Laxius Soul Forever Heroes Maiden Maiden Odessa When the Light Dies

Choppy Animation

Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Sun May 26, 2013 3:44 pm

I've contacted Indinera and asked for help on my problem, but he/she wasn't able to help me, so I decided to hop in the forums to ask for help ^^
I've been having this problem with (some) other games made with RPG Maker, the animation seems to be quite choppy most of the time, and it gets worse when I'm in a large area (such as in Windheim or in Hallmark).
I've tried ticking/unticking all the settings in the Game Properties window, and I've also tried different combinations but seemingly there's no (noticeable) difference. I've also tried making Fraps work with the game so I could measure the average FPS I get from the game but it doesn't show up for some reason.
My PC isn't that fast and it's fairly old but it's no reason why it shouldn't play 2D games smoothly.
Specs: CPU 2.26GHz Celeron D, 1.25GB RAM, NVidia 5500FX AGP 4x 256MB VRAM

What I suspect is that the display library has some issues and instead of output to direct draw it sends it off to a weird surface mode. It could also be an issue with my video card's display driver.
Any suggestions from you guys? Please don't suggest me to get a new PC as that's not helpful to my case ^^;
Thanks in advance.
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Tue May 28, 2013 7:12 pm

Try to press F1 and change the Smooth Mode option. This might help.
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Wed May 29, 2013 1:30 am

As I pointed it out in my previous post, I already did that ^^
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Wed May 29, 2013 5:15 am

Oops, sorry. Seems that I was reading too fast. +:oops:
I noticed that you only have 1.25GB RAM, couldn't there be a problem with this?
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Wed May 29, 2013 11:01 am

No problem, it's good that you pointed it out ^^

And I really much doubt so ^^;
The games never pass the 100MB mark in RAM usage. Plus that I've played the games with even less RAM and it wasn't any worse XD
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Wed May 29, 2013 4:18 pm

Well, it's true that RPG Maker is not very well optimized, so maybe the large areas are just too much for the Celeron D.
I can say that LF2 worked well on single-core Atom in a netbook, though, and the Celeron D should be faster.

It would probably be best to try the game on a similar computer, if it runs smootly then you'll know that it's actually possible.
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Wed May 29, 2013 5:34 pm

Tomas wrote:Well, it's true that RPG Maker is not very well optimized, so maybe the large areas are just too much for the Celeron D.
I can say that LF2 worked well on single-core Atom in a netbook, though, and the Celeron D should be faster.


Were the graphics smooth or would they still stutter and lag on the netbook? ^^;
I'd agree, even though the Celeron series is notoriously bad at real-time processing it should still perform well. The CPU usage when I'm in the game goes to 100%, so that is a sign of the graphics not being processed by hardware but done by software and the CPU is overloaded with it. Or the graphics card is overloaded instead.

Tomas wrote:It would probably be best to try the game on a similar computer, if it runs smootly then you'll know that it's actually possible.


I could try asking a friend to try it out and see how it performs there. ^^
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Thu May 30, 2013 5:42 am

I checked on my Core i5-3550 and CPU usage goes as high as 20% in Moonchild. Considering that it's a quadcore, 20% equals to 80% for one core. Now when you compare the single-thread performance of an Ivy Bridge and P4, 100% of CPU usage is probably not surprising...
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Thu May 30, 2013 11:36 am

Ah, so then it's not so very uncommon. Then I don't know what could be the cause of the choppiness ^^;
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Thu May 30, 2013 12:27 pm

Actually, it probably is the cause of the choppiness. CPU at 100% means that it needs to run faster.
Also, maybe graphic isn't the main problem here. I for example remember, that when playing on Atom netbook, it couldn't handle too many items in inventory - I just got "Script hanging" error message. So maybe all the scripts are just too taxing and the P4 Celeron can't handle it. After all, there are many moving objects (NPCs and visible enemies) on large maps.

P.s. If this choppiness is caused by slow graphic card, then I would expect it to change when you move to a visually less demanding part of a map (fewer animations and so on), but if it's a CPU problem, then it should stay choppy all the time.
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Thu May 30, 2013 12:49 pm

Tomas wrote:Actually, it probably is the cause of the choppiness. CPU at 100% means that it needs to run faster.
Also, maybe graphic isn't the main problem here. I for example remember, that when playing on Atom netbook, it couldn't handle too many items in inventory - I just got "Script hanging" error message. So maybe all the scripts are just too taxing and the P4 Celeron can't handle it. After all, there are many moving objects (NPCs and visible enemies) on large maps.


Ah, I understand now.

Tomas wrote:P.s. If this choppiness is caused by slow graphic card, then I would expect it to change when you move to a visually less demanding part of a map (fewer animations and so on), but if it's a CPU problem, then it should stay choppy all the time.


Well it does happen like that, when I get closer to the edge of a map it appears as if it goes a bit smoother. Not *THAT* visibly smoother, but just a tad bit better. I doubt it's the video card as it would be prefectly able to process 2D graphics at a high speed, but here graphic libraries come into play as well.
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Thu May 30, 2013 12:56 pm

I found this topic http://www.overcloud9.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=152, it might be helpful.
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Thu May 30, 2013 6:36 pm

Thanks a lot!
That guide was quite helpful, I took the instructions in order, while I already had the latest version of DirectX for my OS I went to Disable the DirectDraw acceleration and it worked! =D
Now it runs silky smooth. I wish I thought about this earlier.
Thanks again =)
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby Tomas » Thu May 30, 2013 7:40 pm

Congratulations. +::Thumbup It seems that everything has a solution if you are persistent enough. :)
It will be good to know for other players, too, I suppose that you weren't the only one with this problem.
User avatar
Tomas
Ranger
 
Posts: 1746
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:41 pm
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Choppy Animation

Postby andoru » Thu May 30, 2013 7:48 pm

It is you who should be congratulated, haha. I really do hope more people look at this thread so they could solve this problem.
andoru
Peasant
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Next

Return to Moonchild - Help and Questions

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests


Laxius Force III Little Hearts Night of the Stars Fortress of Hell Witch Hunt Millennium 5