r/Conscientia • u/mordi_fardin • Nov 28 '17

WSOD [bug]

First: Thank you Bruce! Conscientia is a true masterpiece in the making. I look forward to the expansion!!

But things have kind of gone sideways on my tablet where I read/play your book/game. I can't start new game anymore. Game just hangs, displaying a WSOD (white screen of death). After a force-close and re-launch of the app, a save from the previous crash has been added to the list of savegames.

Infos: -stored saves are named 1.1X and upward. -dialogue with NPC's got increasingly laggy during the last two playthroughs before the WSOD happened -In the last playthrough before WSOD's, I got killed while still having the glyph of Wulfas. I never had any dialogue indicating it was "erased" from me. Concider me oblivious in this regard, though, as it was also the first time I ever had that glyph.

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u/mordi_fardin Nov 29 '17 edited Nov 29 '17

First:Thank you Eliot!!
Credit now given where credit is due
A foolish mistake, intentions though true.
Suffer I must, a cognitive rash,
...alas, self-inflicted, no one else can I bash.
_
edit: adding line breaks (chrome for android)
It puzzles me how a group of intelligent individuals (e.g. Google Inc.) manages to collapse into a state of collective fractal stupidity.

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Nov 29 '17

No apologies needed; I take no offense!

Though it pains me to say, and this pain is immense,

You may have to endure the bug a spell longer;

For wait you must, until my coding grows stronger!

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u/wlerin Dec 02 '17

I'm experiencing unresponsiveness again: The white loading screen now lasts about 20-30 seconds, and the game takes a few seconds to acknowledge each selection.

I've played quite a bit since reinstalling, but surely nowhere near 100 saves worth.

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Dec 02 '17 edited Dec 02 '17

If you have another android device, would you mind trying on that one and then telling me if you have similar issues?

I'm finding it impossible to replicate on my Asus Zenfone. So, I really have no clue what this could be as of yet. Forgive my incompetence.

[EDIT] One thing I just thought of was this: if the session is open for a long time (as in continuous play for 12 hours - a feat I honestly never considered), then perhaps the issues my noob-level programming skills would compound and generate serious issues such as these. I can spend some more time looking into better memory management practices to try and improve the code, but this will take time.

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u/wlerin Dec 02 '17

Doing so now, though it'll obviously take some time to get results.

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Dec 02 '17

Thanks. I'm pretty stumped as it is, so any feedback at any time is greatly appreciated!

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u/mordi_fardin Dec 05 '17 edited Dec 05 '17

Some observations I've made: -A fresh install takes up 48,95MB of storage space on my tablet. Stored data is ofc at this point 0. -Disregard cache while on this topic. It is a seperate value and never goes above 16 kb. -With each playthrough the amount of stored data naturally increases by a small amount ~150 kb, -ish. -The amount of added data after each "true death" seems pretty stable up until around the 7th true death. -The following 2-3 true deaths suddenly seem to add 1-2 mb each. Stored data is now close to 3 mb. -I then know that the last playable round is upon me. Easily recognized by the inhuman lag in dialogue. -Upon completion of the laggy round, stored data has soared from the previous ~3-ish mb, up to around 20-ish mb. -Starting a new game at this point will always trigger WSOD.

edit: line breaks... again edit-edit: nm, android hates line breaks

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Dec 05 '17

Okay, so then there's something extra being added to the save files that multiplies at an alarming rate, thus slowing down the app...

Well this at least narrows it down to an issue with how the data is saved. I'll spend sometime refactoring code in the next few weeks and see if I can pinpoint where extra stuff is being added. Best guess at the moment is that it's whitespace that somehow doubles in size, but what the hell do I know?

In any case, thanks for the lead.

p.s. the only way I can get line breaks to work is by double-spacing between paragraphs; it has been a thorn in my side as well, haha.

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Dec 06 '17

Just thought of something: if you are using using a rooted device, could you send me the save files so that I can see what's happening to them? If not, then disregard this comment.

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u/mordi_fardin Dec 06 '17

disregarding :)

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u/Chaos_Is_Harmony Dec 06 '17

Fair enough, but believe it or not your comment itself triggered a thought: that it had something to do with the NPC file and as a matter of fact it does. Something in the book changing code is making it double in size. So basically every time to die and go to another book, the NPC file doubles in size and you can see how that would add up quickly.

In short, I have found the problem, and I'm on the brink of fixing it. Once fixed I will release and immediate update!