Compilation of sensorplugin fails on Windows with MSVC due to stack overflow (CL.exe exit code -1073741571)

[mulegan]

Hello,
I'm encountering a consistent compilation failure when building the sensorplugin on Windows with Visual Studio 2022. The build succeeds for the core mujocolibrary and all other plugins (actuator, elasticity, etc.), but fails specifically on sensor.vcxproj.

Environment:
OS:​ Windows 10/11
Compiler:​ MSVC (Visual Studio 2022 Community) version 19.34.31948.0
CMake:​ 3.24+ (or 4.3 as shown in logs)

Build Type:​ Release
MuJoCo Commit:​ 47264877 (pinned by the UnrealRoboticsLab project)
Steps to Reproduce:
Configure with CMake: cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Build: cmake --build build --config Release

Observed Error:
The build fails during the compilation of plugin/sensor/sources (register.cc, touch_grid.cc), with the following error from MSBuild:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v170\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(787,5): error MSB6006: "CL.exe" exited with code -1073741571. [D:\UnrealRoboticsLabCode\UnrealRoboticsLab\third_party\MuJoCo\src\build\plugin\sensor\sensor.vcxproj]
Error Code Details:
The exit code -1073741571corresponds to 0xC00000FD, which is the Windows status code for STACK_OVERFLOW. This indicates that the MSVC compiler (CL.exe) itself is encountering an internal stack overflow while processing these specific source files.

Question / Request:
Could the team please investigate this compiler-specific stack overflow? It might be triggered by particularly complex template metaprogramming or constexpr computations within register.ccor touch_grid.ccthat hit a limit in this version of MSVC.
Is this a known issue? Are there any suggested code modifications or compiler flags to work around it without disabling the entire plugin?
Thank you for your time

[jonathanembleyriches]

Hi, thanks for the detailed report and for providing those environment specifics.

It looks like the build failure you're seeing is happening specifically during the compilation of our third-party dependencies (MuJoCo). This is upstream code that the plugin pulls and depends on, rather than the source code of the plugin itself.

The error code indicates that the MSVC compiler is running out of internal memory while processing MuJoCo's sensor files. The version you are using (MSVC v19.34 / VS 2022 17.4) appears to have occasionally hit these internal stack limits.

I checked in with the MuJoCo team and they currently use MSVC 2025 (the v144 toolset) in their official GitHub CI.

Recommended Workarounds

Please try one of the following:

1. Increase the Compiler Stack Limit (Immediate Fix)

Try re-configuring the MuJoCo build by adding the /F flag to the CMake configuration:

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="/F10000000"

2. Use the 64-bit Hosted Toolset

You can force the 64-bit version using the host=x64 flag:

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -T host=x64 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

3. Update to the MuJoCo Reference Toolset (Recommended)

Use the same toolset th MuJoCo team uses for their CI:
Install/Update to Visual Studio 2025

---

I’ll look into updating our build.ps1 to include these flags by default to help prevent this for users on older toolsets. I'll leave this issue open for now—please let me know if one of these workarounds does the trick for you!

[mulegan]

build.ps1.txt
Hello,
Thank you for the quick reply and suggestions.
My situation turned out to be quite peculiar, and I wanted to share it as a data point. After encountering this issue, I did consult AI models and received similar troubleshooting advice (like adjusting CMake parameters, increasing stack size, etc.). I also tried various more explicit CMake configurations myself, including but not limited to the ones you mentioned. The compilation consistently failed. I even restarted my PC and performed clean rebuilds multiple times, all without success.
However, today—without making any changes to my system environment, toolchain versions, project code, or build scripts—I simply re-ran the exact same build command that failed yesterday, and it succeeded.
This result is genuinely surprising and puzzling to me. I cannot pinpoint the root cause. I can only speculate if it was related to the release of some background process resources, a transient state of the OS or compiler runtime environment, or perhaps a subtle difference in downloading network dependencies.
In any case, the issue appears to be resolved for now. Thank you again for your time and assistance. If there are any insights into this "auto-fix" or if further information from my side would be helpful for debugging similar cases in the future, I'm happy to provide it.
Best regards

[jonathanembleyriches]

It looks like a temperamental issue with the build environment; sometimes MSVC can be unpredictable with internal resource limits during complex compilations. Since you're unblocked, I'll go ahead and close this out. Thanks again for the detailed report!

[donghaiwang]

We have the same error in Windows 11. Here is the full log. I hope to receive a reply or answer, thank you.

setup.log

[jonathanembleyriches]

We have the same error in Windows 11. Here is the full log. I hope to receive a reply or answer, thank you.

setup.log

From your log it also appears that you are running an older version of MSVC. Updating to the version MuJoCo upstream uses for their CI is the best solution for you. Building MuJoCo is a third party dependency and not our code so we suggest using their toolset.

Could you please try the steps from here and let me know the outcome.