hey everyone,

I have encountered a quite strange error. I have been working on my first little rpg and had never a problem with this function before

but since having made several changes in other positions my args width and height in init_system(int, int) are not defined correctly (having undetermined values) and also have the same address in memory-.-

EDIT: I'm using MS VC++ 2010 and ALLEGRO 5.0.8 for my program.

Here the main file, other files may follow as necessary:

#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>
#include <allegro5/allegro.h>
#include <allegro5/allegro_native_dialog.h>
#include <allegro5\allegro_image.h>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <fstream>
#include "GraphicsLibrary.h"
#include "Tile.h"
#include "Player.h"


using namespace std;

#define FPS 60


int init_system(int, int);
void tidy_up();
void drawScene();
void check_key(int);
void proceed_key();

ALLEGRO_DISPLAY *display = NULL;
ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE *event_queue = NULL;
ALLEGRO_TIMER *timer = NULL;
bool keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX];

Tile *currentRegion;
Player *player;
const int SCREEN_WIDTH = 1920;
const int SCREEN_HEIGHT = 1080;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{

	bool redraw = true;
   
    if (init_system(1920, 1080) == -1){
		system("pause");
	    return -1;
	}
	

    while(1){
	   ALLEGRO_EVENT ev;
	   al_wait_for_event(event_queue, &ev);

	   if (ev.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_TIMER){
		   redraw = true;
	   }
	   else if (ev.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_DISPLAY_CLOSE){
		   break;
	   }
	   else if (ev.type == ALLEGRO_EVENT_KEY_DOWN){
		   check_key(ev.keyboard.keycode);
	   }

	   if (redraw && al_is_event_queue_empty(event_queue)){
		   redraw = false;
		   drawScene();
		   al_flip_display();
	   }

	   proceed_key();
	   al_rest(0.01);

	}


	
	tidy_up();
}



int init_system(int width, int height){

	if(!al_init()) {
      fprintf(stderr, "failed to initialize allegro!\n");
      return -1;
   }
 
	if (!al_install_keyboard()){
		fprintf(stderr, "failed to initialize the keyboard!\n");
		return -1;
	}
 
	if (al_show_native_message_box(display, 
		"3DPogramming", 
		"Fullscreen", 
		"Do you want to launch in fullscreen mode?", 
		NULL, 
		ALLEGRO_MESSAGEBOX_YES_NO) == 1)
			al_set_new_display_flags(ALLEGRO_FULLSCREEN);


   display = al_create_display(width, height);
   if(!display) {
      fprintf(stderr, "failed to create display!\n");
      return -1;
   }
 
    event_queue = al_create_event_queue();
    if (!event_queue){
	    fprintf(stderr, "failed to create event queue!\n");
	    al_destroy_display(display);
	    return -1;
    }

    timer = al_create_timer(1.0 / FPS);
    if (!timer){
	    fprintf(stderr, "failed to create timer!\n");
	    al_destroy_display(display);
	    al_destroy_event_queue(event_queue);
    }

	if (!al_init_image_addon()){
		fprintf(stderr, "failed to init image addon!\n");
		al_destroy_display(display);
		al_destroy_event_queue(event_queue);
		al_destroy_timer(timer);
	}
   
    al_register_event_source(event_queue, al_get_display_event_source(display));

    al_register_event_source(event_queue, al_get_timer_event_source(timer));

    al_register_event_source(event_queue, al_get_keyboard_event_source());

    al_start_timer(timer);

	GraphicsLibrary::create();
	
	currentRegion = new CapitalCity();
	player = new Player();

    return 0;
}

void tidy_up(){
	al_destroy_timer(timer);
	al_destroy_display(display);
	al_destroy_event_queue(event_queue);
	al_shutdown_image_addon();
	exit(0);
}

void drawScene(){
	currentRegion->drawGround(player->getX(), player->getY());
	player->draw(SCREEN_WIDTH / 2, SCREEN_HEIGHT / 2);



}

void check_key(int kc){
	keys[kc] = true;

	return;
}

void proceed_key(){
	if (keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_ESCAPE]){
		keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_ESCAPE] = false;
		tidy_up();
	}
}

I discovered this as the root of my runtime crash. when trying to create a fullscreen display with e.g. 18361474x18361474 px it simply does nothing.

So I debugged the program step by step and tried to change the values of width and height on runtime inside the debugger. When changing one of the two

the other changes simultanously and so i found out using the debugger they have the same address in the stackframe of the function init_system(int, int).

And my question is: why?!?! that's simply not possible

So my two problems are:

1. undetermined value of width and height

2. same address in memory

that's what I thought as well

I actually am compiling in release mode, so that means I cannot take the debugger information for absolutely true?

Then the error may be at a completely different location...

when using the debug mode the debugger and the program work without any problems. and since having worked on other issues the release mode also works as wanted^^

thanks for that hint :)

One thing that does tend to be visible to the debugger in release mode is global variables. It can be helpful to copy things you want to see into a global temporarily to help debug them. If you want to be really sure make the globals volatile so the compiler can't optimize away the writes to them.

Also be aware that in release mode uninitialized variables will have a different value to debug. The compiler will generally catch that problem for local variables and issue a warning, but it probably won't for class members, or anything allocated from the heap.

If that doesn't help you're going to want to learn to read disassembly so you can work out which register or memory address the compiler has put the data you want to see in. There's a guide to that at: http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2013/05/03/cc-low-level-curriculum-part-11-inheritance/ (that article has links to most of the parts, but you want to start with part 1).