Seeking Science Explorers for Steam beta

[_SE_]

I couldn't find leaks.debug either, but I've uploaded the others.

[wendymarlowe]

Aaaaaand . . . it's running fine again today. I have done literally nothing differently, but some mornings I can turn on the game just fine and others it gives me the error messages every time I try.

Maybe it only works on even-numbered days?

[hanako]

My offhand guess with erratic behavior like that would be that there's something on your computer that is creating a conflict, and some days you've run the conflicting program beforehand and other times you haven't.

If that were the case then the game would be more likely to run correctly if it was one of the first things you did after booting up.

It's really a total guess, though. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful!

[wendymarlowe]

That's the thing, though - I've been running it pretty much first thing (well, email THEN running it), just to see. I'm going to keep trying to run it randomly through out the day and keep some notes - even if it's not the fault of the game, someone else may end up having similar issues down the line and it would be good to know why *this game* and nothing else . . .

[phoenixgirl]

So I'm going to try to get the Hairy Ball Theorem achievement and I think this has to do with killing monsters with items in an unusual way but I'm genuinely baffled as to how to get this. I've tried using both the diet soda cans and vinegar items to attack the monsters as well as using Missy's data analysis special attack but yet even the combination of the three doesn't get me the achievement. Can only killing certain monsters get this achievement or is there something I'm missing?

[_SE_]

phoenixgirl if I recall, this achievement is triggered by finding a certain map location.

[wendymarlowe]

Okay, tonight's experiment (see, I can science too!):

1) Opened game after using my computer all day. Success.

2) Rebooted computer, immediately opened game (once computer's "thinking noises" stopped). Failure message. Waited a minute - another failure message.

3) Rebooted again, opened Chrome, opened Steam, then opened game from there. Success.

4) Rebooted again, waited a full two minutes, then opened the game from the desktop. Success. Tried again a minute later - also success.

So I have no idea what that means, other than that something in Steam is slow to load, I guess? Each time, Steam shows the brief verification progress bar (<5 sec), but that doesn't seem to be different for the successes versus failures.

[phoenixgirl]

phoenixgirl if I recall, this achievement is triggered by finding a certain map location.

Ok, so maybe I have the wrong achievement. It could be the Board of Regents but the same question still applies. I'm really having trouble getting the achievement where I have to kill monsters in a scientific way using items and I can't think of anything else that'll get this for me. :/

[Ren]

"View problem details" yields

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ScienceGirls!.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4917df95
Fault Module Name: StackHash_c51c
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 956c0000
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: c51c
Additional Information 2: c51c3a7990f8a4215c04d38604988dcf
Additional Information 3: 2ff6
Additional Information 4: 2ff67d422fb675aeed69f09799e8be35

Getting the same problem, though my numbers are a bit different and I can't find either of the files Spiky Caterpillar was asking for.

Code: Select all

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
  Application Name:	ScienceGirls!-Demo.exe
  Application Version:	0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:	4917df95
  Fault Module Name:	StackHash_5f27
  Fault Module Version:	0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:	00000000
  Exception Code:	c0000005
  Exception Offset:	94250000
  OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
  Locale ID:	2057
  Additional Information 1:	5f27
  Additional Information 2:	5f2740f7952c164301150249074b3f6e
  Additional Information 3:	a99c
  Additional Information 4:	a99c9eaeb9c995e2e9e0e2efec665e04

I'm on Windows 7, Home premium, 64 bit. It's a fairly recent new build, too. I have an nVidia GTX 760 with the latest driver (though I seem to remember PyTom sometimes complains about nVidia drivers - not sure whether this is relevant to you at all).
I do have Nod 32 installed but no other application is having such behaviour (I'm excluding our NaNo game, that crashes every two seconds and it runs on a different engine, anway :P).

After reproducing the crash, I tried running the game in compatibility mode and as administrator. Still no dice, the game just won't start. While I managed to play it by rebooting (via Start Menu>Restart), now I'm unable to run the demo at all, rebooting or restarting won't make a difference.

[Spiky Caterpillar]

I'm not sure what's causing the c0000005 crashes, but have some possible tests.

First: Upload the Science Girls exe (the small one, not the installer) to
http://spikycaterpillar.com/savegame-upload.html so I can rule out viruses
on your machines. (I don't _think_ it's virus-related, but want to make
sure.)

