Exile

[justdaft]

Hi I have I am trying to run Exile it loads fine, starts fine, i can move the player around using the keyboard for about a minute, then it ignores the keayboard completely, game is still running but no controls work.

Thanks

[mithrendal]

I played it now for more than a minute and it was working fine... very cool game, did not know it.

in the manual I found a remark about "The game will modify itself subtly to stop playing" which I found here

https://inventivity.co.uk/exileami/index.htm

the part of the manual which talks about that it stops working is here

If you are using a pirated copy of EXILE, watch out! The game will modify itself subtly to stop playing as the game progress, so it may not be immediately apparent that somtehing is wrong. You will enjoy playing the game much more if you have bought a genuine copy!

@justdaft have you tried different versions ?

[justdaft]

Hi, its the same version i have been playing for years, it play's perfectly on both winuae and fsuae.

Cheers

[mithrendal]

Ok I see...

I played it more than 10 Minutes with the keyboard on the vAmiga web app https://vAmigaWeb.github.io which is based on the vAmiga Emulation Core ... with not an issue in controlling Finn

then I started it on the real macOS app vAmiga 4.4b4 which hard crashed with a macos system report after I was controling space men Finn for 4 seconds with the keyboard ...

that is also not what you see... on your side it continues to run with a sort of disconnected keyboard...

So to be able to reproduce we need more infos... to have a proper reproducer

which version of vAmiga are you using ? Also because this seems not to be a bug in the emulation part (Core is runnning fine in vAmigaWeb) can you tell us which macOS you are using ?

PS: I was testing with this "sort of a developer approved for download" version of exile http://thunderpeel2001.com/exile/

[justdaft]

Hi I the version of Exile is the one I have also, I have not had the "hard crash" symptom, but i do lose control of the keyboard in both versions of vAmiga, attached are a couple of screenshots of my setup.

I am on a macbook pro M1 running 15.6.1 (24G90).

thanks for you time on this.

[mithrendal]

and you can also confirm that the vAmigaWeb version is immune to this lost keyboard problem ? With that info @dirkwhoffmann can rule out the problem in the emulation core. (I tested it already with no problem but maybe you are controlling space men Finn differently)

[justdaft]

Hi i am firing up the vAmigaWeb version as I type, ok so I managed to play the vAmigaWeb version for way longer than the desktop version's, but after a while the game stops taking keyboard input, in fact the game still is thrusting/moving the player to the right in the vAmigaWeb version ( same as the 4.3 version ) .

Thanks

[dirkwhoffmann]

Running the latest version as a debug build, vAmiga hits an assertion in the CIA idle logic.

It might be related to the issue. In that case, disabling the following option would serve as a workaround:

[mithrendal]

stops taking keyboard input

from the vAmigaWeb screenshot I see you don't control space men Finn with a keyboard to joystick mapping, right ?

what are the keyboard key caps you are using for controling ?

[dirkwhoffmann]

My sleep logic was a bit too aggressive. With the following fix...

void
CIA::sleep()
{
    // Don't call this method on a sleeping CIA
    assert(!sleeping);
    
    // Determine maximum possible sleep cycle based on timer counts
    assert(IS_CIA_CYCLE(clock));
    Cycle sleepA = clock + CIA_CYCLES((counterA > 3) ? (counterA - 2) : 0);
    Cycle sleepB = clock + CIA_CYCLES((counterB > 3) ? (counterB - 2) : 0);

    // CIAs with stopped timers can sleep forever
    if ((feed & CIACountA) == 0) sleepA = INT64_MAX;
    if ((feed & CIACountB) == 0) sleepB = INT64_MAX;

    // Determine the wakeup cycle
    auto wakeupAt = std::min(sleepA, sleepB);

    if (wakeupAt > clock) {

        // ZZzzz
        sleepCycle = clock;
        wakeUpCycle = std::min(sleepA, sleepB);
        sleeping = true;
    }

    tiredness = 0;
}

I was able to play for five minutes without any issues...

[justdaft]

Hi yip did as you suggested and it seems to be playing fine now, many many thanks

[justdaft]

This app is simply amazing, i wish I came across it a long time ago, where is the best place to ask questions about using it? eg can the onscreen virtual keyboard accept key press combo"s ?

[mithrendal]

you do key press combos on the virtual keyboard with the right mouse clicks on the key caps

[dirkwhoffmann]

where is the best place to ask questions about using it?

The best place for questions is the Discussions section in this repo or the vAmigaWeb repo, if it addresses the Web port. If the question is related to a possible enhancement, you can also open on Issue for that.

[justdaft]

Many thanks again.