Code Combat feels very laggy on my computer, is it just super resource intensive or is something wrong?
My computer certainly isn’t top of the line, but it’s not slow either. Processor is core i7-3610QM, RAM 8Gb.
Performance is certainly something we struggle with, especially when adding new features and trying bigger and badder levels. Is the performance bad on every level you play, or just particular ones? Is this in Chrome, or in another browser? Also, what’s the graphics support on your machine? CodeCombat relies heavily on good hardware acceleration, so often Linux and laptops without dedicated graphics cards can struggle right now.
It’s one of the top things we’re working to improve, because it’s no fun to play a laggy game!
I tried it on Windows 7 and it got much better, it was running on Ubuntu 12.04 Chrome before, and I don’t have my dedicated graphics (650m) working on Linux.
This is the exact topic I came here to find out about…
I’m certainly not on a top-of-the-line system, but I figured my laptop could handle a game like this… Maybe not yet 
Will give it a shot on my PC at work next week and see if I have better luck…
Keep up the good work, guys! This is a very impressive project!!
(oh, by the way, here’s my DxDiag, in case you guys are interested in trying to see if you can make it a bit more smooth one day when you have time:
Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.120824-0336)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: Satellite A305
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 2.20
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 3135MB used, 5269MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 64bit Unicode
Obviously not top of the line these days (was around $1500 waaaaay back when I shelled out cash for it, now it barely runs the games I play these days, so it’s certainly time for an upgrade…that being said, it’s still not bottom of the barrel as far as quality goes, so I was a bit surprised to have trouble with a bit of software such as this, given that it’s not extremely graphically intensive…although, it’s not extremely optimized either, I assume, so I guess it’s to be expected)
I’m seeing lagginess on my 2010-era macbook pro (no SSD) on chrome. Even the code editor can’t keep up with my typing so probably a dealbreaking amount of lagginess. Could very well be my dumb laptop’s fault though!
Still no reply or personal message on the site, so either the devs aren’t reading, this is a project considered “finished”, or this problem is something which will not be addressed…
Will check back in a couple of weeks and see if I’ve gotten any response by then. If not, I’ll go elsewhere.
Again, I feel I have to say - This is a VERY interesting idea and one which could have a LOT of uses in helping younger people get more interested in the world-changing art of coding… That being said, I certainly hope this project is still actively being developed and the people behind it truly realize the gold mine they have (and, more importantly, I hope they know someone with some charisma and sales ability that can get the right doors opened to get this project more funding and the level of attention it deserves)
[on a related note, I am in sales and, to a lesser extent, advertising…not that that’s a hint or anything…heh]
Just reread the above replies…
I should really stop checking forums before my morning coffee
Obviously the devs are aware of this problem and it is most likely caused by my having a dedicated graphics card on the laptop… What I was hoping for when I checked in today was some note about whether or not any progress has been made in the area of making the game playable under system specs such as mine.
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@jsimsgv sorry for the radio silence there! Actually, we’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on graphics performance improvements, particularly when playing in Firefox (which was far, far behind Chrome, and is now not quite so far behind Chrome). There are still a lot of things still left to do to improve performance further, though.
Can you let me know:
- Which browser are you using?
- If you press Ctrl+\ while playing, what FPS do you get on Rescue Mission? On Grab the Mushroom?
- Is it any faster when you resize your browser window to be very small?
Thanks–hope to get it running smoothly for you soon!
Tried it for Hour of Code during school. Either the servers were overloaded, or my Chromebook couldn’t keep up.
Hey @sebastianf, can you let me know which Chromebook you had and whether it was network latency (slow loading times) or graphics lag (slow, choppy framerates once the level was loaded) that you were seeing? Would love to get it running smoothly for you.
I have a Samsung ARM Chromebook (pretty sure, it says Samsung on it and I’ve seen pictures) and it was graphics lag, although once the loading progress bar hung on 100%.
Hmm, I thought I’d seen Chromebooks like that performing okay. Maybe it’s an even older model? Well, we’ll keep working on rendering performance. Sorry about that!
i have a asus tablet convertible and the game is very choppy help?
@ryancheu you could try installing bumblebee on your machine to harness the power of your GFX for gameplay on Ubuntu.
so back to topic, my Codecombat istn working fluently. I got a pretty mid ended gaming PC, i5 4*3,0gHZ and nvidia GTX 660 and 16gbit/s so its not my computer working slow. I got these probs after playing the same level multiple times. The more enemys are involved, the faster it starts to lag, especially with fire-traps. I’ve watched my CPU meter, you should improve the game so it does not only uses 1 core. my first core runs at 100% all the time, rest is quite fine with 20-50%. Using flags is impossible. Sometimes i cant even change my code, because firefox struggels. Ive stopped all add ons and extensions, and cleared history, better for 10 min afterwards bad again…
most annoying: even if i stopped playing or paused the game firefox is slowed down like a snail. cant u fix it that its possible to even write code when pressed pause, he should not calculate sth when game is paused, oryou are even in another tab…
replayable levels will lag even the most powerful of machines. just an inherent flaw in the “spawn more enemies” replayable logic
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Which levels are slow for you, the replayable ones at higher difficulties with tons of dudes, or all the levels?
If it’s not the replayable levels, then it sounds like a memory leak in Firefox. Can you let me know if you see the same behavior in Google Chrome? Would love to get this solved!
@sotonin jeah this sounds like its one of my problems. ive played these new levels with replayable function, and cant even beat the first challenge, because i have no chance to see what my char is doing.
@nick the problems started after playing the replayable lvls, but after ive played theese, the normal lvls in w3 also bugged and get slow. Ive solved a lvl and my figure havent moved on my screen, but my code was correct. wierrd (? how du you spell this). I will try to use GC for playing, but I prefer firefox, because it syncs to my laptops emediateley
another question, level Editor always has problems loading the game, not in beginng, but after i changed the world and edited some changes. (the play button in right upper corner) so i can not test my created world.
Same Problem? Should i open a new question?
It sounds like it might be the same problem, with the level editor being super slow to load. What version of Firefox do you have?
Firefox
using Chrome, there were no probs in the first few times. But im in a hurry so i cant test it over sth like a few hours. but it seems to be a problem with firefox. when im back home, i will continue with testing chrome.
to editor: do u need error key or sth? Or do u know what i mean?