Launching ANY Unity game makes Windows hang?

Ever since I upgraded my video card, launching *anything* built with Unity causes very strange behaviour: the first Unity window doesn't appear until around 30 seconds after double-clicking the EXE, and during those 30 seconds, my *entire* computer—including cursor movement!—stalls to about 5 fps. It's so slow during this delay that I can sometimes watch individual windows redrawing piece by piece; folder windows occasionally go into 'stop responding' mode. Then, once Unity's first window appears, everything is instantly fine again.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, with 6 GB of RAM. The problem started when I upgraded from a Radeon 6850 to a Geforce 970. I've already uninstalled the Radeon drivers and installed the Geforce drivers. I have an Oculus Rift, but this occurs even in non-Rift games, and even with the Rift disconnected.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there anything I can do to determine what on earth Windows is doing during those 30 seconds where it's so pegged that the cursor judders?

 

Are there problems with other games or only with games made with unity.

 

So far it has only happened with Unity games—although since yesterday, I have found a couple of Unity games that it *doesn't* happen with, so maybe it's only games compiled by a certain version of Unity...?

For reference,

Unity games that cause this lag:
https://share.oculus.com/app/ocean-rift (VR)
http://lilithzone.itch.io/lost-town (non-VR)
http://caret-works.net/ggj/fancy_cat/FancyCat.html (Web)

Unity games that don't cause this lag:
https://share.oculus.com/app/alien-makeout-simulator (VR)
http://kittyhorrorshow.itch.io/dust-city (non-VR)
http://superhotgame.com/play-prototype (Web)

I'm not sure if some common factor can be found (DX9 vs 11? Unity 4 vs 5?)

And just in case it could be useful, a few examples of the non-Unity games I tested:

Non-Unity games that don't cause this lag:
http://digitalcybercherries.com/ (VR)
http://www.goat-simulator.com/ (non-VR)
http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/ (Web)

And as I mentioned, I haven't found a non-Unity game that can cause this lag, yet.

 

have you ask the Developers if they can reproduce this problem.

 

I'm not sure how that would help?

I've been tempted to ask them for information about their projects to try and isolate a cause, but I'm not sure what criteria to ask for, does anyone have any suggestions?

(And does really no-one else experience this minute-long stall while launching any of those projects?)

 

Ahh, thank you so much for the log tip!!

I can now confirm, that the lag ALWAYS happens in Unity DirectX11 projects, and NEVER happens in Unity DirectX9 projects!

Interestingly, I tried Saints Row 3 (a non-Unity game) in both its DX9 and its DX11 mode, and the hang didn't happen in either case, so it DOES seem like this is Unity-specific.

I've made VerySleepy logs of launching a Unity DX9 game and a Unity DX11 game (each only getting as far as the 'configuration' screen), but I'm not sure how to interpret them; I've attached them here in case they can help you make any sense of this. (The DX11 version does seem to have a new entry that took up a huge chunk of time, but I don't know what it is..)

Thanks so much!!

 

Sorry to bump the thread, but I feel like we were *so* close to fixing this, having narrowed it down to Unity DX11 projects…

Does anyone have any suggestions for what could be making Unity lock up like this for an entire minute while trying to initialize its DX11 support?

 

Yep—even that tiny app triggered the hang!

 

So when superpig analyse of the verysleepy file is correct a 64-bit D3D11 app shouldnt take so long.

 

Now that GDC is safely behind us, I figure it's safe to check back in here

With Unity 5 being free, I was able to make myself a couple of test projects, and confirmed that a bare room (with a single cube) causes the hang when I compile it with DX11, and doesn't cause the hang when I compile it with DX9.

So where do we go from here?

 

I was trying 32-bit, but I just tried it again with 64-bit and got identical results.

 

You're right! The function it's spending a minute on is called "ChangeDisplaySettingsA". It's being called from "WinScreenSetup::InitializeResolutions". Does that give you anything to go on? (Should I attach the log?)

 

I think I will point http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/linux-static-linking-technical-question.309761/ at this if you do spit something "Testy" out pig.

