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[Mikael]

A beta tester trying out my game ran into this very peculiar problem. It may have to do with INNO install, which I've used for the install file:

"The beta does not run/install on my computer. The downloaded EXE tried
to start Opera twice and did nothing else, except resisting beeing
killed from the task manager several times, until it gave up.

I downloaded your Demo as well, it displayed your logo and crashed.

I run an Athlon 1800 with 512 MB RAM, a NVIDIA GForce 5200 FX and two
sound systems, an Audigy II and an ESI DSP 2000. This is a Two Monitor
System, the primary desktop resolution is 1280x1024, the secondary
display does 1024x768. Games normaly init to the primary display."

Does anyone know what possibly could cause this?

Thanks,

Mikael

[metamorphium]

make him do a crc check of all installed files to be sure, that the game contents was installed properly.

[Mikael]

The thing is that, as I understand it, this happened when he tried to install the game, not after installation (upon clicking the dowloaded exe.file?). However, that he says that the logo was displayed when starting the demo implies that the game (demo) already was installed. I've tried to get more info on this.

Mikael

[Mikael]

This is getting wierder and wierder. I received this message from the tester:



"I didn't know wether the beta download was an installer or the beta
itself. That downloaded exe tried to start opera and then continued
doing nothing, except resisting the task manager's tries to kill it,
claiming just about 200k of memory and 3% cpu while doing so.

The Demo download from your website did install correctly, but the
installed game crashed after showing the logo."



I might add that the downloaded beta was an installer (INNO).

No one else has had any problem whatsoever, and we've had no complaints about the demo.

Thanks,

Mikael

[sychron]

Hey, we can spare the emails and discuss this in the open, maybe we get this clearer ;-)

So, just ask your questions ;-)

I got no Errors on starting the exe, no CRC or corrupt file messages.

To make this clear: the beta did NOT install, the DEMO did install and crashed.

[Mnemonic]

Some recommendations, Mikael, make sure you're using the latest version of InnoSetup. The last few versions were modified to allow smooth installation in Vista. For the beta version of the game I recommend using the latest version of WME (currently 1.8 beta 3) and when compiling the beta, enable the "Include WME crash reporting library" option in project settings window in ProjectMan. If WME crashes, it will allow the tester to upload a crash report file, which will tell me exactly where the game crashed.

sychron, what Windows version are you using? Have you tried downloading the file and start if from Windows Explorer, not directly from the browser?

[Mikael]

Alright, I have compiled a game using WME 1.8 beta 3 with the crash reporting library option enabled. I've also updated INNO (from version 5.1.13 to 5.1.14), and used that for the installer. I'm now uploading the install file, which will take a while.

As for crash reporting, wouldn't it also be possible for sychron to copy a wme.ini file to the game directory, right Mnemonic? I've compiled one of these files here:
http://www.mdna-games.com/wme.ini.zip

This will generate the file "wme.log" in the game directory once the game is started, and will display some debugging information.

I'll get back as soon as the new game file is uploaded.

Thanks,

Mikael

[Mikael]

Sychron, I've mailed the URL for the newly compiled game to you.

Thanks,

Mikael

[sychron]

sychron, what Windows version are you using? Have you tried downloading the file and start if from Windows Explorer, not directly from the browser?

Well ... that's exactly what I did.

I'm using XP.

[Mnemonic]

So, I'm curious, any progress with the new installer build?

[sychron]

Downloaded it last night, just tested it -- nothing. The installer simply does nothing except idling with about 18% cpu.
Well ... one improvement: it does not resist beeing killed any longer.

Perhaps this is a problem with the site. It seems not very serious, and I suspect it's corrupting "free" downloads to make you upgrade to pro membership. Try a more serious download site, for example http://www.yousendit.com/, and please, send me an md5 fingerprint for the uploaded file so I can check the integrity after downloading it.

[odnorf]

A long shot but.... are you using a firewall and/or an antivirus/spyware?
Try to disable those. Installers like Inno are using various packers and sometimes they are recognized as suspicious by protection software that is using heuristics and can lead to problems.

And one more thing. Have you let the installer run for a long time? I don't know how big the beta is but I've seen similar installers (that are using the lzma compression library) to hang for a long time while decompressing without showing any report and they *look* like they don't respond. They can be "non responsive" even for minutes if the the file is big and the computer is old.

I don't think the file is corrupted. *If* Inno Setup is working similar to other installers then it's probably crc checking itself while running and you should get an error.

[Mikael]

I doubt that the files are corrupt. The demo and full beta is uploaded to different sites, and no one else has had any problems with the downloaded files. I'd like to try yousendit.com, but they have a 100 MB limit.

However, making new up/downloads aren't necessary, since I can make a fingerprint, just as sychron points out. I've just mailed it to you.

The installer does not run for a particularly long time, or hang at a certain point, at least not on my side. And I don't see why it should with sychron's computer specs either.

In the last days, the beta, and particularly the demo, has been tried by quite a few people, and not one single problem has been reported. So I'd really like to sort this out once and for all.

Sychron, since you obviously managed to start the demo, can you please add the wme.ini file that I sent to you to the game directory, and see what crash report it generates? This will be very interesting.

Thanks all for your help

Mikael

[Mnemonic]

Sychron, since you obviously managed to start the demo, can you please add the wme.ini file that I sent to you to the game directory, and see what crash report it generates? This will be very interesting.

Or even better, since you're using WME yourself, could you copy the latest wme.exe and wme_report.dll to the demo directory and run it, and then upload the crash report?

[sychron]

hmm. the md5 checksum is different. seems to be a download problem.

[Mnemonic]

And how about the demo crash thingy? I'd really like to see the crash report, random crashes make me nervous

[Mikael]

I'll tell you what. I'm uploading the demo to my website server right now. Maybe we can restrict ourselves to the demo, since problems (albeit different ones) appear on both the demo and the full game. I don't want to upload the full game to the website space, due to bandwidth limitations, and, the demo will also make a faster download for sychron. And it's highly unlikely that you will get a corrupted file from there.

Sychron, I'm mailing you the URL for the demo, and also a fingerprint, in a moment, when the upload is completed.