Immediate Access Violation when debugging Windows.Devices.Sensors project in Windows 7 - c++-cli

Question

I have a large solution with 50+ unmanaged projects in it. I have recently added a project with managed code in it to the solution. The managed code accesses Windows.Devices.Sensors in a .NET dll. This dll is eventually wrapped by unmanaged code and called from another unmanaged project.
My problem is that I get the following access violation before main() even executes.
Unhandled exception at 0x744b8ea0 in myApplication.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation.
Managed code:
#using <Windows.winmd>
using namespace Windows::Devices::Sensors;
#include <math.h>
namespace TabletSensors
{
namespace NET
{
public ref class DotNetDllClass
{
public:
DotNetDllClass()
{
Initialization();
}
~DotNetDllClass()
{
}
float* GetQuaternion()
{
OrientationSensorReading^ reading = _orientation->GetCurrentReading();
if( reading != nullptr )
{
float* quat = new float[4];
quat[0] = reading->Quaternion->X;
quat[1] = reading->Quaternion->Y;
quat[2] = reading->Quaternion->Z;
quat[3] = reading->Quaternion->W;
return quat;
}
else
{
return NULL;
}
}
private:
void Initialization()
{
_orientation = OrientationSensor::GetDefault();
if( _orientation != nullptr )
{
_orientation->ReportInterval = 16;
}
else
{
// not good ... throw exception or something
}
}
OrientationSensor^ _orientation;
};
}
}
Wrapper header file:
namespace TabletSensors
{
namespace NETWrapper
{
class DLLEXPORT_SENSORS WrapperClass
{
public:
__stdcall WrapperClass();
__stdcall ~WrapperClass();
float* __stdcall GetQuaternion();
};
}
}
Wrapper cpp file:
#define MIXSENSORS_BUILD
#include <gcroot.h>
#include "DotNetWrapper.h"
#include "DotNetDll.h"
using namespace TabletSensors::NETWrapper;
using namespace TabletSensors::NET;
static gcroot<TabletSensors::NET::DotNetDllClass^> Sensors = nullptr;
static System::UInt16 refCount = 0;
#pragma managed
inline TabletSensors::NET::DotNetDllClass^ GetSensors(void)
{
return (TabletSensors::NET::DotNetDllClass^)Sensors;
}
void Init()
{
++refCount;
if(GetSensors() == nullptr)
{
Sensors = gcnew TabletSensors::NET::DotNetDllClass();
}
}
void CleanUp()
{
if( refCount > 0 )
{
--refCount;
}
}
float* GetQuaternion_()
{
return Sensors->GetQuaternion();
}
#pragma unmanaged
TabletSensors::NETWrapper::WrapperClass::WrapperClass()
{
Init();
}
TabletSensors::NETWrapper::WrapperClass::~WrapperClass()
{
CleanUp();
}
float* TabletSensors::NETWrapper::WrapperClass::GetQuaternion()
{
float* x = new float[4];
return GetQuaternion_();
}
#pragma managed
Unmanaged project referencing my wrapper class:
#include "DotNetWrapper.h"
.
.
.
void UnmanagedProject::Update()
{
// if this line is present, I get an access violation without hitting any breakpoints.
TabletSensors::NETWrapper::WrapperClass _tabletSensors;
.
.
.
}
Since the managed code is trying to access Tablet Sensors I understand why it doesn't work on my Windows 7 desktop. What I don't understand it why it won't even allow me to debug my code at all. No breakpoints are hit before the Access Violation occurs.
What I would really like to figure out is how to use exception handling or #ifdefs to keep this crash from happening. But I have had very little luck.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

The fix is to Delay Load the managed DLL. The allows the application to run until that DLL is explicitly called. Thanks to Ben Voight for his answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28467701/1454861