ID:1825847
 
BYOND Version:507
Operating System:Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Web Browser:Firefox 31.0
Applies to:Dream Seeker
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
Descriptive Problem Summary:
Periodically the viewport part of the game window will freeze and seize to update. The only way to fix it is to close dreamseeker and reconnect. Issuing a reconnect attempt in the same window will result in the viewport being black.
Numbered Steps to Reproduce Problem:
Unknown

Expected Results:
Viewport would continue to update unless a server issue happened
Actual Results:
Randomly the viewport will freeze and stop updating. client will still receive all other kinds of updates from the server including sounds, browse calls and of course text in the log pane.
Does the problem occur:
Every time? Or how often?
its sporadic, sometimes happening several times a day or not for a few days
In other games?
No only ss13 as I dont play other byond games
In other user accounts?
Yes other people report it happening
On other computers?
Yes

When does the problem NOT occur?
unknown
Did the problem NOT occur in any earlier versions? If so, what was the last version that worked? (Visit http://www.byond.com/download/build to download old versions for testing.)
I have had it occur as far back as pre 499

Workarounds:
Close the dreamseeker window and reconnect. This does become an issue if you're hosting from dreamseeker though.

Example video: http://ss13.pomf.se/uploads/2015-04-06_12-21-55.mp4
This has been reported before. It appears to show up most in SS13, and the cause is yet unknown.
RIP
Had this problem as well, although before this black screen/freeze in view happens icons will begin appear invisible to the client side first then it goes on to screen being freezed.

Edit: Although it only happens, in my-game occurs when client(Player) selects a character/spawns) In gradual time.
Just to be clear I definitely want to get to the bottom of this longstanding issue (although I also want to combine it with the original thread at some point). The problem has been that there's no reliable way to reproduce the bug.
Oh i know, i can leave DS open overnight without issue or I can have it happen within 10 minutes.
In response to Lummox JR
Lummox JR wrote:
Just to be clear I definitely want to get to the bottom of this longstanding issue (although I also want to combine it with the original thread at some point). The problem has been that there's no reliable way to reproduce the bug.

Hmm,May I ask favor if you can check the source of my game. Maybe you can reproduce the problem

I'm not unsure about this.Could be a memory leak for this problem my side.But it only happens when New() obj or mob gets created. Eventually the bug occurs.
I would need a specific set of steps to follow to reproduce the issue. I'm not even sure if your issue is the same one.
You could probably attach your debugger or whatever you use to dreamseeker and just idle in your own ss13 server instance for a day and it will eventually happen.
I doubt it will happen if there's no activity on the server. I imagine the only way this comes up is under specific stress scenarios.
It doesn't even have to happen within a day, it seems to be completely random, and indeed only at some circumstances. The usual times it does happen is indeed with a lot of players around, I'd guess >20. Still unsure why though.
Possibly related to maptext and status displays, or more specifically the updating of such.
In response to GinjaNinja32
GinjaNinja32 wrote:
Possibly related to maptext and status displays, or more specifically the updating of such.

Status displays are unlikely as a possibility. Maptext can be ruled out because this bug is ancient.
Then there may be a second bug here.

One of BS12's contributors was working on code that involved maptext status indicators, and experienced almost constant freezing. As soon as the maptext indicators were replaced with something else, the freezing stopped.
Connected to my game server, alt tabbed and came back and the issue already occurred. Is there a way to enable dreamseeker debugging so i can make a proper dump for you when it messes up?
Heres a memory dump atleast. http://ss13.pomf.se/uploads/DSfreezedump.zip

GinjaNinja32 wrote:
Then there may be a second bug here.

One of BS12's contributors was working on code that involved maptext status indicators, and experienced almost constant freezing. As soon as the maptext indicators were replaced with something else, the freezing stopped.

That issue is a memory leak on the client for using a certain font on maptext.
In response to Pomf123
Huh. I could see a memory leak causing problems like this if it got out of hand and was severe enough. That might be a good clue.

If maptext is leaking with a certain font, I'd like to know what font that is and what maptext output in particular is being used. Or better yet, if you can generate a test case that leaks consistently, that'd be great.

If memory leaking can cause the freeze, then it might be worth investigating non-maptext cases to see how and when memory goes up on the client (e.g., what kinds of things are happening). That could be a big clue too.
Okay. Maybe I can find out more with that info alone. The issue with "Arial Rounded MT Bold,Arial Black,Arial,sans-serif" vs. Arial alone could be either the fallback mechanism, or something wrong with one of those other fonts.
Yeah I dont know why exactly that typeset caused the memory leaks but it did.
Not sure if this post was made in 2015 as I don't see a year next to the date, so hopefully I'm not bringing up a VERY old post...

I don't play SS13 very much. Last time I was playing SS13 (maybe a few months ago) I received this issue that was described by OP. I thought it was strange, but just dealt with it.

I decided to load up BYOND again and play some more SS13. I loaded onto the Paradise Station (approx. 83 players at the time). Edited my character profile...then I decided to Observe the round and loaded into the game world. I decided to just click on "Follow" in the log pane for the hell of it and that's when I noticed the game viewport locked up. All chat was still scrolling, but no updates to the game viewport.

I'm going to have to say this issue has only started (for me anyways) within a year's time. I would try to go back to previous builds, but since I'm not an avid BYOND user I'm not sure if BYOND would update itself when I load it up and/or if SS13 would work with an earlier build. Since I got nothing else to lose, I"m just going to try this anyways to see if I can get a working build on my PC.

As for PC specs, if it matters: CPU - i7-4770K, GPU - Titan X Hydro Copper, RAM - 16GB, OS - Win 7 Pro 64-bit, Current BYOND build version is: 5.0 Stable Version 501.1217

Hope this helps...TomFoolious

EDIT: Just noticed I'm not running the LATEST build, so...updated to 507.1286 to see if it would fix the issue. If it doesn't THEN I'll downgrade.

EDIT2: Latest update is just as bad. Joined same server (Paradise Station with about 60 players) and the game viewport is already locked up after observing Officer Beepsky do his thing...I'm going to go to a BYOND build from say...early 2013. This issue definitely wasn't happening on my end during that year.

FINAL EDIT: Well I can't test SS13 with a build version earlier than 501...So I can't come up with any good data. Looks like this will always be an issue. Oh well. One last note: After seeing the old BYOND Client Interface...that's when I last played SS13 without any issues from what I remember. So to conclude my speculations this new BYOND Client (possibly 500 and later?? Once again I don't know BYOND all that well) may be what is causing the issue...
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