Layered Clothing Causes Frames To Drop When Playing Character Animation

[Zipperable]

I’ve recently discovered an issue which could be detrimental to the direction I want to take my upcoming game if the problem is not resolved.

I made a piece of Layered Clothing for a swordsman character to wear while he’s fighting. He can attack and defend, however, when I make him enter defense mode and he raises his arms to block, the gameplay loses frames. See the video I’ve attached below.

Something to note is that this only happens when he’s defending. When the attack animation plays, no frames are lost. The severity of the problem is especially bad when defense mode is spammed on and off. I know that this is a problem directly related to the Layered Clothing because when I test play the game without the outfit, the gameplay doesn’t lose frames whether I attack or defend, and it remains fluid even if I spam defense mode.

After experimenting some more, I’ve also noticed that this causes other players who are also in game to lose frames just by watching the swordsman defend. Another note is that it appears that this frame drop only happens when the Layered Clothing is visible. I tested defending and attacking while in first person mode and there were no frames lost. Another note regarding zooming in and out is that while zooming into first person mode frames are likewise lost in those few moments while the players character becomes transparent. See the video below for a display of the last two notes mentioned.

One more note is that I published and tested this on the actual website to see if that would change anything, but the bug still remains.

Layered Clothing will be very beneficial to my game and the experience that it will provide to those who play it, but it cannot be used if it creates fundamental problems in the core of the gameplay as you’ve seen displayed above. Defending is a main feature in the gameplay, and will be activated almost as much as anything else.

I need a resolution to this problem. If it is a bug with the engine, then please let me know Roblox staff. I’d also like to know a timestamp for when this issue could be fixed by if that’s the case. If it’s a problem that I can fix, then please let me know also, and what I need to do to fix it.

Thank you in advance for your help and your cooperation in helping this issue be resolved.

[Sir_Bedevere]

Can you please share a simple place file we can use to reproduce this? Thanks.

[Zipperable]

Is there any way I could share it with you privately? I’d don’t want to really put my work up for access for anyone who comes across this forum.

[Sir_Bedevere]

Yes, I will follow up in a private thread.

[Sir_Bedevere]

This doesn’t appear to be animation related. Changing the color of the sword triggers a render update, that triggers a clothing update, that cause the frame drops. We have coded an optimization that fixes this, but it is complex and will take weeks to roll out.

My typical short-term workaround suggestion doesn’t help in your case but I’ll continue to think about it and if I come up with something I’ll let you know.