Unity app crashes on startup when ZED Unity plugin version does not match installed ZED SDK version

[oversight-labs-hub]

Preliminary Checks

• This issue is not a duplicate. Before opening a new issue, please search existing issues.
• This issue is not a question, feature request, or anything other than a bug report directly related to this project.

Description

There is a critical startup crash when the ZED SDK for Unity plugin version does not match the ZED SDK version installed on the machine.

This makes the application unusable as a real product because a simple SDK/plugin version mismatch causes the Unity app to crash immediately on launch, instead of showing a clear error message or fallback behavior.

In my case:

Installed ZED SDK on machine: 5.3.0
ZED Unity plugin version: 5.2.0
Unity version: 6000.3
Application type: Unity standalone build

Uninstalling the ZED SDK from the Windows Control Panel, or deleting the relevant ZED sl_unitywrapper.dll files from the Unity project, allows the application to load successfully.

This strongly indicates that the crash is caused by the mismatch between the installed ZED SDK version and the ZED Unity plugin version.

It is important to note that the crash happens before Unity has finished bootstrapping. It occurs before subsystem registration, which makes any developer-side fix or runtime validation impossible from within the Unity application.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install ZED SDK 5.3.0 on the machine.
2. Use a Unity project with ZED Unity plugin version 5.2.0.
3. Build the project as a Unity standalone application.
4. Launch the built application.
5. The application crashes immediately on startup.

Expected Result

The Unity application should not crash on startup.

Instead, the ZED Unity plugin should detect the SDK/plugin version mismatch and handle it gracefully, for example by:

• Showing a clear error message to the user.
• Logging the exact installed ZED SDK version and required Unity plugin version.
• Preventing ZED initialization while allowing the rest of the Unity application to continue running, where possible.
• Providing guidance to install the correct compatible ZED SDK version.

A version mismatch should be reported as a clear compatibility error, not cause the whole Unity application to crash.

Actual Result

The Unity application crashes immediately on startup.

The app does not show any warning, error dialog, or graceful failure message explaining that the installed ZED SDK version is incompatible with the Unity plugin version.

It also fails to launch the Unity crash manager and simply exits.

The Player.log file is attached.

Relevant part of the log:

[UnityMemory] Configuration Parameters - Can be set up in boot.config "memorysetup-allocator-temp-initial-block-size-main=262144" "memorysetup-allocator-temp-initial-block-size-worker=262144" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-background-worker=32768" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-job-worker=262144" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-preload-manager=262144" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-nav-mesh-worker=65536" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-audio-worker=65536" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-cloud-worker=32768" "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-granularity=16" "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-bucket-count=8" "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-block-size=4194304" "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-block-count=1" "memorysetup-main-allocator-block-size=16777216" "memorysetup-thread-allocator-block-size=16777216" "memorysetup-gfx-main-allocator-block-size=16777216" "memorysetup-gfx-thread-allocator-block-size=16777216" "memorysetup-cache-allocator-block-size=4194304" "memorysetup-typetree-allocator-block-size=2097152" "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-granularity=16" "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-bucket-count=8" "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-block-size=4194304" "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-block-count=1" "memorysetup-profiler-allocator-block-size=16777216" "memorysetup-profiler-editor-allocator-block-size=1048576" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-main=4194304" "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-block-size=2097152" "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-block-size-background=1048576" "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-reduction-small-platforms=262144" "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-gfx=262144" Mono path[0] = 'C:/Absorber/Bin/Client/Client_Data/Managed' Mono config path = 'C:/Absorber/Bin/Client/MonoBleedingEdge/etc' Input System module state changed to: Initialized. [Physics::Module] Initialized fallback backend. [Physics::Module] Id: 0xdecafbad

ZED Camera model

ZED2i

Environment

OS: Windows
CPU: Not applicable / not relevant to the issue
GPU: NVIDIA GPU
Installed ZED SDK version: 5.3.0
ZED Unity plugin version: 5.2.0
Unity version: 6000.3
Application type: Unity standalone build

Anything else?

This is critical for production use.

In production environments, users may have a different ZED SDK version installed than the version expected by the Unity plugin. A mismatch should be handled safely and reported clearly, not crash the whole application before Unity finishes bootstrapping.

Uninstalling the ZED SDK from the Windows Control Panel, or deleting the relevant ZED sl_unitywrapper.dll files from the Unity project, allows the application to load successfully. This strongly suggests that the issue is caused by the SDK/plugin version mismatch.

It seems that issue #315 may be caused by the same underlying problem.

[Bvallon-sl]

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed report. This issue is clearly caused by a version mismatch. I remember working on this a few months ago, but it seems the problem is still present.

I’ll investigate further and see what I can do to prevent this from happening again.

[Bvallon-sl]

Hi,

I published the version of the plugin for 5.3 and improved how the version mismatch is handled.

[oversight-labs-hub]

@Bvallon-sl Thanks, this already helps us dramatically compared to the previous behavior.

Just to clarify the remaining issue from our side:

Right now, if there is a version mismatch, we get the Windows error notification and we are blocked from operating the Unity app. Also, if sl_unitywrapper.dll exists in the Unity project but the full ZED SDK is not installed, we are still blocked with the appropriate message.

The error message is useful, but the blocking behavior is still a problem for us.

In our product, ZED support is optional. We want to support ZED cameras, so the ZED Unity plugin / sl_unitywrapper.dll may be included in the project, but we do not want to force every customer who does not use a ZED camera to install the full ZED SDK and CUDA as well.

From our perspective, if the ZED SDK is missing or there is a version mismatch, the Unity app should still be able to run, and only the ZED functionality should be disabled.

Would it be possible to handle this at the Unity ZED SDK level as a warning instead of blocking the entire application?

Ideally, the app would continue running, while the ZED plugin reports something like “ZED SDK missing or incompatible” and prevents only ZED initialization.

This would allow us to ship ZED support as an optional integration without forcing all users to install ZED SDK / CUDA when they do not use a ZED camera.

[Bvallon-sl]

I was not considering this, thanks for the feedback.

I'll see what I can do.

[oversight-labs-hub]

Hi @Bvallon-sl, any progress on this issue? It’s a real showstopper for us.

[Bvallon-sl]

It's done. Now it "only" disables the ZED-related stuff when the ZED SDK is not detected (or when there is a version mismatch).

Feel free to test and give your feedback!