Killing multiple avians efficiently and all that.

Have imaginary complementary bacon on us.

 

Oh, yikes, something must have gone wrong with the notification emails, I never got notified that you'd replied! Sorry!

I have some more news, then—after your explanation about monitor resolutions, I've now confirmed that this bug ONLY happens while my Dell U3011 is connected! I use three monitors, but specifically unplugging the U3011 makes Unity launches go back to normal. (And despite what your pseudocode says about the main display device, setting a different monitor to be my primary isn't enough to avoid the bug...)

Is there something I can run to get a list of all the reported resolutions for this monitor, so you can see if there's anything fishy about it?

(Thanks again for all your help!)

 

Just a bump to find out what I should do to get you information about the monitor that causes this?

 

The 'monitor type' shows up as "Dell U3011 (DP)", and when I click through into Properties -> Driver it says the Driver Provider is "Dell Inc."

 

1) The driver is up to date.

2) I did 'uninstall driver' and the problem persists.

3) After rebooting, Windows automatically reinstalled the driver that I'd uninstalled, and the problem persists.

 

Time for my monthly thread bump What kind of information can I provide you about this driver?

 

I'm having this issue too. Anything I build from Unity (even just a cube) is very slow to launch. The games ravenworks2 posted also have the issue, as does the test app from superpig. Playing in the editor is fine, and building is fine, but the startup time on the exe build takes forever. I'd estimate it takes anywhere from 15 - 30 seconds after clicking the exe for the resolution dialog to appear. During that time, the PC is completely unusable. The mouse moves at like 5fps and everything else is basically frozen (even the Windows performance monitor).

From what I read in this thread, it seems related to multi-monitor and the Nvidia driver. I am also using triple monitors, the Asus Rog Swift PG278Q. All three are connected to an Nvidia GTX 980 via DisplayPort. I have tried turning Nvidia Surround on and off, no difference. I have disabled 2 of the monitors in the Nvidia panel, no difference. I have enabled and disabled G-Sync and SLI, no difference.

Originally I had the monitor using the "Generic PnP" driver, but I updated to the Asus Win 8 64-bit driver, it's no help. I also have the latest Nvidia driver 353.06. I'm not sure what else I can do. This is a serious issue for me, please let me know if I can provide any details or if there is something I can try to fix this.

Also, here is the Very Sleepy capture, which appears similar to ravenworks2's.

 

cyberpunk, I'm so glad you found this thread -- my main monitor (the one that I said made the problem go away when I disconnected it) is ALSO connected over DisplayPort -- and when I swapped it for a DVI cable, the problem went away!! This isn't a permanent fix, because I don't have enough non-DP ports on my 970 for all my monitors, but at least we've got it narrowed down one step further!

Can you try the same thing on yours? Narrow your screens down to just the number you're able to connect over DVI, then test those screens once over DP and once over DVI… (And out of curiosity, what are the resolutions on your monitors?)

 

@superpig: Thanks for the quick response. No, I never had an AMD card in this machine. I should have mentioned the specs, which are below. I'm running Windows 8.1.

Intel i7-5960X @ 3.0GHz | Asus X99-Deluxe | EVGA GTX 980 x 3 | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 | Samsung 840 Pro 512GB | WD Black 4TB x 2 | Corsair Obsidian 550D | Corsair Hydro H55 | Corsair AX1500i | Asus Rog Swift PG278Q x 3 | Nvidia 3D Vision 2

@ravenworks2: Yes, I am also using DisplayPort on these monitors. The resolution is 2560x1440 for each screen. Unfortunately, these monitors only have a single DP connection, there are no other options. I did try to unplug 2 of the monitors, and it did help. With only 1 monitor connected, the hang/stall is only for around 5 - 10 seconds, though it still happens.

I also tried on my other computers, and the app ran fine. One of the machines was using Nvidia 470's in SLI with the same latest Nvidia driver (353.06) and it launched with no problems. This machine has a single 1080P monitor on DL-DVI. Then I tried with an AMD 280X and a 720P HDMI display, also no problems.

