Watchdog fires when Smart Area Reclaim widget performs wide-area scan on recoil_2026.07.04 + NVIDIA 616.56

[sahilthakur456111-stack]

Describe the bug

In engine build recoil_2026.07.04, the main-thread watchdog fires and kills the game ~50 minutes into a match when the Smart Area Reclaim widget (beyond-all-reason/bar_widgets/gui_smart_reclaim.lua) performs a wide-area scan. The widget code itself is unchanged — the regression appears to be in how this engine build handles the scan in combination with new NVIDIA drivers (driver 32.0.16.1656, Aug 20 2026). Same widget on engine build recoil_2026.06.12 does not trigger the watchdog.

Reproduction

1. BAR launcher → engine recoil_2026.07.04 (current bundled version)
2. Enable the Smart Area Reclaim widget from beyond-all-reason/bar_widgets
3. Play a wide-reclaim map (confirmed on "All That Glitters v2.2.3")
4. At roughly the 45–50 minute mark, a teammate selects a wide reclaim area
5. Main thread blocks on the widget's reclaim scan for ~30+ seconds
6. Watchdog fires; game dies

Log signature

[Smart Area Reclaim] Warning: Smart reclaim area is too large, limiting size   (repeating every few minutes leading up to crash)
[t=00:48:13.789421] Warning: [Watchdog] Hang detection triggered for Spring 2026.07.04.
[t=00:48:13.789507] Warning:    (in threads: {main,load,audio,vfsi}={1,0,0,0})

The main=1 line is the engine flagging the main thread as the one waiting, not load/audio/vfsi. That points squarely at the Lua-side widget scan blocking the main thread — but on the previous engine build the same scan completes inside the frame budget.

Expected behavior

Watchdog should not trigger on widget-driven reclaim scans. Either:

1. The widget's scan should be moved off the main thread, or
2. The engine should expose a way for widgets to yield during wide-area scans (so the main thread isn't blocked), or
3. The engine should increase the watchdog timeout when the main thread is in a known-Lua yield state.

Actual behavior

Game crashes to desktop after the watchdog fires.

System info

• OS: Windows 11
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU
• Driver: 32.0.16.1656 (Aug 20 2026)
• BAR: Beyond All Reason test-31177-b64aa4e
• Engine: recoil_2026.07.04
• Map: All That Glitters v2.2.3
• Widget: gui_smart_reclaim.lua (from beyond-all-reason/bar_widgets)
• infolog.txt attached

Cross-reference

Filed the widget-side report at beyond-all-reason/bar_widgets — same user, same infolog.

Workaround

Disable Smart Area Reclaim widget. Game stable for 60+ minutes after that.

[sahilthakur456111-stack]

Attaching the infolog tail from the crash. Watchdog fires at t=00:48:13.789 with main=1, load=0, audio=0, vfsi=0. Main thread is hung on the widget's wide-area reclaim scan. Full log (~380KB) at C:\Program Files\Beyond-All-Reason\data\infolog.txt. Key lines: Watchdog hang at main thread, then 30-second cadence of OPENGL32 polling errors before engine exit.