Discussion:
Bug#1086770: vcmi: Very unstable package
Add Reply
Alex Henry
2024-11-05 18:00:01 UTC
Reply
Permalink
Package: vcmi
Version: 1.5.2+dfsg-2+b1
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: ***@gmail.com

Dear maintainers,

I have played VCMI for about an hour yesterday and have run into numerous
crashes-to-desktop during basic, normal game-play. These include a reproducible
crash where pressing the space-bar during combat will crash-to-desktop with a
100% chance, every time.

The other crashes happened frequently too, every 10 or 20 minutes or so, also
usually after some input-action, suggesting a thorough lack of testing and
polish.

Considering every crash causes anywhere from 5 to 10 or more minutes of data
loss, I'll argue that this package is unusable for anyone but the most patient
of users who don't mind having 50% of their progress lost frequently while
playing a video-game past the 1.0 mile-stone (which won't be many).

I have played earlier versions of VCMI and it was not anywhere as unstable as
this and as such I'd recommend the maintainers block this package from reaching
stable. I have tried version 1.5.7 too from the project's official "stable" PPA
and also ran into a crash within minutes of launching the game.

I do apologize to the maintainers for not providing specific logs and detailed
reports of each individual bug but:

1. I have not collected every crash-log and it would be more time-consuming to
do so than I could do right now, considering the sheer number of crashes.
2. The individual issues are not the problem: I could continue playing, just by
avoiding pressing space during combat, for example. The problem is the overall
lack of stability in the entire package that renders this pretty much
unplayable, in my opinion, to the extent I feel the need to write this.

While I have not tested it recently, I do believe the 1.1 version in stable
does not suffer from this trouble-some lack of polish and I would suggest that
migration be blocked until at least 1.5.8 is released in the future and
properly tested. Consider making this a "serious" bug, if applicable.

My system is fairly up-to-date but I can't rule out some dependency issue. If
that's the case, this report still applies as dependencies would need to be up-
dated.

Big thanks to the Debian Games team for the continued work in making sure we
can game on the freest platform there is! Cheers.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 6.8.12-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages vcmi depends on:
ii libavcodec61 7:7.0.2-3
ii libavformat61 7:7.0.2-3
ii libavutil59 7:7.0.2-3
ii libboost-chrono1.83.0t64 1.83.0-3.2
ii libboost-filesystem1.83.0 1.83.0-3.2
ii libboost-locale1.83.0 1.83.0-3.2
ii libboost-program-options1.83.0 1.83.0-3.2
ii libboost-thread1.83.0 1.83.0-3.2
ii libc6 2.40-3
ii libfuzzylite6.0 6.0+dfsg-8
ii libgcc-s1 14.2.0-6
ii libminizip1t64 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1
ii libqt5core5t64 5.15.13+dfsg-2
ii libqt5gui5t64 5.15.13+dfsg-2
ii libqt5network5t64 5.15.13+dfsg-2
ii libqt5widgets5t64 5.15.13+dfsg-2
ii libsdl2-2.0-0 2.30.8+dfsg-1
ii libsdl2-image-2.0-0 2.8.2+dfsg-1+b1
ii libsdl2-mixer-2.0-0 2.8.0+dfsg-1+b2
ii libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 2.22.0+dfsg-1
ii libstdc++6 14.2.0-6
ii libswscale8 7:7.0.2-3
ii libtbb12 2021.11.0-2
ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1

Versions of packages vcmi recommends:
ii ffmpeg 7:7.0.2-3
ii innoextract 1.9-0.1+b1
ii unshield 1.5.1-1+b2
ii unzip 6.0-28

Versions of packages vcmi suggests:
pn homm3-demo-data | homm3-data <none>

-- no debconf information
Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues
2024-11-06 10:20:01 UTC
Reply
Permalink
Hi Alex,

thank you for your elaborate bug report.

Quoting Alex Henry (2024-11-05 18:53:13)
Post by Alex Henry
I have played VCMI for about an hour yesterday and have run into numerous
crashes-to-desktop during basic, normal game-play. These include a reproducible
crash where pressing the space-bar during combat will crash-to-desktop with a
100% chance, every time.
that's this bug: https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi/issues/4067

This should be fixed in vcmi 1.5.3.

Indeed I must admit that I wasn't aware of this hotkey and always used my mouse
to let units wait.
Post by Alex Henry
The other crashes happened frequently too, every 10 or 20 minutes or so, also
usually after some input-action, suggesting a thorough lack of testing and
polish.
Are you playing with any mods enabled? I have been playing the campaign
yesterday for over an hour without any crashes.
Post by Alex Henry
Considering every crash causes anywhere from 5 to 10 or more minutes of data
loss, I'll argue that this package is unusable for anyone but the most
patient of users who don't mind having 50% of their progress lost frequently
while playing a video-game past the 1.0 mile-stone (which won't be many).
I have played earlier versions of VCMI and it was not anywhere as unstable as
this and as such I'd recommend the maintainers block this package from
reaching stable. I have tried version 1.5.7 too from the project's official
"stable" PPA and also ran into a crash within minutes of launching the game.
I'm currently preparing an upload of version 1.5.7 to unstable. I'll test that
as well and see if I can reproduce your observations.
Post by Alex Henry
I do apologize to the maintainers for not providing specific logs and
1. I have not collected every crash-log and it would be more time-consuming to
do so than I could do right now, considering the sheer number of crashes.
2. The individual issues are not the problem: I could continue playing, just by
avoiding pressing space during combat, for example. The problem is the overall
lack of stability in the entire package that renders this pretty much
unplayable, in my opinion, to the extent I feel the need to write this.
While I have not tested it recently, I do believe the 1.1 version in stable
does not suffer from this trouble-some lack of polish and I would suggest that
migration be blocked until at least 1.5.8 is released in the future and
properly tested. Consider making this a "serious" bug, if applicable.
I think it would be useful to look at some of your crash logs, even better with
the dbg package installed and then with gdb. As I didn't run into any crash
(other than the spacebar issue) I'm puzzled what the underlying issue of our
differing experiences could be.

