Objects not appearing only in the exe version of an application

Could you post a MFA file that shows the problem please?

Oh, are you displaying external image files?

If so, maybe some graphic filters are not automatically included in your EXE. In the properties of the application, Windows tab, edit the Image Filters, unselect Automatic and select the graphic formats you use (a bit difficult as this dialog box is a bit weird since we've updated the UI, sorry).

When I wanted to build an application with update 295 I got an error message explaining to me that certain extensions will not be incorporated into the exe (platform movement, joystick 2, etc...). I imagine the solution is the same?

Ouch... I tried to uncheck the automatic update in all the objects concerned wherever they are located:
-Alpha direction calculator
-Platform movement
-Ultimate fullscreen
-Control X
-Joystick 2

Unfortunately when wanting to do the build there is always the same problem...

[MENTION=13443]mig3[/MENTION] did you change something in the Fusion directory? If this message is displayed when you build an EXE, that means the .MFX file of the extension(s) is not in the data\runtime and/or data\runtime\unicode folders. Each extension has 2 MFX files, one in Extensions\etc that is used only in the editor, and one in data\runtime\etc that is used only by stand-alone apps. If you have no MFX in data\runtime\etc then try reinstalling these extensions.

PS: it's a different issue than the one reported in this thread.

Thanks! That was the problem indeed! I'm sorry, it's a coincidence.
What misled me was that everything worked fine when the app was launched from the MFA with F8 and that I had never had this problem when trying to create a build before.

Quote from GunFun

Edit: I did some testing and it turns out that the game used 2800 MB of ram while active (specifically on the 4th frame), however, the computer it froze on has 12 GB of ram, while the computer it did not freeze on has 8 GB or ram, which doesn't make much sense.

2800MB is too much. Fusion is a 32bit program, which means that it has a practical RAM limit no matter how much RAM the PC has (you'd likely have problems on the 8GB computer eventually too). IIRC, this RAM limit is somewhere around 1.5GB before problems can start occurring. There's a patch you can Google that can increase the amount of memory available to 32bit programs (it's not made specifically for Fusion, but some people have reported success).

But really, you need to get your game's RAM usage way down, or you'll likely keep butting into these sorts of problems. You probably need to slightly rethink the way you do certain things. For example, consider using smaller images and scaling them (this doesn't increase RAM usage). Or if you have long animations where only a portion of the image is actually animating, consider splitting the animation into a static 1 frame graphic and a smaller animated portion.

[MENTION=15682]Volnaiskra[/MENTION] Fusion now supports up to 3.7 GB (build 292 and greater).
[MENTION=44140]GunFun[/MENTION] "automatic" means that the filters are included if Fusion detects your app uses features that need them. However in some cases it doesn't detect it (with some 3rd party extensions for example but maybe more than that, I don't remember very well).

To reduce memory there are little tips like for example replace large plain color images by a small one that you scale as Volnaiskra said, etc. You can also use the 2.5+ DLC that better compresses images in RAM.

Thank you for the MFA, I'll check it.

OK, I saw the MFA it's a RAM issue as you easily reach 3700 MB.

First comment, you should convert large sound files to MP3 or OGG, you have WAV samples that are 30+ or 90+ MB in size. Open the Data Elements editor and replace them in the Sounds tab.

Otherwise, you could crop images with transparent borders (with the Crop tool in the picture editor). For example Active 13 in Office frame, the first images are almost empty and Active 75 has TONS of 2280x1680 croppable images that would allow you to save tens of MB's, etc.

Also in Active 86, 88, 89 you animate a grid by duplicating an image and just changing the hotspot. This will duplicate the images in RAM. You should use a single image and move it manually with Set Y actions and/or with a simple Path Movement.

There are probably other cases like that, I didn't check everything. I suggest that you compress big sound samples and crop all those images and then try to run it again. If you still reach 3700 MB then you should get the 2.5+ DLC.

Ah btw, to help you cropping images faster, there are shortcuts in the animation editor. Copy/paste from the help file:

You can use a combination of keys to crop several images at the same time when you click on the Crop button : SHIFT to crop all the images of the current direction or image list, SHIFT + CONTROL to crop all the directions of the current animation, SHIFT + CONTROL + ALT to crop all the animations of the current object.

Quote from Yves

[MENTION=15682]Volnaiskra[/MENTION] Fusion now supports up to 3.7 GB (build 292 and greater).

I'm sure I rejoiced when this was originally announced. Then I totally forgot about it. Now I get to rejoice again! XD

Yves, does Fusion purge destroyed objects from RAM when it approaches the 3.7GB limit? When I load a single level in my game, it uses about 800MB. Then each time I load a new level with different content (which automatically destroys all the objects used in the first level) it creeps up ~100MB per level up to about 1.4GB (which I guess is the current ceiling in terms of how much content there is). I assume that as it gets closer to the 3.7GB limit, Fusion will eventually purge itself of RAM content generated by previously destroyed objects. Is that the case?

Destroyed objects are removed from RAM the next game loop. Well, only the variable part, the fixed part (images, animations) are still in memory so that you can recreate the object. Images and animations are removed from memory when you go to a frame that doesn't contain these objects, so in theory the RAM is purged at the end of each frame. Windows may keep this RAM available to the application though, instead of giving back to the system, immediately so you may not see it decreasing immediately in the Windows Task manager - but I guess at some point it does it so you shouldn't see your RAM usage increasing unless the next frames are heavier. If you have an example I can check if there is a memory leak, this would be a bit surprising though.

Quote from Yves

Destroyed objects are removed from RAM the next game loop. Well, only the variable part, the fixed part (images, animations) are still in memory so that you can recreate the object. Images and animations are removed from memory when you go to a frame that doesn't contain these objects, so in theory the RAM is purged at the end of each frame. Windows may keep this RAM available to the application though, instead of giving back to the system, immediately so you may not see it decreasing immediately in the Windows Task manager - but I guess at some point it does it so you shouldn't see your RAM usage increasing unless the next frames are heavier. If you have an example I can check if there is a memory leak, this would be a bit surprising though.

I should have mentioned that my game engine is single frame. When loading a new level, it destroys most objects, then creates whatever new objects it needs. In some cases, it loads new PNG or ANM files into existing objects. The only time it loads a different frame is when the user chooses to return to the main menu. So does this mean that old animations will never be purged until the user goes to the main menu?

Is there a way to detect RAM usage during runtime through the events? I guess I could build in a mechanism that notices when RAM is getting a bit high, and then forcibly moves to another frame then immediately returns.

Load Animation: the previous images are deleted immediately unless it's the original images (so that Restart Frame works), i.e. after one Load Animation you'll get both the original images and the new ones, after 50 Load Animation you'll get the original images and the images of the latest ANM file you've loaded.

Load Frame: in theory it's the same, original images are not destroyed and images previously loaded with Load Frame are removed.

I guess we could add a function that returns the RAM usage we display in the debugger.

That's good to know that externally loaded assets overwrite each other.

Is there any chance you could add a Purge Object action so we could manually purge certain objects (for example enemies, which contain many animations, but don't appear on all levels) from memory?