Possible bug in .92 - Game Center behavior causes the game to freeze

EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
edited May 2012 in Tech Support
Hi,

Thanks to a very dedicated beta tester, we found the following issue with an Ad Hoc build in which canceling the Game Center login caused the game to freeze on the next Game Center request.

Why do I say it's a bug?
1. I first tested other GC enabled GS games (Loonimals in this case) and I could not recreate the issue (probably because it was not built with .92...)
2. I took the GS GC sample template, built an Ad Hoc for it and tested it - I managed to get it to freeze using the exact same scenario

Here is the process
1. Log out of game center and run my Ad hoc an (it is VERY important to log off just before you test! Don't run any GC enabled game between your log off and your test)
2. From the App try to login to game center
3. I get the iOS dialog to login to game center - hit Cancel
4. At this point I DO NOT get the "There was an error logging into Game Center" message!!! (If you get 'Game Center Disabled' message it means that you didn't do step 1 correctly... kill the app, login to game center, open the app, login to game center from the app, kill the app, logout from game center and go to step 2)
5. Control is passed back to the game and everything seems to work
6. Try to open the Game Center Leaderboard or Game Center Achievements (or even try to Login again)
7. Game freezes

Did anyone else noticed that? Try it with you .93 build

This is a showstopper bug for me, I cannot release a game that freezes up. While the process seems complex, our beta tester hit it on his first run.

:(

GR


Comments

  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    Please note - This is NOT the same as the similar http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/42987/gamecenter-login-causes-freezing

    The other thread talks about the temporary pause for the time it takes to login, this one is a complete freeze which never gets released and is not related to the quality of the internet connection.

    GR
  • bazookaBenbazookaBen Member Posts: 318
    mine suffers from a complete freeze if the login doesn't grow through (i.e if the notification "welcome player XXXX" doesn't show)
  • creativeappscreativeapps Member Posts: 1,770
    when they are going to lunch .93?
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    Not meaning to sound sarcastic, but do you mean .92?

    If not, then how did you get your hands on .93? Even Line/Sous's don't have it yet.

    Ace
  • creativeappscreativeapps Member Posts: 1,770
    edited May 2012
    @mynameisace lolz :))

    why are you always shows offline in skype?
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    edited May 2012
    That depends on which account you have on your Skype - the one I use is aceconnell

    I'm on there most of the day, everyday ;)

    Ace
  • creativeappscreativeapps Member Posts: 1,770
    Ok thats y I sent you birthday wishes and not getting your reply. Added you
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    Haha, it's never too late to wish my Happy Birthday now :P

    Ace
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    Sorry... Typo... Fixed.

    @mynameisace I guess I am just one step ahead of you ;) Happy Birthday, but I really would like some on topic answers...

    @bazookaBen the only time I get a 'freeze' on simple first time login is due to network issue, and in those cases it will get released after about a minute. It's not really a GS issue, I know the network it happens on and I know why it is. Can you recreate your freeze regardless of reception/network?
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    Lol, it was my birthday ages ago. I was just seeing if we were on the same page before I gave an answer, since I don't have .93 to test on ;)

    I'll do an ad hoc in a bit and check it out, see if I can recreate it. Does it just happen on one particular project or have you tested it on a fresh project?

    Gamecenter seems to be crashing a few things recently. Someone sent me their project before and it was just interpolating the size of the actor with the Gamecenter rules in it that broke the game.

    Ace
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    @mynameisace it's never late to wish you a happy birthday ;)
    Assuming it was an issue with my logic was my first direction, but after moving my behaviors around with no results I decided to build the simple Game Center Sample that Gamesalad provided (the one with the green boxes). Using the scenario above I managed to get this one to freeze as well. But I'll be very happy if it will end up not being a bug or someone will figure out a workaround (no need to wait for a fix!).

    @jonmulcahy @SaladStraightShooter Already did, thanks.
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    edited May 2012
    Just tested a few GS games that were recently released (assumed 0.92) and managed to cause all of them to freeze using the same scenario (e.g. Stone Wheel 2 from @gamevicci which is a great game BTW and Shoot the Fruit from @scrapee_net).

