Performance: Lag when moving the mouse cursor around if using third-party "Purple" skin

[gm-bug-reporter[bot]]

Description

IDE lagging is still an issue in 2024.8.1.171. Moving the cursor over different windows, the top toolbar, opening assets or menus like the preferences window and the 'report a bug'-window all cause small mouse stuttering in the IDE. The biggest culprit I've experienced seems to be the sequence editor, where moving the cursor between the editing area and the track area, as well as opening or closing tracks and adding new keys causes the cursor to stutter a lot.

Steps To Reproduce

Even in an empty project the cursor stuttering and lag happens simply when moving around and opening/closing windows, or using the sequence editor in any capacity.

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 10.0.22631.0

939b05d5-1d89-4d8b-9f40-e50ff4301ec7

[YYDan]

I can see straight away that you're using a custom third-party skin we would have no control over - you have tried this and confirmed already that it still happens when using either of the regular Dark/Light skins, yes?

[09:31:37:142(95ad)] Skin: C:\ProgramData/GameMakerStudio2\Skins/Purple

[YYDan]

Yes, your computer is even complaining lower down the log that the skin is perhaps not installed properly/has a bug/an antivirus client it blocking GM from loading the skin properly:

[09:31:39:865(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:865(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:866(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:866(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:866(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:866(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'
[09:31:39:867(95ad)] File exception 'Could not find a part of the path 'C:\ProgramData\GameMakerStudio2\Skins\Purple\Cursors'.'

I'd need to try the skin myself, but given that it's cursors that are broken, I wonder if you're not actually seeing "lag", but that you're seeing "moments when the skin has no cursor to draw" and so yes you do need to move the mouse beyond this point for the regular cursor to appear again.

[YYDan]

Not that I would expect this to make much difference, but I can also see that your cache folders and skin styling folders are off on your E drive, when GameMaker is loading its regular data off a C drive - if that E drive is a slower drive or a network location, etc., then you may well be seeing pauses due to this.

[Ryemanni]

Hey, I forgot to link my github account before sending the report, but this is the OP. I feel rather silly, I've been using the same custom skin for years so I didn't even stop to consider if it was the culprit or not. Sadly, disabling it and switching back to the regular Dark skin didn't fix the stutters.

Another weird thing I noticed is when I tried to use OBS to record the stutters: when I have OBS open and capturing the IDE the stutters are completely gone. This goes beyond me, and I have no idea why having OBS open "fixes" the stutters, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. This also makes it sounds like it isn't an issue with game maker after all but with my own setup.