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Original Midnight Mansion (Mac only) >> Game Bugs ?! >> Stutter bug
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Message started by Toybox on 12.03.2008 at 03:00:46

Title: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 12.03.2008 at 03:00:46
I have a very curious bug now, or rather have had the bug for some time.

Sometimes, every now and again, the game freezes the time of a heartbeat. Just enough to lose a Jack if it comes just when you should make a delicate jump!

Also, something which might be related: at the end of the music loops, there is just a heartbeat of a pause until the track gets played again. This was not always the case, the loops used to fit perfectly.

Anyone else getting those?

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by aquaMat on 12.03.2008 at 20:45:31
Never had anything like that, Toybox !

Sounds as if your computer would grant the program not enough RAM or something....   :-/   :-?

What kind of MAC are you using ?

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by aquaMat on 12.03.2008 at 20:52:21
As for your second question / problem:

In the meantime I have checked a few of the music files in a waveform editor and at least I can tell you that there is no silence at the end (or the beginning) of the tracks, so they should loop quite seamlessly.

I can't remember if they used to (do so), though.... it's too long ago that I played with "Music ON", as I said elsewhere.

Is there a connection between the music problem you describe and the "stutter effect".....I mean, does the music "gap" occur simultaneously with the stutter, or does it always occur ?

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 13.03.2008 at 02:11:07
- I use an ibook G4 which is 3 years old now.

- The music definitely used to loop seamlessly. Now, I can't tell you if it has always a gap, as I often play without, and the rest of the time I might not notice. I will play, listen and let you know.

I don't think the stutter and the gap occur necessarily together... Well, stuttering happened in the 4 tubes where there was no music for example. Will have a look at the converse.

It just seems related, because it's sort of the same phenomenon occurring once with the game and once with the music (like putting on slightly too large shoes).

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by aquaMat on 13.03.2008 at 02:57:01
Is it possible that you have changed the screen resolution sometime in the recent past, and it started to happen after that (without you really realising) ?
'Cause I suspect the graphic card of the iBook G4 might have something to do with it !!?  So let's say you play full-screen and used to play at a smaller resolution, which worked fine and then you changed it to a higher res and the occasional stutter occurs....?!
(That wouldn't explain the music issue, though).

Normally, a G4 should be powerful enough for MM.....however I remember one other user reporting problems with a G4 in the past....but I can't remember the details.

Also I'm not sure whether the game runs completely in RAM or not. If not, maybe your hard disk is a bit too fragmented....and when you saved the latest mansion (T.F.T) maybe it got saved in fragments resulting in those stutters ?!  (But that's really only a wild theory... I have no idea if this could be the reason,.... considering how small one mansion is, I would guess the game loads it completely into RAM.)

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 13.03.2008 at 03:17:34
Thanks for your answers aquaMat  8-)

I played a mansion to see, and the music mis-loops every time, although some more than others (I think 2 and 3 are the most severely affected, while 4 hardly). And the stutter didn't happen at all this time.

It is quite possibly some problem of fragmentation or something (whatever that is - I never really understood). I find that the computer generally is slower and needs more 'thinking' (whatever it does doing crr...crr...), so that could be it. (Any idea how to fix that btw?)

And I'm quite sure I didn't change the resolution deliberately. As to by mistake, I couldn't say (heck, it seems I even asked some programmes to be launched upon starting the ibook without realising  ::))

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by rose on 13.03.2008 at 04:25:32

Toybox wrote on 13.03.2008 at 03:17:34:
Thanks for your answers aquaMat  8-)

It is quite possibly some problem of fragmentation or something (whatever that is - I never really understood). I find that the computer generally is slower and needs more 'thinking' (whatever it does doing crr...crr...), so that could be it. (Any idea how to fix that btw?)

And I'm quite sure I didn't change the resolution deliberately. As to by mistake, I couldn't say (heck, it seems I even asked some programmes to be launched upon starting the ibook without realising  ::))


Have you saved a lot on the hard disk?? The puter does need free space too! for virtual memory

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 13.03.2008 at 05:22:46
I still have a little over 31 GB available  :-?

(Although it would be a good idea, independently, to clean up a little bit the pooter.)

