Yelara

I tend to like ot experiment with new mods when they get posted here. So I'm always fiddling and tweaking my UI with whatever strikes my eye. I have noticed that certain mods I've tried have created a severe increase in my video lag. While my system is by no means uber, it does run lag free 99% of the time. So when something changes that slows me down it's very noticable.

Most recently, I had replaced my hotkey w/clickies window with a new one I saw (a mod very similar in form and function to the first one) and found I got insta lag. I mean to the point I could hardly move. Both XML's were designed to be stand alone mods, intended to work in any UI as opposed to part of a complete set so no XML mods were needed. Both are current versions. The file loaded fine. No XML errors etc, and it looked and worked exactly as intended, except for the lag. There is no doubt that the new file is what caused the lag. It began the minute the mod loaded and taking it out and returning to my original completely eliminated it.

I began to think maybe, since the file was also included as part of a complete set uploaded here, that maybe it wasn't as stand alone as I originally thought, even though it was posted here as such, so I downloaded the entire set and tried that. With the same result. Taking the hotkey window out of the set eliminated the lag again.

Has anyone else found this happening to them? And is there anything that can be done to eliminate/reduce the effect? I'm not beyond dissecting and redoing an XML file if I need to to get something I like to work properly.

What, if anything should I be looking for in the offending XML that may contribute to the lag?

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kabbus

I've noticed this same problem. Its been a while now, but I think I noticed it when I tried a different spell casting bar. It wasn't animated or anything, but for whatever reason caused severe lag.

I didn't find any fix for it except to not use it. I assume its more of a Verant bug than a Windows bug.

Eloora

I myself often wonder if there are any particular files/xml's/textures/animations that seem to cause more lag and drops in FPS then others. I am in a similar situation as Yelara...I come to these boards every day and look for new and improved files to make my EQ experience more enjoyable, but what often happens with more and more "improvements" and additions to your UI comes more and more video lag issues. Unfortunately for me, I've made so many modifications to my xml files that it's hard to pinpoint just where the added lag is coming from. I use Xymarra's UI for melees in 1280x1024 with some modifications.
Anyone out there know of a UI that seems not to cause that much, if any, video lag at all? I don't want to take Yelara's post off track, just to expand it a bit. Her ending question was this
Well let's broaden a little shall we?
What can users look for in any xml code that might be indicitive of lag issues? Are there any warning signs, or "no-nos" that we should be aware of?
Any help in these matters is greatly appreciated. We thank you for your hard work and dedication

Sincerely,
Eloora Libra, Transcendant of Quellious

kenney

well i seen ui's with pic 's in them and alot of junk .. you dont need the junk in ui its the game you play not the ui look .. so get a simple ui with just the stuff you need and you'll have np...

Cairenn

That is entirely a matter of personal opinion and taste, hence there being so many different ones out there.

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Skarlett

I've noticed the lag problem as well, but find it's usually in certain zones (ie Ssrae, PoP planes) which are very crowded and also when many are casting spells, rather than a particular UI (happens even with default UI). Reloading my UI (after zoning) has usually fixed the problem. Think it's on Verant's side and needs a fix. Just my observation.

~Skarlett

kenney

yes many times doing /loadskin "name " 1 will fix the lag ..But adding alot of stuff to ui's also makes up lag ..

Haliken

It's not lag, it's computer slowdown. Also, it takes a LOT of UI stuff to cause significant slowdown, my UI has over 300 gauges and I only get a 10 to 15 framerate drop (I consider that nothing considering there are like 80 times the number of standard gauges).

Yelara

The UI Im using is not graphic intensive. In fact with the exception of a custom compas and icons it uses the default windows pieces.

The "lag" im speaking oif is definitely video lag - Ive never clocked it but Im sure it's at least a 50% slowdown from using one mod file to another.

The specific file I've found to be the problem in this case was a hotbutton mod. I took it out and the video lag completely disappeared disappeared.

onetwo1212

Might I suggest posting the window that is giving you the lag problems. Maybe someone can go through the code, compairing it to a non-laggy window, and come up with a better idea than pure conjecture. The window could have a bunch of definitions that are not needed, or could be doing a posable loop ( I did this on accident and got a bit of a slow down).

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Yelara

I've attached the file in question.

It's part of a complete set but has also been posted as a stand alone. It runs the same whether paret of the set or used in another mod.

Attached Files

equi_hotbuttonwnd.zip (3.1 KB, 12 views)

sc2kmayor

hmm.....very interesting.

Two things I noticed right off the back:
1) Tons of white space.
Although typical xml doesn't really care about that, EQ may. I often watch SidlWidl compress the hand coded stuff into no white space code when it compiles the xml. I can only assume this is by design. So, I went to open the hotbutton bar in SidlWidl to have it steal the white space and got a major error in the code. So something is definitely wrong in the file. (most of the time if I can open a file in SidlWidl, I don't even need to test it live to know that it will at least not crash EQ.)

2) The arrays all start with the number 1 not the number 0.
In the group window, doing such a thing will cause bad issues with pet guage displays....once again must assume that standard coding asks for the array to be called 0 - (x-1) and this too may be contributing to the lag....

Suggestions:
1) Renumber the arrays to a zero to number and test.
2) Get rid of all the extra white space.

Just some observations. Good Luck with it.

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Yelara

It's not my original coding but I will p lay with it today and see if I can address the issues.

Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know if it helps

Yelara

Ok... Color me clueless... Arrays?

I edit my XMLs using Cooktop. I'm not sure what you mean by arrays.

'Splain pliz Lucy?