Roblox Player & Roblox studio both seem to run less efficiently than before

[Stratiz]

This could be a beta thing but… ever since the most recent update for Roblox and Roblox studio, I’ve noticed an insane drop in performance which doesnt make sense for 2 reasons, 1, my game isn’t nearly as intensive as something like PF and 2 I have some PRETTY NICE stats on this PC. To put this in perspective, Heres a snip of code that I noticed started to break everyone FPS after the update.

local chill = false
for _,v in pairs(workspace.Mingame:GetChildren()) do
      v.Touched:Connect(function(hit)
             if chill == false then
                   chill = true
                   print("Hit!")
                   v.Transparency = 1
                   wait(0.2)
                   chill = false
            end
      end)
end

Note that this is just a quick example of what I was doing before and isn’t the direct code.

Before the update: 60 FPS No drops
After the update: Frame drops that get to about 38 FPS

I’m hoping this is just a beta thing, but It’s something worth bringing up. I think it’s more of a server sided problem considering it happens to everyone that’s helped me test, and I have one beast of a PC. Maybe the server is replicating something in weird way thats causing a lot of strain on the client?

• I’ve noticed this
• I’ve not noticed this

Micro Profiler samples
Sample 1

Sample 2

Obviously, the smooth portion is before I step on it.

Server Scripts

Server Memory

Client Memory

Client HTTP

[Corecii]

@Stratiz

I think it’s a server sided problem considering it happens to everyone that’s helped me test, and I have one beast of a PC.

FPS problems do not originate from the server.

I noticed that for a while Roblox Studio had high CPU usage (~15%) constantly, but I don’t know if it’s related to what you’re experiencing. It’s using 3-5% at the moment, and I’m not having FPS issues.

[Stratiz]

Hm, I could agree with you but roblox’s servers constantly stream data to
all its connect clients, which is why we are able to see things from other
clients (it is a star network not a mesh.) If the packets are dropped or
delayed it would likely compensate for the loss in data by freezing or
lowing the frame rate of the connected hosts. Also when I tested it with
others we all had the same FPS drop at the same time even though our PC’s
are much different, there’s almost nothing on the client side that happens
all at the same time that would cause this drop, and not to mention but
that snip of code is on the server not the client.

[unix_system]

No. Network latency is seperate from FPS.

What is happening is some event is replicating which causes the client to process more. Frankly, this post is unhelpful at its current state. Please post logs, microprofiler stats, your game link and performance graphs to help staff here.

[Khanovich]

Is there a way you can provide a simple version of a place-file that uses that code and causes an FPS issue? I can try to investigate some of the older versions of Client to see if the behavior changed recently.

[Stratiz]

Sure, its pretty small scale so I added in some extra parts so you could tell how much your performance drops, you might need to add in some more though.
Minigame thing.rbxl (561.4 KB)

[Khanovich]

This level runs for me at a constant 60FPS with almost no work.

Do you need to Play Solo in there, or run around?

[wravager]

Before games felt really smooth at 60 FPS, but for the past few days they feel a bit slow even thought it says 60 FPS :\

[Stratiz]

That’s a thing too, it says 60 FPS but you can tell it’s not.

[Stratiz]

To make this understandable let’s use this:
###-----|-

| = The point where it overloads and you start getting destroyed
#’ = The amount of stress the server is under

Right now with the file I sent you might look like this (I’m making this off of what it feels like now)
##-------|-
since what I sent you is the only thing running in the game leaving there to be a lot of room.

Let’s say you threw in a small map like with maybe 200 parts?
####-----|-
And with the spikes from more threads,
#####----|-

Normally you wouldn’t feel a thing at this point.

But now that’s the point where you would start to really feel it.

There’s also the fact that there is something off about what the FPS counter tells you, it may say 60 but you could tell there is no way it’s actually running at 60, I’d say high 40’s

I’d try to run tests without using the roblox’s tools as they could be incorrect, I’ll try using some 3rd party software myself to see what’s up.

[Khanovich]

What do you mean slow? Like slow motion or actually frame rate degradation. Does it happen with specific scripts or in general? I feel like if there was a peed degradation then games like Phantom Forces would have noticed it the most.

[Stratiz]

I’ve actually noticed it in PF, I thought it was because if the new skins
update but it seems otherwise. It’s actual frame degeneration. I forgot
what system does that slow motion thing when there are a lot of physics
being rendered out, I think its like PGS or something. Regardless the
problem has to do with the framerate.

[Khanovich]

I’m not sure what to tell you anymore. I did some testing between current version of Studio (311) and an old version of Studio (296) and for the test level I created, we were running physics 4x faster with the 311 version:

EDIT: It’s not actually running physics 4x faster. It’s running it slightly faster, but that slight difference is enough to throw the system into “I’m going to try to simulate in Real-Time mode and focus all my efforts on physics while dropping Rendering Frames”. So the slight decrease in perf in old studio causes physics to overcompensate and try to take over as priority for the system.

311 Version

296 Version

IslandPerfTest20x25.rbxl (11.6 KB)

Additionally we had to disable a System that made rendering of duplicate objects more efficient, but it was only on for a week or so.

Can you tell me if any specific factor increases your perception of performance? Like does adding more anchored parts into the scene make it worse? Because all my testing shows that perf has gotten soo much better,

[Stratiz]

Alright so I did some testing an noticed a few things:
1 - Roblox FPS counter seems fine
2 - The problem mainly happens with scripts that have potential to create multiple threads.
3 - The problem might not actually have to do with the actual FPS, but at the same time, it does which makes no sense.

So let’s talk about 3. Literally, makes no sense, I know.

Whether the statistics show it or not, there is a visible problem.

The place I where I found this problem has maybe 600-800 Parts, The FPS counters constantly drop from 60 to 50 about every second when the script that I sent above is running. Even in some of my older projects, I used a lot of coroutines and “thready” scripts I noticed the same problem, and I usually don’t notice much.

Without a doubt, there is something wrong but it seems none of us can pinpoint it at the moment, and I’m not the only one that agrees, I’ve asked around on discord and quite a few people agreed with me.

Is there a log where we can see exactly what changed and how it changed?

There is also the possibility that I could be completely wrong, and at this point, i’m just assuming things based on trial and error which is driven by the fact that we aren’t granted access to some things that could lead us to a solution for obvious reasons.

I know it seems like I’m pushing this really hard but its starting to mess with my gameplay, I feel like this isn’t a curveball we as developers should have to catch.

Lets assume that the FPS drop was only minor and got down to maybe 50 FPS?, as we know to us as humans 60 is pretty smooth, get any lower than that and it can start to become unsettling, and for whatever reason its worse on Roblox than a game like PUBG, on ROBLOX it almost seems like 56 FPS is 52, like 1 frame is equal to 2 which I find odd. I don’t consider that as much of a problem but its just another perspective to look at it from.

[Khanovich]

Can you take some screenshots of Microprofiler details when you experience these issues? Better yet, can you click on the dump button and save a large number of frames and upload the HTML file it outputs? It would be easier for me to inspect it myself.

Documentation - Roblox Creator Hub

[Stratiz]

Sure thing,
Sample 1

Sample 2

Obviously, the smooth portion is before I step on it.

[Khanovich]

Can you please click on the Dump button in the menu and save the HTML file it gives you and upload it here? I need to inspect the individual systems affecting your performance when this happens.

[Stratiz]

Never mind I guess, it looks like the most recent update fixed it.