Some RPG Maker Games Randomly Crashing

[DroneD]

Hello!

So, some RPG Maker games have been randomly crashing on me every 20-60 minutes. Specifically Devin's Life and Elena's Life (sensing a naming theme here), however other RPGM games I've never had issue with, like Officer Chloe and Lily of the Valley, though I don't believe they use the same version of RPGM (though I could be very wrong here). I'm wondering if anyone could know why, have encountered this problem before and know a fix, or just have any recommendations as to address this issue. I have updated my video card drivers and it hasn't helped.

I'm using a rather old laptop to play these games, the specs are:

• Windows 10
• Intel Dual Core 2Ghz
• 4GB Ram
• GeForce 9600M

I have no performance issues when playing any of the games.

Not by any means a good computer, but should be good enough for Ren'Py and RPGM games. Any advice is much appreciated (though upgrading/replacing is currently not an option), thank you!

 

[Papa Ernie]

Hello!

So, some RPG Maker games have been randomly crashing on me every 20-60 minutes. Specifically Devin's Life and Elena's Life (sensing a naming theme here), however other RPGM games I've never had issue with, like Officer Chloe and Lily of the Valley, though I don't believe they use the same version of RPGM (though I could be very wrong here). I'm wondering if anyone could know why, have encountered this problem before and know a fix, or just have any recommendations as to address this issue. I have updated my video card drivers and it hasn't helped.

I'm using a rather old laptop to play these games, the specs are:

• Windows 10
• Intel Dual Core 2Ghz
• 4GB Ram
• GeForce 9600M

I have no performance issues when playing any of the games.

Not by any means a good computer, but should be good enough for Ren'Py and RPGM games. Any advice is much appreciated (though upgrading/replacing is currently not an option), thank you!

1) Try reinstalling the RTP for whichever version of RPGM those games use.
2) Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers for your PC.

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[DroneD]

1) Try reinstalling the RTP for whichever version of RPGM those games use.
2) Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers for your PC.

You must be registered to see the links

Thank you for the advice Jerricho13, I believe the games i've been having trouble with are RPG Maker MV, which (as far as i'm aware) don't require an RTP and I did already try updating my video card drivers (as well as rolling back to a previous build), neither of which seemed to help.

Though I will install/re-install the RTP's just in case that helps.

 

[Papa Ernie]

Thank you for the advice Jerricho13, I believe the games i've been having trouble with are RPG Maker MV, which (as far as i'm aware) don't require an RTP and I did already try updating my video card drivers (as well as rolling back to a previous build), neither of which seemed to help.

Though I will install/re-install the RTP's just in case that helps.

The only other things I can think of is:
1) Update Java.
2) Add the game's .exe to your anit-virus whitelist.
3) Run the game as Administrator.
4) Make sure your have enough free Ram before playing.

Good luck!

 

[Winterfire]

Random guess here:
If no error is printed, it could be that those games have a memory leak, so it is not *your* problem but a problem with the game itself.

I did a quick google search and apparently, Devin's life crashes for many people (did not look the other game) and by doing a more general search, RPG Maker MV seem to be quite heavy according to many people, so 4GB RAM might be insufficient.

 

[Johnny-Doe]

Yeap i do get some frequent crashes on RPGmaker titles as well,my best bet is some sort of mem leak cause when i restart my PC i dont get any crash for any hour or two.

 

[Boom's Attic Games]

@dronenaught

I don't know if you've resolved this issue or not but :

Usually, a "crash" which yields no error: aka the game just closing is the result of you running out of RAM memory.

RPGMV games are very memory intensive if they do not have the correct plugins installed.
"Which can only be fixed by the developer"

This is due to RPGMV "storing" all the images used/shown in the game in your RAM memory so that they can be easily displayed at a later point without encountering a loading screen.

The issue with this is that it's not fully optimized and doesn't seem to work correctly resulting in the same image's being stored over and over again.
For example :

An event showing 20 images = 20mb.
If this event is repeatable it'll store these 20 images "20mb." in your memory every time you play/run the event.

Now think about all the images that are shown to you in the game.
Even the ones that are repeatably shown to you, all of these images are being stored in your RAM memory again and again.

This is why you can only play for 30-60mins at a time, due to you still having RAM memory left.
Once your memory is full the game doesn't know what to do when it's trying to store the images again which results in the game "crashing" closing.


The best way to test this is:
1. Open your task manager.
2. Click more details
3. Click on the "Details" tab.
4. Click on the "Memory" column so that the program using the highest memory is displayed at the top.

Then play the game for 10-20mins and see how much memory the game is using.
Click on a couple of events and check back again, if the memory is higher then there's nothing you can really do about it besides installing new RAM.

It's really down to the developer the fix the "memory leak" by installing the correct plugins.

Besides that, the best thing I can suggest is to save often.

-Boom