First off all, thanks everyone for all the input! Now this lets me know that even in a best case scenario, no one is getting acceptable performance at night, and on an older computer, even daytime was unacceptably low.
I tried on my old computer (and got 6 fps on average).
So, first thing I tested was to disable a lot of scripts and effects: almost no increase. At best I got 7-8 fps.
And then I realized that you have 420 events on your map.
So I create a copy and place my new starting point there. With zero events.
I got nearly 60 fps.
I then added only one event, your first "startup" event.
I got between 45-50 fps.
A drop, but not a big one.
That was a quick test, but I think the problem doesn't come from the scripts but from the huge number of events on the map.
Yeah, I had a feeling the number of events would be problematic, so I just went through the entire map again, focusing only on every single event I have.
I had to use some to make it so in this area...
...the player can walk over
or below the edges of that elevation, depending on whether they're on lower or higher ground. But then I noticed that I did the same thing for the wooden railings in the servant's house, and in that case it was absolutely not needed. (In my sleep-deprived state when working on it, I completely forgot to set the star tiles for the railings to not be passable from the left.) Fixing this didn't do much, but I'm sure it helps.
The most glaring problem is probably the way I'm handling transparency when the player walks behind walls. They're all set Parallel Process since they have to activate when the player sets foot in the regions behind a building or say one of the hedge maze's many walls. The biggest culprit in that regard is the maze. Since I wanted to have a hide-and-seek mini game happen there at some point, I had to separate the labyrinth into several regional clusters... it was the only way I could think of to do it properly... but I might be forced to just make it so whenever the player steps behind
any of the walls in the maze, they
all go transparent.
As for the startup event dropping your framerate, I'm willing to bet it has to do with the film grain effect. The startup event turns that switch on by default, but when the project is further along, I intend to incorporate that visual filter as a toggle option in a settings menu.
Question ... if you disable the lighting script, does the issue still happen when you switch to night mode? It could be your events themselves and not the script that's causing the lag.
What's the deal with setting it to night and activating the lighting script - do you use an event to do that, set to parallel process? Any chance that event is not being erased or switched to a new page afterwards (so is continually activating the lighting script, 60 times a second)?
@bgillisp, it's one of the function keys - F2 I think, but I can't check as I'm at work and don't have Ace with me.
Just disabling the lighting script doesn't really work, because every light source uses some script calls exclusive to it, such as
light.clear and whatnot. As for the lights being activated only at night, this is the way it handles that:
None of them use Parallel Process triggers, but I'm unsure if the method Zeus uses for his
setup tags basically turn them into parallel processes anyway. Removing every single light source in the map other than the player's candle, without changing anything else about the other events yields me anywhere between 20 to 35 FPS, depending on location, but I know that isn't exactly the same test you were asking for.
The following could affect your FPS
1) The size of your map (180 x 120).
2) Activating pictures.
3) The vast amount of events you have on the map.
4) The many parallel process active on the map.
5) The minimap script.
6) The lighting script.
7) Your computer's specs.
Regarding parallax mapping, I have used one that was around 300 x 300 with 100 events with random movements. Only added on animated battler scripts and fix picture script. No parallel events. Didn't notice any lag. So maybe it could help.
The size of the map is definitely a part of the problem, although not one I can likely fix at this point.
The activating pictures are pretty much the parallel processes themselves with very few exceptions, yeah. There are 40 of them in the hedge maze alone, which is once again pushing me into sacrificing the idea of having the maze walls be separated into clusters, and just making it one big image for every wall at once.
The minimap was one of the first things I tested, and it barely impacted FPS. (I think I gained 1-2 FPS with it on or off, a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make.)
The lighting script is for sure impacting the FPS quite a bit, despite my best efforts to reduce the number of light sources to the bare minimum I could handle.
I'm glad to hear that parallax mapping seems viable even in a bigger map. (Holy cow, 300 x 300!) If after all my adjustments I still can't get a big improvement, I'm gonna be forced to try redoing the entire thing as a parallax.
An antilag script would only affect it if it was events causing the issue. In that case, I suggest it's better to identify WHICH events, as they may be badly written. And if it IS a parallel process event as I suggested above, an antilag script wouldn't make a difference. (not that I'm against them - I use one and think they're a good idea - I'd actually like to improve mine based on discussions I've seen involving other scripters)
ie - if it's events, it MAY be possible to solve the issue without adding more scripts.
I do have Mog's Anti-Lag running, and it does wonders. (Just not miracles.
)
