Ridiculous amount of critical bugs. Randomly. Race condition?

[tlinna]

Yep, I seem to have most of these critical problems too. Broken audio browser (which is a clear indication things don't work), flat-lining songs, wireframe in-game and track stuck in the beginning.

Strangely, after a few tries I got it working yesterday. I played through an album and a half without any problems. Then I quit, and after a while I tried to play again, and it was broken again.. I tried re-downloading, updating my graphics drivers etc, didn't help. Now I can't get it working properly at all.

Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton), 2 GB, 7600GS, Win XP, Nvidia 169.21 drivers, and only one monitor.

[freibooter]

Good morning everybody. Yes, the broken audio-browser always is the first indicator that at least one other critical bug is happening or going to happen that makes the game unplayable. I don't think I was ever able to successfully play when the audio-browser was broken.
On the other hand, critical bugs like the white-screen did happen even though the audio-browser was working for once.

My percentage of game launches without critical bugs seems to have increased dramatically. I was just able to launch Audiosurf once again without any mayor issues, my fifth time. I think this time I'll actually use this rare event to play a few levels.

@lebeth

I would gladly upload my files if you think that would help you. But it seems a little bit overkill to upload 250mb of mp3s, sound effects and videos. Could you maybe be a little more specific about which files really interest you or at least which files don't?

I took a peek into the config files for example and a few things did look kind of weird and nonsensical to me.

config.ini

Code: [Select]

resolutionwidth: autodetect
resolutionheight: autodetect
runfullscreen: false
The content of this file never changes, and I really wish Audiosurf would remember my last resolution and if I played fullscreen or not.

Preloader_config.xml

Code: [Select]

<PublishConfig>
<Settings projectName="PreloadedAudiosurf" publishType="installer" target="C:/Documents and Settings/Dylan/My Documents/Audiosurf/Published/InstallPreloadedAudiosurf.exe" saveCurrentProject="" keepRunningApplication="0" filterType="" useZipCompression="1" saveWhenPublishing="1" keepRunningWhenActive="0" protectCgrs="0" includeFilters="*.cgr" includeAllChannels="0"/>
<Screensaver defaultFolder="C:\Program Files\Quest3D\Default" runInPreviewMode="1" dontStopOnMouse="0" directXWarning="1"/>
<Installer defaultFolder="C:\games\Audiosurf" startMenuPath="BGE\Audiosurf" runAfterInstallation="0" directXWarning="1"/>
<Viewer copyToOtherDirectory="0" otherDirectory="" confirmOverwrites="1"/>
<Web createHtml="1" copyToOtherDirectory="0" otherDirectory="" htmlFileName="" confirmOverwrites="1"/>
<Dirs>
</Dirs>
<Files>
</Files>
</PublishConfig>
I'm not sure how or even if this file is used but it seems to be tailored to Dylon's PCs only and not anybody else's.

XX_StartHere_config.xml

Code: [Select]

<PublishConfig>
<Settings projectName="Audiosurf" publishType="installer" target="C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/Audiosurf/Published/Audiosurf.exe" saveCurrentProject="" keepRunningApplication="0" filterType="" useZipCompression="1" saveWhenPublishing="1" keepRunningWhenActive="0" protectCgrs="0" includeFilters="*.cgr" includeAllChannels="0"/>
<Screensaver defaultFolder="C:\Program Files\Quest3D\Default" runInPreviewMode="1" dontStopOnMouse="0" directXWarning="1"/>
<Installer defaultFolder="C:\games\Audiosurf" startMenuPath="BestGameEver.com/Audiosurf" runAfterInstallation="0" directXWarning="1"/>
<Viewer copyToOtherDirectory="0" otherDirectory="" confirmOverwrites="1"/>
<Web createHtml="1" copyToOtherDirectory="0" otherDirectory="" htmlFileName="" confirmOverwrites="1"/>
<Dirs>
</Dirs>
<Files>
              >>>lots of files here - cut in order to keep this post small - freibooter<<<
</Files>
</PublishConfig>

This also seems a little odd. "C:/Documents and Settings/Owner" instead of simply "%USERNAME%" for example. And there isn't really a Documents and Settings in Vista anymore (although it at least links to the real directory) and at least under XP "Documents and Settings" never really had to be on the C-drive either and it was only named "Documents and Settings" on an English XP.

[GM]

Same problems here...
1) Broken audiobrowser.
2) "Activemovie" window pops up separately from the application (wtf?)
3) If I use fullscreen mode, going onto any game mode, that makes a tutorial show makes the game minimize and maximizing it instantly re-minimizes it again.

AMD64 3000+ Venice,
1 GB DDR,
Geforce 6600 GT.
TFT and CRT monitor, but even if I disable one of them, nothing changes.

[RazorICE]

Damn man, that must be painful not being able to play I (not being a developer or game programmer in any way) think it's probably to do with your SP1 installation. I'm running it on Vista and it works almost flawlessly (minus one or two minor bugs).
I hope all goes well for you

[happycon]

Hi folks,

I had some of the same problems from the start (broken audio browser, respawn forever etc.) and got it solved (and I don't think reinstaling the game makes sense at all).

I was suspicious about my graphics card and in fact that's where those problems came from.
For my NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 I did these things and I guess for ATI users there are similar approaches:

1) Got the very latest drivers.
2) In the NVIDIA Control Panel (right click on desktop, "NVIDIA Control Panel") I reset the 3D settings to "Let the application decide". And I had to leave it that way. Every custom setting I tried broke something in the game.

