292 replies to this topic

[Sh4nk0h0l1c]

Hauser, on 14 May 2013 - 11:26 AM, said:

Well done!

Much enjoyed the write up. Like reading a short detective.

Quoted 4 truth =D

@ PGI/IGP:

good job! I knew you'd figure it out!

Keep it goin' =D

[Guardian00]

Thank you.

[ArmageddonKnight]

My brain almost exploded

I understood......most..of that

Gotta feel for the devs though, iv actually tried my hand at programming ..i was usless at it and it done my head in lol. So you individual programmers have my sympathies.

As for the decision makers at PGI...you ! ..you !... *points* ..back to balancing this game. . the meta is CRAP !

[Moridan]

Hammerfinn, on 14 May 2013 - 11:19 AM, said:

Can we post this in every thread where people complain about laziness or incompetence at PGI?

Laziness and incompetence is one thing that I dont believe describe PGI, but this same problem has been in the game for... how long? And this is the first post I recall seeing that actually explains what was going on (after all that time).

But cheers to PGI. So... when can we expect this hotfix? Must have missed that...

[VanillaG]

Henceforth, Karl will be known as The Wolf

Edited by VanillaG, 15 May 2013 - 07:36 AM.

[MustrumRidcully]

Shumabot, on 15 May 2013 - 06:50 AM, said:

In my experience it's no worse now than it was during the stalker patch. I suspect that after gold fractals they decided to actually prioritize bugs and bug testing. It seemed like a wakeup call to them when they accidentally made the game unplayable for a quarter of their population, since then they've seemed much more bug focused.

There may be another reason - didn't they state a while before that they finally have added a lot of support on their end to track and fix bugs, better testing environments or more instrumentation or whatever. So it could be that only now they are in a realistic place to squash some bugs.

Of course, this might seem "kinda late" for them to take this long, but on the other hand, if you're trying to get a game out of the door and want to check if it's even viable, maybe such infrastructure is not prioritized as high as other stuff. I don't have to like it or agree with that, though.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 15 May 2013 - 07:41 AM.

[Shumabot]

MustrumRidcully, on 15 May 2013 - 07:40 AM, said:

There may be another reason - didn't they state a while before that they finally have added a lot of support on their end to track and fix bugs, better testing environments or more instrumentation or whatever. So it could be that only now they are in a realistic place to squash some bugs.

Of course, this might seem "kinda late" for them to take this long, but on the other hand, if you're trying to get a game out of the door and want to check if it's even viable, maybe such infrastructure is not prioritized as high as other stuff. I don't have to like it or agree with that, though.

Yeah, during fractalgate they described an automated process of initializing the game without rendering the actual engine for the purpose of testing HUD and load bugs synchronously across many instances of the game per console. I'm sure bringing that system online enabled a lot of the testing described in the article.

Edited by Shumabot, 15 May 2013 - 07:48 AM.

[SynAck]

I have never ever seen a company go to the trouble to explain how a particularly difficult to reproduce bug was found and eradicated. They just wouldn't bother, assuming that the community wouldn't understand the particulars.

I have found your communications to be above average. With this, you have gone above and beyond my lofty expectations for community communications.

I salute you!

[superbob]

I was going to write another "As a fellow programmer..." post, but seeing all my angles covered by now, plain congratulations will have to do. So... Great work!

Hopefully fixing this sneaky bug will free up a bunch of coders, so the bug hunting machine can be kicked into higher gear.

Also, the writeup was 10/10, would read again.

[VagGR]

so that means you fixed the molecular bio-matter capacitors and the dark matter coils are actually feeding the anti matter thrusters!?....or something like that?!

kudos on the troubleshooting btw

[ThunderOverWater]

Karl Berg, on 14 May 2013 - 09:56 AM, said:

STLPort has a whole category of data structure assessors which take member function template parameters, rather than template parameters defined by the data structure types themselves. This appears to actually violate the STL spec, as the function signature for a map access is definitely defined in terms of the key type for the data structure itself.

If it's any consolation, I've never had a good time with 3rd-party data structure libs either. In the long run it was less painful to pull out TAOCP or another algorithms reference and roll my own. My projects are never on time though. :P

[MaddMaxx]

Not to press ones luck here... but can we get more of these items as they are way more interesting than most of the "other" forum areas.

That was a wicked read and well done indeed.

[LeftyBC]

Thank you for this very well-constructed explanation - it sounds like these HUD bugs were as frustrating to the developers as they were to players! I can only imagine how satisfying it was to close that particular ticket as "Resolved"!

[WarpGhost]

I didn't understand any of the PGI post, but this is the internet so I hit "like" anyway.

[Zaptruder]

Tastian, on 15 May 2013 - 06:15 AM, said:

You aren't a programmer are you?

Nope. I'm a designer. But hey, if it's possible to provide a work around, do that first!

I suspect that reinitializing the HUD would be akin to reloading the map entirely... so I guess that would go back to the, let players reconnect to a game problem that hasn't been dealt with yet.

The upside to the reconnection function is that it'll have applications and use even after the disconnects and stability issues are quashed (because after all, a good number of those issues are player side issues, even if network code stability and robustness can still be improved on the server side).

[Least Action Jackson]

My programming experience is limited to simple scientific simulations, so I didn't grasp a good chunk of the explanation, but when I saw the words, "...random walk through the file tree..." I had a mini heart attack. Thinking of all the times I didn't have a HUD bug, I feel like this guy:
http://www.bannedinh...at-shot-off.gif

Thanks a million, devs!

[Mofwangana Bogogono]

Karl, thanks for taking the time to explain what was going on. I'm having a lot of fun playing your game and it's nice to know that you're diligently attacking the problems.

[Rashhaverak]

Nice job on the troubleshooting, and I don't mean to sour any celebration...

but...

Should I be worried that I still seem to have the same HUD bug? I just played on Alpine and when I zoomed in, the red and blue triangles on the mechs disappeared, and if I'm locked onto a mech the lock-on indicator also disappears. If I zoom out the indicators come back. Zoom back in and they are gone again. After I read the command chair and this post I thought all our troubles with the HUD were in the trash bin.

I take it the HUD bug I'm describing is a different HUD bug than the one under discussion here?

Edited by Rashhaverak, 15 May 2013 - 10:35 AM.

[Hammerfinn]

Rashhaverak, on 15 May 2013 - 10:34 AM, said:

Nice job on the troubleshooting, and I don't mean to sour any celebration...

but...

Should I be worried that I still seem to have the same HUD bug? I just played on Alpine and when I zoomed in, the red and blue triangles on the mechs disappeared, and if I'm locked onto a mech the lock-on indicator also disappears. If I zoom out the indicators come back. Zoom back in and they are gone again. After I read the command chair and this post I thought all our troubles with the HUD were in the trash bin.

I take it the HUD bug I'm describing is a different HUD bug than the one under discussion here?

Yes. That's a zoom-module bug, not a HUD bug.

[Appogee]

Fantastic detail. I apologise for any barbs I sent your way on why it was taking so long to track down the HUD bugs.

Respect +10 for seeing it through and for letting us know the details.