Optimization for a web game on Intel Graphics (Resolved, TL;DR effects do a number on the cpu)

Hi everyone, so I have a game that runs great on any computer with a decent gpu.. but i've found that some computers using "intel graphics" struggle severely.

I'm looking to make an alternative version of the game that is optimized for better performance and I'm curious perhaps what things might be the biggest performance hogs..

My first bet is layers. Do using numerous layers eat a lot of cpu? I'm talking like a layout with 5-6 layers. I broke things down for placement to be easier by moving buttons / text / background / etc to different layers. never more than 6.

www.8bitwidgets.com is the site. I am using several filters as well. these too might be the culprit.. and i'm going to see about disabling those as well. using 6 layout effects.

I don't think I have any special objects going on.. local storage.. limited particle usage (performance suffers on layouts that don't use any particles). I know how expensive on the cpu particles can be.

This lag is an overall lag. On my work computer it's really bad, but this is good because it helps me simulate what's going on..

I noticed if i reduce the size of my canvas (make the window smaller) the performance improves drastically.. so resizing the canvas was an idea, but i might also depending on what features that get cut out help with performance i'll see about disabling those things.. like layout effects.. etc..

Hi.

No, layers should not be the cause for low performance.

Check out the performance tips in the manual:

construct.net/en/make-games/manuals/construct-3/tips-and-guides/performance-tips

If you could share the project I could take a look at it to see if I can find any of the usual suspects. (If i get the time)

Hope the manual will solve some of it for you.

Cheers!

Make sure to disable collision for things that don't need it, turn off "Force Own Texture" on any layer that doesn't need it. Also if you need collision on, make sure the auto collider maker didn't make some complex polygon because if it sits on top of another object with a collider it does a complex collision check 60 times a second. Usually when you are making buttons and forms and they are objects with collision on top of each one another and it has rounded the corner of button ect, otherwise you have stacks of collisions going on everywhere and it can make a GUI menu or screen into a much heavier application.

ok so regarding the collisions.. performance lag is immediate.. which the opening screen is minimal.. it's little more than a "click here to enter" kinda screen.. nothing much is going on.

are things found in other layouts always active? or only active when you enter that particular layout?

i'm thinking maybe it's the BBS effect.. which is a tilemap that scrolls down creating a kind of "redraw" effect between screens.. something tells me this might be the issue.

What does the CPU profiler say when you run "Debug Layout"?

Maybe resizing the canvas is the best thing to do since it drastically improves performance. It's kinda like playing any game on a low-end device, lower screen resolutions give massive gains (along with disabling anti-aliasing, but that's not relevant here).

You could try using "set fullscreen quality to Low" and use the system action in events called "set canvas size" so you can halve it or something (though this might mess up UI). But even if it messes up things when halving it, at least you can see if it performs better and is worth designing around different canvas sizes.

actually it seems it was the filters that were doing the most damage to performance.. so i've setup a check against FPS in Construct.. if it's below a certain number.. to disable all of those filters and that seems to bump up the performance to be acceptable.. so that's great.. thanks everyone for the insight and suggestions!