Major Lag Problem

[supayoshi777]

Alright so I am making this really long level and I cannot even test it because the lag is so bad I have to wait minutes to see the next frame. So far it uses 18 sections and there is custom music in every section. The music is generally the same except for 3 or 4 sections. I use two custom graphics (Hammer Bro and SMB3 ? Block) I have tested other levels and they work perfectly fine with no lag most of the time. However, my computer is really slow (It has 6 gigs of memory left and it runs everything very slow. It took me 3 minutes to load google after the internet browser was already open) I was thinking about moving SMBX and my levels over to my laptop. It has a lot of free space and much better ram (My sister plays multiple games from steam without any lag). Is it my computer or is it the level that is making this horrid lag? If you need any more info just ask. But I just want to know because I can't even play the darned level.

[bossedit8]

Can you show your PC Specs like how the informations are? You said that you have a slow PC, that can be the case. SMBX is not very easy to run especially with weaker PC's like on my own Windows XP Labtop which only lags if there are a lot of objects on the screen and/or Level.

[RudeGuy]

There are many things which causes the lag. Delete some custom music, because you have too much of them. Also, try to search for some giant sizeables, bacause they make some lags, and, if you have some custom playable, delete them.

[Kyo]

Answer those questions and we might be able to help you:

-When was the last time you turned your computer off? Usually, when a computer is active for too long, its capacity decreases until it was restarted.
-Did you have any programs open while playing? Such as Skype, paint, or maybe a music or browser?
-Try to disconnect your computer from the internet temporarily, then play. That's what I always do in extreme cases.
-As bossedit said, show your specs. It's possible that your computer/laptop is too weak for smbx. In that case you'll have to leave a tick on "disable frameskip" when starting smbx.
-Show your debugger. Even strong computers can cause lag if the level is severely overloaded with stuff.
-Does your level have a lot of animation in it? Such as lava or other stuff.
-Does your level have a custom playable? Those are a common cause for lag as well, since they have a bunch of frames. Too much animation in one screen is a common cause for lag, and that especially applies for animation with CGFX. With that amount of animation a custom playable has, it's no surprise that smbx causes lag, especially for a weak engine. And unfortunately smbx is quite weak.
-Does your level have a lot of infinite event sequences? Those usually cause a lot of lag because smbx usually focuses on displaying what's on the screen, but also has to focus on infinite event sequences even if those aren't even on the screen.
-Too much CGFX and CSFX can cause lag as well. You could possibly try to delete some when they aren't too necessary.

[supayoshi777]

Can you show your PC Specs like how the informations are? You said that you have a slow PC, that can be the case. SMBX is not very easy to run especially with weaker PC's like on my own Windows XP Labtop which only lags if there are a lot of objects on the screen and/or Level.

Yea I have Windows XP and almost everything I run on this computer lags.

There are many things which causes the lag. Delete some custom music, because you have too much of them. Also, try to search for some giant sizeables, bacause they make some lags, and, if you have some custom playable, delete them.

What is custom playable? And I think all the custom music is a part of the problem but not entirely.

[FanofSMBX]

You know how Valtteri Island 3 had SMW Mario and Luigi instead of SMB3? Those are custom playables.

[supayoshi777]

Answer those questions and we might be able to help you:

-When was the last time you turned your computer off? Usually, when a computer is active for too long, its capacity decreases until it was restarted.
-Did you have any programs open while playing? Such as Skype, paint, or maybe a music or browser?
-Try to disconnect your computer from the internet temporarily, then play. That's what I always do in extreme cases.
-As bossedit said, show your specs. It's possible that your computer/laptop is too weak for smbx. In that case you'll have to leave a tick on "disable frameskip" when starting smbx.
-Show your debugger. Even strong computers can cause lag if the level is severely overloaded with stuff.
-Does your level have a lot of animation in it? Such as lava or other stuff.
-Does your level have a custom playable? Those are a common cause for lag as well, since they have a bunch of frames. Too much animation in one screen is a common cause for lag, and that especially applies for animation with CGFX. With that amount of animation a custom playable has, it's no surprise that smbx causes lag, especially for a weak engine. And unfortunately smbx is quite weak.
-Does your level have a lot of infinite event sequences? Those usually cause a lot of lag because smbx usually focuses on displaying what's on the screen, but also has to focus on infinite event sequences even if those aren't even on the screen.
-Too much CGFX and CSFX can cause lag as well. You could possibly try to delete some when they aren't too necessary.

