Performance: Project lag worse in 2024.8 for some affected users than previous releases showed

[gm-bug-reporter[bot]]

Description

I saw an update release lately claiming to fix all project lag, but it seems like this is what actually caused the problem for me. When opening assets or dragging a room around with my mouse, the project will occasionally pause for seconds at a time, allowing no input. Often I have to double-click an asset multiple times to get it to open because the double click is not registering.

Steps To Reproduce

Not sure how much is client side, so hard to say. I notice the pauses most when I double-click on items in the Asset Browser, or when I'm using my scroll wheel to navigate across maps.

Which version of GameMaker are you reporting this issue for?

IDE v2024.8.1.171 Runtime v2024.8.1.218

Which operating system(s) are you seeing the problem on?

Windows 10.0.19045.0

5fa9309b-3ae1-41ff-ae74-5d14a2c438e7

[DevTRUCKer]

thank you... I have the same bug in the IDE. I hope it gets fixed soon.

[Grisgram]

Yes, can confirm. Not even scripts can be opened without a delay of often 3+ seconds. Double clicks entirely don't work... most of the time a triple- oder 4x, 5x click opens a script or object. i just started hammering the asset browser and if I am fast enough, the asset browser does not start the "rename" mode and a script opens.

[DevTRUCKer]

Yes, exactly the same but with rooms, if I double click normally it start the "rename" mode so I instead always most repeat double clicks to open.

[KormexGit]

I've talked to a couple people who's IDE lag was caused by having too many things open in the workspace, so if anyone is having lag and hasn't cleared their workspace in a while, try doing that.

Here I created a ton of assets and have them all open in the workspace and I start experiencing IDE lag, including in the asset browser. In particular, the first asset I try to open in the video, it tries to rename it instead of opening it, and then later in the video when I click on "Sprite1", I'm right clicking, and you can see the delay in the right click menu appearing:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e2fa33b4-5c9c-4dc7-8c88-aa5d70d6a313

Another video showing some lag:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5267e0ed-63d3-4443-af30-33011bef9552

When I then tried to swap to a different project, GameMaker stopped responding for about a minute before it finally loaded the other project:

Re-opening the project also takes a long time, and trying to close everything in this workspace at once caused GM to go unresponsive:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a449c667-0212-4afe-9c5f-630fcaefc9ec

After a while, everything did close, GameMaker became responsive again, and the lag was all gone.

You can re-create this situation by spamming one of the alt shortcuts to create assets in an otherwise empty project, since that will both create an asset and open it in the workspace. Or, you can shift-select a bunch of assets and drag them into the workspace to open them all at once.

[Grisgram]

Yes those videos show quite what's going on, with one difference on my side: "Close all" in the workspace doesn't change anything. once the lag started, it stays until i restart GMS, no matter how many assets i have open in the workspace.

A right-click on an object could have a new option "Open Source Code", which opens all (declared) events in a new tab group on top. This would save tons of clicks and keep the workspace clean... 9 out of 10 times I just want the source code. Once the variables and parent, etc are set, there's not much need for this multi-panel-view of an object. what stays, is the source code.

[stuckie]

We will be needing ui.logs and projects to see what's going on here again... this is likely something else, unrelated to the last one, and the projects are pretty important to see what systems are interacting and how.

If the lag isn't clearing after closing all, it does suggest some system is holding on to stuff that it shouldn't.

[Grisgram]

If the lag isn't clearing after closing all, it does suggest some system is holding on to stuff that it shouldn't.

agreed. that's my thought also -- I am on vacation for a few days, i can send a project mid next week, unless you already have enough to work with from other people, who are also affected

[Zyl9393]

I had a workspace with hundreds of sprites and code editors in it. Closing it took an entire minute, but after that things were back to normal. It's such a jank feature. I wish objects and sprites could just open in a normal tab.

[KormexGit]

It does feel like workspace lag got worse in 2024.8, along with the lag on closing windows that I reported separately. It would always slow down the workspace a little bit when you had tons of windows open, but now it seems to affect the whole IDE even when you aren't looking at the workspace, and to a greater degree

[stuckie]

This is effectively the same issue as #7654

[Grisgram]

I was suspecting the Inspector to be part of the problem with the mega-lags as gms always became responsive again, when the inspector window finally updated.

I want to leave the input here, that, if you turn off "Preview starts expanded" in the Preferences->Inspector window, the lag is almost gone.

The long waiting time for the room editor is still there, but at least the asset browser and the open-behavior of scripts, when you double-click them is almost back-to-normal when this is off.

Maybe this is a hint, where you can look for one of the problem sources.

[gnysek]

On discord there was suspicion, that lag might happens for those who have IDE animations enabled.

[Grisgram]

On discord there was suspicion, that lag might happens for those who have IDE animations enabled.

which setting exactly do you mean?

this one here?

[gnysek]

@Grisgram Yes, this one. However since you have it disabled, seems that it might not be connected with other issues.

[Grisgram]

@Grisgram Yes, this one. However since you have it disabled, seems that it might not be connected with other issues.

no, i just disabled it right now because i was searching for it after your comment... we will see, what the next hours tell me

[JujuAdams]

Bad for me too. IDE transitions off, Feather off, workspace empty.

[Grisgram]

Bad for me too. IDE transitions off, Feather off, workspace empty.

inspector preview off?

[tinkerer-red]

I have consistently noticed lag for over a year if i leave my ide open over night, the day after it will be a little laggy, but then if left open for a full week its exponentially laggy, enough to the point that I started streaming the other day and it was mostly fine, then after about 2 hours into stream the ide was so unusable I had to close it and re open. I can reliably reproduce this issue on my machine, though i dont understand what causes it.

However I do know that having inspector open will cut the amount of time i can leave my ide open down to only about 2-3 days.

[IDoZDev]

also experiencing terrible IDE performance even after previous update. closing inspector has helped a lot with the double click lag reported in this thread, but on a wider note the code editor still frequently hangs and delays input. Having a lot of output in the "output" window also seems to impact performance terribly on my end, too.

[DevTRUCKer]

Weird, even my PC is a low end but when I disable the IDE transition and Feather already turned off the Performance is Great btw I also keep the inspector preview on so the problem not with it at least for me...

[stuckie]

There should be increased performance from the recent 2024.1100/November betas... if those with issues are able to test these and confirm that they work in your cases, that would be great! Just a reminder that betas can be installed alongside regular releases, but please make sure you make a backup of any project you open with the beta, as there can be format changes and other breakages, and we don't want you to lose your projects! If in doubt, always use source control, as you can quickly roll back any mishaps.

[Grisgram]

Thanks for the update - will try to find the time at the weekend to give it a shot