A very strange JVM initialisation crash

[gamesaucer]

I'm not sure whether to classify this as a bug or not, because I'm not sure whether the error lies with me, with Starmade or with Java. Either way, after updating Starmade, I suddenly started getting this message upon launching increasingly often until it happened all the time:

"Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine. Error: A fatal exception has occurred"

It turns out that me copying the keyboard.cfg file from my old install to the new one might have been part of the problem. (gotta keep familiar controls.)

The thing is, I don't have any logs and I have no idea how to find out where I can get any kind of more detailed description of what's going on, since Starmade itself refuses to even launch when the file is present in the Starmade folder.
I'm kind of worried that this might be a part of an underlying problem on my end, which I'm really not sure how to fix if that's the case. For example, occasionally sound stopped working and the game thought I was pressing the "place block" key (left mouse button) continuously... It's just overall been worrying.

Anyway, I included the keyboard.cfg file.
After deleting it, Starmade continued to work fine for a few more launches, but now it crashes again when I try to launch. I've got another install somewhere which doesn't crash, and it's a real pain to figure out what exactly is different.

Oh, and before you ask, yes, I have the right version of Java. The Starmade version I'm trying to run is v0.199.535a, latest release.

Spoiler: Starmade System Checker Report

07/07/2017
14:25:50.40

RESULTS:
Windows version: Windows 8.1 64-bit ....PASS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Graphics Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit) ....PASS
Java version: 64-bit Java 8 ....PASS

I'll try to continue to solve it on my own, but it really is kind of stumping me. I don't know how to proceed.

 

[Lancake]

It should not be an issue with your keyboard.cfg file, even if it was an invalid one, the game either overwrites it or ignores the error and uses its own default ones.

The only way I know to get the error you're getting, is by using invalid memory settings for java to run. If you're using the new launcher, that should not be possible. The old launcher though, allows you to set incorrect values which could cause this.

Correct values would be

Maximal Memory: 4096
Initial Memory: 1024
Early Generation Memory: 256

Spoiler: Old launcher memory settings

Spoiler: New launcher memory settings

Could also be that you have multiple Java versions installed and StarMade tries to use a 32bit one (max memory is either 2048 or 1024 then).
AndyP can help you out further as I'm not really familiar with your issue.

 

[gamesaucer]

I see. I'm using the new launcher.

Maximum Memory: 4096
Initial Memory: 512
Early Gen Memory: 128

(Edit: And I have only 64 bit Java)

Also, I just reinstalled the game and it ran into problem with sounds. Here's a log:


Another edit: I have been using JVM arguments to try and run Starmade on a different port (namely port 4241) and it might be related. However, it crashes whether or not I'm using that argument (-port:4241)

 

[AndyP]

That startup looked "OK",
except the "could not locate OpenAL" error.

[2017-07-07 15:35:54] [SOUND] flag settings changed!
[2017-07-07 15:35:54] [SOUND] flag settings changed!
[2017-07-07 15:35:54] Starting up SoundSystem...
[2017-07-07 15:35:54] Initializing LWJGL OpenAL
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]     (The LWJGL binding of OpenAL.  For more information, see http://www.lwjgl.org)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54] Error in class 'LibraryLWJGLOpenAL'
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]     Unable to initialize OpenAL.  Probable cause: OpenAL not supported.
[2017-07-07 15:35:54] [SOUND] ERROR CRITICAL. TURNING SOUND SYS OFF
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]     ERROR MESSAGE:
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         Could not locate OpenAL library.
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]     STACK TRACE:
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:156)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:102)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:206)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         paulscode.sound.libraries.LibraryLWJGLOpenAL.init(LibraryLWJGLOpenAL.java:164)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         paulscode.sound.SoundSystem.CommandNewLibrary(SoundSystem.java:1576)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         paulscode.sound.SoundSystem.CommandQueue(SoundSystem.java:2572)
[2017-07-07 15:35:54]         paulscode.sound.CommandThread.run(CommandThread.java:121)
[2017-07-07 15:35:55]     ERROR MESSAGE:
[2017-07-07 15:35:55]         Could not locate OpenAL library.
[2017-07-07 15:35:55] Starting up SoundSystem...
[2017-07-07 15:35:55] Switching to No Sound
[2017-07-07 15:35:55]     (Silent Mode)
[2017-07-07 15:35:55] [SOUND] flag settings changed!
[2017-07-07 15:35:55] [SOUND] flag settings changed!

Please re-enable the sound in the settings.cfg.
And try playing without OpenAL, it should not make too much of a difference.

The real way to fix it would be finding out,
why your client cannot find the OpenAL-libraries that were shipped with the game.
You could try to alter the installation path in the launcher for a test-run and see if that installation would be able to load the OpenAL libraries.
(This could identify a file problem in the first installation.)

- Andy

 

[gamesaucer]

I've tried it and it seems to work fine, but the error I got from OpenAL is really inconsistent, it happens only very occasionally, so it's hard to say whether that actually worked or not.

I've done another reinstall though and this time haven't touched the JVM arguments. It has yet to give me the same error. Do you think that there's something weird going on with my "-port:4241" argument that caused the issue?