Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
In my case it extracted 108 files into a newly created folder in the AppData/Local/Temp directory successfully, but the executable running inside it afterwards doesn't actually seem to do anything. Ending the task will apparently properly prompt the other executable to delete the Temp folder, shut down, and then for Windows (or maybe Visual Studio?) to ask if the program ran correctly or not. UAC Virtualization for both executables are marked as Not Allowed when they start in Task Manager's Details list, and I'm uncertain if this is affecting anything.

(I'm talking about v0.45a. v0.27F still runs fine for me, and I'm unclear as to whether or not I should bother checking v0.27P from the other sites it's hosted on since I have no idea what was changed beyond making it higher quality and not reliant on Flash.)
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
(I'm talking about v0.45a. v0.27F still runs fine for me, and I'm unclear as to whether or not I should bother checking v0.27P from the other sites it's hosted on since I have no idea what was changed beyond making it higher quality and not reliant on Flash.)
I'll run the other stuff by the programmer, but to be clear, the game never natively ran in Flash :p Every version of it's always been our own engine for the most part, besides the Newgrounds v0.27F, which was HTML5, but we had to convert it from the existing engine into that.

V0.27P has a fairly high number of changes from the Newgrounds port though;
- Almost no loading times between rooms
- Dynamic music that works much better
- Better sound effects quality
- Custom font (easier to read text)
- Lighting engine that works a lot better
- Collections Menu added with lots of lore entries / re-readable Databanks
- Small improvements for controls & general engine stuff
- Zoom available for sex scenes (press Up)
- After most choices & some actions, "personality value" changes will pop up; these affect endings & other cutscenes in the full game.
- Talia no longer reacts to Databanks, both because we felt it was hand-holding the player through the plot (in a bad way) & her fixed responses could go against the player's "Values" choices
- Some maps have altered layouts
- Almost every "automatic" cutscene can now be initiated by the player themselves instead
- Damage numbers & health bars appear on enemies
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
I'll run the other stuff by the programmer, but to be clear, the game never natively ran in Flash :p Every version of it's always been our own engine for the most part, besides the Newgrounds v0.27F, which was HTML5, but we had to convert it from the existing engine into that.

V0.27P has a fairly high number of changes from the Newgrounds port though;
Oh, some of those sound neat. I'll give it a shot and see how it compares in function, though: I don't really have a very high-end setup so I've just been assuming I should stick with the low quality build of the game, figuring that had the highest chances of not slowing down and crashing on older computers.
 

astaroth96

Newbie
Nov 12, 2017
73
40
So to make sure, when you try to open the .exe, what happens? Does it start up and crash, or does it just never load?
And what's your computer specs? (Laptops often have integrated graphics, which makes the lighting modes in the game run pretty badly as they use GPU to process the lighting, but you can disable this if you can get the game to boot up)

In either case, one of the most straightforward solutions is to;
1) Disable any anti-virus software you have
2) Right click on the .exe and pick to unzip it to a directory of your choice
3) Run the "Future_Fragments_ElectricDemo.exe" file in this new directory.

The game should now boot; if it still doesn't, let us know.

In the future, we'll have an installer that will fix these issues; currently, most of them are caused by the .exe unzipping its files to a temporary directory to run the game, and then deleting those temporary run-time files after you close the game.

We don't have installers for the demos because we want to prevent generating false bug reports by people installing/stacking 20+ versions of the game on their computer, as well as not making players go through and screw up their registry possibly by making them install 20+ versions with the monthly demos being so high in number now.
Yep, I already tried everything you just stated, and still nothing, I'm not sure what the problem seems to be, I stopped all the antivirus software and extracted all the game data in different folders, heck I even formatted my laptop yesterday just to make sure, and still nothing, the only option I have left seems to be to buy a new, better pc, cuz I'm not about to let this jewel slip through my fingers
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
Have you tried extracting the game's exe file in the same folder the game itself is in? Something like your documents or downloads folder?
I've tried copying the files from the temporary folder before it gets deleted into its own outside of the AppData directory and running the extracted executable in that directory: No dice. The *.ogg files play music correctly in a media player, though, so I don't think the issue is data corruption at least.

