Variable references invalid object (-4).<unknown variable>

[obscene]

Maybe I've lost my mind, but this looks pretty cut and dry to me.

This line:
with (obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling) instance_destroy();

Suddenly Returns this error:
Pop :: Execution Error - Variable references invalid object (-4).<unknown variable>
at gml_Object_obj_mother_StepNormalEvent_2 (line 97) - with (obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling) instance_destroy();

The object exists. An instance of the object exists. I'm not trying to reference any variable of it. So how does that error make any sense?

 

[samspade]

I also do not see an error.

What happens if you put brackets around it (instead of relying on GML's standard interpretation) or try instance_destroy(obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling)?

I don't know why this would matter, but the default of instance_destroy is to run the destroy event of the objecting being destroyed. Is there anything in the destroy event of short ceiling that could cause a problem (that doesn't seem to be what the error message is saying). What if you tried instance_destroy(id, false)?

Other questions.

• How many instances of that object are there?
• What does the debugger say about the existence of the instance?
• Any inheritance issues to consider?

 

[Slyddar]

What happens if you test first?

if instance_exists(obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling)
{
  with (obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling) instance_destroy();
}

 

[Neptune]

Is

obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling

a variable or something?
And not just an object index.

 

[obscene]

Yeah, can't find anywhere where I accidentally declared it as a variable. Tried this...

Changed to:

if (instance_exists(obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling))
    {
    with (obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling) instance_destroy();
    }

Now the error pops up when checking if the instance exists:
Pop :: Execution Error - Variable references invalid object (-4).<unknown variable>
at gml_Object_obj_mother_StepNormalEvent_2 (line 97) - if (instance_exists(obj_mother_tentacle_short_ceiling))

Going through all related code and adding parentheses, brackets, semicolons, etc that may be missing...

 

[obscene]

OK, so problem solved. Not sure what it was, but I went through all the code above this and made sure all my with's, if's, etc had parenthesis and found a couple of missing semicolons. Fixed. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[icuurd12b42]

that's crazy...

 

[Carloskhard]

OK, so problem solved. Not sure what it was, but I went through all the code above this and made sure all my with's, if's, etc had parenthesis and found a couple of missing semicolons. Fixed. Thanks for the help guys!

Hey, do you remember what semicolons were you missing?
I'm having the same problem and I've been the whole day trying to understand why is failing.
I use this code:

with (colliding){
    show_debug_message(colliding)
    instance_destroy(colliding);
}

and in the debug I can see the ID of the object is correct,but on the error message it shows this:

Pop :: Execution Error - Variable references invalid object (-4).<unknown variable>

why is saying the object was "-4" if clearly the objects was something like "100045"?
I need help

 

[obscene]

I can't remember exactly as it's been awhile, but seems like I just went and checked all the code that preceded this part and just found that some random semicolons were missing on other lines and things like that. Somehow some sloppy syntax snowballed into a weird bug later on.

I would just start scrolling up and looking for anything that's not 100% kosher.