I can't really test for lag:(

[Dragnfly]

I'm not caring too much about file size at this point since I plan to have a heavy and lite version anyway. But hearing people talk about lag caused by big maps with lots of events made me a bit worried about the processor side of things as I start to creep into puzzle design and large dungeons.

Basically, my friends who test my stuff and I are all on workhorse or gaming PCs. The only way for me to lag them with RM artificially has been to royally mess up a stealth detection script and that's clearly not how it's meant to be used. So my problem is that I can't get a decent sample of what "too big of a processor load" is. I don't want my friends and I to test the game and find no lag problems and then 50% of the community say it lags like crazy.

I'm really only worried about lag in dungeons, where I have roaming encounters. So how many "monsters moving on the map and when you touch them it cues a fight" events does it take to lag an average PC?

I'm not asking for lag reducing scripts. I'm not asking for a link to tinypng. I'm asking for how to tell when it would lag the average RM player's computer.

"It's St. Patrick's day in my country. Please try to ignore any typos or mistakes I make today and forward all legal accusations regarding offensive behaviour or things I've said to Bailey's."

 

[tearsofthenight]

If you press F2 it brings up a native FPS viewer.

 

[Hudell]

Have you tried to run the game on a virtual machine?

Or maybe you can try to underclock your CPU.

 

[Lunarea]

I'm asking for how to tell when it would lag the average RM player's computer.

Ask an average RM player to play-test it.

I know, it seems really simple, but there's really no sure way to predict how something is going to perform in a different environment without testing it -- and even then, sometimes it needs to be tested many, many times. There are several awesome people around who love to playtest and are looking for new games to try. Get in touch with them and get them to give you feedback.

 

[Dragnfly]

If you press F2 it brings up a native FPS viewer.

Which helps me absolutely none. The answer is 60FPS. Even during the massive crowd scenes in the postgame of Moonlight Ghost the FPS is a solid 60. If I intentionally mess up the stealth script I used, I can get it to 3 or so fps before it crashes. But that's not a realistic way to tell anything.

Have you tried to run the game on a virtual machine?

Or maybe you can try to underclock your CPU.

I haven't tried virtual machines. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll look into it right away. Can you suggest what an "average" RM player's PC might be? On one hand, I doubt most of us could max out the newest FPS but on the other hand most of us likely do have fairly modern systems. I'd just start a poll and ask what everyone has but I think that's not cool here.

Ask an average RM player to play-test it.

I know, it seems really simple, but there's really no sure way to predict how something is going to perform in a different environment without testing it -- and even then, sometimes it needs to be tested many, many times. There are several awesome people around who love to playtest and are looking for new games to try. Get in touch with them and get them to give you feedback.

By the time I'd trust a stranger with testing (and that time will come) too many dungeons will be made for me to easily fix any lag problem I might have.

...

Hmmm... What are some games that have infamously lagged people's computers? I'll get in touch with the creators and ask them the conditions of the map that caused the lag.

 

[cabfe]

There are tools to slowdown CPUs.

They're mostly used for old DOS games that didn't cap their FPS at the time, but you should be able to use them to simulate a slower computer if you're not ready for a public testing yet.

 

[Dragnfly]

Ah, you mean like dosbox or whatever so that you don't auto-die in Ultima Underworld 2. Do you have a ballpart of how slow I should test to represent the average RM player's PC? I'm pretty sure none of us are using a 386 anymore. LOL

 

[cabfe]

I have an old CPU (Athlon 64 X2 4200+) and most of my maps are ~100 events and 1.5x to 2x the default size.

With this configuration, I have 25-30 fps on average if I don't start a lighting script.

 

[Dragnfly]

Oh. I'm probably fine then. I'll base my tests on a 64 x2 4200 though. Thanks.

 

[cabfe]

If you are unsure of your equivalence settings, you can send me a test map and I'll tell you how many fps I have with the real CPU.

 

[Lunarea]

What are some games that have infamously lagged people's computers? I'll get in touch with the creators and ask them the conditions of the map that caused the lag.

I'm not sure this would be helpful...

There are so many factors that could affect whether the game is laggy or not. Here's a few just off the top of my head:

- Certain scripts or combinations of scripts

- Event handling for specific events, or amount of events on a map (even if the majority is inactive)

- Engine bugs (yes, there are a few)

- Background programs interfering with RM, whether the user knows about them or not

- Video card or video driver issues

 It's really hard to predict if you're not willing to test in the different environments. You can try to simulate the conditions by slowing down your CPU or whatever, but there's no guarantee that you'll actually get the same result(s) as someone playing on a different machine.

 

[Wavelength]

All the things Lunarea mentioned make it really hard to give you a straight answer to this question.

My experience on what I would consider a mid-level desktop is that a hundred non-Parallel Process events on a "big" (100x100) map doesn't cause significant lag (it will still run at or very close to 60FPS).  If there are dozens of parallel process events working at the same time, or scripts that frequently need to redraw graphics, I start to get some lag - enough that's it's not perfectly smooth, but not enough to be crippling.  Let's say consistent levels around 50FPS and occasional spikes as low as 15.

On the other hand, on a very, very old (and low-spec) laptop that I own, it is enough to be crippling (frequent runs below 10 FPS).

 

[Peridot Gaming]

Have you tried to run the game on a virtual machine?

This.  I would definitely spin up a couple of VMs that run different operating systems if you can, and have different RAM and CPU settings.  This should allow you to test for lag on a few different environments.

If you have someone that is saying the game lags on their pc, then try to find out as much details as you can about the hardware and OS, and then try to create a VM to match.  That should allow you to test things based on that installation, and you may be able to track down issues that you don't have on your own pc.