 

@superpig: Thanks so much. Looking forward to your reply.

 

I too am experiencing this issue. I have a Nvidia GTX 970 and a Dell U2515H running at 2560 x 1440 on Windows 7. Using DVI or HDMI doesn't cause this problem, only display port.

 

I got the same problem with Nvidia GTX 980 and a AOC G2460PQU running at 1920x1080@144hz over DisplayPort. Again using VGA, DVI or HDMI doesn't cause this problem.

 

Seems like this is likely related to DisplayPort. Sadly, my monitors don't have any other ports so I can't verify this myself. Has anyone from Unity been able to give it a go and reproduce this problem?

 

Thanks superpig. The delay seems to compound with multiple monitors. If I just have one monitor plugged in, it's closer to maybe 5 - 10 seconds. But with 3 monitor connected it triples the lag time.

 

Looks like I have similar problem. But in my case there are 3 FullHD monitors connected to GeForce660 card with 1 HDMI and 2 HDMI-DVI cables (3 HDMI inputs on monitor, 1 HDMI + 2 DVI outputs on videocard). When I run any Unity project compiled for D3D11 (even that simple project from this thread) the same "sluggish" problem appears. Other (not Unity) D3D11 games start fast. When I use DVI inputs of my monitors - no problem at all. When I disable NVidia Surround and start Unity game using "-screen-width 5760 -screen-height 1080 -screen-fullscreen 0 -popupwindow" parameters - everything looks fine. So looks like this problem is somehow connected with Nvidia Surround and HDMI too, not only with DisplayPort. Superpig, could you please test it in your QA department?

 

I am also able to reproduce this.

I use one DVI and two DP monitors.

Having either of the DP monitors in use causes any Unity game I launch to stutter and sluggishly load. It causes the entire computer to drop down to ~5fps with the mouse input being crippled.
Marking the DVI monitor as my main monitor and unplugging the DP monitors is perfectly smooth.
Interestingly having the DP monitors plugged in, with the DVI monitor as the main monitor causes it to load sluggishly, but it doesn't appear to be as bad as if one of the DP monitors was marked as the main monitor.

 

Just like to mention it happens even with released games like Beyond Eyes and Her Story.

 

I am having this exact issue, though it doesn't always seem restricted to Unity games. The problem does present for SURE when playing any DX11 Unity game, especially anything showing the unity personal settings window. The problem does go away when removing my DisplayPort monitor (which is not an option for me to do permanently)

I've attached my dxdiag file but here's a summary:
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
MB: Z97X-UD3H
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
RAM: 32GB 2133Mhz DDR3
SSD: 2 x Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
Mouse: Cyborg M.M.O. 7
KB: Razer BlackWidow Chroma

 

Facing the same issue here. Running 3 monitors, 2 on displayport. I did have a radeon card installed originally, then installed 2x 980's. I have an i7 4770. Drives me sort of crazy here...

 

In another case yesterday,

Using a DP monitor with the HTC Vive plugged in. When I went to launch our application it went through the same stuttering and sluggishness, before finally throwing an error about not being able to 'Set the Resolution to 1024x768 0hz' it also said something about iterating through all available resolutions before failing. It then closed the window.

I've only seen it happen during a few launches time yesterday. If I see it again I'll grab a screenshot and logs.

 

Same issue. Goes away if I use a different monitor.. unfortunate since this is my best monitor I want to use for gaming (ASUS VG248QE)

 

Just like to update that this issue is no longer happening for me.

I'm using Unity 5.2.1p3 and Nvidia driver 353.38.

 

Yeah seems to have been fixed somewhere along the line.. hurray!

 

Thanks for popping in. Is there any way to give this higher visibility to developers? I think most developers have no idea this is an issue b/c most people still don't use display port, and I don't think testing with different display connectors is a common QA test. Almost every Unity built demo I've ever tried has this issue and still does. It seems to be particular nasty on Windows 10, resulting in complete PC freezes in some cases.

 

After installing Unity5.2.2 the sluggishness effect is lessened, but it's still there.

@superpig I'll send you my DXDiag