That's all. Hope it helps.

[GM]

Damn man, that must be painful not being able to play I (not being a developer or game programmer in any way) think it's probably to do with your SP1 installation. I'm running it on Vista and it works almost flawlessly (minus one or two minor bugs).
I hope all goes well for you

OS here is Win XP SP2.

Nothing to do with Vista.

[sith_mike]

Damn man, that must be painful not being able to play I (not being a developer or game programmer in any way) think it's probably to do with your SP1 installation. I'm running it on Vista and it works almost flawlessly (minus one or two minor bugs).
I hope all goes well for you

OS here is Win XP SP2.

Nothing to do with Vista.

Same here

[GM]

Managed to solve 2) and 3) of my problems by disabling ffdshow for questviewer (made a topic about it http://www.audio-surf.com/forum/index.php/topic,870.0.html).

Current problems still unsolved:
1) Broken audiobrowser
2) Track not showing up after analysis.

Have to restart game until audiobrowser works every time.

[Sven]

Yeah, same here. When I read freibooter's first post I nodded to four of his observations. I witness the same behavior on my machine. However, yesterday I could play for hours on end. I had had glitches, bugs and some unwanted behavior initially but it worked out all by itself. I don't know what I did that made Audiosurf run fine but apparently I can't reproduce it today.

• Text in Audio Browser displayed to the left, no folders selectable. For me, too, the file browser still works in theses cases, but even so I can't seem to play once I encounter the broken Audio Browser. A broken Audio Browser seems to indicate that at least one other critical bug is going to happen and prevent me from playing. For example a broken Audio Browser is regularly followed by a flat-lined track without blocks.
• White screen once I'm on the track. If the Audio Browser works and I can select a file, once the track is generated and I hit the Play button the track isn't rendered. I hear the music and apparently the track is there but the screen stays plain white. However, I can see the score increasing as the character hits blocks.
  
• Flat-lined tracks. I get these after the Audio Browser has displayed its text to the left. Both behaviors seems to be connected.
• No blocks on the track. Like with freibooter this seems to be a result of a flat-lined track.

‌
One other thing I see regulalrly is the mouse cursor disappearing. I have the feeling it has something to do with me frequently restoring and maximizing Audiosurf and going in and out of the Steam UI overlay. I'm not sure yet. However, even if the cursor is gone I can still navigate through the menus and sometimes it reappears. Dunno why.

What I don't see (anymore) are wireframed characters and still tracks. I had these with one of the beta clients, updated my graphics card drivers to the most recent version and was done with this behavior.

I've uploaded my dxdiag text file to rapidshare. You can find it inside a password-protected ZIP archive here. The password's rnd6QTve. If there's anything else I can do; any other information I can provide you with, please don't hesitate to tell me.

[Sabator]

Not a single Intel processor out of everyone who's reported this problem, as far as I can tell. I think we've found the common ground.

[knarkles]

I got Intel Core 2 Duo and had all of the same problems, but somehow it's working for me now. I still get these bugs if I click full screen in the main menu (where you click play to get to ship selection), but otherwise everything works fine, even if I click full screen later!

Mysterious.

[lebeth]

Thanks so much you guys for all your troubleshooting.  I'm sorry the game has been so troublesome for you, and I hope this information helps others.

Freibooter--thanks for all that information. I will run it all past Dylan combined with this other info and will let you know if he thinks an FTP transfer of files is still helpful.

[Sven]

I've got an Intel processor, too. I didn't mention it in the post. Instead I attached the dxdiag text file that says so.

Btw I've uploaded a video that shows the game with a plain white screen once the track is loaded. It documents the behavior I described earlier way better than words can. The video is on stage6.com - here.

[TheBloodyNine]

I, too, am suffering a broken audiobrowser bug followed by no soundcurve and a block-free track. I have tried to fiddle around with compatibility modes but it just seems random. Out of 10 startups maybe 1 fires up correctly.

Vista home premium  32-bit
Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
Athlon X2 64



****************
EDIT: I just found out something wierd. When I start my game, as with freibooter, the first sign of the bugs (apart from the wierdly dimensioned startwindow) is the broken audiobrowser. I just noticed an interesting pattern, check it out:
When you get to the character selection screen, some characters have a "tutorial-screen" between the election and the audiobrowser. Probably characters that you havent played before. Anyway, when I choose one of those characters as the initial one after startup, Im stuck with a broken audiobrowser, no matter if I go back and switch to another character. But if I choose an already played character as the initial one after startup, voila:  no "tutorial-screen" and a working audiobrowser. I can even go backand pick a "tutorial-screen" character and still the audiobrowser works after that. Im going to try out this a bit more. Ill let you know what I find out.

****************
EDIT2: I have tried back and forth with my earlier startup tactic and so far it seems to stick. It does not, however, solve the absence of the soundmap  on the next screen and on the HUD minimap but it does solve (for me atleast) the issues of the broken audiobrowser and of the the block-empty road.


lebeth: I configured the ffdshow video as in said threads but it didn't do anything it seems. Thanks for the quick response though

[lebeth]

Thanks for this--this is sounding more and more like it's a video problem (at least for you).  Those characters all have short videos that are shown before they are played, so something about that must be messing stuff up for you.

So--here are threads from some others who have had trouble with the videos and have had success resolving it. You may have tried these things but I thought I'd give it a shot.


http://www.audio-surf.com/forum/index.php/topic,870.0.html

http://www.audio-surf.com/forum/index.php/topic,839.0.html