Debugging Best Practices

[Piccontroller]

I may not found way to debug Ren'py. I may not found such information. It seems it is true problem.
I have some questions (may be foolish for veterans):
1) Is existed way to set breakpoints (like VS or Excel macros etc)?
2) If I have complex class what way to see its members?
3) If I have function what way to debug logic?
4) How I can see variable?
5) etc.....

It seems I try "To reinvent a wheel".

Veterans! What way are you use to debug Ren'py game logic?

[redeyesblackpanda]

Don't quite understand what your post is saying so I'm guessing here. To check bugs in a game you are making with Ren'Py, you can use Lint. You will still have to test the game yourself to be certain that everything is fine, but it does catch a lot of mistakes. Hopefully this answered your question. ^_^'

[Piccontroller]

ok. Try clarify my post. Full syntetic very very simple example. Real game logic is much more complex.

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    class A:
        def __init_(self, x, y):
            self.x = x
            self.y = y

    class B:
        def __init__(self):
            self.list = []
            self.list.append(A(1, 2))
            self.list.append(A(3, 4))
            
        def someFunc():
            return self.list[0].x + self.list[1].y # error logic. lint ok need debug to find error. correct logical code self.list[0].x + self.list[1].x

What way to find logical error in "someFunc"?

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$ b = B()
$ result = b.someFunc()
#invalid result
#how to see it? how to see fields of b? etc?

P.S. For example if I use vs2002-2010 I set breakpoint and use watch windows to see what I need to find error. I can see any field of object etc. I've attached VS sample debug view for clarify.

[DragoonHP]

1) I don't think there's a way to put breakpoints in Ren'Py.. I could be wrong... but as far as I know, there is none...

2) I don't understand...

3) Not sure, but you will have to do it the manual way...

4) Umm... like this...

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"[variableName]"

[Piccontroller]

Equals if I have function 20 lines of code then I have no way to find logical error. Only write lines to debug

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...
"[var]"
..
"[var1]"
..
"[varN]"
...

and after debug delete they?

[DragoonHP]

Most probably... I may be wrong though... but then again why would you need to write such a complex function in Ren'Py anyway?

[Piccontroller]

I'm only coder. And I must implement provided game logic.
If I use

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"[b]" #see example above

I get result like <store.B instance at 0x....> but not content of b

[SusanTheCat]

My quick and dirty is to use renpy.watch(variable)

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    renpy.watch("body_count")

More details here: http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/ref ... enpy.watch

Another fun thing to do is hit [SHIFT]+[D] to bring up the developer menu for a bunch of useful utilities. I just tried it and the variable viewer gave me an error which most likely has more to do with my game than Ren'Py

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Exception: String 'events = []' ends with an open format operation

More here http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/ref ... oper_Tools

Susan

[SleepKirby]

Ren'Py does not generally have support for breakpoint/step-by-step debugging. Though, a lot of Ren'Py is just pure Python, so you could potentially try running a Python breakpoint debugger on some Python code that's part of your game - but I haven't personally tried this.

I think Susan has the best tips for debugging Ren'Py. Note, though, that renpy.watch is not as smart as an IDE debugger; it'll literally just evaluate the expression that you give it. So if you tell renpy.watch to evaluate b, and b is an object, it probably won't give you all the fields in the object b. You'll have to say renpy.watch("[b.var1, b.var2, b.var3]") or something like that.

A few other things that may help you find bugs:
config.debug_image_cache
config.debug_sound
config.debug_text_overflow

And more advanced things you could try:
config.label_callback - This should be a function that is called whenever a label is called. In this label callback function, use an if statement checking if the label name is something specific. If so, make something happen (e.g. make some special text show up onscreen). This way you could figure out whether a certain label is being called or not.
config.label_overrides - Another thing you can use to check whether a certain label is being called or not.

[MoPark]

I'm only coder. And I must implement provided game logic.
If I use

Code: Select all

"[b]" #see example above

I get result like <store.B instance at 0x....> but not content of b

In that line, you're asking for the class B, not for an element within B, so you're being returned an instance stored at a particular memory address.

You initialized an instance of class B as follows:

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$ b = B()

This is correct. Here's an example I have with an implementation of my own:

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$ mainChar = mainCharacter()
"HP is initially set to [mainChar.currHP]."

Did that make sense? Notice how I called an element there, I think that may be your issue.

[Piccontroller]

Thanks to all for answers. I am very upset that there is no easy way to debug. I will use what we have.

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$ b = B()
$ b1 = b.someFunc()

#metod 1  
"[b]"
"[b1]"
 
#metod 2   
$ renpy.say("debug", str(b))
$ renpy.say("debug", str(b1))
    
#metod 3?
#$ renpy.watch(str(b)) #error during call
#$ renpy.watch(str(b1)) #error during call

method 4
[shift + d]

All methods give me equals results. But metod 3 doesn't work =( I have exeption. Method 4 give result attached file.

[GrimmisJP]

I just started looking at RenPy a couple days ago. My initial thought is to start debugging the python code using an IDE such as Eclipse with PyDev.

The first thing I tried to do after running renpy.exe was to attempt running "python renpy.py" thinking that the exe is just a wrapper. I'm new to programming in Python, but the code is readable enough to notice that the dependencies are missing when running it this way. It crashed right away in the bootstrapper code looking for pygame. So, I tried downloading the dependency package from the Renpy website.

There's a lot in the download... Much that can go wrong when attempting to install each of those items and you're not sure what you're doing. For instance when extracting pygame 1.8, I don't know the correct way to install it. The pygame package from the official website has an installer. It's also kind of a pain to find hunt down the websites for each item to find installation instructions. (Half the time newer versions have been released and old ones buried deep down in an archive directory)

Can someone tell me if there is a document that describes how to setup renpy and its dependencies on a Windows machine for development? Sorry if there's one at some obvious link (I couldn't find one), or if I'm asking a silly question. Again, my knowledge of Python and this app is pretty limited.

[GrimmisJP]

Well, it wasn't too hard create a remote break point command that connects to a debug server on eclipse. So, I can do something like:

label start:
BreakPoint
e "You've created a new Ren'Py game."
BreakPoint
e "Once you add a story, pictures, and music, you can release it to the world!"

For me that's more interest in learning Python, the interpreter, and the underlying layers with the intent of creating my own commands, this is useful. I can start stepping through the Python code at the breakpoint, and then play to another breakpoint in Eclipse in my customized code.

Obviously, this debugs Python code not Renpy scripts directly. So, I'm not sure how helpful it is to others.

[akakyouryuu]

Enerccio developed debuger for Ren'Py
This allow user to add breakpoints to rpy files and display variables.

https://github.com/Enerccio/renpy-debugger