Beta 4 and fast loops when Restart current frame

[AndyH]

In the latest beta I am finding that my fast loops are not working after I use the actions "Restart the current frame", or "Jump to the current frame".

Actually, Restart the current frame action has always given me this problem, but I wasn't able to put my finger on it when I first saw the problem and I used the "Jump to frame No" action, passing in an expression that returns the "current frame" as a work around. However, something has changed and neither seem to be working for me now.

I've only got a couple of fast loops and their purpose is to create some UI controls (active objects) when the player dies. One UI control restarts the current level, the other quits out.

On the iPad (I think it happens on all iOS devices) my frame starts for the first time, the player dies, the fast loops activate and the UI controls appear on the screen. I choose to retry the level so the action to restart the current frame triggers. The frame restarts ok, the player dies again, but this time the fast loop does not run.

I have another control that is always on screen and I can use this to quit the level and return to the title screen. If I use this and then restart the level the UI controls will again work the first time.

So the problem seems explicitly with the restarting the current frame, or when just jumping to the current frame. Jumping to a different frame seems to rectify the problem.


Testing in Windows, this problem never happens, it only occurs in the iOS runtime so for that reason I don't think it is any logic in my game that has gone wrong.

It should hopefully be an easy one to reproduce, but I'll make an example file tomorrow to confirm it is not related to anything else and give you something to debug.

[AyreGuitar]

Hi Andy,
I noticed a similar problem to do with restarting or jumping to the same frame, but mine seems to be an issue with loading a List object - perhaps they're related? I used to restart the same frame, but found this killed the music, so was using jump to the same frame, until Beta 4, where I found that the list object hadn't loaded or would load with 0 lines (not sure) - the list object held level data. I noticed the problem wasn't there if I jumped from a different frame, so my workaround was to jump to a blank frame that jumps back to my original frame (horrible, but works!). I figured it might be some kind of clever caching that has been added in Beta4 to improve performance, so less delay in starting up, so my List object hasn't loaded by the next line, but I'll look into it some more as it may be a fastloop issue.

[AndyH]

It's possibly related.

Here's my cut down example file. Build it to an iOS device (have tested on iPad and iTouch) and run.

fastloopMFA.zip

10 active objects are created at the start of the frame. There is a button to allow you to create more. This is done with a fast loop, take a look at the events, there's not much there.

Now press one of the buttons to restart the frame. The frame restarts but there are no active objects created. Press the button to create more active objects - none are created.

Now press the button to go to the next frame, and then again to return to the first frame. The fast loop now works again and more can be created ... until you restart the current frame again.


Run this in Windows and it all works after a frame restart. The problem is restricted to the iOS runtime.

Hope you can fix this one soon! As a work around I am going to store the current frame number in a global value which I'll set at the start of every frame, then create a new frame that reads the global value instead and then jumps to that frame number. I'll then jump to this frame when ever I want to restart the current frame.

[Yos]

I can also confirm that fastloops have stopped working.

[Yos]

Important note: On iOS device that is... (PC and simulator works ok).

[AndyH]

I've put the work around in and all is good again. As it's jumping to a blank frame, this will help clear out memory between frames if I remember what I was reading about it on the forums somewhere? If so I will keep this blank frame in.

[AyreGuitar]

I've knocked up a simple example to show the problem with the List Object and coming to it from a different frame (works as expected) and from the same frame (doesn't load in time) A counter is set to the number of lines of the list file - this displays 4 both times on PC but on iOS device shows 4 then 0 (ie list file not loaded when jumping to same frame)
Hope it helps fix this strange behaviour in Beta 4

[Francois]

Yes, you are all right : the string constants return false results when you do a restart frame (and also after a fade in transition).
Sorry for that, it is due to the acceleration of the string contants in the last version.
We'll post a new version asap.