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Compile Times

T2008

Member
My game is large, and the compile time is way too long, even when I make no changes to sprites, sounds, etc and simply compile game (after initial compile which I expect to be long). It's not always the same even when no changes made. I have nothing running in background that would cause this. I switched antivirus software as well (one antivirus made it intolerably long). I do not want to create smaller modules of my project to text separately, but rather would like to know if any fixes to this. I recall someone suggesting to disable automatic backup in preferences but I don't see that anywhere.

I've posted before on this awhile back, but still have no good fixes. Any ideas how to reduce (with explanation as to how if possible)? Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
 

Stra

Member
Also, I think a bug was recently reported where every compile would recreate everything from scratch instead of fetching it from the cache.

Are you on Windows?
 

T2008

Member
Thanks for responding. Yes, windows (running bootcamp on Macbook pro). It sometimes takes over 7 minutes if changed; sometimes 2 minutes when I change nothing. My project has about 150 rooms size 1920x1080. Several thousand objects and sprites. I'm not sure how many lines of code but I'm sure it's a lot. I've been working on this for over 5 years.

That's good o learn that there's been a bug report.
 

Stra

Member
I think that bug was on a pure mac, I've no experience with windows on mac, maybe someone else will chime in.

Any chance you get to another PC and compare compile times? Tried compiling with the latest GMS2 beta?

When the output window is active during compile, does it pause most while processing graphical/sound assets? Can you tell from there if it fetches them from cache or not?
 

T2008

Member
It pauses most on texture pages I think.

Edit: it also pauses quite awhile at below where it says found project format 2:

Code:
X://bin/GMAssetCompiler.exe  /c /mv=1 /zpex /iv=0 /rv=0 /bv=0 /j=8  /gn="Unveiling Pixel NEW" /td="Y:/" /cd="Z:/Unveiling__CC571A55_E9EF566C" /zpuf="C:\Users\duffy_zi742zl\AppData\Roaming/GameMakerStudio2\duffylaw_89876" /m=windows /tgt=64 /nodnd /cfg="Default" /o="Y:/Unveiling_Pixel_NEW_235A75E_VM" /sh=True /optionsini="Y:/Unveiling_Pixel_NEW_235A75E_VM\options.ini"  /cvm /baseproject="X:/BaseProject\BaseProject.yyp" "C:\Users\duffy_zi742zl\Desktop\Unveiling Pixel NEW\Unveiling Pixel NEW.yyp" /preprocess="Z:/Unveiling__CC571A55_E9EF566C"
We have a Zeus Project!
Found Project Format 2
 
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TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
Not asking the texture packer to fit all of your sprites on as few texture pages as possible in the most space-efficient way every time you run your game after changing anything about the sprites will certainly help. By how much remains to be seen.

Without dividing your project into components that don't need to be compiled every time you run the game, there's only so much you can do. Besides, 7 minutes is not a lot of compile time, not to mention 2 minutes. Be glad that this is your compile time and not something measured in hours! :D

I don't see any problem here, just natural consequences of having a monolithic project.
 

T2008

Member
Thanks for responding! Wow, I can't imagine having to wait hours. Just wondering, what type of project would take hours to compile? 3D type game?
My times sort of increased out of nowhere. Not sure why.
 

TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
A browser, for example.

3D games only take longer to compile if they also contain substantially more resources than any hypothetical game you're comparing their compile time to. It won't directly have anything to do with it being a 3D game, though.

If your compile time increased out of nowhere, then that could be a cause for concern. If you can trace this back to a specific commit of your game, that could provide some pointers regarding what caused it (or to a specific build of GMS, which would be the base line of a bug report).
 

Stra

Member
There was a change in the way graphics are "compiled" in the last beta with substantial speedups. Did you try it?
 

Stra

Member
Edit: it also pauses quite awhile at below where it says found project format 2:

Code:
X://bin/GMAssetCompiler.exe  /c /mv=1 /zpex /iv=0 /rv=0 /bv=0 /j=8  /gn="Unveiling Pixel NEW" /td="Y:/" /cd="Z:/Unveiling__CC571A55_E9EF566C" /zpuf="C:\Users\duffy_zi742zl\AppData\Roaming/GameMakerStudio2\duffylaw_89876" /m=windows /tgt=64 /nodnd /cfg="Default" /o="Y:/Unveiling_Pixel_NEW_235A75E_VM" /sh=True /optionsini="Y:/Unveiling_Pixel_NEW_235A75E_VM\options.ini"  /cvm /baseproject="X:/BaseProject\BaseProject.yyp" "C:\Users\duffy_zi742zl\Desktop\Unveiling Pixel NEW\Unveiling Pixel NEW.yyp" /preprocess="Z:/Unveiling__CC571A55_E9EF566C"
We have a Zeus Project!
Found Project Format 2
Actually, it started pausing for me at that bit as well (not always) AFTER I fiddled with the virus & threat protection settings on my PC.

Also did you figure out if the long compile times are due to the compiler not getting assets from the cache but always rebuilding them?
 

T2008

Member
Thanks for all the responses. I still haven' figured out why. I'm running windows bootcamp and haven't updated my mac side in a long time, so I plan to do that this weekend to see if that helps. Could this be the problem?

Thanks gkri for the suggestion. I might have to look into that.

Edit: I just tried creating texture groups, and I renamed one. Now it's not remembering the name and reassigning the sprite to the default group saying the originally named one doesn't exist. This is unworkable if I can't rename a texture group. Any ideas?
 
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