lol at Pokemon Uranium

Hehe.  It only disappoints me that it wasn't made in Sphere.

So I'm on Windows right now and ran the installer, and... minisphere just keeps crashing every time I try to run it, no matter what code I feed it. This is on 64-bit Windows 7, any way to debug it?

Speaking of debugging, when I tried pressing "Debug", minisphere *did* run once, but it kept waiting on SSJ and Sphere Studio flat-out told me it failed to start up the debugger.

Interesting, I'd need to set up a Win7 VM to test, it works fine for me on Win10.  As for Sphere Studio, yeah, it'll time out after about 10 seconds of not being able to connect.

Although... I think I might have fixed a crash or two since 4.2.4 was released?  I'll look into it and expedite the 4.3 launch if that's the case.

That would be nice, hopefully that would help. I intend on writing a game for someone who runs Vista, so it's rather important that the engine works for them too.

minisphere now differentiates between command-line debug sessions (SSJ) vs. Sphere Studio interactive (SSJ Blue).  Screenshots attached.

So I'm on Windows right now and ran the installer, and... minisphere just keeps crashing every time I try to run it, no matter what code I feed it. This is on 64-bit Windows 7, any way to debug it?

Here's the console log from my test on a Win7 VM:

Code: [Select]

C:\src\spectacles-i>spherun --verbose 4 dist
minisphere 4.2.4 JS game engine (x64)
a lightweight JavaScript-powered game engine
(c) 2015-2016 Fat Cerberus

parsing command line
    game path: C:/src/spectacles-i/dist/
    fullscreen: off
    frameskip limit: 5 frames
    sleep when idle: yes
    console verbosity: V4
    debugger mode: passive

initializing Allegro 5.2.1.1
initializing Dyad 0.2.0
initializing Duktape 1.99.99 (v1.5.0-687-g4cad05a)
loading system configuration
opening kevfile #0 as `#/system.ini`
initializing async subsystem
initializing Galileo subsystem
initializing audio subsystem
initializing input subsystem
opening kevfile #1 as `#/minisphere.conf`
    `#/minisphere.conf` doesn't exist
reading key `keymap_Player1_MENU` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_UP` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_DOWN` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_LEFT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_RIGHT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_A` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_B` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_X` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player1_Y` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_MENU` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_UP` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_DOWN` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_LEFT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_RIGHT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_A` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_B` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_X` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player2_Y` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_MENU` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_UP` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_DOWN` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_LEFT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_RIGHT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_A` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_B` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_X` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player3_Y` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_MENU` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_UP` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_DOWN` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_LEFT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_RIGHT` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_A` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_B` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_X` from kevfile #1
reading key `keymap_Player4_Y` from kevfile #1
disposing kevfile #1 no longer in use
initializing sockets subsystem
    Dyad.c 0.2.0
initializing spriteset manager
initializing map engine
initializing persons manager
creating new mixer #0 at 44 kHz
    format: 2ch 44100 Hz, 16-bit
initializing JS script manager
setting up jump points for longjmp
searching for a game to launch
opening `C:/src/spectacles-i/dist/` in sandbox #0
opening SPK #0 as `C:/src/spectacles-i/dist/`
failed to open SPK #0
parsing JSON manifest for sandbox #0
    title: Spectacles: Bruce's Story
    author: Author Unknown
    resolution: 320x200
initializing Sphere v1 API (v2.0)
creating new mixer #1 at 44 kHz
    format: 2ch 44100 Hz, 16-bit
reading key `Arrow` from kevfile #0
loading image #0 as `#/pointer.png`
reading key `UpArrow` from kevfile #0
loading image #1 as `#/up_arrow.png`
reading key `DownArrow` from kevfile #0
loading image #2 as `#/down_arrow.png`
reading key `ssWindowStyle` from kevfile #0
reading 16x16 image #3 from open file
reading 16x16 image #4 from open file
reading 16x16 image #5 from open file
reading 16x16 image #6 from open file
reading 16x16 image #7 from open file
reading 16x16 image #8 from open file
reading 16x16 image #9 from open file
reading 16x16 image #10 from open file
reading 16x16 image #11 from open file
initializing Sphere v2 L0 API
    sphere_glsl_shader_support
    sphere_stateful_rng
    sphere_v1_compatible_api
    minisphere_ssj_api
creating new mixer #2 at 44 kHz
    format: 2ch 44100 Hz, 16-bit
loading image #12 as `icon.png`
initializing render context at 320x200
    shader support: yes
cloning image #13 from source image #12

So it appears the crash is in clone_image().  Unfortunately that doesn't really help me much.  I'll need to get Visual Studio 2015 running on this VM so I can debug it properly.

