All sounds crash on runtime, randomly turns quiet

[Feaorn]

Hello, fellow Clickers,

I have searched through this forum far and wide, didn't find a solution for this.

My game is a pixelated agility game that requires the use of both arrows and WASD for controls at the same time. Includes fast button pressing (possibly many buttons at once) for shooting insane numbers of generated enemies. It has so far about 160 events in total, still a prototype. Normal gameplay includes 60 objects on screen tops so far.

I work on a CTF2.5, Windows 8.1 ( ), laptop. Except for Ultimate Fullscreen, I use no other extensions here for now.

At some point I started encountering random sound system crashes, while the application continues as usual, no lags or stutters. In other words - on some random moment of the game all the sounds are cut, turn completely quiet, no new sound is played anymore. Sometimes this block happens after a few seconds, sometimes after a few minutes, it just stops and in 95% of cases never to come back (if it does, it usually comes back only for a very short while only to get crashed again). "Restart level" action does not help, I need to close and restart the runtime completely for the sound to "be there" again.

I used .ogg , also did a try with .wav files, without success. At first I thought it's a "regular" issue of too many sounds at the same time, some unfortunate sound events looping hundreds of sounds. I went a very long way to eliminate all possible occurences that could have done that. Then I started eliminating sounds in general to narrow down the problem. Finally, only one sound was left (the background music), which kept crashing randomily, too! I came to a realisation that maybe the sound bug is a consequence of something not neccesarily sound-based.

So far, all sounds except for the background music looped on the start of the level eliminated, I noticed that while I play with one hand only (arrows), against the general idea of the game, the crashes (according to my tests) do not happen, which might suggest the number of buttons smashed (events launched) may be part of the problem. Every button press starts a fast loop, there are 4 fast loops in total for recognising shot collisions, nothing too complicated. It's difficult to test it, as the crashes come up pretty randomly, but usually in a few minutes of gameplay.

Could you, please, help me out? Any technical perspectives on the matter?

Thank you for your time!

[aenever]

It's hard to pin point your problem without the mfa. You'll get a solution faster by posting it. However I understand if you want to protect your project.

[Feaorn]

It's hard to pin point your problem without the mfa. You'll get a solution faster by posting it. However I understand if you want to protect your project.

Hello, thanks for your reply!
I'm rather reluctant to post it here completely in public. Can I send it to you in a private message or some other way?

[aenever]

You can PM me or send a Dropbox link etc to ajenever@gmail.com

[Feaorn]

Shared on Dropbox. Looking forward to your reply!

[aenever]

Hi Feaorn, I found your problem. Control+S by default mutes the sound. Your reload button is the control button and your down shoot is 'S'. Each time you reload and and the same time press control, you turn off the sound effects. Strangely though this also deletes the theme music being played in a loop - so it's not really a pause rather a stop all sounds (You can get around that issue by adding a condition - Sound not playing - play sound 0 times. Yet it's best to remove the Sound pause shortcut altogether).To get around your problem go to your properties and select the menu bar. Then choose the play and samples and delete it. (P.S Even though you haven't ticked menu bar and your menu bar isn't displayed the shortcuts will still work, by doing the steps in the images below the shortcut will be removed permanently).

Edit Menu.png

Delete Menu.png

I'm certain that's your problem, hope it helps To protect your file i'll delete it now. Nice game concept you're onto a winner

[Feaorn]

Hi Feaorn, I found your problem. Control+S by default mutes the sound. Your reload button is the control button and your down shoot is 'S'. Each time you reload and and the same time press control, you turn off the sound effects. Strangely though this also deletes the theme music being played in a loop - so it's not really a pause rather a stop all sounds (You can get around that issue by adding a condition - Sound not playing - play sound 0 times. Yet it's best to remove the Sound pause shortcut altogether).To get around your problem go to your properties and select the menu bar. Then choose the play and samples and delete it. (P.S Even though you haven't ticked menu bar and your menu bar isn't displayed the shortcuts will still work, by doing the steps in the images below the shortcut will be removed permanently).

Edit Menu.png

Delete Menu.png

I'm certain that's your problem, hope it helps To protect your file i'll delete it now. Nice game concept you're onto a winner

You saved me from a huge load of frustration - and saved my game! Thank you! It would take ages for me to find the problem out there!

Also, thanks for the compliment about the concept. It's my first one, hope I can launch it nice and well when the time comes.
Lots of love! Case closed!
Feaorn

[Acrobics]

Control+S by default mutes the sound. Your {Attack} button is the control button and your {Move Down} is 'S'.

OH MY GOD, I was making a game with this EXACT problem and I was freaking out!!! Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'm so relieved!