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Low memory warning on the iPhone


CWillyPngn

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Hi All:

 

I have a Wherigo (GC5QA9K) that was published recently. It seems to be working very well so far, a couple of finders have noticed a “low Memory” warning that shows up in the Wherigo app the their iPhone. This results in complete loss of the data and they would have to start the cartridge all over again. Is there any reason why this might happen? Is it because of the app or is it the cartridge that causes to become unstable? Or is it the device? I had the error happened to me once on my iPhone6 while I was doing to some field testing, but I have not been able to duplicate the error (in 10 attempts) since.

 

Thanks,

 

CWillyPngn

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The cartridge looks pretty big. I might be mistaken on how memory works with the Wherigo cartridges but I would start out by looking at the file size of all media on the cartridge. You can use gimp to decompress anything to 75% and make sure is in jpeg format. This won't really affect the pictures as they appear on a smart phone unless they have a really large screen or tablet. Also if there is any sound make sure it is in mp3 format with Mono format, Sample rate: 22 kHz and Bit rate of: 32 to 56 Kbps.

 

The low memory problem can also be caused by having too many wherigos loaded into one's device.

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Thanks Forest-Ghost. I'll look into that possibility.

 

I used the Preview software on my MAC to adjust the size of the jpg files to 230 pixels in width and 200 pixels in height. The average size is ~31 KB. Is that sufficient? Or do I need to make the files much smaller using gimp as you suggested? From the looks of it, I have approximately ~1400-1500 KB of media (jpg) files stored in my cartridge (52 files total, 46 files in use), but no sound files. Is there an upper limit to what the Wherigo app can handle?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

CWillyPngn

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If your cartridge itself is under 10MB, there should be another issue. It could be the user has a lot of other apps open. The iPhone doesn't have a lot of free memory, anyway. I have a 5S, which has 1GB RAM. I haven't restarted it in a few months and one app says I only have 150MB RAM left (with six apps open), which is fairly standard with iOS.

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It might help to see if the people who had the memory problem had alot of wherigos loaded into their device. I have had the memory problem occur before too when I had a whole bunch of cartridges loaded into the player and possibly other apps open too. Trouble shooting Wherigo cartridges can be extremely difficult since everyone has different devices. I would say if you can get the cartridge smaller it will be more likely to run smoothly although it is not a given. As a general rule I try and limit the amount/size of media to keep it as simple as possible and still achieve the desired effect. I think this link is extremely helpful and gives some good info about the issue.

Edited by Forest-Ghost
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If your cartridge itself is under 10MB, there should be another issue. It could be the user has a lot of other apps open. The iPhone doesn't have a lot of free memory, anyway. I have a 5S, which has 1GB RAM. I haven't restarted it in a few months and one app says I only have 150MB RAM left (with six apps open), which is fairly standard with iOS.

 

That is what I suspected what happened with my iPhone6 when it crashed during my field test. I had too many apps open all while trying to solve the field puzzle at the last stage. As for the size of the cartridge, the size of the gwc file is 1.8MB which should be fine. But I'll see if I can clean it up the media files to reduce the size of the cartridge.

 

Is there a way to prevent data loss of the cartridge in the Wherigo app crashes? I've suggested to the cachers to save and quit often especially as they move from the church to the museum, but I wonder if I need to place save command in the cartridge in between the locations? I have it only at the last stage when the completion code is generated.

 

CWillyPngn

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It might help to see if the people who had the memory problem had alot of wherigos loaded into their device. I have had the memory problem occur before too when I had a whole bunch of cartridges loaded into the player and possibly other apps open too. Trouble shooting Wherigo cartridges can be extremely difficult since everyone has different devices. I would say if you can get the cartridge smaller it will be more likely to run smoothly although it is not a given. As a general rule I try and limit the amount/size of media to keep it as simple as possible and still achieve the desired effect. I think this link is extremely helpful and gives some good info about the issue.

 

I spoke to the most recent finder and it appears he's been having "low memory" issues with his iPhone 4S with most of the Wherigos even with a simple play anywhere cartridge. He attributed the problems with too many apps open and the phone being too old.

 

Thanks for reminding me to use the wiki. :D I need to read up on this source more often in case I have some issues.

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