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Mar 13, 2001, 7:44pm

I've reported this bug to Roland several times, but this time the effects
have been more serious. Therefore, I thought I should post to the
newsgroups to see if anyone else has encountered this strange bug that has
shut down several of AWTeen's events. Below is a copy of the email I've
sent (again) to Roland.

---------------------------------

I reported a bug earlier (in late February) with lights that didn't seem to
refresh. In case you don't remember, the bug occurred when a lot of people
were gathered for a light show (about 35). The bots turned off the moving
and rotating lights, but the lights didn't disappear, apparently because the
objects weren't refershed correctly. Not only did this bug occur when there
were a lot of people in the scene, but also when objects were being changed
rapidly by the bots.

However, the bug seems to affect all objects, not only lights. At the AW
SURVIVOR Challenge II: Frozen Desert (AWTeen 1800s 1800e), between 60 and 70
people were gathered for a competition called wacky races. The event
involves trying to move along poles (with shifting, flying, and local
teleports disabled) to a finish line. The event had to be scrapped because
of a bug in the AW browser. Apparently, when all the people were gathered
there (some using 2.2), multiple duplicate fence objects had been made,
overlapping one another (most likely by accident.) Anyway, those with 3.1
were able to move through the un-refreshed fences and go onto the course,
while those with 2.2 saw the fences and weren't able to pass. My attempts
to delete the fences with 3.1 failed, but I went to another computer that
had 2.2 on it and it worked.

Furthermore, later in the same event, someone was making a tournament ladder
consisting of sign3.rwx's (which you can see at the above coordinates). I
was watching the creation of the signs for a while, until I noticed that
they were in disarray even though some others (who I have now determind to
be using 2.2) could see them clearly. It turns out that several of the
tic-tac-toe bots had been malfunctioning, issuing hundreds of
AW_OBJECT_CHANGE commands per second to the signs. After I corrected the
bot problem, however, the others who were present (again, about 50 people)
were unable to see the signs, and I had to cancel this event as well.
Before I canceled the event, however, I restarted the AW browser, and I
could see clearly; unfortunately, I didn't connect the others' not being
able to see the signs with a browser bug at the time.

Most of the 30 or so 3.1 users who were present can vouch that these three
bugs occurred.

I would appreciate your looking into this major bug, as future events cannot
be planned when these malfunctions will interfere. Thanks. If you require
more information, please reply.

My 3.1 system:

1.5 GHz Pentium IV Dell Dimension 3100 series
Geforce 2 (64MB video RAM) - latest drivers
256MB RAM
56.1 GB free hard drive space (/60GB)
Windows Millennium Edition

My 2.2 system:

400 MHz Dell Latitude LS (laptop) - Pentium III
No video card
128 MB RAM
4.1GB/10GB space free
Windows 98 (second edition)

Mar 13, 2001, 7:58pm

Uh, stupid question... what was the object refresh rate on?


~Joeman

[View Quote]

Mar 13, 2001, 8:11pm

Object refresh rate simply dictates when the browser check the OP for new versions of the objects it has already downloaded. It has nothing to do with this problem.


-Agent1



[View Quote]

Mar 13, 2001, 8:12pm

heh, stupid me :D


~Joeman

[View Quote]

Mar 13, 2001, 9:40pm

SW Lingo that O_O
--
Syntax
syntax at earthcorp.com
www.swcity.net

[View Quote]

Mar 14, 2001, 12:32am

I f these are xelagot bots, could you be more specific? How did you
ascertain that they were doing this? Xelagots do *NOT* issue hundreds of
AW_OBJECT_CHANGE per second, as far as my knowledge of xelagots go (and I
think I know quite a bit about them). That would be ineffective, and
probably disconnect the bot inmediately, moreover, the scripting engine
would not allow this. This seems to have nothing to do with the bug your
are talking about, but I'm curious to know how you came to this
conclusion...

XelaG

> It turns out that several of the
> tic-tac-toe bots had been malfunctioning, issuing hundreds of
> AW_OBJECT_CHANGE commands per second to the signs.

