Problem

Whenever I compile my game, the memory boosts on the program. Not in the memory info, but when I try to open the game with coldstone open it says "Need 129,164 K" so I quit coldstone, try to open it and it shows the loading dialog and then the black screen of death. I enter in 129164 in the Misc in Info for my game and then I try to run it again but the black screen of death still.

This happened before, and I changed an event and it worked. This time Everything in the events are alright. Help please?

PS I finally got my liscense code! w00t! 🙂
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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

(This message has been edited by PinkFluffyBunny (edited 10-20-2002).)

lol this may be off topic, but I ordered not long after coldstone was released, and after 3 attempts at shipping it to me, I finally got an intact coldstone CD just recently. Rock on!

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"This time, the effect was that of putting out a fire with a barrel of gasoline. And that's the moment when I said to myself, NO, I'm not playing this game anymore."
—Assaf Oron, IDF

(This message has been edited by Madman (edited 10-20-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by PinkFluffyBunny:
**
This happened before, and I changed an event and it worked.
**

I think you may be on to something here...

~stray

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That's just the thing....I checked everything and the only thing I can think of doing wrong is changing the music, which isn't wrong. It's really the only thing I've changed...Oh wait...I put in a new sprite ((url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/sotp.html") found here (/url)), but what's wrong with that...? I don't really understand what's going on.....

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

I just deleted the newest sprite off of the map. Pitiful. The memory didn't even change!!!! So it is eternally screwed and is poing me off. Now i understand why no one knows the answer to this.

/me refrains from ranting about all the bugs in coldstone

All I can do is await an update that works better.

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by PinkFluffyBunny:
**I just deleted the newest sprite off of the map. Pitiful. The memory didn't even change!!!! So it is eternally screwed and is poing me off. Now i understand why no one knows the answer to this.

/me refrains from ranting about all the bugs in coldstone

All I can do is await an update that works better.

**

My main reason for silence is my incapacity to believe that any game would require 129mb of RAM, it boggles the mind...Out of cuiousity how large are your maps? i assume you've followed the suggestion of using 16bit art, and from your screen shots your using a sizable portion of included art, and your characters are of a normal size and seem classic SD/anime style. It boggles me as to how you could have molded those elements into something that would devour so much RAM?

I don't think that there's anything specifically wrong with your game outside of the fact that your original specs are to demanding on your system and perhaps any other system that does not have 256mb or ram factory installed.

Does anyone have the memory requirements from POG, i'm almost certain your game exceeds that figure by 40MB +, that's scary.

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(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 10-23-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by PinkFluffyBunny:
I just deleted the newest sprite off of the map. Pitiful. The memory didn't even change!!!! So it is eternally screwed and is poing me off. Now i understand why no one knows the answer to this.

When you removed the sprite, was everything happy?

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Nope. My computer can't even run it with nothing else running. I have 160 mb RAM on my iBook along with 161 mb of ram on vm.

I'm sorry, but I have no clue what I did wrong. The memory isn't my fault, k? Not saying anyone said that to me, but still. It isn't. I deleted everything so it's back to where it used to work and still nothing.

Something is eternally screwed.

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

I posted in another post because I felt that people would read it.

Is this actually a problem no one can solve? I know I can't. I hope I didn't put 50 USD to waste....That was my birthday money too.... :frown:

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

I'm sorry PinkFluffyBunny, but I don't think I or anyone can help you, since we don't have your game to debug. I agree that debuging Coldstone games is very difficult, since all it does is crash, and doesn't give you any useful error messages at all! So I don't think any of us have any magic bullets for you. :frown:

One suggestion, which will not help you now unfortunately, is to make a backup of your game folder every week, then at least you can go back to the last working version.

I suppose I have one suggestion. To make sure you're not forgetting something else that you changed, look at all of the file modification dates for the files in your game folder, and see which of them have been changed since the last time that your game ran successfully. You may find an event or a map that you changed and forgot about.

Your game does seem to need an awful awful amount of memory. Are you sure that you don't have lots of hidden sprites floating around your maps? I second ellrx's question, how big are your maps?

Do you have any events that spawn more sprites?

But it doesn't have enough memory at startup... ? Do you have any really big pictures for backgrounds?

Maybe you can give us a few more clues and we can help you.

--Katherine

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AS Kathatos said, you need to send the game to someone (preferably Stark. He debugged my plugin in about 20 min.s). Stark is really good at CS and should fix you up easily. Someone needs to take a look at it. The problem I had was very obscure (PoG crashes when it removes events). Stark knows CS like the back of his hand. He will solve it. Trust me.

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CI-I@()s

Few things.

1. I am using the Medieval template so there are no big maps since my game last ran successfully.

2. I quadruple-checked over everything I last

3. It runs now, just black screen of death after the loading dialog.

4. What's Stark's email address? I'll see if I can let my parents send a big file (the whole folder is over 40 MB unstuffed) over the internet (we have multiple computers hooked up, don't want to bug anyone).

As I ponder these things, I just continue using sprites.

Well, do you think it is freaking out because I have sprites in my game's folder that I am NOT USING? I don't see why it would...They're not being called or even appear in the game.

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

PB,

Don't think that unused sprites would cause it to freak. Stark has numerous addresses. stark@evula.net. honda@arthur.avalon.net is the one he checks the most (or so he says). Anyway, he would probably have to DL it at work and bring it home. He has dialup at home. However, he is the expert on debugging stuff, so he should be able to help you out. So send it to one of those addresses (If you don't get a response, I will ask Stark on monday). Hope that Stark will be able to fix it up, (he will).

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CI-I@()s

umm...I don't think you can send 40MB files through eMail in most cases...maybe you should ask Stark before sending such a massive collection of files to him, unsolicited?

Well, I'm not nearly an expert. The last time I got a black screen after the loading dialog though, it was because I was trying to use an 8bit graphic in my initial main location. If it crashes right after the first dialog, it's almost certainly something wrong with your first location, but you say you haven't changed anything so I'm at a loss. I break my game all the time too, and it usually doesn't work when I try to revert the changes! Usually because I've forgoten something though. Oh well.

To get an idea why your game wants so much memory, you could try looking at the statistics box at the bottom of each map edit window, to see how many textures and objects you're using. If you're going to email it to Stark though, I'm sure he'll figure it all out and I'll just shut up.

--katherine

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PB,

Patrick has a point. I'd send a "will you take a look" email without the file. Make sure he understands that it is huge. He will check the game when he has time (he is working with dampeoples on the dragon for his plug). He should be able to help. All you have to do is let your family send 40 megs.
Good luck! 🙂

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CI-I@()s

Um. I would stuff the file. I wouldn't send that big of a file to poor Stark. That'd be torture for the poor guy even if he had DSL.

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"Perish in flames!"
Ghostbusters
Let us all scream that as we pass a windows users on the street, then point and laugh at them.
My game's (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/pfbgames/")site(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by PinkFluffyBunny:
**Um. I would stuff the file. I wouldn't send that big of a file to poor Stark. That'd be torture for the poor guy even if he had DSL.

**

He has a modem that goes about 33 k (at home). I don't know what he has at work (though I am guessing T-1 or at least cable)

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CI-I@()s

Quote

Originally posted by CI-Ia0s:
He has a modem that goes about 33 k (at home). I don't know what he has at work (though I am guessing T-1 or at least cable)

I remember him saying he has broadband at work, but I don't remember exactly what it was he had.

So, basically, I've contributed zilch to the conversation at hand. 🙂

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Even modern data compression can only do so much. Plus, out of that 40MB many are likely already compressed graphics files.

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