Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

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DeathTech
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Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by DeathTech »

Hey there,

Was playing on my "new player boot camp" server and chatting with Marvin whilst doing some mining.
As I launched from the moon I was mining there was an explosion sound as I just about entered a jump and the server crashed.
Just before everything got stuck I heard an explosion sound as if I died.
And the server menu even briefly display "DeathTechDB has been destroyed."

Although the area I was in (a desolate moon), there were no other ships or objects (like asteroids) to my knowledge.
So I am not sure why I exploded, the moon had no atmosphere so I can't have been the friction of flying at 6 k speed.
My theory might by that an npc ship may have jumped in my path but that's all I can think of.

After restarting the Evochron 2D server and reconnecting I found attempting to connect with the profile actually gets the game stuck in the loading screen.
It also seems to prompt a "unhandled exception error" when I tried reconnecting. So I was just stuck in the hangar log in screen when it showed 5 more seconds.

After restarting my game completely I was able to rejoin the server without the unhandled connection error.
Still it was quite the scare and sadly brought interruption to my game and Marvin's game. (Although brief.)
Thanks to my quick rebooting. :3

Would appreciate investigation into the matter Vice. <3
Also here is a pic.
Thanks in advance.

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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Vice »

Doesn't sound like your profile was broken or damaged, but you can send it to me for analysis if you are unable to load it at this point.

Otherwise, what you describes sounds like some kind of resource problem. You appear to be running the game at very low texture resolution. Are you running the game on a low end setup? And at are you trying to run the server and the client on that same system at the same time?

Was the unhandled exception error with the server or the client? An error like that tends to relate to network connection problems. So it likely indicates perhaps some kind of problem related to the network device, its connection to it, or resources needed to manage it all (ie memory).

The rebooting you did likely cleared out whatever the problem was and reset things back as needed, whether network device or resource related. If you run into a problem like that again and are running both programs on the same system and that system is at or below the minimum spec for the game, you'll likely want to run the server program on a separate system entirely and not try to operate both at the same time on the same system.

You can also send me a msinfo report on that system and I can review it for possible problems that could cause something like that as well: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/faq.htm#208
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Marvin »

Additional info: The last time IM (me, Denny and Diana ... Starbuck was on vacation) logged in, it was on Tech's "new guy" server. Chat kept displaying some kind of "low on resources" message (I forget the exact words) and, when Tech logged on, Denny asked if the server was running 2D or 3D. At which time Tech checked and confirmed that he'd accidentally started the 3D server. Nonetheless, despite the "low resources" message, we (IM) had no trouble playing the game.
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Vice »

The 'low resources' alert message indicates my suggestion may be correct. That message only displays when the server is unable to obtain the performance conditions it needs for proper functionality. While it may technically 'work' most of the time, a problem will likely surface under such conditions over time.
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Marvin »

The message didn't display when Tech changed over to the 2D server.
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Vice »

The 2D server behaves very differently in that regard, including if/when it might report a problem, especially on low end systems. But the same kind of resource problem described above could surface regardless of which server program is being used (lack of memory/performance can impact both as they both use the same multiplayer framework, only the UI and core programs are different).

Unfortunately, with what little information I have to go on to analyze the issue, I can only speculate at this point as to what the cause may be. But I suspect my initial estimate is likely accurate considering what was described, what is displayed in the screenshot, what you reported with the performance alert, and how things worked again after a restart.
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by DeathTech »

