Frequent Dream Seeker Freezing

ID:2165499
 
Oct 28 2016, 2:56 pm (Edited on Oct 28 2016, 3:50 pm)
Descriptive Problem Summary:
Dream Seeker is constantly freezing basically making my game unplayable.
Its freezing even when graphic rendering mode is turned off.
Numbered Steps to Reproduce Problem:
Just run around playing the game it will eventually happen, I don't know of an exact step replica

Heres a video clip of the freezing. Note that the freezing prompt does not appear cause the video recording software was only recording the game screen.
https://youtu.be/tIbAycZfQj0

Does the problem occur:
Every time? Or how often?
It happens very often, more frequent when other players join
In other games?
In other user accounts?
All players is experiencing the problem
On other computers?

When does the problem NOT occur?
It almost always crashes.

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.)
Brand new game haven't tested in older version
Workarounds:
None

Oct 28 2016, 3:42 pm
Thats not crashing per say, Lummox put it as Not Responding, DS permanent freezing. Its an issue in 511 aswell but we don't know the cause, altough I have a feeling is the maptext.
Oct 28 2016, 8:57 pm
You didn't say whether this happens in other games.

Also, is chat and other such stuff still working, with only the map not updating? If that's the case, then this is actually a very very old bug. But if you know how to reproduce it in a reliable way (especially on a small scale!), that might be the key to finally cracking it.
Oct 29 2016, 6:18 am
Chatting doesn't work. This bug is particular to my game. I've never experience such reliable frequent dream seeker freezing. From my experience I can't tell any specific actions that causes it. It seems to happen when it feels like it. But, one clue I can give is that most of the time when one Dream Seeker freezes, other players dream seeker freezes, regardless of how far they are from each other.
Oct 29 2016, 3:22 pm
If chatting doesn't work either, then the problem is in your code and is not a BYOND bug. You almost certainly have an infinite loop in your code.

If you haven't turned off world.loop_checks, then you should be getting some info on what's running so much that it freezes the server, because it will try to break out of those loops when it can. (There are rare cases it won't catch, though.)
Oct 29 2016, 6:39 pm (Edited on Oct 29 2016, 6:59 pm)
I haven't turned off world.loops_checks. and the server isn't freezing its just dream seeker getting the not responding message. Ill post another clip displaying the message and me messing with the chat to help bring clarification.
Oct 30 2016, 2:32 pm
Shot in the dark here, just some random guesses that could possibly be the cause.

- Movement? If it happens more often when more players are online then movement could be the cause if you have too many things going on in your movement.

- Del()? Maybe too many objects are getting deleted at the same time, locking up dream seeker.

- A loop of some sort or a procedure? Could possibly be a loop that isn't an infinite loop or a procedure that has a delay to it and is being called too often or too many times in a small period of time causing it to back up and then firing off a huge call stack that then crashes dream seeker.

Just a few guesses. Could be a lot of different things causing it. But good luck hope you fix it!
Oct 31 2016, 4:49 pm
Good news I found the source of the problem, and its certainly not an infinite loop

It was the following code. I was calling this code when some of the mobs moved.
atom
    proc
        AfterImage(image,fade=-1,time,colors,dir)//Creates an AfterImage
            set waitfor=FALSE
            var/image/i
            i=FindImage(image)
            if(!isicon(image))
                i.appearance=image
                if(istype(image,/atom/movable))
                    i.pixel_x=image:step_x
                    i.pixel_y=image:step_y
            if(colors) i.color=pick(colors)
            i.dir=dir
            sleep(1)
            i.loc=src
            viewers()<<i
            RecycleImage(i,time)
            if(fade!=-1)
                sleep(fade)
                i.loc=src
                animate(i,alpha=0,time=time-fade)
var/list/imageresource=new
//var/mutable_appearance/nullimage
var/nullimage
proc//Reuseimage for cpu efficiency
    RecycleImage(image/img, time=0)
        set waitfor = 0
        sleep(time)
        if(!nullimage)
            var/image/I=new
            I.appearance_flags=RESET_COLOR
            nullimage = I.appearance
        img.appearance = nullimage
        img.loc = null
        imageresource += img
    FindImage(icon,icon_state)
        if(imageresource.len)
            var/image/img=imageresource[imageresource.len]
            if(ispath(icon)) img.appearance=icon
            else
                img.icon=icon
                img.icon_state=icon_state
            imageresource.len--
            return img
        else
            if(ispath(icon)) return new/image(icon)
            else return new/image(icon,,icon_state)
Nov 1 2016, 7:54 am
So is this a byond bug or poor programming on my end?
Nov 1 2016, 9:26 am
Impossible to tell without more context. Right now I can't even tell for sure if the problem happens server-side or client-side; the things you've said suggest it might be either one, but lean toward server-side.

Now that you know what triggered this, though, perhaps you can reproduce it in a smaller project and on a more reliable basis. If so, then that's definitely something I can look into. Basically as long as you can get it to happen predictably, that's something I can work with.
Nov 2 2016, 5:12 pm
I tried reproducing it on an old project of mine using that code without any tweaks to it and added the call into movement and I couldn't get a crash at all no matter what I tried. I even added about 50 mobs in one area and made a simple movement for them and added it to their movement as well and still nothing, I wasn't even getting lag issues. So I honestly don't have a clue on what the cause is.

Maybe possible it was just too much stress in your movement with the afterimage call in it that made it lock up? That's of course if you have a lot more things getting called in your movement.

Sorry I can't be of anymore help lol.