I haven't specifically tried putting the copied files in the same place as the 0.45a executable, though. I don't see why that would change things up if the expected behavior for the former is working as intended (i.e.- extract files, run extracted executable when done, delete files when it detects said executable's stopped). I'll give it a try later and report back in a bit, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Just to clarify, the 0.45a executable does not prompt you to choose where you extract anything: It just automatically creates a temporary folder in AppData all on its own, even if it's in a directory that it otherwise should have Read/Write access to without being Run as Administrator (i.e.- it's not even on the same drive as the OS but chooses to extract to a User's AppData, which definitely is on the drive the OS is in). If it's not supposed to be doing that under those specific circumstances, then there's the problem.
 

156_163_146_167

Engaged Member
Jun 5, 2017
3,138
2,501
Just to clarify, the 0.45a executable does not prompt you to choose where you extract anything: It just automatically creates a temporary folder in AppData all on its own
And that's why I suggest you manually extract the executable in a different directory altogether.
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
And that's why I suggest you manually extract the executable in a different directory altogether.
Uh, alright? If you'd read what I typed above that you'd know I'd already done so...
Did you think I just copied the *.ogg files and left everything else? I just tested those in the player because the rest were either .dat, .dll, .ini, and .plne files that the executable itself would need to run properly to check if they're corrupt or not.

The only thing I hadn't tried was putting a copy of 0.45a in the same directory as an already extracted copy of Future_Fragments.exe. In this case:
  • Running 0.45a still creates the temporary IXP00#.TMP folder (where # is normally 0, unless you ended 0.45a from the task manager before you end Future_Fragments and prevented the folder from being deleted that way, or you already created a directory with that number- it'll increment as necessary to avoid conflicts). It will still run the executable it extracts, completely ignoring the pre-existing files it's sharing directory space with. It will still delete the temporary folder it created when it detects the executable it extracted during its current runtime shut down.
  • Running Future_Fragments in the same folder 0.45a is in still doesn't change its behavior. It just sits there in the Task Manager, attempting to do nothing. 0 CPU power used, just 3.9~4.1 MB of memory taken up to persist as a background process only. UAC Virtualization still listed as Disabled.
  • Running the copy of Future_Fragments in the same folder as 0.45a while the latter is running already, creating two instances of Future_Fragments at different directories, does nothing. You know, just to be extra thorough even if it doesn't make any sense.
 
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Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
You said you copied the files over from the temp folder, not that you extracted the executable manually.
The executable, "Future_Fragments.exe", that is created by "Future Fragments v0.45a.exe" inside of the aforementioned temporary folder when it runs is something users should be able to extract manually through some other means than copying it while it exists?

Is this a vocabulary thing where it's assumed people saying 'files' are automatically excluding 'executable files' when they talk about a group of them? Because, uh, sorry for the misunderstanding: When I said files I meant all of the ones in the temporary folder, including the executable.

I guess we could wait and hear if your troubleshooting attempts help astaroth96 figure something out on their end, but I'd rather wait to hear back from HentaiWriter's programmer first. Heck, I haven't even heard from anyone if 108 is the right amount of files that should be created in that temporary folder. So it'd be nice if someone could volunteer to confirm or correct that number.
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
The executable, "Future_Fragments.exe", that is created by "Future Fragments v0.45a.exe" inside of the aforementioned temporary folder when it runs is something users should be able to extract manually through some other means than copying it while it exists?
Yes, you can right click on the "Future Fragments v0.45a.exe" file, and if you have 7zip or similar "zip programs", you can pick "extract to folder", which will let you manually extract all the files permanently.

The main issue is that some people's computers don't like temporary files being extracted anywhere on the computer by a program that isn't a globally recognized one (ex. Steam, for example), so it blocks some or all of the files, or even if it allows the files to be extracted, it doesn't allow the .exe to "access" the files to run those files (and thus the game).