Mar 14, 2001, 1:20am

Oops, I overestimated. There were six tic-tac-toe bots running in the area,
which all went haywire (I don't know whether that was intentional or a bug)
when people began clicking on the "Click for new game" signs. The script,
apparently, doesn't prevent others from clicking the reset signs after
someone clicks them the first time, and the bot doesn't switch back to
"Click to register" mode until after the bot resets however many times the
sign is clicked. For example, if I clicked the "Click for new game" sign
six times in succession, the board would reset six times before displaying
the "click to register" message. The bots, under observation, seem to take
about one to two seconds to reset the signs each time, meaning that there
could be anywhere between (9 (signs) * 6(boards) = 54 change commands per
second) to half that (if it were once every two seconds = 27 change commands
per second). In addition, several chess games were being held nearby,
issuing AW_OBJECT_ADD and AW_OBJECT_DELETE commands, adding to the
confusion.

I'm almost certain that the bug has to do with bots in the area changing
objects rapidly (not sure about the number of people, because I observed it
when there were only two people present). So far, every racing event I've
tried to hold with 3.1 has gone badly wrong, as they all involve bots that
issue AW_OBJECT_CHANGE commands that operate gates, switches, etc (which is
why I've had to scrap events I had planned for April until the bug is
resolved).

Not that this has anything to do with the AW malfunction, but I'll have to
try to find some time next month to fix up that tic-tac-toe script to repair
that bug.

-Brant

Mar 14, 2001, 1:37am

well its not a bug.. the script is not made for morrons :)

[View Quote]

Mar 14, 2001, 2:16pm

uh...you DID use unique names for all the T.T.T. sign? If not, you'll kill
most bots! And that racing bot, was it a self-written one (I've heard that
you make VB bots...)? VB will get overheated by that many changes! Try to
slow down the thing a little, don't have ANY other apps using your
connection other than the AW browser and the racing-bots, if it's own-made
use the fastest there is, C/C++ and don't use a Xelagot X1 bot, use an
AV99Bot instead. Anyway, there are also limits to what the Uni and World
servers can do. Well, you might want to try using these tips before
scrapping any more events :-))

KAH
PS. TEST the event concept before planning it!
brant <awteen at shoemakervillage.org> skrev i
meldingsnyheter:3aaee399$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> Oops, I overestimated. There were six tic-tac-toe bots running in the
area,
> which all went haywire (I don't know whether that was intentional or a
bug)
> when people began clicking on the "Click for new game" signs. The script,
> apparently, doesn't prevent others from clicking the reset signs after
> someone clicks them the first time, and the bot doesn't switch back to
> "Click to register" mode until after the bot resets however many times the
> sign is clicked. For example, if I clicked the "Click for new game" sign
> six times in succession, the board would reset six times before displaying
> the "click to register" message. The bots, under observation, seem to
take
> about one to two seconds to reset the signs each time, meaning that there
> could be anywhere between (9 (signs) * 6(boards) = 54 change commands per
> second) to half that (if it were once every two seconds = 27 change
commands
> per second). In addition, several chess games were being held nearby,
> issuing AW_OBJECT_ADD and AW_OBJECT_DELETE commands, adding to the
> confusion.
>
> I'm almost certain that the bug has to do with bots in the area changing
> objects rapidly (not sure about the number of people, because I observed
it
> when there were only two people present). So far, every racing event I've
> tried to hold with 3.1 has gone badly wrong, as they all involve bots that
> issue AW_OBJECT_CHANGE commands that operate gates, switches, etc (which
is
> why I've had to scrap events I had planned for April until the bug is
> resolved).
>
> Not that this has anything to do with the AW malfunction, but I'll have to
> try to find some time next month to fix up that tic-tac-toe script to
repair
> that bug.
>
> -Brant
>
>

Mar 14, 2001, 6:08pm

Thanks for the info. However, I've never been able to figure out how to
display a simple window in C++, even though I'm experienced with DOS C++
programming, so the AW SDK wouldn't be of much help, unfortunately. The
main reason I'm hesitant to try again is that this is the third event that
I've had to cancel because of this bug, and I received a lot of greif over
the prizes for the events that didn't go as planned (people can get pretty
antagonistic when they're trying to win a free world - lol). Most of all,
however, I don't want Lucrezia or other AW staff receiving telegrams of any
more botched events that make the world's staff look incompetent. Maybe
we'll just hold a trivia competition or something that doesn't involve
objects until the bug is resolved.

You sound like you would be interested in helping plan events - I'm always
very busy and we could use some help anytime.

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