Would walking animations with a lot of frames slow down the game?

ID:1455962
 
Dec 28 2013, 10:02 am
Often on BYOND, you see walking animations with only 4 frames. Idle, one foot out, Idle, other foot out. I want to try something with more smooth animations, but I fear that more frames will cause lag. I need some information on this.
Dec 28 2013, 10:53 am
It will have no effect on the game. Feel free to use as many frames as you need.
Dec 28 2013, 11:31 am
No. It'd just increase file size.

Why would animations cause lag of any kind?
Dec 28 2013, 11:35 am
but I fear that more frames will cause lag.

If you do use a large number of frames, and have a very large icon file, the first time that it is shown on the screen it may generate a visual stutter that is noticable.

In order to avoid this, you probably want to precache your icon files that are larger than 1mb by sending them to the user in an << to an output that is not displayed to the user.

This "lag" isn't lag at all, but is due to the fact that BYOND doesn't have asynchronous resource loading for appearances. You will also note that this is a client-side stutter, which will only affect individual players who are viewing the graphic for the first time, and only on graphics that are larger than 1mb in size.