In first place sorry if i dont write correctly, english is not my natural language but i think we will understand each other.

In second place i didnt find a section for technical issues, so i think this post go here, really sorry if im wrong.

The problem: It only happen in edit mode, when im testing the game it runs totally ok. When im editing the game and i open a tab with heavy scripting (Not so heavy really cause im starting to do the game) it randomly freeze, it happen like 75% of the time, and i got to close the aplication and open it again, its really frustrating, sometimes it happen when im choosing options from the scrolling menus for my scripts.

Look like it dont happen in code mode, but i cant work in that mode cause i dont know about coding...

¿Someone have the same problem in the past? ¿Someone fixed it? I doubt it is my computer cause it can run most of the new games at max graphics and, like i said, it is totally random, sometimes i can edit a script well, and then when i go to change it for some reason it freezes, sometimes no, im going mad ._.

You should post a copy of the game to see if anyone else can recreate the issue and determine what exactly might be wrong. I they cannot then it will likely be something to do with your computer. Have a fast computer doesn't guarantee that a piece of software will work perfectly, there can be other causes of bugs and crashes.

Ok, i will investigate later how to upload my game but i think is not about the game but the program cause the error happen randomly and never happen if i run the game or edit it in code mode.

http://oi42.tinypic.com/2mn3teh.jpg This is a screenshot of the program not working, actually freeze, my system is in spanish thats why it say "No responde" that actually means "Have not response" you can apreciate how the script tab is highlighted cause it freeze when i click that...

http://oi44.tinypic.com/684is3.jpg Here you can see how i open the same tab, doing exactly the same steps cause i just open the game and click on it, and this time it open and works, the program dont crash... thats the random thing i was talking about.

I atached the game, it is in spanish and got not actual gameplay cause it only have 2 rooms, im working on the character creation and on randomizing the npcs (actually only one called Posadero, That means Innkeeper) the game automatically set a diferent sex, race, age, skin color, hair color and hair type for the npc, and if it have the same race as you it helps you giving you 5 money, i want to work in a random adventure type of game that randomizes all npcs and quest every time you play, making it like a "solitaire/play time to time" adventure that will never be the same, actually was thinking on doing this before i found quest, and when i founded it i was very excited cause it is perfectly posible and actually easy to do ^.^

This is really strange. If I click on the game object, Quest freezes for just a second, then it shows the tabs.It seems to be the script causing this. You could try to move the script into a function and just call this function in the start script. You could test it with the appended game

I couldn't recreate the freezing problem, although there was a definite pause for a couple of seconds before the tab loaded for me.

If it is just a problem with your computer loading the tab full of scripts, you could possibly get around it by dividing the script up into different functions.

E.g. Create one function called establecerposadero and cut and paste all the randomising scripts there, and create another function like establecerplayer and put the menu scripts for the player in there. Then by calling both functions in the start script, you're only loading two scripts for that tab rather than a whole list.

EDIT: Just beaten by Pertex. I realised that if you're having trouble with quest freezing then it would be a pain to try and do so I also edited it to post, although like I suggested, I split the start script into two functions, one for the innkeeper and one for the player.

It dont work, when i try to edit the function i got the same random freeze, but now can freely open the start script tab that is empty, so is something with the heavy script for sure ._.

http://oi40.tinypic.com/2vsnvag.jpg Pic with the new random freeze when i click on the function.

Realized that the random freeze can happen when im editing the Innkeeper dialoges if they are getting heavy on scripts too. Look like any tab that is getting heavy on script cause random problems, more frequently the more heavy they are.

So is probably something with my computer, but i have no problems in any other aplication, and thinking on the fact that the error never happen runing the game just editing... i think is something a little strange cause the power to run the scripts is there.

Im thinking on test the web editor, but i cant see the option to load an already created game into it, got to publish the game for it?

I've had pretty much the same problem off and on since I started using Quest, like you said mostly when there are a bunch of scripts nested together. It's popped up in almost every game I've started, so I don't think it's something that can be isolated, at least for me, but I've managed to work around it and minimize the problems by saving a lot (always a good habit anyway) and learning to work in the code view for some of the script-heaviest bits. I don't know if it's my computer or what, but I'm pretty confident that it's not just bad code somewhere as I've had the same problem so often in so many different games at different stages of development. For me it tends to freeze most often right after clicking one of the little triangle-in-a-circle buttons to expand a script.

Like I said, I've managed to work around it to the point where it's not so much a problem as a slight annoyance, but I thought since it got brought up I'd mention it.

Yoid and TLK, please click the VOTE button on the Issue tracker, the bigger the number the better the response, I'm thinking.
My freeze-ups are massive, sometimes when I open a simple file with some changes and unfilter the libraries I get a freeze up when I just select a function.
Sometimes the freezes are permanent (in a practical sense) and sometimes I will just leave to do something else and when I come back it unfroze.
Sometimes I seem to hit large stretches where nothing happens.
It has happened often on small test projects.
Other than once, it always is an issue in the editor.
I get the feeling that there are sections of code doing something inefficiently and getting stuck in extremely long processing loops. (ie rebuilding stuff every-time instead of saving and updating results. Is this a result of browser-friendly state-less programming?)
This is really galling!

ps: If I wanted to work in code view to avoid this problem I would drop Quest and use TADS or Inform. The GUI is the biggest attraction for me.