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by aquaMat on 14.03.2008 at 00:56:21
Toybox, if you ahould want to test if it really is a question of RAM (allocated to MM) you can use an utility program (inside the folder "Programme >> Dienstprogramme" (in the German Mac OS) ) called "Aktivitäts-Anzeige" (in German). Unfortunately I don't know the English name of that utility / program !

However, with that utility it is possible to check how much RAM a current software needs and/or uses at the moment.

So you should have MM running and, parallel to that, open "Aktivitäts-Anzeige" and check under "% CPU".

Should you really find out that MM doesn't have enough RAM allocated (which I doubt), you can put it higher up in the list (under "% CPU").

See "MAC Help" (>RAM) for a detailed procedure.

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 17.05.2008 at 01:16:50
Two things:

A) The brief pause at the end of a piece of music has always been there. It's due to the MP3 format. It doesn't happen with AIFF format music, but then AIFF takes up a lot more space, so we went with MP3 and tried to set up the music loops such that the gap would be as least noticeable as possible.

B) As for game stutters, one likely culprit is Mail. If Mail checks for new email automatically, and is running in the background, this could easily cause the problem. So could other background processes, like someone logging into your Mac via a local network, or any other background program that does something intensive. So quit other apps before launching Midnight Mansion and see if that helps. If so, you might be able to narrow it down to which program in time, if you're curious which background app is doing it.



Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Freddy on 18.05.2008 at 21:53:08
I am not an expert at all in those things. But I have the impression that Leopard's Time Machine gives stutter bugs as well in almost all applications. Including our Midnight Mansion Game and Builder.

Nothing bad to say about that Time Machine! I was already one time saved, after a stupid deleting mistake. :-[

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 20.05.2008 at 01:54:04
Is there is any way to disable time machine temporarily? (Possibly dangerous of course.)

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 20.05.2008 at 17:08:52
Mmmh... According to the activity monitor, I have nothing fishy running in the background. This is very strange.

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 21.05.2008 at 02:51:02
But would the activity monitor catch Time Machine?

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 21.05.2008 at 21:16:49
Oh, sorry about that, I didn't realise the Time Machine remarks were in this thread :-[ I don't run Time Machine, I'm still on, which was it? Panther? Mac OS 10.3 anyway. I should have mentioned it in the other thread ;)

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 22.05.2008 at 01:42:31
If you have old versions of Midnight Mansion, you could run those... I'm sure they'd stutter too. Which would show that something has changed in your computer, not the game.  I've not changed anything that should affect it at all, assuming you're running the Intel version on Intel Macs, and the PPC version on PPC Macs. (This only makes a difference when you're playing fullscreen though.)

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 22.05.2008 at 06:13:48
Hmmm, I just realized that I had left some file-output code turned on in the latest build. This code writes out debugging information. I had added some debugging information to try to help me catch the map-key problem, where pushing M suddenly stops working to bring up the map... if I'm remembering the bug report correctly.

So... if any of you ever experience the map-key bug while playing 1.1.3, please look inside Home -> Library -> Application Support -> Midnight Mansion and send me the Output File Log by email. Do this right after you experience the m key not working. Tell me what room you were in when it wasn't working, and quit shortly after trying to push M and having it not work. The log *might* help me learn more about this weird bug.

Secondly, having this logging turned on may be the cause of the stutters. I'll make sure to disable it for the 1.1.4 release. Hopefully I'll get to that release in a month or two. Although if the problem is bad enough, I can possibly release an unofficial 1.1.3b patch to those interested.

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by Toybox on 23.05.2008 at 16:35:41
Oh, I can wait for 1.1.4. to be released :) It's not that bad a problem.

My oldest version of MM is 1.0.7., I may try using that one if I find some time. There's nothing really new on the computer (rather, nothing I'm aware of ::)), but as I said it may be just old age.

Regarding the Map bug: if I remember well, it has happened to me in the Level Builder, but not the proper Game.

Title: Re: Stutter bug
Post by VernJensen on 12.06.2008 at 06:47:15
I've definitely seen the map bug in the game itself. But it's not consistent enough for me to figure out what's going on. So please, if anyone with 1.1.3 ever experiences the problem, send me your Output Log from the Application Support -> Midnight Mansion folder before you play another game!

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