Garfield bug -> AGS bug ???

Kairus · Mon 12/04/2004 04:10:42

Hi, there.

There's something strange happening to my game Garfield: Attack of the mutant lasagna.

Since it was uploaded for the first time, many people have downloaded and tried it, and many have reported that sometimes the character got stuck to the ground while walking and it kept animating but didn't move anymore.

Before releasing the game, I played it several times in order to see if everything was working properly. I found no bug at all, but, as I knew exactly what to do, I could do everything quickly and possibly I avoided the bug that way. Last night I spent a long time playing the game and walking aimlessly around the rooms to see if I finally could reproduce the bug that everyone was talking about: I could.

After finding it once, I played again and again to track the bug and see exactly where the bug happened. It happens in many rooms. In the beginning I thought it should be a scripting problem perhaps with the repeatedly execute commands I added to some rooms, I was wrong. After tracking the bug for a while I noticed it only happened in rooms where there was multiple zoom levels and the player changed from one zoom level to another while walking (there where rooms where zoom level only changed because of some interaction, but this rooms didn't get the bug).

I then remembered what the manual said about avoiding changing the speed when a character was moving. I also remembered I was using the 'adjust speed with scaling' option. I just unchecked that option and spent quite a long time more playing. Nothing happened. I played more today and still nothing. It seemed to have solved it, but, that option was important. Not very important, but I can't simulate the same effect with a script, there's no easy way to do that. Now the character seems to be flying over some parts of the background and when it comes forward it finally walks in a correct speed. It doesn't look good.

It's not just an aesthetic problem, many people have found it quite difficult to beat the game because of this bug. This was not something meant to be, really.

So, Chris, is there any chance that the 'adjust speed with scaling' option is causing this bug? Do you think you can fix it for the next version of AGS? I don't mean to cause you any trouble, but maybe you could release a patch or something to fix it before the next version of AGS is ready... I don't know. Maybe finding where this bug could be is hard enough...

Well, I hope you can help me with this. Thanks in advance,

Kairus

Hollister Man · Mon 12/04/2004 04:38:50

I have yet to get a "walking in place" bug, but when scaling my character down about 50-60%, and keeping the speedscale checked, she does a "step-step-pause-step" like there's a frame missing, but there isn't. When I uncheck the box, its fine, but really fast at low percentages. It could be that there's a bug in the routine that isn't found often.

My question: Is there a particular size that the fat cat is scaled to when it decides to bug out? When the area is like 80% - 120% but walking speed scaled, its fine. If I set the area to "50%-85%" she starts to skip. Could these be related?

RickJ · Mon 12/04/2004 14:56:53

I have observed this as well. It happens to me whenever I go in the barn. There is nothing I can do to avoid getting stuck. I can zip up the whole mess and post it somewhere if that would be helpul.

Pumaman · Mon 12/04/2004 19:25:02

Is there a good way to reproduce this? Ive walked around a bit but I can't seem to have the problem. Hollister Man asks a good question - does it happen with high zoom areas or low zoom areas, or both?

I've seen a possible problem and fixed it in beta 5, so could you try that and see if it helps. If not, I'll investigate furtheer.

RickJ · Tue 13/04/2004 06:12:35

Here is a version of the game that you can get stuck every anytime you want. Just load the "Barn" save game and walk into the barn. When I do it on my WinMe machine and ty to make him walk to the machine he gets stuck at the beginning of the second stall.

Stuck Garfield Game

Kairus · Tue 13/04/2004 06:35:55

I have sent CJ three or four savegames where Garfield gets stuck, too.

I have now downloaded beta 5 of v2.6.1 and recompiled the game. It works, but I haven't played enough to see if the bug eventually comes. I think I'll test it deeper tomorrow.

Pumaman · Tue 13/04/2004 18:09:52

Thanks for sending the save games - I can see the bug.

It would be really handy if you could send a savegame from beta 5, if the problem still occurs.

Kairus · Thu 22/04/2004 03:29:08

The bug is still there. Chris, I don't know if you want me to send you the savegame which makes it, or I should send you the whole game compiled in beta 5. That would be difficult. Is it the savegame enough? I don't remember what little changes I've made from v2.6 to 2.61b.

Pumaman · Thu 22/04/2004 20:39:13

Well, is there one way that you can almost always reproduce the bug? If I start the game and go to a certain room, am I very likely to run into it? That would be the best way forward.

I did try out the barn but didn't have any problems.

Kairus · Fri 23/04/2004 02:39:19

The only way I've seen it is after playing for a long time. I don't know how long, but maybe one hour or something. It looks like you have a timer when you start the game that (for instance) it will get stuck in one hour.

Then you play, go back and forth for half an hour, later on you save the game, go to bed and the following day you start again. Then the next time you play it it's more likely that you will get stuck in half an hour. I think that's why you can easily reproduce the bug in the savegames I sent you, because it's very near to happen.

That would explain why when some people restarted the game and already knowing what to do went and did everything faster they could beat the game.

I'm not sure if it works that way, but it seems to. I hope that helped...

Pumaman · Fri 23/04/2004 20:30:51

Yes, a save game saved with beta 5 would be very useful, thanks.

Pumaman · Sat 24/04/2004 19:02:26

Thanks for sending the saves - I think they've helped track down and fix the bug.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/acwin.zip

try this new engine - you should be able to load a save game from beta 5 where he is stuck, and now be able to move again. The problem should not recur.

It turns out that it was a timing error - if the character has Adjust Speed with Scaling turned on, then after 15 minutes of walking he will get stuck.

Hopefully that should now be finally fixed - let me know if you have any further problems.

Hollister Man · Sun 25/04/2004 00:32:02

I guess that means there must'nt be many others who have made games since that feature was implemented (and USING the feature, of course).

shame shame...

Just glad you got it sorted out before we got struck the same way.

Kairus · Sun 25/04/2004 04:02:18

Wow Chris! Thanks, I'm gonna try this as soon as I can. Thanks a lot!
That's what I call a good technical support service.