v17 RGSS Player crashing with "(Not Responding)"

[Cryptochrome]

I still don't understand why my game Pokemon Descent is crashing. I'd like to add improvements, but I feel kind of stuck until I can fix the random crashing (there's no error message). If the player saves often, they can get all the way through the game. So it doesn't seem to be an issue with a single event.

Spoiler: Screenshot (Not Responding)

If it's not too much to ask the game jam judges (or anyone else that plays the game), could someone suggest a solution? Or at least tell me what might have gone wrong? How common is this problem for rookie devs?

I tried looking up "RGSS Player not responding" but all I got was people that couldn't open games, and the suggestion of altering their computer's DEP settings - which is not the problem my game is having.

Spoiler: Link to game with RPGXP Project file

Mediafire

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Personally, I usually get that when I have too many programs open and my computer starts to slow down. Maybe try having Task Manager open in the background so you can check the CPU/Disk usage? It could still be a problem with the code, but that's where I'd start.

 

[Cryptochrome]

Thanks for replying.

So I ran the game with Task Manager open, and the only thing that I saw change was CPU usage. It jumps from 3% to 5% when opening the game and remains there for a while. Then when the game crashes, the CPU usage suddenly jumps up to 30%... If it helps, my memory is stable around 45%, and Disk/GPU is at 0%.

Also I've only gotten feedback from 1 person on my game thread, and they said the game was crashing for them too.

This problem is such a buzzkill! I had so much fun making my first game, and was looking forward to making improvements and eventually developing other games. But I'm feeling so discouraged right now.

 

[VanillaSunshine]

I don't know if it will help for this specific crashing bug, but the first thing I noticed upon loading up the game is that it was still titled "Pokemon Essentials". Given the way Saved Games work with RMXP, this can cause a lot of unfortunate problems. (For example, I was able to load a save from another project, just because they're both titled "Pokemon Essentials", and I was put into one of the default example maps because of that.)

You can change your game's title in RMXP by clicking Game at the top of the screen and then "Change Title". Try not to use any special characters (like the é in Pokémon). Like I said, I don't know or think that has anything to do with the crashing, but it'll definitely help with a lot of common problems that can happen.

 

[Cryptochrome]

I didn't know I could change the title like that, thank you!

After changing the title and starting a new game, I was able to get through the tutorial level once without the game crashing! But when I tried going through the tutorial a second time to confirm, the game crashes at the same spots again.

 

[Cryptochrome]

I identified the looped music scripts as the cause of this problem. After deleting the "RGSS Linker" and "Audio Module" scripts I had installed following Thundaga's tutorial, my game no longer crashes! I first deleted all the scripts I had added as a last resort, and the game stopped crashing. Then I slowly added the scripts back, and when I got to the looped music scripts, the crashing returned.

So I guess this issue is mostly solved. My only question now is why they were causing my game to crash in the first place. Are the scripts maybe out of date? Was it wrong to install them above "Debug_Menu" in the Script editor?

 

[Jos_Louis]

I'm interested to know if anyone else has gotten the same issue here. My game, Pokemon Soulstones, has been having the same kind of issue. I similarly found the same threads that you noted when Googling as well, but your post is the first instance I've found of describing what appears to be the same issue I had. I have now disabled those two scripts as well. I also changed the one looping track I did used to have but the puzzling thing is that the crashes would seemingly happen anywhere and not just on that map that had the looping track.

Because the crashes were random or infrequent, I'm hoping this has been the fix because like you, I have been getting very discouraged with continuing game development knowing that there's this one persistent bug that can cause people to lose their progress.

Other things I tried along the way to finding this thread that seemed to somewhat reduce the frequency of the random crashes. were:

• Running the Game.exe as administrator
• Changing compatibility mode to Windows Vista

I'm not sure if these two scripts were indeed the cause though because as noted earlier, the crashes were happening seemingly randomly... mid-battle, running around in the overworld, in areas that didn't even have looping music! It has been so frustrating.

 

[Marin]

I've heard that FMOD doesn't play nice with my Better Fast-forward Mode script. Do you both have both these scripts, and does removing either one resolve the issue?

 

[Jos_Louis]

I did have your better fast-forward script for a while, Marin, however I disabled it, but the random freezing problem still persists. I have yet to see whether my fix from above on disabling Nuri Yuri's looping music script now as well will help since the crashes are seemingly random. I'll have to post back here with updates when I have them.

 

[Cryptochrome]

I've heard that FMOD doesn't play nice with my Better Fast-forward Mode script. Do you both have both these scripts, and does removing either one resolve the issue?

My game did not have the Better Fast-Forward Mode script at any point during its development.

Other things I tried along the way to finding this thread that seemed to somewhat reduce the frequency of the random crashes. were:

• Running the Game.exe as administrator
• Changing compatibility mode to Windows Vista

Changing the title of my game as suggested by VanillaSunshine seemed to halt the crashing at first, but eventually the crashing started happening again.

I have decided not to add the looped music scripts back to my game. I have not had any problems with crashing since removing them, and nobody that has downloaded my game has complained about crashing after the update.