Got a constant crashes after about 20-30 min of playing
Running on Windows XP SP3 with compatibility mode enabled. The game itself is patched to latest version (1.17f).
Tried to use glide, direct3d, software render mode. Tried to rename Msvcrt.dll/Msvcrtd.dll in game directory (because the latest version of c runtime exist in windows folder). Nothing helps
Does anyone encounter such game behavior? Any ideas how to fix this?
Thanks.

I guess i found and fix the problem.

After some debugging i found the problematic code in f15.exe. Looks like the developers used FormatMessageA kernel call to format some localized text messages. The message tables itself is also in exe resources. Somehow the message id's 0x298 and 0x299 (possible others, dont know) caused a crash in ntdll.dll on my system:

Error in f15.exe, 1.0.0.1, ntdll.dll, 5.1.2600.6007, at address 0x0002556b.

Here is the call stack from the debugger:

Call stack of main thread
Address Stack Procedure / arguments Called from Frame
0023EE10 7C927113 ntdll.7C926EFE ntdll.7C92710E 0023EE0C
0023EE48 7C928EA4 ntdll._snwprintf ntdll.7C928E9F 0023EE44
0023EE4C 0B590036 wstr = 0B590036
0023EE50 00007FE5 count = 7FE5 (32741.)
0023EE54 0023F1C0 format = "%hs"
0023EE58 00000001 <%hs> = 00000001 ???
0023F208 7C834ADC ntdll.RtlFormatMessage kernel32.7C834AD6 0023F204
0023F2A4 7C82F7CA ? kernel32.7C8349D8 kernel32.7C82F7C5 0023F2A0
0023F2EC 0044ED32 kernel32.FormatMessageA F15.0044ED2C 0023F2E8
0023F2F0 00000000 Flags = 0|0
0023F2F4 00000000 pSource = NULL
0023F2F8 00000298 MessageId = 298
0023F2FC 00000409 LanguageId = 409 (LANG_ENGLISH)
0023F300 0023F9C8 Buffer = 0023F9C8
0023F304 00000400 BufSize = 400 (1024.)
0023F308 0023F310 Arguments = 0023F310
0023F314 00474522 F15.0044ED00 F15.0047451D
0023FDC8 00473636 F15.00474170 F15.00473631
0023FDDC 004A1ACC F15.004735F0 F15.004A1AC7
0023FEA4 004EDEDE F15.004A0BB0 F15.004EDED9
0023FEC0 0051A57A F15.004EDA50 F15.0051A575
0023FEDC 004464FB ? F15.0051A3C0 F15.004464F6
0023FEFC 004B657B F15.004462E0 F15.004B6576
0023FF30 0055DF6E ? F15.004B6350 F15.0055DF69
0023FFC4 7C817077 Includes F15.0055DF6E kernel32.7C817074 0023FFC0

So i just made a 'dirty' patch to prevent code at 0047451D to call 0044ed00 and no later FormatMessage occur. My guess i just block some text output, no any significant changes to gameplay.

In game i complete one mission and it looks ok. Tomorrow i will test this fix more and drop a link to a 'fixed' exe if administration dont mind.

Confirmed, this fixed exe works perfectly for me.
Since there is no objection responce from moderators i will post the link.

http://www.mediafire.com/?bye6o0hanvp451y

This is original 1.17f (Eng) exe with my patch applied.

Replace your f15.exe only if you have in game crashes.

Difference between original module (use fc or diff to validate):

0007391D: E8 90
0007391E: DE 90
0007391F: A7 90
00073920: FD 90
00073921: FF 90
00073927: 74 EB

Fixed .exe is fine. Thanks for the support.

Hey Xray,

May I asked what debugger you attached to the executable? (Tried to sort out some problems with some old Janes titles previously, and they crashed when I hooked debuggers to them) Thanks and brilliant fix!

Welcome.

Sure. OllyDbg 1.10 with JIT debugging enabled, so i just clicked button on conventional crash dialog. Also i switched rendering to 'software' in game.

I guess to debug fullscreen windows games probably heavy artillery like syser or softice should be used.

Great!
I will give it a shot in the campaign mission where it always crashed after fence-in.

Did you game crash happen at a particular time of the game (heavy action?) or randomly between 20-30 minutes?

UPDATE:
I just flew a campaign mission with heavy AAA, (it usually crashed in those conditions, i got this far in the campaign by editing the missions and removing AAA from nearby areas, funny...) and the game didn't crash !!! it continued going perfectly !
thanks for your work.

Thanks for the fixed exe. However, I'm still getting random CTD's about half an hour into a mission.

That is some fancy detective work, x-ray.

CTD means crashes ?

Thanks for the exe, I'm running it on an XP-laptop and it works perfectly now.

CTD = "crash to desktop"

M@verick welcome.

Joe, thanks

So, arbz, if you post here detailed information from crash dialog i will try to look into the 'exe for the source of evil (i assume you have 1.17f english version)

It seems to be more stable after enabling Win95 compatibility mode.

Anybody has a new link for this? I'm being constantly redirected to realtor.com and don't seem to be able to actually start the download.

Thanks.

Here is the fixed exe
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TIO3LOXU

cheers.

Perfect. Thank you khriztian, and thank you x-ray for the work on this!

After six long years I got back into this great sim thanks to x-rays work. Armed with the fixed EXE, dgVoodoo 1.40 and HOTAS Warthog, first two Iraq campaigns missions worked great.

The problem came during the third one. After landing, I exited the mission and got a blank screen. About 20 seconds later I got two errors. First was this:

Faulting application f15.exe, version 1.0.0.1, faulting module skunkutl.dll, version 1.0.0.1, fault address 0x000048d0.

Second one:

Event Source: ati2mtag
The driver ati2dvag for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop.

Had to reboot to get my resolution back to normal. After getting back in there, I found that the airport runways and fuel dumps etc were already destroyed(by me, before the crash!). Also after every crash ordnance that was loaded to planes seems to disappear, so I ran out of FLIR pods already.

I tried the logging version of DgVoodoo 1.40 and then ran about dozen different missions and exiting them trying to reproduce it. No luck. Guess I'll start over and try dgVoodoo 1.50 beta2.

@Doomer

You can try nGlide available here - it has good 3dfx emulation and the interface is much simpler than that of dgVoodoo or zeckensack's wrapper.

I also recommend nGlide as a Glide wrapper. It is super easy to install and use.