Next, does the exe in http://spikycaterpillar.com/diagnostics ... .9.2a+.zip crash?

Finally, does the crash still show up if you disable DEP for Science Girls?

I don't know a way to get a Python traceback from this particular sort of crash, but Windows-side debugging isn't my forte.

[Ren]

Hello,

I've uploaded my exe to that site. I've run the other exe and that crashed as well. DEP was on only for essential programs, I've disabled it anyway, restarted the PC and it still crashes.

Is there nothing that can be done by looking at stuff like the event handler somewhere, then? The weird thing is that now I've tried to run the demo at least 15 times and it never runs, while this morning I managed once I shut down the PC and then turned it on again. But now it just won't work, no matter what.

I started wondering: could it be some persistent data that the game saves? I realised that the way the game behaved for me was:

1. I installed the demo and had no problem running it whatsoever.
2. I reached the point where Heather asked me to retrieve something for her and saved. Turned the PC off and when I tried to play the demo again to continue it would sometimes not work and crash.
3. I reached the end of the demo. From then onwards I've not been able to start the game at all, now it always crashes.

I've not installed anything in the mean time, the only thing that changed is how far I got in the demo (though, I have deleted the saves, autosaves and persistent data and nothing changes :/).

[Spiky Caterpillar]

The exe checks out OK. If anything shows up in the event log it might be useful, or if you can get a C stack trace (or anything that says what DLL the access violation occurred in.)

Other things to try - at a command prompt:

Code: Select all

set RENPY_DISABLE_SOUND=1
set RENPY_DISABLE_FULLSCREEN=1
set RENPY_DISABLE_JOYSTICK=1
ScienceGirls!-Demo.exe

(Or ScienceGirls!.exe, when using fullbuilds)

[Spiky Caterpillar]

OK, I've updated Test-6.9.2a+.zip. The new version should create a log in the same directory as the exe; that'll hopefully help me narrow down where exactly it's crashing.

[wendymarlowe]

I'm not sure what's causing the c0000005 crashes, but have some possible tests.

First: Upload the Science Girls exe (the small one, not the installer) to
http://spikycaterpillar.com/savegame-upload.html so I can rule out viruses
on your machines. (I don't _think_ it's virus-related, but want to make
sure.)

Next, does the exe in http://spikycaterpillar.com/diagnostics ... .9.2a+.zip crash?

Finally, does the crash still show up if you disable DEP for Science Girls?

I don't know a way to get a Python traceback from this particular sort of crash, but Windows-side debugging isn't my forte.

The exe is uploaded - I highly doubt there's a virus, but I guess it couldn't hurt to check!

The test exe doesn't crash (I assume it's just supposed to be the menu and not much more, though, right?)

I don't know what DEP is, but I'm happy to try disabling it if you can walk me through it. (Or if not, I'll get my programmer husband to figure it out eventually, but it may take a while for him to get the time.)

[Spiky Caterpillar]

The exe is uploaded - I highly doubt there's a virus, but I guess it couldn't hurt to check!

The test exe doesn't crash (I assume it's just supposed to be the menu and not much more, though, right?)

Interestingly, your exe is from an old version of Science Girls, not the current one. Was that the one in the Steam install? What build ID does it say you have? (Should show up when you right-click the game in Steam, select Properties, and bring up the Local Files tab)

If it's not 211800, you should be able to update with the 'Verify Integrity of game cache' button.

Other things to try:

If you copy the test exe into the Steam Science Girls directory, then run the test exe, does it start Science Girls?

If it still crashes, copying the renpy folder from the test over the renpy folder in the Steam install should provide some logging info in ScienceGirls!.exe.log on quit; the .exe.log from a crash would be useful.

I don't know what DEP is, but I'm happy to try disabling it if you can walk me through it. (Or if not, I'll get my programmer husband to figure it out eventually, but it may take a while for him to get the time.)

It's Data Execution Prevention (which blocks certain exploits from running). Microsoft's instructions for toggling it are:

Open System by clicking the Start button , right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.

Click Advanced system settings. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Under Performance, click Settings.

Click the Data Execution Protection tab

If it's currently set to something along the lines of 'only enable DEP for Windows and essential services', then DEP isn't the problem.

If it's set to 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.', then you can disable it by either temporarily setting it to 'only for Windows' or by adding an exemption for Science Girls. If DEP was on and turning it off doesn't fix Science Girls, you probably want to turn it back on.