However, if the user manually extracts those files with the method above, that means that it's the user bypassing the system's issues, so then the game can have a permanent place to access those files without any worry of them vanishing or not being accessible.

So that's what they're getting at when they're saying you should extract the files to their own folder first :)
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
I didn't think it was an executable archive due to the whole 'detects when an executable stops running in order to delete stuff' feature. Neat.

Extracting with WinRAR or the like didn't really change anything near as I could tell though. I'm going to guess it's an OS issue or a pending restart issue of some kind.

Here's hoping some of the previous posts work for astaroth96.
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
Restarting my computer got my copy to work. Something must've been interfering somehow, or my system was just having its usual 'long uptime' hiccups.

Speaking of, now that I've gotten to playing 0.27P (the 'Jolt version) also, I've run into a bug that I'm not sure is expected or just another example of my computer being inadequate: The background for the map in the pause menu disappeared after a while for me.

futurefragments_missingmap.png

I did say to manually extract it a few times I think. Oh well.
You were telling me to try and extract something that, as far as I could tell, was already being extracted successfully. When I pointed this out, you just insisted.

Imagine a hypothetical conversation where someone says "this faucet doesn't have running water", someone else replies "turn the faucet on", and so the first person clarifies "the faucet is one of those without the valves, with the motion sensors underneath, and I can tell that particular part's working and properly attached to plumbing because it I can hear a gurgling noise whenever I pass my hand underneath it- it's just the lack of water coming out during this that's the actual issue" and the proposed solution they receive in response is "turn the faucet on with your hands".

Sorry, but you and I were just apparently having completely different conversations. Again, here's hoping something you said helps someone else, I've already resolved that issue for myself.
 

HentaiWriter

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Jan 30, 2017
1,229
2,142
This game looks pretty nice, but I am really interested in the "exhibitionism" tag. When does that come in?
It depends on your definition of it; there's a few scenes where the characters are shown naked in front of others in an almost clinical or scientific environment, and a section later on in the game where the main character has to run around naked in an area and avoid detection by enemies. A few of the endings also more directly deal with exhibitionism in the traditional sense.

Speaking of, now that I've gotten to playing 0.27P (the 'Jolt version) also, I've run into a bug that I'm not sure is expected or just another example of my computer being inadequate: The background for the map in the pause menu disappeared after a while for me.
I can't say we've seen this bug before; what operating system are you running on, and are you using integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card?

Additionally, what version of DirectX do you have installed?
 

Chingonerio

Member
Oct 1, 2017
400
457
I can't say we've seen this bug before; what operating system are you running on, and are you using integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card?

Additionally, what version of DirectX do you have installed?
Win 10 Pro 64x v1909 18363.778 build, dedicated (but hella old) NVidia GeForce 9500 GT, and DirectX 12 according to dxdiag. The map's background graphics came back before shutting the game down in the same runtime (i.e.- without closing and reopening the game) after I'd beaten the game and decided to Continue and start a New Game, though.

If it helps, I first noticed it had disappeared around the time I reached the ???? platforming puzzle room with the fragments and thought it was deliberate, but then it remained gone for the rest of the game after I had left said room (you can see I'm in the hub, left of the boss door, in the screenshot).

I should probably note I'd been going through the paths in reverse order, just for kicks (i.e.- started with the P6, went counter clockwise). So I'd been playing for a while before I reached ????. I also revisited each path once because I was looking for secrets and checking if the achievement list in 0.27P actually functioned.

Edit: Unrelated to any bugs, is it supposed to be possible to obtain the items marked with question marks that lack the "This item is unavailable in this version of the game" in 0.27P? Are they locked to the demo's Easy mode, if so? (They're the Four-Leaf Clover, Marble Chisel & Hammer, Rugby Helmet, Pair of Dice, and Blender, based on their presence in 0.45a.)

Both of the rooms other than the MainFrame's in both of the 3x3 grids' bottom row are labeled with the number 8 on their background, so there's no 7 or 9. Is this intentional so as to help hide the boss room's position in each?
 
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