Chroma: legacy SDK games never update after initial read (infinite wait bug in RazerSdkReader)

[moeilijk]

Summary

SignaledReader.ReadLoop in the bundled RazerSdkReader.dll has a bug where the 5-second polling fallback never fires, causing legacy Chroma SDK games to stop updating after their initial read.

Root cause

EventWaitHandleExtensions.WaitOneAsync passes -1 to RegisterWaitForSingleObject after the synchronous wait expires instead of the caller's timeout. The code comment describes 5-second polling as intended behaviour, but the implementation blocks forever.

Impact

Legacy Chroma SDK games write color data directly to shared memory without signaling the event handle. Their colors are read once at startup, then never updated again.

Verification

Patched the bundled RazerSdkReader.dll (single constant: -1 to 5000) and confirmed that 007: First Light updates continuously without manual intervention.

Resolution

• Upstream fix: fix: pass timeout to async wait to enable polling fallback for legacy Chroma SDK games diogotr7/RazerSdkReader#4
• PR with patched DLL: fix: update RazerSdkReader.dll to fix polling fallback for legacy Chroma SDK games #291

[joaocaparroz]

Applied the patched RazerSdkReader.dll from this PR on Aurora v383. Confirmed it's the exact build (SHA-256 a7107e599923dfaeac32a70c794a12cb6c72acce6315b666588d74895ee2d139, 190464 bytes) and that it's the module actually loaded by AuroraRgb.exe from the install root. Original/stock DLL was also 1.5.0.0, so no version mismatch.

007: First Light still renders all-black after the patch — tested in active gameplay, waited well past the 5s polling interval. The Chroma Game Integration panel shows Connection: Success and Current Application: 007FirstLight.exe, so the app registers, but no color data ever shows (Aurora's bitmap window stays black).

Other Chroma games work fine through the same path — Overwatch lights up correctly. So the capture chain and my devices are healthy; this is 007-specific.

Devices: Asus Aura (motherboard + strips), Logitech G915 X TKL, Corsair Vengeance DDR5, OpenRGB WLED — all via RGB.NET, all initialize OK.

One environment question, since you verified 007 works with this DLL: do you have Razer Synapse / Chroma Connect installed? I'm running Aurora's emulated SDK without Synapse. I'm wondering whether 007's curated effects require the real Razer runtime to actually write per-key colors into shared memory, vs. only registering the app — which would explain the app showing up but the color frames being empty on my side.

[moeilijk]

I will look into that. I am using Synapse and Chroma connect since I have a Razer mouse so didn't think of that.

[moeilijk]

Root cause analysis

007: First Light only works with Razer Synapse — and here is why.

The game uses Razer's SetEventName API (RzChromatic64.dll → PluginCoreSetEventName). This is an event-driven integration where the game calls functions like SetEventName("Drive_Brake_Off") instead of directly writing color data to shared memory. Synapse then translates those named events into actual color effects and writes them to the shared memory that Aurora reads.

Without Synapse, no color data is ever written to shared memory. Aurora reads nothing. This is a hard architectural dependency on Synapse for this category of games.

This was confirmed by reading the Chroma SDK log (C:\Program Files (x86)\Razer Chroma SDK\logs\007FirstLight.exe.log) which shows continuous SetEventName calls but zero direct SetEffect writes to shared memory when Synapse is absent.

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Secondary fix (included in #291)

There is a separate, related bug that has been fixed: when rzsdkservice.exe restarts (e.g., ~79 seconds after a fresh Chroma SDK install), Aurora was disposing ChromaReader which released the ChromaMutex (SynapseOnlineMutex). The game detected SynapseOnline=0, immediately sent a SetGlobalEffect[11] (reset all lighting to black), and never resent its color state after SynapseOnline returned — resulting in permanently black lighting until the game was restarted.

The fix keeps ChromaReader and its mutexes alive during a service restart, so games never see the SynapseOnline=0 gap. This was confirmed working in testing.

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Current status for 007: First Light

Synapse must be installed for this game to show Chroma lighting in Aurora. This is not a bug Aurora can fix without significant new functionality — see #292 for the feature request that would enable SetEventName-based games to work without Synapse.

[joaocaparroz]

Thanks for your support. I've installed Synapse and the integration works now.