Another PS: I just created a brand-new game, unfiltered the core libraries, searched for ScopeVisibleLightsources and when I selected it in the tree...it froze. Eventually, after several minutes, it unfroze. Even with constant saves I can't work this way. I didn't even write any script yet! So this is not a script-heavy issue. If somebody else can't repeat this problem then the issue is definitely PC-environment related. I just have no idea what to examine...

Actually you're much better off emailing me and providing as much detail as you can, rather than just upvoting stuff on uservoice. I am a person...

I've logged this on the issue tracker to see if there's anything I can do to improve the performance here.

https://quest.codeplex.com/workitem/1303

Thanx Alex, i really apreciate that you come and post personally.

Just out of curiosity, are there any particular system requirements for Quest? Particularly 5.4.1, which I've upgraded to since my post in this thread (and sadly, crashes even more for me than 5.3, but that's pushed me to get much better and more comfortable with the code view, so it's not all bad). I couldn't find anything anywhere looking just now. My PC has a dualcore 3GHz processor, 5 gigs of RAM, and Windows 7 64bit. It's a few years old and not a powerhouse, to be sure, but decent.

Nothing in particular. Your system is certainly powerful enough.

Hello, I have the same problem, I like Quest but the editor freezes randomly. It starts doing that after any script or function is created. And I mean any, even if I put a few simple "if" statements like literally few lines of text and try to open the tab it gets stuck anywhere from few seconds to full freeze where I have to terminate the application. In Windows Task Manager it shows that it is doing something heavy, takes around 25% of CPU usage, and my PC is AMD QuadCore Phenom with 8GB of RAM and Geforce 560 video card. I'm using Windows 7 with all drivers up to date. Have no problems with any other software and I do heavy photoshopping + 3D rendering + gaming etc. So my PC is definitely not the problem. I've tried using different Quest versions with exactly same result. It looks to me like there is some kind of software conflict or a loop bug. Any new ideas on how to fix this?

Just for the record, I use the latest Quest GUI on a six year old single-core laptop with 1.5 gb of RAM, and I don't think it has ever freezed up.

To figure problems like this out you really need a test case like the OP posted up earlier in the thread. Can you upload a game that consistently or at least repeatedly does this?

Any function or script containing a few "if" statements does this. I even had this happened with a completely new file having one player, one room, and one function with one "if" statement. Usually happens when the editor tries to show me something new in the script graphical view, like when I click on a function, or go out of code editing mode, or even when I click on something, like "cut" for example. Basically the more things it has to display, the more chances it will completely freeze while doing anything. Few times it even froze while I was moving my mouse around over some drop down menus. As the menus have this mouse-over animation it got slower until completely stopped working, application window was showing (not-responding) and the task manager indicated it was taking 25% of CPU power, witch is 100% of one core.


EDIT: One more thing I've noticed today is when I restart my PC it works fine for a while, then it becomes slower and slower even if all I'm doing is viewing existing functions and not adding or changing anything, then after a while it takes so long to display anything it stops responding completely. Closing and reopening application does not help at all it will become slower each time till the point where even a new empty file will freeze.

Yes, yes, yes.....I have had the same freeze/crash problem: if I am working in a tab with a lot of scripting, IF statements and/or TIMER functions. Any changes that affect a large piece of data. Especially if I highlight and copy data to cut and paste or copy and paste elsewhere. I figure that, since the Quest program is tracking all of my moves in case I will "Undo" multiple actions, it has to hold these weighty changes in its memory.

No, I don't work as often in code view, but I have found some minor changes easier and quicker to effect in code. Also, I tend to have to individualize the same verbs for numerous objects, instead of learning how to use the "library" of verbs and tweak the actions for each object/character; which I guess also eats up memory. Also, I have hundreds of images in my game, which are stored...somewhere. When I add a new image, if I select the option of having the program sort through all the current images, it takes more time and increases the risk of crashing, rather than selecting "Browse" and tracking down the new image on my computer.

I would suspect that we would-be writers who don't learn how to use the library function are like auto drivers who can't shift out of first gear in a manual transmission: we are expecting the program to run smoothly but making it work much harder than it has to. If we don't learn how drive our "manual transmission", we can expect to see smoke rolling out from under the hood more often than other people.

One of these days I will figure out exactly how to use that library function and decrease the memory eaten up.

~P.G.

I thought my computer was acting up, but three times today I got a screen like Yoid. I ended up getting it to function again by toggling between full screen and partial screen. Also closed the program and reopened and worked fine again. Just wanted to know it apparently isn't an isolated case.