  • StamuStamu Member Posts: 92
    Anyone tested this one with 0.9.93?
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    @tshirtbooth This is the thread I was talking about.

    I have not tested it with 93 yet, but it is not on the release notes.
  • scrapee_netscrapee_net Member Posts: 424
    I tested on .93... It was not fixed :-(. Disappointed.
  • StamuStamu Member Posts: 92
    @mynameisace I think eatingmyhat saw the future, it is a 0.9.93 issue =))
  • scrapee_netscrapee_net Member Posts: 424
    edited May 2012
    ya for me its just a freeze tell it logs you in.
    it dosnt freeze the game forever for me.

    It's not that bug that we are talking about. It's another, a lot worst. When it happens the game needs to be killed.

    To reproduce it, open Gamecenter and sign out.

    Then, on the game when prompted to sign in to gamecenter, hit cancel. The game will freeze next gamecenter request.

    You can test this in my game: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shoot-the-fruit-archery-game/id524365203?mt=8

    After canceling gamecenter signing, hit Leaderboards, and you'll see.
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    ya for me its just a freeze tell it logs you in.
    it dosnt freeze the game forever for me.
    Let me know which of your games have Game Center and was published with 92 and I'll show you how it freezes cold forever... I have 100% success rate doing that on 92 published games.

    You need to log out from Game Center (you have to do it just before you activate the game)
    Open the game, when asked to login - hit cancel
    After you do that, try to do another Game Center activity (e.g. show leader board)

    Cheers,
    GR
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    just did a test, i guess because i never cancel i didn't see it.

    now for me it does NOT freeze the game, but it will not let me press the GC button anymore.
    everything else works fine.

    cheers
    Seems like we cross posts... which game are you testing? is it on the App Store?
  • scrapee_netscrapee_net Member Posts: 424
    Seeing my game Shoot the Fruit, stats... Appanie shows 12,824 so far.

    Gamecenter shows 5.649 players so far... This menas, that a lot of them hit cancel for gamecenter. This also means, that a lot of people who downloaded the game couldn't play it because it freezed, and probably deleted it, due to this issue...

    I tame myself as example. I almost always cancel gamecenter login.

    So, this bug, is being very harmfull.
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    @tshirtbooth sorry mate... just got Mixed Up to freeze. twice.

    However, your game behave differently from others that I have seen, maybe because I upgraded my phone to iOS 5.1.1 a couple of days ago. It throws a bunch of Game Center errors before it freezes.

    So I checked some more and found something very interesting. If the game is frozen, I will go to the Game Center App and login to Game Center. After the login is done, I'll come back to the frozen game and the game is fully operations... that would mean that the freeze is a loop/request waiting for Game Center which doesn't time out.

    Great game by the way. I wanted to buy it when it came out and forgot about it. At least now I have it :)

    Cheers,
    GR
  • scrapee_netscrapee_net Member Posts: 424
    edited May 2012
    Let's wait another few months for
    94, and hope they fix this. :-(
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    Let's wait another few months for
    94, and hope they fix this. :-(
    Stay positive :) I just added a 'Login to Game Center' question to my game, so people will have a chance to hit 'No' instead of seeing the iOS 'Cancel' button. I assume that this will solve some portion of the issue.
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    @tshirtbooth, I continued to test why your game freeze is not the same as the others (it fires out errors).

    I first tested iOS 5.1 vs. iOS 5.1.1 - that was not the reason
    I than built a sample project with 91 and now I'm getting the same behavior as yours (errors before a freeze). If you don't mind me asking, was Mixed Up published with 91 or 92?
  • HymloeHymloe Member Posts: 1,653
    When I play Mumble Jumble, there doesn't seem to be a LOGIN behaviour during the startup / main menu. Is there one, @tshirtbooth? Or is there more subtle way to get the player logged into the app?

    I'm trying to solve this "stutter" / "freeze" problem myself, and wonder how you are weaving the magic in Mumble Jumble. :)

    - Murray
  • EatingMyHatEatingMyHat Member Posts: 1,246
    @Hymloe I'm not sure but I think Mumble Jumble was done with 91. However, GS are working on this issue on the hot fix so we just need some patience.
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