After I uploaded 1.5.7 to unstable, would you have the time to upload some
crash logs with backtraces as issues to upstream? Feel free to @-mention me.
I'm "josch" on github.

Thanks!

cheers, josch
Alex Henry
2024-11-06 16:10:01 UTC
Reply
Permalink
Hi Johannes! Thank you for your work on Debian and VCMI!

I was not playing with anything other than the internal VCMI packages that
come installed by default. I tried to play one or two random-scenarios but
had to give up mid-way through.

I do believe the instability of the package to be a series of different
bugs, not a single underlying issue as the game would immediately crash in
response to specific actions (which I've failed to document, both in-side
and out-side of combat).

I cannot promise that I'll have the time to test any further but if you
remind me when you upload 1.5.7, I'll try to find time if I'm able.

Here's a couple wild-guesses:

#1: Could be a problem with a specific version of a library. You could try
ensuring the package depends on the latest versions of all packages. I did
notice I had to update one or two packages to install 1.5.7 from the PPA.
As I said earlier, my system is otherwise fairly up-to-date, I believe.
#2: Could have been some sort of compatibility issue with my previous
configuration files? If I'm able to test the next version, I'll have to
remember to do a clean install. I'm not even sure if I had any previous
files but wouldn't hurt to make sure, next time around.

I'll suggest again you consider bumping this bug-report severity so the
package won't migrate to stable. I'm sure users would prefer an out-dated
but playable version of the engine than be stuck with a version that
crashes every 10-20 minutes and loses progress (at least for some users)
for an entire stable cycle.

On Wed, 6 Nov 2024 at 07:10, Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues <
Post by Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues
Hi Alex,
thank you for your elaborate bug report.
Quoting Alex Henry (2024-11-05 18:53:13)
Post by Alex Henry
I have played VCMI for about an hour yesterday and have run into numerous
crashes-to-desktop during basic, normal game-play. These include a
reproducible
Post by Alex Henry
crash where pressing the space-bar during combat will crash-to-desktop
with a
Post by Alex Henry
100% chance, every time.
that's this bug: https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi/issues/4067
This should be fixed in vcmi 1.5.3.
Indeed I must admit that I wasn't aware of this hotkey and always used my mouse
to let units wait.
Post by Alex Henry
The other crashes happened frequently too, every 10 or 20 minutes or so,
also
Post by Alex Henry
usually after some input-action, suggesting a thorough lack of testing
and
Post by Alex Henry
polish.
Are you playing with any mods enabled? I have been playing the campaign
yesterday for over an hour without any crashes.
Post by Alex Henry
Considering every crash causes anywhere from 5 to 10 or more minutes of
data
Post by Alex Henry
loss, I'll argue that this package is unusable for anyone but the most
patient of users who don't mind having 50% of their progress lost
frequently
Post by Alex Henry
while playing a video-game past the 1.0 mile-stone (which won't be many).
I have played earlier versions of VCMI and it was not anywhere as
unstable as
Post by Alex Henry
this and as such I'd recommend the maintainers block this package from
reaching stable. I have tried version 1.5.7 too from the project's
official
Post by Alex Henry
"stable" PPA and also ran into a crash within minutes of launching the
game.
I'm currently preparing an upload of version 1.5.7 to unstable. I'll test that
as well and see if I can reproduce your observations.
Post by Alex Henry
I do apologize to the maintainers for not providing specific logs and
1. I have not collected every crash-log and it would be more
time-consuming to
Post by Alex Henry
do so than I could do right now, considering the sheer number of crashes.
2. The individual issues are not the problem: I could continue playing,
just by
Post by Alex Henry
avoiding pressing space during combat, for example. The problem is the
overall
Post by Alex Henry
lack of stability in the entire package that renders this pretty much
unplayable, in my opinion, to the extent I feel the need to write this.
While I have not tested it recently, I do believe the 1.1 version in
stable
Post by Alex Henry
does not suffer from this trouble-some lack of polish and I would
suggest that
Post by Alex Henry
migration be blocked until at least 1.5.8 is released in the future and
properly tested. Consider making this a "serious" bug, if applicable.
I think it would be useful to look at some of your crash logs, even better with
the dbg package installed and then with gdb. As I didn't run into any crash
(other than the spacebar issue) I'm puzzled what the underlying issue of our
differing experiences could be.
After I uploaded 1.5.7 to unstable, would you have the time to upload some
I'm "josch" on github.
Thanks!
cheers, josch
Loading...