Blank window after restarting a game in the testing build of the desktop player

[KVonGit]

After clicking Restart (or CTRL+R), the screen goes white ... and that's it.

---

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Quest updates/rewrites the log every time I click Restart, though:

1/28/2025 9:57:03 AM INIT: Opening file C:\Users\kv\Downloads\koww\KOWW1.ASL on 1/28/2025 9:57:03 AM
1/28/2025 9:57:04 AM INIT: Finished loading file.

1/28/2025 10:06:24 AM INIT: Opening file C:\Users\kv\Downloads\koww\KOWW1.ASL on 1/28/2025 10:06:24 AM
1/28/2025 10:06:24 AM INIT: Finished loading file.

---

I'll look at the way restarting works when playing Quest 5 games and submit a PR if I find a fix.

[KVonGit]

UPDATE

Something in the update to 5.8 broke this. It works properly in 5.7.2.

[KVonGit]

We added a restart command to 5.8.

Code added - CoreCommands.aslx - Lines 1008-1019

  <command name="restart" pattern="^restart$">
    <script>
      Ask (Template("WantRestartGame")){
        if (result){
          JS.eval("if(webPlayer){window.location.reload();}else if (typeof(RestartGame) != 'undefined'){RestartGame();}else{addTextAndScroll('Try pressing CTRL+R.')};")
        }
        else {
          game.suppressturnscripts = true
        }
      }
    </script>
  </command>

Code added - PlayerHTML.vb - Lines 170-172

    Private Sub RestartGame(data As String)
        m_keyHandler_KeyPressed(131154)
    End Sub

Code added - desktopplayer.js - Lines 30-32

function RestartGame() {
    UIEvent("RestartGame", "");
}

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... but all that should do is emulate CTRL+R, which is what I'm doing when having this issue playing Legacy games.

Also, these aren't changes; they're additions.

...and the only file the legacy game runner should use out of these is desktopplayer.js, if it even uses that. (Probably so; just haven't checked to be sure.) That function being added to the JS file still shouldn't effect anything, though. It's not being called, and I don't think calling UIEvent("RestartGame") would even do anything if JS.RestartGame() fired and called it.

So, I'm thinking this probably isn't the issue.

[KVonGit]

Well... I have a branch called "Retro" in one of my forks, and the only difference in the code is it doesn't have the 5.8 UI. It's still the 5.7.2 interface.

The legacy games restart fine in my Retro build. So, it has to be something in those changes to the 5.8 UI.

The issue is not:

• the dotnet update
• the CEF update
• the code added for the 'restart' command

[KVonGit]

It didn't fix it when I undid this change, either:

https://github.com/textadventures/quest/pull/948/files

[KVonGit]

Something in the update to 5.8 broke this. It works properly in 5.7.2.

I forgot I actually installed the current build from the master branch in the repo! I was testing with that thinking it was 5.8.

Quest 5.8 works properly, too. Something changed or added recently has to be the culprit.

[KVonGit]

Okay... I believe it was something after this commit: 9e37029

The retro branch is synced up to that point. (I just omitted the changes to the UI.)

I'm about to make a new branch based off the retro branch, merge all the recent changes, and see what happens.

I'm also converting this to a Discussion, and I'll create a new PR without all my "notes".

[KVonGit]

Perhaps we need to add these changes to LegacyGame.vb as well?

80a5e20

[KVonGit]

    Private Sub UIEvent(cmd As String, args As String)
        LogASLError("Running UIEvent: " + cmd + " ; " + args + "")
        Select Case cmd
            Case "ASLEvent"
                RunASLEvent(args)
            Case "RestartGame"
                DoClear()
                DoBegin()
        End Select
    End Sub

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Probably not very helpful, but adding this to LegacyGame.vb gives me the ability to restart a game from JS UIEvent("RestartGame")

Note

This is not included in the build I'm using to test things.

[KVonGit]

After restarting a LegacyGame, the screen goes blank.

If I open the log, it shows the entries from LegacyGame.vb, saying that things loaded. Each time I restart, it updates the time(s) in those log entries, too.

Also, if I open the HTML console and run ASLEvent("StartGame","") or ASLEvent("InitInterface","") (I tried this for no good reason), the UI will load the panes, command bar, status bar, and everything! That tells me a Quest 5 game (perhaps a blank template?) has loaded, else neither of those should do anything.

[KVonGit]

I added this code to the testing build, and ASLEvent is communicating with LegacyASL, but that doesn't help anything, really -- it just lets me know that's still actually got that dll loaded.

[KVonGit]

I undid the changes from this commit, and that fixed the issue with restarting legacy games.

...but those changes were made to fix #1274

[INSERT CURSE WORDS HERE] 😁

[KVonGit]

Well... I really wish I would have tried a Quest 5 game when I first noticed this issue.

No games work after restarting in the desktop player, regardless of the ASL version.

Changes this (to undo the recent changes) fixes the issue when restarting as far as the game loading is concerned:

    Private Sub OnDocumentLoad()
        If m_resetting Then
            m_resetting = False
            Return
        End If

        'If Not m_hasRaisedReadyEvent Then
            'm_hasRaisedReadyEvent = True
            RaiseEvent Ready()
        'End If
    End Sub

[KVonGit]

I'm 99% sure m_hasRaisedReadyEvent was being reset to False each time the game reloaded.

...but I don't understand why that would be the case if m_resetting isn't reset.

    Private m_resetting As Boolean = False
    Private m_hasRaisedReadyEvent As Boolean = False

[KVonGit]

a35cfbf

Aha! I was hoping for a way to do something like game.m_hasRaisedReadyEvent, and that was the solution (sort of). :)