Map Animations - Lag & Parallel Process Question

[Slimsy Platypus]

So I want to show an animation in an "Outside" map that occurs every 10 seconds or so.  I've found that I can do that with a parallel process  with a WAIT command followed by SHOW ANIMATION.


Here's my question: If I plop a bunch of these down in my map, is that going to contribute to a parallel process lag issue?  Does the game check for whether it needs to execute the process even while it's in the WAIT command?


Then secondly, is there an alternative way to do this that is better?   For maps with lots of animations, I assume a single parallel process that flicks a series of switches to activate animations will be better than multiple parallel processes.


then thirdly, performance wise, is it OK to flick like say 20 switches at once to trigger 20 concurrent animations, or should I expect performance issues with that?


Thanks for any and all help!

 

[Shaz]

Because you're adding a wait, and it's a nice, long one, you shouldn't have any issues with lag.  Yes, the program will still check if there's anything for the event to do, but as soon as it sees it's in waiting mode, it'll skip to the next event.


Changing 20 switches at once also won't really be noticeable, especially if you're doing it every 10 seconds.


The issue you MIGHT find is if the game has to load all the images for 20 animations at the same time.  Especially with MV, if an image isn't loaded, there could be a noticeable delay the first time it is.  So if you have 20 animations all being loaded at once (and they're different animations), there could well be significant lag the first time you do it, and again after the game is closed and reloaded and it has to reload the animation for that map.


I'm assuming you have each of these animations attached to an event?  Rather than having one (or many) controlling parallel process events, I would put the logic in the events on which the animations are played, as part of their Custom Autonomous Move Route - no parallel process events, no controlling events, no switches, and the movement commands are processed slightly more quickly than they would be in a parallel process using the Show Animation command, as you're bypassing the Game_Interpreter logic.


So, just set the event's Autonomous Move Route to Custom, and add the Wait X Frames command (however many times you need to, to make 10 seconds), and then a Show Animation command.  If you do it this way, you could even stagger the animations if you didn't want them all triggering at exactly the same time, by adding a wait before and after the Show Animation command, and having the total wait time of the two commands combined add to 10 seconds.

 

[Slimsy Platypus]

@Shaz


Wow... thank you so much.  This was exactly the insight I was looking for.  Every day I'm becoming less of an RPG maker noob - thanks again!