Syrinscape Fantasy Crashing on iPad

Support
#1

So, I have a 2012 4th Gen iPad, 1.91GB free space. Since the most recent IOS update (10.3.3), my fantasy player has been crashing after about 30 minutes, just closing and returning to the home screen. I can then reopen the app, which loads fresh, and works again for about 30 minutes.

I’m using a few custom soundscapes that just have looping music samples in them, and working them in with standard soundscapes. It seems to happen more quickly if I’m changing moods frequently. Any clue what I might do to fix it? Used to work great before the latest IOS 10.3.3

Edit note: I updated to IOS 10.3.3 a couple of months ago. I know it’s been out since July 2017, but I was slow to bother updating this old ipad.

#3

The latest version of Syrinscape has been out for a little while now and we’ve not had any other reports of issues like this, which makes me suspect its a local issue. Syrinscape functions like a powerful multi-mixer, often playing 20+ tracks at a time and from your description, the crashing is happening when you are changing moods, which is when your iPad would be trying to process multiple processes at once.

Unfortunately, it’s possible that both Syrinscape and the updated iOS is too much for your iPad to handle for prolonged periods of time. I know Apple has made several major updates to their hardware with later models. I’ll see if our dev team can get us an updated benchmark for the apps minimum specks and hopefully that will help us figure out the problem for you. Also if you get a crash log make sure you send it to us at support so we can take a look at whats happening :slight_smile:

#4

Just as a thought, try force closing all other processes on the iPad before you load up Syrinscape and then see if it still crashes. It might be that you have a lot of apps running in the background, which is causing the iPad to run out of memory

#5

Must be my old iPad just being old then (only have 2core 1.4ghz proc and 1GB RAM). I have pretty much nothing else installed on here, even removed a handful of games my son had put on (now have ~4GB of free memory), and it crashed about 5 minutes into a custom mood split between “Desert” and “dyk Caravanserai”. The mood is basically the “Sand Storm” queue with all the levels turned down by about half, and then the “Mad Voices” element from Caravanserai turned up max.

I experimented more, and if I load this mood (Haunted Sandstorm) first, it crashes Syrinscape immediately, even after a fresh reboot of the iPad. If I use other moods first then switch to it, it runs for a 5+ minutes before crashing. There doesn’t even have to be shared elements between the two moods (I went from a pure music mood to the “haunted sandstorm” mood).

I’m not getting any crash logs or the like. Just Syrinscape closes and I’m back at the home screen. Double-tapping the home button shows Syrinscape open, but when I click it to bring it back forward, it acts like its just booting up from scratch.

Any luck on finding out what the current “min specs” are?

#6

One way to sure it is just the ooooold iPad… play the particuarlly busy Soundsets, like
“Gen Con” or “Shoggoth” if those make it crash quicker… then yes, it’s probably the specs…

We were running older iPads as demo machine at Cons and eventually had to upgrade because the biggest SoundSets + plus running for a long time was eventually killing them. :hocho::dagger:

#7

I also have the exact same issue on my iPad but the crash happens even if just playing background music in the program After 15-30 min it crashes. IOS 12.4.8 iPad mini 2. It has been doing for awhile but never saw much online to explain it before.
Can’t seem to catch a crash log of it, just the program closes to desk

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#8

Unfortunately, new versions of our apps do require iOS 11. And while I can’t be sure, it does sound like the iPad mini 2 hardware is struggling to keep up with some of the larger soundsets.

That said, the genre apps do slow down a little after launch while they build a local search index. It is about 15 seconds for me, but it might be longer on older devices. You could try:

  • Wait 1-2 minutes before you try to play those soundsets.
  • Make a custom mood that players fewer elements.
  • Use the online player on another device and run the Master Interface on your iPad or a laptop to control it. The Master Interface (in a browser) might be less demanding than the full app.
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#9

@dddeyoe can you tell me which soundset is playing that is causing the crash? Does the app generally appear to be working fine for 15-30 minutes and then crash? Or does it appear to struggle at times (slow scrolling, any audio stutter), in particular with large soundsets?

#10

Thank you. I figured it was time upgrade. Thank you

#11

but in the interest of others that might still need to use an older version. it crashes in this way for all sound sets. what it does is closes down the program to desktop. when you open it again it is as if you never opened it, where the program checks and loads everything once again. If i play One music item and than switch to another or I add other sound sets. Mind you this is the same ipad mini i have used with this program for the past 3-4 years? with no issues.
i get it updates of the software could outlast the ipads ability to keep up , especially if Apple doesnt support the older hardware anymore

#12

Syrinscape is built in the powerful Unity 3D Engine, which is what makes the full 3D surround ambience possible. The latest updates are not just updates to the app itself, they were updates to the latest Unity Engine and major updates to the apps coding. This makes Syrinscape much more powerful and future proof, but also means that it requires more processing power. That would unfortunately be why some older devices that could run the app now struggle. Especially so when as you say Apple stops supporting certain devices

#13

Excellent that it will be future proof as you put it. It was time for a new device. Thank you for the explanation and I hope it helps others understand as well.

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