FG Crashing at random times when interacting with buttons

[Arthreas]

I do not believe this is a memory issue, it runs at about 700-900 mb most of the time. It seems to just close itself randomly whenever I am clicking any kind of button, mostly flipping through pages in the Out of the Abyss story using the arrows at the bottom.

There isn't any hangup, loading symbol, or crash prompt/window. It just closes and when I relaunch it says that it has stored a backup of my campaign to its folder and when I relaunch some of the data or progress I have been making has reset to the presumably last autosave point. Sometimes I will rapidly move through pages of the story and this might worsen the problem. I haven't been able to find anyone else with this issue using the search here or google.

On a sidenote, one of my players has a pretty bad ram consumption issue when he loads some of the player only modules to create his character, and my players lag in general, but I attribute this mostly to my networks capabilities and I don't think there is a solution for that. However, I am wondering what I can do to help one of my players as his ram jumps up considerably with just a few modules, such as the PHB, Volos, Xanathars, and the SCAG. Player versions for all I believe. Should he just load one at a time for the stuff he needs? I am unsure.

[damned]

What Windows version are you running?
Try pausing AV and see if that has any change?
Try upgrading (and downgrading) your video drivers.
Where are you storing your data files?

All 4 of those books - while they are all player books - are still resource heavy.
Your player really doesnt need them all open while playing... Is there a player component to Volo's Guide to Monsters?
Close all except PHB or Xanathars....

[Nylanfs]

Also welcome to the forums and FG Community!

[Arthreas]

Thank you! Glad to be here.

Alright so, it seems to not crash as far as I can tell when I run it in windowed mode, as administrator, and disable the av. Missing any of these steps seems to eventually cause a crash. Why are those books resource heavy? As the owner of those books, am I uploading any data from them to my players? I think the resource intensity drops off after a while, I think they might be downloading the books when loading them for the first time, I am uncertain. However, I've advised them to only load the books they need, create their character, and then unload everything but the PHB and maybe Xanathars but I think Xanathars might be one of the ones causing a lot of lag and slowdown, and even then. It's a little frustrating because it takes a long time to crash so it's hard to exactly test, the length of time seems to be random, although it seems to be faster to a crash when players are connected.

The datafiles should be all where they are meant to be when fg is installed, appdata and such.

I am running windows 10, 64 bit, intel i5 processor, 16 gigs of ram, 970 nvidia gpu, and fg is installed on my ssd.

If I unload most of the books myself, even if my players don't have them loaded, will that speed up the game for them? I like to use them for reference and wondering it makes no difference or not, since I can just drag whatever they need without them needing any books loaded.

[Trenloe]

FG is a 32-bit application in it's current form, it really doesn't matter how much RAM you have, FG is limited to using around 3.5GB. Usually you'll start to see issues once memory use gets above 3GB. Run Windows task manager and keep an eye on the memory use of FantasyGrounds.exe. Keep the memory use below 3GB of RAM. If it gets anywhere near this look to close some modules, images, etc..

It is a better idea to share individual records with players rather than whole modules. But remember to unshare them once they are no longer needed.

Hopefully when the Unity version of FG is released there will be less restrictions on module loading as that will be a 64-bit application and be able to make better use of available memory. There is no release date set for this however.

[LordEntrails]

Why are those books resource heavy?
Images, they have lots of images :)


As the owner of those books, am I uploading any data from them to my players? I think the resource intensity drops off after a while, I think they might be downloading the books when loading them for the first time, I am uncertain.
Yes, when you mark a book/module for sharing to the players, when they load them, they download them from you. This can take awhile, especially if several people connect and load the books at the same time. FG networking isn't very robust so it can cause pauses on the GM's client.


However, I've advised them to only load the books they need, create their character, and then unload everything but the PHB and maybe Xanathars but I think Xanathars might be one of the ones causing a lot of lag and slowdown, and even then.
Once they have downloaded something, no point in closing it. You do want them to only load the books they need, but once they download it, the "tax" has been paid so no point in closing it.


It's a little frustrating because it takes a long time to crash so it's hard to exactly test, the length of time seems to be random, although it seems to be faster to a crash when players are connected.
What your task manager / process size. This will tell you when you are getting close to crashing (typically ~3.3GB, but it depends.



The datafiles should be all where they are meant to be when fg is installed, appdata and such.
The books don't get installed to the clients. They get installed to the GM when they do an Update. And then get shared from the GM to the player when they connect to your campaign.


