[VX ACE] Anti-Lag Script

[Work Ethic]

         Hello, I have started creating a massive open world RPG (my map size is 500 by 500), and I have noticed the increasing amount of lag. Now I have heard of many anti-lag scripts, but my question lies here. Can I can have multiple anti lag scripts at once or would this have the same effect as one? and now my other question is opinionated but anyway. What is the best anti-lag for a map with hundreds of events (near a 1,000 when the game is finished), an ABS battle system, and with 100-150 characters on a single map at once?

                                            -Thanks! Work Ethic

 

[Andar]

I've moved this thread to Script Request. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


Javascript Plugin Support is for RMMV, not RMVXA, because Ace uses RGSS3, not Javascript.


That said, you won't like the answer to your questions...


There are different causes for lags, and most antilag scripts only reduce the lag caused by events moving or animating on the map. And they do that by stopping those events.


So multiple antilag scripts would not only not help, you'll also run the risc of incompatibilities which might make the game with several anti-lag slower than the game without any anti-lag.


Additionally, an ABS battlesystem needs more processing on the map than anything else - and unless that processing allows for special handling, no antilag will ever be able to help against that source of lag.


Given all that - if you had taken the time to read around the forum looking for older topics on map sizes, you would have found that it is usually a bad idea to make large maps not only due to lag, but also because large maps are impossible to fill.


How much worktime do you expect to put into that map? Under the condition that you are an experienced mapper, you'll still have to put in about a hundred working hours (my estimate) simply to make that map, without any events.


Do you have made smaller maps in RM in the past? If this is your first project I really doubt that you'll finish such a project.

 

[bgillisp]

First suggestion: I would *highly* suggest breaking the map into chunks. Maybe make it into 25 100 x 100 maps instead of one 500 x 500? In the end you have the exact same total space (500 x 500, if you do it as 5 x 5 100 x 100 maps), and you cut the lag down drastically.

As for your question: I had decent luck with Theo's Anti-Lag in my project. Some people still reported 8 FPS on maps with 400 events, but it was rare. If you have $20 you might wish to use Effectus, though be aware that the seller of that program has gone absent for about 2 months now, so support might be lacking for a while.

 

[MeowFace]

I have started creating a massive open world RPG (my map size is 500 by 500), and I have noticed the increasing amount of lag.

RGSS Player doesn't support GPU, simply having a 500x500 (16000 x 16000 pixels) map can lag by itself without anything in it on a slower PC.

Can I can have multiple anti lag scripts at once or would this have the same effect as one?

The more scripts you have the higher chance of conflicts. And most "anti-lag" script uses overwrites method. So it can easily break some of your other custom scripts.

What is the best anti-lag for a map with hundreds of events (near a 1,000 when the game is finished), an ABS battle system, and with 100-150 characters on a single map at once?

The "Best" is to not use an anti-lag script. If your game require you to use one, there is a problem with how you are building it. If you find lag in your game, fix it by removing the lag, not adding another script to "bypass" certain resources to "ease the lag".

Most ABS uses engine different than the default game engine. You will need to find an "anti-lag" script tailor-made to make it really works or you will be risking a conflict/broken script/memory leak in the end.

The max events you can have on a map is 500, and event is another reason of lag cause. Simply having around 50 showing up on the screen at the same time will cause lag on some pc.

Not sure what you mean by "characters" there. Event/Vehicle/Player/Follower are all considered "Characters" by the default game script.

 

[Work Ethic]

I've moved this thread to Script Request. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

Javascript Plugin Support is for RMMV, not RMVXA, because Ace uses RGSS3, not Javascript.

That said, you won't like the answer to your questions...

There are different causes for lags, and most antilag scripts only reduce the lag caused by events moving or animating on the map. And they do that by stopping those events.

So multiple antilag scripts would not only not help, you'll also run the risc of incompatibilities which might make the game with several anti-lag slower than the game without any anti-lag.

