ID:2273265
 
Hello everyone.

I've been working on a game named Psiforged for a while now and things have been going fairly well, but I've run into a major issue that I can't seem to fix.

The problem is, the game makes use of interfaces exclusively and nothing else, which I suspect might be causing some problems. Namely, a large chunk of players are unable to get past character creation. There's a small tick you click once you're done.

Usually, a pop-up confirmation window would appear after you click the tick, but in most cases, only the upper top left of the window is present of the pop-up and the rest missing, along with the important tick and cross for the confirmation window too.

For convenience, I've uploaded the game here for testing and its my hope that someone who has run into a similar issue can help me; it would be greatly appreciated.

Its worth mentioning that I've tried getting the players to both clear their caches, their skins folder, update their drivers; you name it. But for certain people, it just doesn't want to work.

If anyone can help identify the problem or offer advice, that would be wonderful.

Game Link - https://ufile.io/v90rt

Edit - Here is an image of the main problem I keep getting, I've highlighted it in a red circle. Basically, that little box is just the corner of a much larger confirmation window, but won't display no matter how many times you relog or clear your cache. And yet it works for other people just fine, seems really random.

Image Link - https://ibb.co/hqzGn5
Apologies for ignoring the issue, but I will say after spending a lot of time researching and testing Interface vs screen-obj I can say you absolutely should switch to screen-obj. A very heavy interface-oriented environment won't run smoothly, at least it never has for me.

I was working on multiple projects that became very interface heavy and just when the interface was almost complete and I could start working on core systems, it just became absolutely laggy.
http://recordit.co/3uLko4RVX6

The video isn't chunky because of low frame rate, the video is actually showing the interface just takes forever to respond once you start un-hiding a bunch of interface objects. Yes, not creating, but actually just changing the visibility of interface objects.
Thank you for the reply, Maximus_Alex.

So my next question about Byond, is why even have the ability to create interfaces if more than a couple are going to cause incredible lag and crippling glitches?

I've already invested many, many hours into the games interfaces. Changing them all to screen objs will be extremely time consuming.

I'm honestly a bit frustrated. This isn't the first issue I've had with the interfaces, but I kept working hard at fixing the issues that cropped up; until now. This one seems so inconsistent and random that its nearly impossible to get a good understanding of why its happening.

And I imagine, its even harder for anyone here to help identify the issue, let alone offer advice to try and fix it. So I'm at a bit of a loss. For now, I'll have to put the project on hold. But by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's been forced to abandoned a project due to interfaces problems.
In response to Maximus_Alex2003
Worth noting that interfaces will run worse locally than they do online. When you run online all interface stuff is handled by the client while the rest of the logic runs on the server -- when you test locally you're the client and the server.

p.s. if your dme file has the same name as the folder it's in you won't get those annoying "allow access" popups :p
In response to Doughy One
Doughy One wrote:
Thank you for the reply, Maximus_Alex.

So my next question about Byond, is why even have the ability to create interfaces if more than a couple are going to cause incredible lag and crippling glitches?

I had far more than a "couple" objects. I was using over 50 buttons, probably somewhere over 90 labels, and 3 map objects.


Unwanted4Murder wrote:
Worth noting that interfaces will run worse locally than they do online. When you run online all interface stuff is handled by the client while the rest of the logic runs on the server -- when you test locally you're the client and the server.

There goes single-player games.

p.s. if your dme file has the same name as the folder it's in you won't get those annoying "allow access" popups :p

Yeah. :) Had a few interface files I was switching between.
In response to Maximus_Alex2003
Come back to Discord Alex, we miss you.

And yeah, the single player thing was something that occurred to me too. I don't use skins much, so this doesn't really affect me.
In response to Unwanted4Murder
Unwanted4Murder wrote:
Come back to Discord Alex, we miss you.

Can't. Getting a new apartment and stopped by my old trailer to see how it's doing and was picking up my shingles I had under the car port to drive them to storage and noticed my window was open. Someone done robbed me. Guess they loved my stuff more than me. I still have my laptop, but just too busy to stay and chat on Discord. Soon, though. Soon.
Think we got off track a little there, lol.

I'm still no closer to fixing the issue I've posted. Could it actually be a Byond bug?

I'm not getting massive lag like Maximus, so its not that. But here's some further information about the interfaces I'm using, if it helps.

  • There are 28 windows total
  • Each window has "Set transparent color in image" ticked
  • Each window has red 255, green 0 and blue 0 as the transparency color
  • Each button, label, element, ect, has their anchor auto-set
  • There is nothing placed directly over the main window, or main_map/default map that might explain lag or glitches

    Could any of this have anything to do with hardware and software mode?

    I hope the information provided can be of further use. I'll also update the game .exe to be named the same as the games paths, so it doesn't spam everyone with permission pop ups.

    Many thanks for your time and responses.
Using the "transparent color" setting will force your game into software rendering mode, which will be dramatically slower for the majority of users.
In response to Nadrew
Ah yes, I saw that. Thanks for the reply.

However, the issue I'm having isn't slower gameplay for people who join, but a glitch (as seen in the screenshot provided) which completely prevents players from being able to proceed past the character creation screen.

I don't know if the two are linked or not, but I have tested forcing the client into hardware mode to check if there's a link. Strangely enough, once you force the client into hardware mode, they seem to remain in it, despite the transparent color settings being active during the game.

Anyway, the glitch/bug or whatever it is, seems to persist in and out of both modes.