Virtualeech - I Need You Desperately! Vns Help Pls


Grebn

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Jan 17, 2005
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This is a message I guess for VirtuaLeech, as I can't seem to get hold of him any other way. Anyone reading this who knows where I might find him, please let me know how, or let him know I'm looking! (Though equally this message applies to anyone who might have a solution)..

Anyway, Mr VL - if you are reading this, you might know that I've just coded a GP32 version of Warlock of Firetop Mountain using VNS, and now I'm finally bug-testing the final version, I'm coming across an alarming crash bug and was wondering if you could help explain why it might be happening..

The form it takes is the screen going white and crashing, or the screen fading sideways with a weird sound in the background. It always occurs in a scene where random numbers are being generated, and seems to happen after roughly the same amount of random numbers would have been generated.

At the moment this is crippling the game, to the point that a full adventure would be unplyable. Because i've been playtesting sections as I've been coding them, I've not had a real chance to play the whole game.

So, if you're still working on VNS, could you give me any pointers? I've checked the program for IF statements without ENDIFs following them, the program size is 192kb, and I'm currently feeling really gutted!!

My theory is that VNS is programmed to generate a finite amount of random numbers, then 'runs out' and crashes. Is this likely? If so, is there any way around it?
 
I thought as much. Bugger.

Any ideas from anyone would be cool...

If you'd like a copy of the source code, please send me an email to beat_bedsit@yahoo.co.uk (warning though, its huge...)

Paul
 
The sequence of random numbers is the same every time, so the order generated is identical (I know 46,33,17,0 are the first four). The expression for creating a random variable is:

SETVAR=<variable>,RANDOM

Where RANDOM is a number between 0 and 100.

Pretty innocuous. It may not be what I'm guessing, but crashing only happens in battle, which is where the bulk of random number generation occurs. It may actually be that the amount of lines required to conduct battle (VNS is pretty limited for variable handling so I'm having to go a convoluted way round) is causing a strain.

Or it could be memory leaking filling up the available space..

Cheers for help though!

Paul
 
Hiya,

Cheers - it was the first thing I did. I emailed him with some requests for VNS when I first started about a month ago, and I since PMed him. No reply to either.

I guess he's out the loop..

Paul
 
He emailed me a picture of his desktop for me to host for him ages ago, I may still have that email address. I`m not home at the moment to check, But will have a look when i am, As it may be a different one than you have.

Trooper
 
Here is 1 address that may work
VirtuaLeech@jpopmail.com

otherwise have you tried the source code checker
VNS-SC.exe - can anyone provide a good link?

is the problem only towards the end of the game - if so is there a way to split the code into 2 bits and save / load the character from the SMC

Does anyone have the source code for VNS itself I have coded some C++ and could look at it?

Tarka
 
The only problem with splitting the game in two is that some factors in the first half affect the second (items picked up, stats etc) and they can't be ported between programs.

I think Tarka mentioned it may be a memory leak - if thats the case I could try renaming the variables used in each battle separately. That MIGHT work.
 
I found out what the problem is - Tarka was right. It IS leaking memory. I must admit I'm at a blank as to what to do about this. I don't know if there's any way of increasing the available memory.
 
Actually, just to say, VNS is leaking memory like a sieve. I wish I'd known this before wasting a month programming. It really does feel like an insurmountable problem at the moment. If I could get the source code for VNS I might be able to do something with it...
 
WhiteFalcon posted on May 13 2005 at 08:00 PM said:
And you don't even need bubble sorting in this case, you can just find the right place for a new high score, place it and shift the lower values one place down kicking the lowest out of the table.

can you free variables, that aren`t needed anymore?

SETVAR=quabbel,RANDOM

and when you don`t need it anymore.

SETVAR=quabbel,something else?


I also know that problem with random numbers being the same all over again appeared in Pascal, too. You had to put a get(randseed) or something like that in your code to make it work properly. Maybe there is something comparable in VNS?


You can also try the irc channel #gp32dev in EFNet, ask around there, maybe sdome of these now how to contact Virtua Leech.
 
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Hi Quiest,

There's no random number seed generator in VNS, which is a shame. Variables are being reused, but the memory seems to be leaking even when variables aren't being addressed. Its very shoddy!

If VirtuaLeech hasn't replied yet, I don't think he'll be interested in doing an update or addressing the memory leak..

I feel absolutely gutted at the moment. I'd put so much time into this game.

Paul
 
Hi Grebn

I saw this mentioned in the manual - could this have something to do with your problem - ie does it crash if there is no music?

vnsmanual.htm

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<extract>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BUG ALERT: At the moment if you stream SEF files (automatically done when you use a SEF file as background music) from a ZIP file VNS crashes if you try to read another file from the ZIP at the same time. I have no idea (yet) why this happens. For now if you use SEF files (instead of MOD files) for background files you must leave them out of the ZIP file.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<end>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

------
also leaving music out might give you a bit more memory so allow the game to finish before the memory runs out - sad but gives a possible useable game :(

Tarka
 
Grebn posted on May 13 2005 at 09:15 PM said:
Hi Quiest,

There's no random number seed generator in VNS, which is a shame. Variables are being reused, but the memory seems to be leaking even when variables aren't being addressed. Its very shoddy!

If VirtuaLeech hasn't replied yet, I don't think he'll be interested in doing an update or addressing the memory leak..

I feel absolutely gutted at the moment. I'd put so much time into this game.

Paul

Yeah, it`s a shame he lost interest in VNS, especially after someone made something very big with it... and notices afterwards it doesn`t work... :(

This would have been the first big vns release (I know of), but know it seems like it shouldn`t be (I really don`t hope so!)
 
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Hopefully someone can get ahold of him to fix it, or perhaps get the source from him so it can be fixed.

If all else fails, perhaps the warlock VNS source can be still used. I've no idea what VNS source looks like, but perhaps it could be translated to fenix or zotscript. (Is this all text, or have you got graphcis of the scenes in there?)

ie: Translation via a perl script or the like may not be so bad..

So I'm sure something can be done.

If all else fails, I could look into a zot-ified version; showing text with a few options at the bottom and handling some random number based 'combats' should be easily done.

jeff
 
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