Home button press causes EXC_BAD_ACCESS code=1 in SpriteKit SKView

Question

SpriteKit is supposed to clean up and pause all timers when you press the home button.

However, we have found that if you single tap the home button while displaying an active SKView, the app crashes. This occurs even if that view is already paused by the user.

Strangely, if you double tap the home button and move to the multitasking view, everything works fine.

Follow Up Note: The simulator works perfectly in both situations, no crash

Is anyone else seeing this issue with SpriteKit?

Have you found the cause / solution?

Please be more specific in what you are asking. Do you want a workaround? A fix? An explanation? — Andrew, Sep 27 '13 at 20:13
I have an exact same problem. Glad to know it's not all in my head :) — Lior Pollak, Sep 28 '13 at 10:21
@harrym17, try instantiating the object via a storyboard / nib versus programmatically. that resolved the issue for us. — MobileVet, Nov 05 '13 at 15:33
@harrym17 Place a UIView in IB, then change the class to SKView — MobileVet, Nov 08 '13 at 20:08

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 06 '14 at 02:30

I was having the same problem and I solved it manually pausing the root SKView in the ViewController before the app moving to the background:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Configure the view (already setup as SKView via storyboard)
    SKView * skView = (SKView *)self.view; 

    // Create and configure the scene.
    SKScene *scene = [Menu sceneWithSize:CGSizeMake(skView.bounds.size.height, skView.bounds.size.width)];
    scene.scaleMode = SKSceneScaleModeAspectFill;

    // Present the scene.
    [skView presentScene:scene];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
    selector:@selector(appWillEnterBackground)
    name:UIApplicationWillResignActiveNotification
    object:NULL];
}

- (void)appWillEnterBackground
{
    SKView *skView = (SKView *)self.view;
    skView.paused = YES;
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
    selector:@selector(appWillEnterForeground)
    name:UIApplicationWillEnterForegroundNotification
    object:NULL];
}

- (void)appWillEnterForeground
{
    SKView * skView = (SKView *)self.view;
    skView.paused = NO;
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
    selector:@selector(appWillEnterBackground)
    name:UIApplicationWillResignActiveNotification
    object:NULL];
}

This is definitely the more common issue people will have... so I accepted it. — MobileVet, Jun 04 '14 at 19:49
Tanzolone's answer is great, however, if you pull down the Notification Center the app will pause, but it won't unpause when you slide the Notification Center back up. I just had this problem and figured others might so this is what I did: Find "-(void)AppWillEnterBackground" change "name:UIApplicationWillEnterBackground" to "name:UIApplicationDidBecomeActiveNotification" — Joseph Bergman, Jul 20 '14 at 19:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '13 at 20:14

0

Run Xcode's analyzer (Project > Analyze) to determine if you have memory management issues in your code.
Run this scenario in the allocations instrument of the Instruments app (Project > Profile), which can report any detected misuse of memory.

answered Sep 27 '13 at 20:14

bneely

9,083
4
38
46

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 05 '13 at 15:32

0

We ran into some similar inconsistent behavior with UICollectionView. In that case, instantiating the object via a Storyboard (versus programmatically) resolved the issue.

On a hunch, I tried that this morning and Viola, success!

So, it appears that Storyboards are doing some magic with SKView on creation that is unknown to us and allows them to be properly terminated on Home Button press. Frustrating, but at least it works now.

answered Nov 05 '13 at 15:32

MobileVet

2,958
2
26
42

Additionally, setting the FPS for an SKView only works if you instantiate the view in a storyboard – MobileVet Nov 07 '13 at 14:21
More information, this may have been caused by our call to 'init' instead of 'initWithCoder' or 'initWithFrame', those appear to work correctly as well. – MobileVet Nov 11 '13 at 18:59

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

The problem can be caused by audio, if so you can check the answer here https://stackoverflow.com/a/19283721/1278463

I solved this in a game which is not using audio. Th solution is to pause SKView when entering background:

- (void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
{
    SKView *view = (SKView *)self.window.rootViewController.view;
    if (view) {
        view.paused = YES;
    }
}

- (void)applicationWillEnterForeground:(UIApplication *)application
{
    SKView *view = (SKView *)self.window.rootViewController.view;
    if (view) {
        view.paused = NO;
    }
}

Home button press causes EXC_BAD_ACCESS code=1 in SpriteKit SKView

4 Answers4

Linked