Articy objects being GCed - causes crash

Wed 20. Dec 2017, 18:38

Hi,

There are a few issues here. First when ArticyDatabase object is cloned form the original asset it is held as a static weak pointer. This causes the object to be GCed after a while and forces it to be recreated from asset (which may take a significant amount of time because the asset is also GCed). The same happens with ArticyGlobalVariables object - this can reset the state of the game. The solution for this is to put the objects into UPROPERTYied class member variable or cache in a blueprint variable or call AddToRoot() on cloned objects.

But this doesn't produce the crash. Unfortunately similar case relates to all articy objects. Cloned articy objects are held in two maps: LoadedObjectsById and LoadedObjectsByName. Both of these maps are not UPROPERTY variables so they will get GCed. When this happens the first call to PlayBranch will crash in
Code: Select all
ArticyDatabase::GetOrClone<T>()
method due to casting the destroyed object (it crashes in
Code: Select all
bool UObjectBaseUtility::IsA<T>() const
).

To fix this I've added a UPROPERTYied
Code: Select all
TArray<UArticyPrimitive *>
variable which holds the clones of articy objects and prevents them from being GCed. The array is filled in
Code: Select all
UArticyDatabase::LoadPackage()
function using the primitiveClone variable inside the for loop. This doesn't allow the GC to destroy the cloned objects.

I'm not sure if this is a good solution. What do you think?
dread
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed 29. Nov 2017, 14:10

Re: Articy objects being GCed - causes crash

Mon 8. Jan 2018, 16:59

There's also a problem with articy variables. The functions which access the variables using the reflection system incorrectly cast returned values which causes memory corruption and eventually crashes. I've put a pull request with fixes.
dread
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed 29. Nov 2017, 14:10

Re: Articy objects being GCed - causes crash

Tue 9. Jan 2018, 13:49

Hi dread,

thanks for the feedback / report.

I have forwarded your message to the plugin dev to take a closer look.
A quick check of your suggested changes seem to make perfectly sense (Especially the fixes for the variables). But since I am not the dev here someone closer to the code should check for unwanted side effects.
User avatar
[Articy] Peter Sabath
Articy Staff
Articy Staff
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed 23. Nov 2011, 13:58
Location: Bochum

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