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How to optimize Compile time?

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
It takes about 40 Seconds to a Minute To compile my game and I notice it Lags the most at doing the Texture pages, So what are some things I can do to make the game compile faster
 
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Ludorverr

Guest
-Upgrade to GMS2. Not sure but I think they might've made some improvements, we can't really complain too much if we're using old software after all. I personally use 1.4.1757 and I can see how much slower it is from this guy's video.
-Something I read on gmc.yoyogames.com the other day - it will only rebuild the texture pages when you edit a graphics resource, so try to batch graphics edits together and work only on code the rest of the time. You will sit through long compilation times less often.
-For "Target" make sure it's set to "Windows" and not "Windows (YYC)". YYC is for making a final version of your game. "Windows" will compile faster.
-As has already been said, in Preferences uncheck "Enable backup on run/debug/create". Keep "Enable backup on save" checked and remember to save often! (Ctrl+S)
-Use smaller sprites. If you're doing pixel art be sure to upscale the pixel art using code and not inside the image editor!
-Putting audio in "Included Files" and loading the files in-game.
-Putting images in "Included Files" and loading the files in-game.
-Buy a faster PC. Use an SSD drive, upgrade CPU & RAM.
-Remember, the first compile will be slower than subsequent compiles.
-Check "Create textures on demand" in settings - won't help with compile times but should help with the load time of your game if I understand this right.
-Obvious one but be sure you've coded methods to quickly get to the part of the game you want to test (instead of booting up a titlescreen every time). This is all about the time it takes to playtest something after all, compilation time is only one part of that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
So I updated my project to Game maker 2, and now the compile time takes 2 minutes to do, I think its the ammount of sprites I have per texture sheet
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
After the first compile of 2.3 Minutes
Every other rebuild of my game takes 7 Seconds to do, Which is very nice indeed
 

obscene

Member
40 seconds to a minute. LOL. When I need to compile, I do dishes, laundry and take a hot bath and then I come back and wait for the last 5 more minutes. You don't even want to ask about Linux.
 
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Ludorverr

Guest
It looks like increasing the Texture Page Size in settings also increases the compile time. I get shorter compiles at 256x256 than 8192x8192. Though changing the Page Size can affect a lot of things so be careful.

There's also a button under the Texture Pages Size called "Preview", looking at this you can see what's taking up the most space in your texture pages which can be helpful in reducing compile times. I have a large project and I found some surprising images in there.
 
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