[1.38] Runtime error during long challenge battle

#1

When trying my hand (fleet) in challenge 4578387, and after at least 5-10 minutes slugfest, the tides were reversing and I wasn’t pounded into space dust, GSB crashed.
Screenshot attached (The black area was due to GSB not redrawing post-crash when I temporarily had another window over it).

I suspect this has something to do with the amount of shots fired, as this challenge simply has a ridiculous amount of missile spammage (for which the swarm has the ultimate answer).

Machine: Intel C2D E8550, Asus P5B, 8GB PC6400, Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X, Asus Xonar D2X
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64

image
GSB Ultimate Battle - Crash.gif1536×884 208 KB

#2

nah, this always just happens with big battles. try turning off all the fancy graphics options and try again. the more RAM you have, the less of a chance it’ll crash.

#3

I have 8GB ram and not even half of it was in use at the time of the crash, so that’s not it.
Besides, “This always happens when” is no excuse for ignoring the bug :slight_smile:

#4

I never said that we should ignore it. I just can’t figure out for the life of me how it could be fixed, other than using smaller fleets.

The limit for the hugeness of challenges is your ram.

#5

I get these too. I don’t think it’s ram related.

A recent patch note mentioned a crash when ships exploded on top of one another, perhaps this is related to that. Those challenges usually involve lots of packed ships.

#6

As I said, there was enough free ram to go around, so that is not what caused the crash to happen this time.
Perhaps you could create a debug-only-stats overlay that displays how much ram is allocated and by what.
(Or other stats for those stathappy campers :slight_smile:

#7

yes, but it still happens even after the patch. and I read it carefully, and it seemed to be an error of when to damage the ship. the damage, after the ship death explosion nearby, damages other ships about 0.5 second after the explosion. if the damage from something else killed it first right when the first ship blew up, the second ship would get “damaged” and the game would crash.

… for people who don’t like reading, it’s not the problem. My bet goes to the ram being the problem.

#8

It’s not RAM. I have about 9GB of unused RAM when it crashes. It’s not the video card. Mine was barely above idle when it crashed. The processor is nowhere near 100%.
I would guess there is some built in limit like a maximum number of items on the map or a maximum number of shots in the air or some such.

#9

no, it’s not hardcoded. I know I heard somewhere Cliff commenting on the problem, but I forget where… maybe it’s just my imagination. either way, I don’t know what the problem is if not ram.

were you looking at your used ram while you were doing the challenge? if not, then that’s probably why you think it wasn’t ram. did the challenge have a HELL of a lot of fighters? if you have tons of fighters, it will crash for sure.

#10

Without going into another yes-no-is-isnt argument.
Why does it crash then?

#11

I’m using a Mac, (not sure if PCs have this too) so I have an application that lets me view the status of my computer, how much ram is available, etc. without interrupting the application. So I played the game in windowed mode (keeping an eye on the application – I have two monitors ^^) when I went to a challenge. When the battle started, the ram was lower than normal, so I was thinking, ok, just be careful with the zoom and…

…oh god. when the huge amount of fighters on both sides clashed, it was chaos. well, chaos aside, the ram being used shot up like a rocket until the game T_T

maybe it’s different with yours, and just a coincidence that yours was the same error, but my cause was ram

#12

I was watching the RAM in the resource monitor while GSB was running. I had 9GB of unused physical RAM when it crashed. It’s not (just) the RAM. The CPU usage was nowhere near 100%. The video card was not being stressed. The disk usage was fine. It seems that there must be some hardcoded limit that it is exceeding.

#13

like I said, my problem was ram. maybe I was just running a bigger battle. it was the “Dear God…” map. I don’t know about you.

#14

Well then, here’s to finally prove the ram-issue. I have played a few large battles before this one, so ram usage is up a bit, not nothing dramatical.

image
GSB Ultimate Battle - Part 1 - Start.png1292×457 18.3 KB

#15

And then when it crashed…

image
GSB Ultimate Battle - Crash.png1292×457 18.9 KB

#16

And after closing GSB…
Let he who still dares to claim it is a ram issue bring forth proof or be silent in contemplation :slight_smile:

image
GSB Ultimate Battle - PostClose.png1292×457 19 KB

#17

…

…

…

…what WAS the challenge, anyway?!

#18

I was talking about 4583305 on the DEAR GOD… map.

#19

I was actually talking to the other guy. i kinda guessed yours was the dear god map since you’re the one who came up with the idea of making another challenge on the map :stuck_out_tongue:

#20

Challenge 4578387 is follick’s “follick11 - Deadly Rain”-challenge.