@DaVince: Just for the heck of it though... could you try --verbose 4 locally and see if it crashes in the same spot?

edit: Hm, the crash appears to be Allegro-related.  Invariably regardless of where it crashes the top of the stack looks like this:

Code: [Select]

 	0000000000000000()	Unknown
>	spherun.exe!_al_opengl_set_blender()	Unknown

It tries to call a function from a null pointer, crashing the process.  I'll report it to the Allegro devs and see if I can gain any more insight.

@DaVince: Just for the heck of it though... could you try --verbose 4 locally and see if it crashes in the same spot?

Um, how do I do that? What folder do I run minisphere in? The folder where the ssproj file is? Because it refuses to recognize the ssproj or the folder in general if I try to run it from the console...

Edit: oh, got it. Need to run it from the dist folder.
Edit 2: it crashes before even outputting anything at all, unfortunately. Maybe I'm doing this wrong? minisphere . --verbose 4
(Edit 3: I'm off right now btw, will respond again tomorrow)

@DaVince: Just for the heck of it though... could you try --verbose 4 locally and see if it crashes in the same spot?

Edit 2: it crashes before even outputting anything at all, unfortunately. Maybe I'm doing this wrong? minisphere . --verbose 4

You need to use the spherun command instead of minisphere.  Windows is odd in that programs without a console window won't output anything at all even if you run them from the terminal.

@DaVince: Just for the heck of it though... could you try --verbose 4 locally and see if it crashes in the same spot?

Edit 2: it crashes before even outputting anything at all, unfortunately. Maybe I'm doing this wrong? minisphere . --verbose 4

You need to use the spherun command instead of minisphere.  Windows is odd in that programs without a console window won't output anything at all even if you run them from the terminal.

Oh, I know about that, that's why I always run them in a terminal. But it still wasn't outputting anything by using the minisphere command.

Anyway, after running spherun instead, my output is different. The last part of the output looks like this:

Code: [Select]

...
creating image #270 as 8x12 subimage of image #15
creating image #271 as 8x12 subimage of image #15
listening for debugger on TCP port 1208
opening socket #0 to listen on 1208
    backlog: up to 1
initializing JS module `main.js`

minisphere's "loading..." text pops up and that's where it locks up.

Oh, I know about that, that's why I always run them in a terminal. But it still wasn't outputting anything by using the minisphere command.

No, that's what I meant - even if you have a terminal window, if the executable was compiled as a GUI application, Windows won't allow it to print anything.

Anyway, that log is interesting - it's apparently gotten far enough to create 200+ images (so not the OpenGL issue I thought it was), but then dies trying to load the main module, just after firing up the debug server.

What happens if you try to run the game with SSJ?  From the dist folder, do: ssj -r .

I get the following. I'm thinking the weird garbage characters are just some encoding error?

Code: [Select]

SSJ 4.2.4 Sphere JavaScript debugger (x64)
a powerful JavaScript debugger for minisphere
(c) 2015-2016 Fat Cerberus

starting C:/Users/VB/Dropbox/projects/sphere/2016/TEST/dist/... OK.
connecting to 127.0.0.1:1208... OK.
verifying... ←[31;1merror!←[m

The garbage characters are ANSI escape codes, it's supposed to print that "error" in red but I guess the Win7 console doesn't support it.  I assume in this case the engine crashed completely and not just locked up?  If it did lock up, then the error is interesting because it suggests the SSJ handshake failed (if it crashed then the error is not a surprise).

I'll look into this further on my Windows 7 VM.  I have to get around the OpenGL driver issue first though.

Does it crash even if you give it a Sphere 1.5 game to run?

It just crashed in the same way it always does, so I guess this is nothing unusual. I just noticed it runs Sphere 1.5 games entirely fine though... Should I send you the project I have?

Yes, please.  It might be a bug in the Sphere v2 initialization code.

Okay; it's attached. Note that I hadn't even started coding _anything_ yet, so you're probably right about the initialization thing.

Note that I'm also running this game from a different folder than the default one (Dropbox\projects\Sphere\2016\ to be exact). I dunno if that would influence anything.