Additionally, an ABS battlesystem needs more processing on the map than anything else - and unless that processing allows for special handling, no antilag will ever be able to help against that source of lag.

Given all that - if you had taken the time to read around the forum looking for older topics on map sizes, you would have found that it is usually a bad idea to make large maps not only due to lag, but also because large maps are impossible to fill.

How much worktime do you expect to put into that map? Under the condition that you are an experienced mapper, you'll still have to put in about a hundred working hours (my estimate) simply to make that map, without any events.

Do you have made smaller maps in RM in the past? If this is your first project I really doubt that you'll finish such a project.

I'm planning to take 350-400 hours total into the game, as I plan it will be commercial. I have started three other projects. The first was for learning, the second was for my friends, and I spent 150 hours on the third game. It was kind of like the game I am creating now (it took me 70 Hours for just the map 270 by 220) but the story was crap so the lore and map didnt flow well so I cancelled it. I have VX Ace for steam and I have 286 hours logged for just the software, so I would consider myself experienced. Also I have decided to split my map into 5 150 by 150 size maps for actually decreased lag and a 500 by 500 is not big enough.

 

[Andar]

Check Tsukihime's blog. She has a script that allows the engine to pretend to the player that he's walking on a continuous map while the map in reality is segmented into different smaller maps.


Sorry, don't have the link and don't know how it was called. Make sure that you look at her Ace scripts, not her newer MV ones.

 

[_Shadow_]

Effectus.

Period.

Doesn't come for free, and it isn't cheap either.

But it is really cheap for what it does.

I own it and I am really satisfied with the performance enhancement.

http://rpgmakersource.com/ourproducts/effectus/

In case you need free scripts, many people made some, moghunter is one of them for instance.

But You should be careful of compatibility issues and nothing matches Effectus.

 

[Sixth]

But You should be careful of compatibility issues and nothing matches Effectus.

Nothing matches the amount of compatibility issues between Effectus and other scripts, that is for sure.
The majority of the FPS boost from Effectus comes from the rewritten Plane class.


Another HUGE boost comes if you choose to disable the tilemap drawing processing.


The rest is really not much, because if you still have FPS drops after the FPS boost from those two, you are either doing something wrong, try to run the game on an absurdly high resolution or you just got a very old CPU in your PC.


Not to mention the dozens of compatibility issues Effectus will most probably have with some other scripts. I know I bumped into a bunch of them while doing some commission work in a project which got Effectus.


Doing the above two mentioned FPS boost changes does NOT require Effectus at all.


Other, freely available scripts are out there for your pleasure to do just that.


But yes, making too big maps can cause big FPS loss. No idea if disabling the tilemap and using a huge image for parallax mapping would even help here, because that would still be (500*32)x(500*32) image with a good few MBs. I bet the engine won't like that big image either.

 

[Brigg]

I recently bought Effectus.

It eliminates lag indefinitely, but I'm running into all sorts of snags.

My larger maps with well over 500 events run smooth now. But I have an event with a very large bitmap. The actual event is just below the the screen view, so it doesn't show the bitmap. Also, Yanfly's Visual Battler isn't working presently. The sprites are invisible.

Some issues can be resolved by reordering Effectus in the list under Materials. However, the instructions say to place Effectus at the top of the Materials list. Not sure yet if that will be a problem yet.

 

[MeowFace]

Putting an overwrite script below other custom scripts will mean that overwrite script will overwrite the methods it uses in any custom script placed above it.

So yes, it can cause problem and break your other custom scripts. Especially if it comes to terminate/disposal methods, you may ended up with memory leak because your other custom scripts isn't disposing their graphic/windows correctly.

 

[Shaz]

@Brigg, are you asking for help, or giving your experience with Effectus? If you're asking for help, please start a new thread of your own.

 

[Brigg]

@Brigg, are you asking for help, or giving your experience with Effectus? If you're asking for help, please start a new thread of your own.

Nah. Just placing my experience. I didn't want to bother anyone with an Effectus issue. I did post a thread on the Effectus forums, however.