1) It lags even if I just turned it on
2) I tried closing everything. It helped a bit, but most parts of the levels were still unplayable.
3) I'll try that.
4) Chances are this computer is far too weak for the level (It runs most of the others fine) I was wondering what "disable frameskip" does. So I will try that too.
5) Yea I knew the level was gonna be really long so I kept checking the debugger as I went on. The blocks is half full, backgrounds is 25%, not a lot of npcs, and like 25 warps.
6) Yea in some of the rooms it is set to underwater or has a pretty big chunk of lava (those lag especially)
7) I don't have any custom playables.
8) Yea it has like 3 or 4 infinite event sequences. I'll see what I can do about that. I didn't know that SMBX focused on running those even when you can't see them
9) I think I'm fine with custom graphics (only use two) and I don't use custom sfx.
If all of this together doesn't reduce the lag (make the level at least playable) I will just switch to a laptop and run everything from that.

EDIT: Well I just gave the "Disable Frameskip" a shot and it works wonders. If I knew that I could get rid of lag all together like this before that would've been awesome! I don't think I will need to try any of the other suggestions now that I got this. Sure the game runs slower overall now but at least it doesn't lag. It's a small price to pay. Thank you for your help!

[Kyo]

No problem. I'm glad Redigit implemented the disable frameskip option so that people with weaker devices are able to play levels with a lot of stuff in them. By the way, optionally, when disable frameskip is enabled, you can go to test setting and tick Show FPS. At the top left your framerate will be shown. 65 is standard. The framerate is usually tolerable when it doesn't go lower than 40.

Have fun!

[RudeGuy]

May did you try to search if you have really expanded sizables? They cause lag too.

[supayoshi777]

Yea I went over the whole level and I only used sizables like three times. They were pretty small too.

[RudeGuy]

Well, if they aren't the cause of the problem, give us the level, so may we can discover the source.

[bossedit8]

If your Level is very big especially if you use a lot of blocks and NPCs it will increasingly lag your Game. Try to lower the block Placements where the Player cannot normally reach ingame and replace them with Background objects. Lava, foreground Background objects (like SMB Bridge Fences, SMB3 Hanging Ropes used for Wood, SMB3 Propeller facing up, SMW Ghost House "Handles", Super Metroid's Cable from Mother Brain and more...), animating objects (multiple frames) and every tiles that has a Mask (Waterfall, Wooden Blocks, Cement Blocks, Pipes, Edge Pieces and much more...) will produce more process on SMBX and creates lag depending on your PC specs and capacity.

[Sednaiur]

As far as i experienced it, one of the main reasons for huge lag in SMBX is, when you use many events, that loop themselves (i found that out on my CC8 level).
That usually starts when you have 3 and more looping events, like "move platform a up", after 3 seconds "move platform a left", after 2 seconds "move platform a down", after 3 seconds "move platform a right", after 2 seconds "mmove platform a up" and so on.

I never experienced any problems with lag, when i use custom-playables, a huge amount of blocks (even 15300 are no problem for me), about 6000 backgrounds, about 600 NPCs, or even 100 warps and custom music in 17 sections, and all that at once and no matter if animated or not (i have 4 GB ram and 2.0 Ghz on the notebook i am using for SMBX). So i would make a safety-copy of your level somewhere, and delete some of the looping events, until you only have 2 or 3 of them left. Since Valtteri's Level "golden Palace" isn't lagging a bit, and it uses lots of one time-events, i don't think that any events are lagging SMBX, that are used only once.

I hope this is of help^^.