If I unload most of the books myself, even if my players don't have them loaded, will that speed up the game for them? I like to use them for reference and wondering it makes no difference or not, since I can just drag whatever they need without them needing any books loaded.
No, that won't effect your players. At least as far as I know. Note that without them having a book loaded, they won't be able to follow links to things like spell and feat descriptions.

[Trenloe]

Note that without them having a book loaded, they won't be able to follow links to things like spell and feat descriptions.
Not necessarily. Spells etc. are copied to a character sheet, not linked to the source module. So spells, equipment, etc. does not need the source module open once they've been added to the character sheet.

[Arthreas]

The program seems to be resting at around 900mb - 1gb of ram usage with my campaign loaded.

I am very excited for the new unity version of FG! I am very much looking forward to dynamic lighting and hopefully some kind of self-upload/searchable sound effect or music support.

I see, so it is the images then, that would make sense. I will be sure to unshare any un-needed data with my players going forward then. It's good to hear that the books are actually downloaded to my players and that the initial resource intensity goes away. I think they said as much but I wasn't sure if they just got used to it or not. Good to hear that I can keep most of my books open for quick reference and npc lookup, that will be good for my own reference.

As for the spells, yeah, they don't seem to need to reference their race or class stuff that often but the phb will probably be all they need.

Thank you so much for the expanded explanation of all of my questions, that is extremely helpful to me and it helps me understand exactly what the program is doing and it's limitations. As for the initial issue, yeah, my task manager reports it at an average of 950 mb.

[LordEntrails]

I am very excited for the new unity version of FG! I am very much looking forward to dynamic lighting and hopefully some kind of self-upload/searchable sound effect or music support.
Sound effects can be accomplished with the DOE Sound extension. Their are also several modules of pre-packaged sound links on the DMsGuild (one by Dulux and one by Rob2e that I know of).

[MissJenniecide]

Hi, I'm having a similar problem, and I'm not really sure what to do?
I've been converting The Old Margreve adventure path to 5e, and am currently adding NPCs. But about halfway through typing out the damage for a claw attack, FG crashes. It will freeze forever until I close it myself.
I have tried running as administrator, and having it windowed, the memory never goes over 300mb and the only window in FG i have open is that NPC. The backup seemed to work, but it crashed again when i moved to the next box.
I'm trying really hard to recover this NPC so I don't have to finagle my way through their stats and abilities again :P

[Trenloe]

But about halfway through typing out the damage for a claw attack, FG crashes. It will freeze forever until I close it myself.
Do you have the details of the stat block so that we can try to recreate the issue?

Are you copying/pasting the complete line at a time or manually typing it in?

[damned]

Hello MissJenniecide

That does not sound like memory at 300mb.
Can you confirm what versions of CoreRPG and 5e you are running (from chat) and any extensions?

[MissJenniecide]

Do you have the details of the stat block so that we can try to recreate the issue?
Are you copying/pasting the complete line at a time or manually typing it in?

I'm trying to add the Ala manually since the book has a kinda weird font some places, I make it through the attack fine, but typing "Hit: 7 (1d4 + 5) slashing damage." is where it all goes wrong.


Hello MissJenniecide

That does not sound like memory at 300mb.
Can you confirm what versions of CoreRPG and 5e you are running (from chat) and any extensions?

5e ruleset v3.3.4, and CoreRPG ruleset v3.3.4

I've moved to the next creature, and it seems to be going fine so far. I've added three actions so far with no problem, so now i'm really not sure what's going wrong with the Ala, but I figure I'll need to remake it after all :|

[Trenloe]

I'm trying to add the Ala manually since the book has a kinda weird font some places, I make it through the attack fine, but typing "Hit: 7 (1d4 + 5) slashing damage." is where it all goes wrong.
What’s the whole attack string?

[MissJenniecide]

Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d4 + 5) slashing damage.

[Trenloe]

Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d4 + 5) slashing damage.
I can type that in OK.

One thing to try - make sure after selecting the action to start typing, move the mouse away from the NPC record as you type the attack text. If the mouse is within the text FG will try to highlight the text for rolling, and it's possible the code running to do this is causing an issue.

[Arthreas]

To say for sure I technically haven't been able to solve my problem, I can stave it off by disabling AV, running windowed, and running administrator, wish I didn't have to. It's completely random when it occurs too but its always from clicking something.

[dellanx]

To say for sure I technically haven't been able to solve my problem, I can stave it off by disabling AV, running windowed, and running administrator, wish I didn't have to. It's completely random when it occurs too but its always from clicking something.

I have same problem. The chat window goes blank after some dice is rolled, by myself or a player.

[damned]

dellanx your campaign has been running a long time now.
How much memory is FG using when you are running your campaign?