this is messing with the dll's in Couatl?  Additionally, this is a repeatable error.  I then rebooted, and this time was able to depart VNY southbound towards KLAX...  crossing KLAX went ok, but then just south of the field the same identical dll/exe error shows up.

From event viewer:

 Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
  Application Name:   Couatl.exe
  Application Version:   3.2.0.3827
  Application Timestamp:   5935442e
  Fault Module Name:   ucrtbase.DLL
  Fault Module Version:   10.0.10240.16390
  Fault Module Timestamp:   55a5bf73
  Exception Code:   40000015
  Exception Offset:   0007d85a
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Information 1:   73a1
  Additional Information 2:   73a130e3d872c93e57e6ea24d1f17e0d
  Additional Information 3:   9126
  Additional Information 4:   912660925aff6a6c948fc24cb7d0fa01

[virtuali]

Hi I was attempting a flight on Pilot Edge online network tonite when P3D v4 CTD with the culprit being couatl.exe, specifically a dll issue possibly.  

Couatl is not the "culprit", it's the victim...

As explained many times already, Couatl.exe, being an external .exe, CANNOT crash the sim. The worse it could happen, if Couatl.exe crashed because of its own problem, would be that Couatl.exe would just disappear from the Addons menu.

What really happened, instead, was the opposite: BECAUSE the sim crashed, for some other reason, it made Couatl.exe to crash, because when the sim crashes abruptly, it usually doesn't have time to send to all the executables it has launched, the message to close themselves, so they might not have a chance to do their required cleanup, and this will likely cause them to crash too.

EDIT:  I also forgot to mention I just installed the P3D v4 hotfix #1 - perhaps this is messing with the dll's in Couatl?

Couatl doesn't have any relationship or knowledge of the specific version version of the sim. However, you must run the FSDT Live Update, to get the latest Addon Manager (bglmanx64.dll) which supports the Hotfix 1.

[ryanbatcund]

Oh.   

So the Problem Event Name is the thing that crashed because of the Fault Module Name?

Did not know that.  Ok - so have you ever seen that file mentioned?  I googled it and it said something about VSPro 2015.  Maybe there's a C++ file or something I'm missing.

[virtuali]

So the Problem Event Name is the thing that crashed because of the Fault Module Name?

Couatl.exe crashed, that's for sure. But that doesn't mean it was the CAUSE of the crash of the *sim*. It crashed because the sim crashed, not the other way around.

Did not know that.  Ok - so have you ever seen that file mentioned?  I googled it and it said something about VSPro 2015.  Maybe there's a C++ file or something I'm missing.

I don't think anything it's missing. Just that P3D crashed for some reason and, as I've said, if it crashes abruptly, we cannot get a chance to do a final clean of of memory and resources, which will likely cause a crash in our app too.

[Anxarces]

Hi,

my couatl.exe crashed as well. However, P3D keeps up running. In the addons menu the Couatl menu item is missing (due to the crash) and all my FSDT airports only show the jetways with buildings missing.

Yesterday, I installed Hotfix1 for P3Dv4. Do I need an update of couatl to support the new version of P3D or is there something wrong in my installation? I uninstalled all FSDT airports and GSX, downloaded the new installers and did reinstall everything.

Btw, in P3D v3.4 everything works fine.

Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: Couatl.exe, Version: 3.2.0.3829, Zeitstempel: 0x5947e62c
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: Sens_oal.dll, Version: 2.2.20.3080, Zeitstempel: 0x535a1cfb
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x000c0d2c
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x2880
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d2ef559936ee73
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: E:\Flugsimulation\Sceneries\Addon Manager\Couatl\Couatl.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Sens_oal.dll
Berichtskennung: 3320274f-0533-44e7-a88e-20aa3c5c995b
Vollständiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets:
Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist:

Regards,
Ulrich

[Drumcode]

Umberto,

Are you saying that the hotfix released by LM yesterday should not cause any issues in v4 in your sceneries?

I also noticed some weird behavior in GSX after the hotfix at ORD. The Marshaller was gone and half way pulling into the gate, I got the crash error too. Unfortunately I don't have anything to back that up. I'll fly more tonight.

[virtuali]

my couatl.exe crashed as well. However, P3D keeps up running.

Your problem is entirely different than the one reported here, which was the sim crashing, and causing Couatl.ext to crash because the sim crashed. In your case, Couatl crashed first, which shows that, if Couatl crashes, it won't cause the sim to crash.

Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Sens_oal.dll

This problem indicates the Couatl, again, is not the cause of its own crash, but it's your audio driver that crashed. This .dll is part of the OpenAL implementation made by Creative. We use OpenAL for sound but, of course, if the drivers are bugged, they will likely crash the program.

The OpenAL situation with Creative is a bit of a problem. A while ago, Creative fully supported OpenAL, and their implementation was the best one, supporting many features specific to their hardware. But lately, they abandoned it, so the project went back to the Open Source community.

On 99% of the audio boards, we get to use the default OpenAl, which sits on top of DirectX but, if the audio driver provides with a "native" version, which in your case is Sens_oal.dll, it will use that by default but, due to the situation with Creative, it seems there are some bugs in the drivers, which might not be fixed.

If you are able to select another audio device in the GSX audio settings (it might be the same audio card, but using the software OpenAl, instead of the native one), you should select that one.

[virtuali]

Are you saying that the hotfix released by LM yesterday should not cause any issues in v4 in your sceneries?

Surely not. We have been using the hotfix for weeks now...

I also noticed some weird behavior in GSX after the hotfix at ORD. The Marshaller was gone and half way pulling into the gate, I got the crash error too. Unfortunately I don't have anything to back that up. I'll fly more tonight.

The hotfix, if you are referring to the P3D V4 hotfix, cannot have any effect on the GSX marshaller.

Maybe it was just the marshaller stop position not properly set, so it was inside a building, but you should have said which gate and which airplane you used in order to check this.

About a crash, unless you can provide with a 100% reproducible step that result in a crash with GSX installed, and no crash with GSX uninstalled, it's basically impossible to say if it was related to it or not.

[Drumcode]

The hotfix, if you are referring to the P3D V4 hotfix, cannot have any effect on the GSX marshaller.

Maybe it was just the marshaller stop position not properly set, so it was inside a building, but you should have said which gate and which airplane you used in order to check this.

About a crash, unless you can provide with a 100% reproducible step that result in a crash with GSX installed, and no crash with GSX uninstalled, it's basically impossible to say if it was related to it or not.

Oh, by any means I'm not trying to play a blame game or anything, please don't get me wrong. It was PMDG's T7 and the gate was C18.

[Anxarces]

Thanks for your reply. I just started P3D to change the sound settings. However, I noticed that everything is working fine again, so I did not change anything. I don't know, what happend yesterday. Perhaps something in my sound drivers crashed resulting in that error.

Couatl and GSX are back in the addon menu and I can see all buildings in the FSDT sceneries.

Thanks,
Ulrich