Vice wrote:Doesn't sound like your profile was broken or damaged, but you can send it to me for analysis if you are unable to load it at this point.
Yeah I think I mentioned it but it was fine after fully restarting my game. Indicating that effect was something client side.
Vice wrote:Otherwise, what you describes sounds like some kind of resource problem. You appear to be running the game at very low texture resolution. Are you running the game on a low end setup? And at are you trying to run the server and the client on that same system at the same time?
At that particular moment I was running server and client on the same device. Although I fixed the low resource errors by swapping to the 2D server.
And the server device reports at any given time that it is using no more than 30% cpu by the whole server device.
So it really shouldn't be a cpu problem.
Memory wise it still has access to an additional 4 gigabytes of memory.
Vice wrote: Was the unhandled exception error with the server or the client? An error like that tends to relate to network connection problems. So it likely indicates perhaps some kind of problem related to the network device, its connection to it, or resources needed to manage it all (ie memory).
I am unsure. After the server crashing. I had rebooted it. Marvin managed to get on instantly. Indicating no further issues with his client.
My client prompted that error twice while connecting to the server. Then I rebooted my client and it was working again.

Some info about the server may help you understand more perhaps.
Server:
OS: Windows 7 home premium service pack 1 64bit
Memory: 16 GB
CPU: 8 cores at 4 gigahertz
Graphics Card: nvidia GT 610 (2 gigabytes vram)
Server CPU load at any given time: below 30%
Server memory load at any given time leaves 4 gigs of ram (even with both server, client and a half dozen other software running)

The 2D server itself was allowed 50 cpu even though your config file states max is like 25.

Code: Select all

' This line lets you specify the CPU use level, range is 0 to 25 (leave blank for optimized)
810=50
I hope any of that information is more useful to you.
If you need anything else to help determine things let me know.

Running both server and client on the same device has not given any problems before.
But there may be a connection for sure.
Il make a gif about it later.
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by Vice »

And the server device reports at any given time that it is using no more than 30% cpu by the whole server device.
So it really shouldn't be a cpu problem.
CPU gauges can indicate utilization, not output performance. So it isn't a metric that helps with determining if a/the server program is running fast enough, only how much tasking might be sent its way. The FPS indicator on the server program will be more important for measuring actual performance and its ability to keep up with the 'tick'/'update' rates required to sustain the session properly.

Regardless, I doubt it is a CPU problem also as the error likely relates more to unavailable/insufficient resources rather than performance. The low performance alert likely just related to an overtasked GPU (a 610 is pretty low for the game itself on its own, which may be why you were running with low settings).
Memory wise it still has access to an additional 4 gigabytes of memory.
If it was memory related, it won't likely be an issue with capacity, but availability. If one of the 'half dozen other' programs running in the background decided to use, block, or otherwise interfere with any memory in a needed range, it could cause a problem. But it may be related to something with the network device anyway.
The 2D server itself was allowed 50 cpu even though your config file states max is like 25.
The value in that option is a wait delay, not a utilization percentage setting. You won't need to use it anyway as it's an old option that doesn't really need to apply any more. So you can change that to 0 and it's not likely related to the issue you ran into.

A couple of things I'd also recommend to check is the version of server program you are using. In the program on the lower right menu, there will be a version number. Make sure it reads 1.0848. That way, I'll know we're working from the same reference point. Then if you send me a msinfo report on the system (instructions at the link I posted above), I may be able to determine more. Likewise, you can review the Windows event log in the application section, which might provide more details on the error message and what it may relate to.

It's possible something went wrong with the network device, maybe a rare occurrence or something. Did you ever have it happen again, or was it only that one time?
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Re: Weird bug crashed server and broke my profile.

Post by DeathTech »

The server does read version 1.0848 at current.
The issue has not repeated itself yet to date.

If it does I will be certain to take further steps to record events.
At the time it was impossible for me to do so.

There is a (slight) chance it may have something to do with the network adaptor as the server is not on a static IP.
So it may be possible that my connection was very briefly interrupted or something.
If anything the server has been running for over 19 days and the networking module is starting to get quite stacked up on memory.
I highly doubt the system has become unstable as no other software is experiencing random crashes.

When I was speaking about the cpu load not breaching 30% I was talking about the server device.
Not the evochron 2D server.
Just to point out it couldn't be cpu issues as far as I am aware since its not even breaking a sweat.
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