Maximum Instances Options

[VorticalBeans]

I'm having a problem with my current game where i create ridiculous amounts of instances that quickly get destroyed. After about 2 minutes the game freezes without fail. It's not a loop though, infact I've narrowed it down to pretty much only one thing that i think could be causing this. The instance ID numbers go higher than Game Maker can support. Right now it crashes when creating instances around the id=125000 range. But there's never more than 400 instances actually in the game at any time, and they aren't very heavy instances.

My question is, is there anyway to create new instances that have the ID of previously created and destroyed instances? Loop around the ID numbers when they get to high?

Any help would be much appreciated!

[AlexR2]

the way i'd do it is try and make the game with one object

[tidus97]

125000 isnt a limit:

(i stopped going from here). the mouse is hovering on the center of the "dirt" patch, and when i click it creates a smaller dirt patch thing that floats away (sort of like kicking up dirt..this should be a particle effect i know. ill change it later.). there is 4 dirt patches on top of each other, so 4 get created each step and eventually when they fade out 4 gets deleted. im left with 501 instances at any one time. the ID just keeps going and going though granted i DID notice a loss of performance when it got high. NOT in FPS drop though..(FPS was a constant 60, it slowed when i screenshotted i guess). it was the same as an fps drop - not SMOOTH gameplay. sped up and down a little here and there but was noticeable. again, it didnt register as an FPS drop. maybe storing id's is a matter of memory? your running out quicker than me. that would then mean GM keeps track of unused/deleted ID's too..which is not very good.

This post has been edited by tidus97: Nov 7 2009, 03:28 AM

[icuurd12b42]

You created particle systems and never freed them

[tidus97]

me?

[VorticalBeans]

I didn't create particle systems without deleting them, not sure if you were talking to the other guy or not. I can't figure out what the problem is but I figured out a fix for it.

I have 2 identical rooms, and every single instance is persistent then i swap back and forth between the rooms once every minute. It's completely unnoticeable and I've gotten it to run for 20 straight minutes doing that. I still don't know what it was that made it freeze, but changing the rooms seems to clear whatever is getting stuck up in memory. If anyone has any idea what this is I'd still like to know what it is that's causing this, even though it shouldn't be a problem for the time being.

[icuurd12b42]

me?

Nope.


It's usually is the case that this is caused by particles so I took a shot in the dark. Pitty it was not the case... But maybe it is...

I didn't create particle systems without deleting them, not sure if you were talking to the other guy or not. I can't figure out what the problem is but I figured out a fix for it.

I have 2 identical rooms, and every single instance is persistent then i swap back and forth between the rooms once every minute. It's completely unnoticeable and I've gotten it to run for 20 straight minutes doing that. I still don't know what it was that made it freeze, but changing the rooms seems to clear whatever is getting stuck up in memory. If anyone has any idea what this is I'd still like to know what it is that's causing this, even though it shouldn't be a problem for the time being.

that means the instances remain... Going back to the room more are created. do they create a particle system? When do you free the particle system (destroy AND room end is recomended)... Like I said, particle systems are about the only GM native thing that cause the game to slow down and eventually freese or crash.

[VorticalBeans]

Yeah, I want the instances to remain, that is my fix, i guess I didn't explain it very well...

I thought of that too with the particle systems, and I tested it with completely turning off all particle effects and it still froze after 2 minutes. I even tested it with all draw functions turned off so no sprites were being drawn and it still froze. Just something about having a billion instances being created in the same room for long enough made it freeze...

This post has been edited by VorticalBeans: Nov 7 2009, 08:01 AM

[icuurd12b42]

Yeah, I want the instances to remain, that is my fix, i guess I didn't explain it very well...

I thought of that too with the particle systems, and I tested it with completely turning off all particle effects and it still froze after 2 minutes. I even tested it with all draw functions turned off so no sprites were being drawn and it still froze. Just something about having a billion instances being created in the same room for long enough made it freeze...

You said you only have 400 active... You delete them... the instances can be creates and destroyed forever. The id will just become negative at one point and start to climb back up...

[VorticalBeans]

Well apparently not cause something is going wrong. Something is sticking in memory, cause I am creating like 10 instances a second and destroying around the same. There never gets more than around 400 instances but for some reason after 2 minutes the game freezes, if I speed up the generation of instances then the game freezes sooner, if I slow it down then the game freezes later.

However if I change the room every minute while keeping all the instances persistant then the game never freezes. So something is happening when I change the room that is clearing some sort of built up memory.

[icuurd12b42]

Post your gmk...