(403) Performance Issue

I may have something related. In 378 and 403 in my quest, everything moves excruciatingly slowly. I wouldn't say it's lag, because it's not jerky. It's just slow.

I start getting a bit of a shutter between screens if 5 layers are present.
It's not constant, and doesn't happen every time entering that screen set up.

This is with a Pentium III, 1 gb cpu and 512 ram

I've been trying to play C-Dawgs Zodiac quest which uses some jumping and weapon scripting, which is pretty impossibe at a steady 21 frames per second. F1 doesn't seem to do anything to help it either exept when I change screens it jumps up to 84 then back down to 20 again. Never had this problem. Basically got the same setup as freedom.

100% CPU usage is not unusual; ZC now "busy waits" instead of yielding to the operating system, since many operating systems have timing systems which are not precise enough to keep ZC running at 60 FPS without introducing strange performance problems, as reported by franpa.

20 FPS is, however, unacceptable. Is ZC always this slow, or only on quests with scripts/layers/something else? Are you running full-screen or windowed? On which OS?

With Z-launcher fullscreen 320 240 it was maxing out at 34 fps, and windowed it runs much, much better (maybe perfect) but I can't veiw fps in windowed so I'm not sure how much. I usually never run windowed because it's so small and hard to see.[that's what she said] Every other quest I played runs smoothly at around 60fps faultering slightly only during message strings, screen changes, etc. I've seen this only one other time, in the overworld playing DemoEX which drops to about 52 or so. Never was sure why.

Also XP pentium III 1gig 512ram

My quest does use layers, but it's just layer 3 in the screens I've been testing. No scripts. I can't run it in fullscreen, as per my other report, so I don't know how that affects it.

I'm not sure what my processor is, but I think I'm running 512 of RAM, windows XP, 500-something mhz. (Yes, how I got a computer with RAM and speed that close I'll never know).

EDIT: Ok, got it inot fulscreen. Works fine there. It's only a problem when windowed.

If it matters, here are my system specs:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 894MB RAM

Zodiac runs at a smooth 60 FPS windowed and full-screen for me; running a profiler showed nothing suspicious (Allegro draw methods dominate performance.)

Amaster, could you please post the quest that is giving you trouble?

Your right, there's nothing wrong with Zodiac. Which means it's on my end. I tested this on my 2.4 ghz comp and it runs perfect. my stupid system has become unstable.gaah! well at least i've found the problem. thanks DD.

Amaster, if the problem only occurs windowed and not fullscreen, the problem is probably Allegro/hardware related. But if you post your quest I'll take a look at it anyway.

Update: ZC Build 560 still keeps my CPU at 100% activity. The red line is "kernel time" (i think) The drops of the green line are when I paused ZC by clicking on the screen. If it is not a bug, label it as such. This should be confirmed by a Dev.

I guess i'll post an update as well.

Since reinstalling win xp, zodiac runs at 58 fps fullscreen, there is no more fluctuation as most quest are a constant 60 fps. DemoEX still lags in the overworld at about 54 fps.(that one always bugged be)😡

All in all the builds are running far more smooth than 2.10.2, and many older beta's for me. 😊

CPU usage: 100% -but who needs to multitask while playing zc.

100% CPU time is not a bug. It's either that or imprecise wait timing, which caused all of the performance issues affecting franpa and others.

Basically, as Gleeok says, when running ZC don't expect to do a bunch of other tasks (like with any game).