Are the increasingly complicated animations causing gameplay issues?

Animations during specials are getting longer and more complicated with each champion released/updated. Is this correlated with the gameplay and control issues? Here is a video (I finally captured) of this happening to me: https://i.imgur.com/KLJbXgf.mp4
My attempt to dex during the special failed when the animation/gameplay lagged and I got hit.

Comments

Jefechuta

The game overall needs to improve optimization, a lot of devices suffer lag while playing because of how bad optimizated is the game, Wiccan or CGR are some examples, or Nimrod SP1, or Nova SP2, there are a lot that lag the game this way

Greekhit

The game overall needs to improve optimization, a lot of devices suffer lag while playing because of how bad optimizated is the game, Wiccan or CGR are some examples, or Nimrod SP1, or Nova SP2, there are a lot that lag the game this way

You forgot the master of lag:
Psycho Man sp1
lag and frame drop can get so bad during his sp1 that game sometimes even crashes 😂

unknown

This content has been removed.

Adevati

Fighting Attuma is lag city.

DrZola

No hard evidence from me, but my opinion is that the emphasis on complex node interactions and heavy graphics has come at the cost of reliability and stability in the game mechanics.

Dr. Zola

Crine60

I seem to get lag more frequently when there are a bunch of buffs active/activating between a champ's base kit and nodes. It isn't always the case when there is lag but it does seem somewhat more frequent.

I don't know if it is possible but it could be helpful if the game was able to auto pause the way it sometimes does when a call comes in when it starts to lag (although still not ideal because it does seem to still let the enemy get the drop on you more easily when resuming).

Coppin

U know recording the screen actually stresses the phone...

DrZola

U know recording the screen actually stresses the phone...

And yet everyone asks for video evidence of bugs. Catch-22…

Dr. Zola

Skydad23

Absolutely has to have something to do with it every time there’s a fury of animations things start glitching and lagging in my end. I am using an iPhone 14 promax. I think my phone can handle it must be on their end.

DNA3000

Animations during specials are getting longer and more complicated with each champion released/updated. Is this correlated with the gameplay and control issues?

I'd say probably not. Animations are not really in and of themselves problematic. They don't require a lot of extra computational power or memory. Whether a champion does a front kick or a backflip into a swan dive the overall resource consumption difference is trivial.

More detailed champion models can burn more memory, and more VFX (sparkles, explosions, flames, etc) can also increase the resource load on the game client and device it is running on. But I don't think animations specifically would cause problems.

TheGenderBender

I'd say probably not. Animations are not really in and of themselves problematic. They don't require a lot of extra computational power or memory. Whether a champion does a front kick or a backflip into a swan dive the overall resource consumption difference is trivial.

More detailed champion models can burn more memory, and more VFX (sparkles, explosions, flames, etc) can also increase the resource load on the game client and device it is running on. But I don't think animations specifically would cause problems.

I don't really understand the pedantic, splitting of hair, distinction you're making between animation, champion models, and the VFX effects added in specials... I was generalizing them all part of the champion's animations.

I am confused that you seem to agree that more complicated champion models and effects (animated during specials) would cause an increase in the required resources and memory to accomplish. Yet, your answer, to if it could be causing lag/gameplay-issues, is "probably not"? If the device doesn't have the additional resources/memory available, it will need to do some processing to gather the resources (typically from other closed apps/threads) which could result in lag to gather. (forced garbage collection?)

My theory is that these new champions with flashy "animations" (typically during specials) are causing giant spikes in memory/resource requirements that most devices cannot handle well... This also would account for another aspect that I frequently see, which is that the issues seem to appear more in longer fights where memory consumption may be growing and the device needs to gather additional resources to handle. Other players seem to agree with this possible correlation, which is why I started this thread.

Rasilover

They really need to add a performance mode or something just to make the game actually playable for once

DrZola

I'd say probably not. Animations are not really in and of themselves problematic. They don't require a lot of extra computational power or memory. Whether a champion does a front kick or a backflip into a swan dive the overall resource consumption difference is trivial.

More detailed champion models can burn more memory, and more VFX (sparkles, explosions, flames, etc) can also increase the resource load on the game client and device it is running on. But I don't think animations specifically would cause problems.
I don't really understand the pedantic, splitting of hair, distinction you're making between animation, champion models, and the VFX effects added in specials... I was generalizing them all part of the champion's animations.

I am confused that you seem to agree that more complicated champion models and effects (animated during specials) would cause an increase in the required resources and memory to accomplish. Yet, your answer, to if it could be causing lag/gameplay-issues, is "probably not"? If the device doesn't have the additional resources/memory available, it will need to do some processing to gather the resources (typically from other closed apps/threads) which could result in lag to gather. (forced garbage collection?)

My theory is that these new champions with flashy "animations" (typically during specials) are causing giant spikes in memory/resource requirements that most devices cannot handle well... This also would account for another aspect that I frequently see, which is that the issues seem to appear more in longer fights where memory consumption may be growing and the device needs to gather additional resources to handle. Other players seem to agree with this possible correlation, which is why I started this thread.

I’d suggest that, in a vacuum, he may be correct.

But MCoC isn’t that. There’s likely so much code layered on so much code. I’d guess that’s what lay at the root of the Unity engine issues that plagued the game for over a year. Who knows what’s interacting with what? If that’s even part correct, no wonder it’s such a daunting task to resolve bugs.

Dr. Zola

slacker

The aura-type champs is lag fest for me, like Ikarus, Terrax,... not to mention their annoying defensive ability. It's always a nightmare to fight them.

TheGenderBender

I have no idea how complex the codebase is or how difficult it is to manage memory of the game running on top of the Unity engine. So, an easy fix is not an expectation, but something needs to change. That clip shows that no matter how good of a player you are, it is impossible to play perfect... aside from having a dedicated device, that is top of the line, and has minimal background processing. I would suggest a few steps to get the game on track in the near future...
First, the game team take a good hard look at memory management in the game and the ability to preload all needed fight animations to reduce lag.
Second, for new characters added to the game, pull back on the crazy sp1 and sp2 animations and instead focus on cool sp3 cutscenes.
Third, release a low memory setting or version to beta test a possible fix... where textures and animations are reduced to minimize the memory load needed. In my original posting clip, you can see Sersi's sp2 has a wild animation with flowing animated lava textures throughout. I love the look of this special attack, but not at the expense of gameplay.

Also, just a side-note, I love this game, have been playing for many years, and remember what the game was like when the controls were crisp and clean. Back when I was feeling like my reaction time was improved playing the game. But in the last year+ I just feel frustrated when I can't seem to get the controls I once had.

K00shMaan

Personally, I would guess that one issue with the inputs has been caused by adding strikers to the game.
the hit box for strikers may even exist while a relic is not equipped and if that's the case I can see it messing with people a lot. add to that general lag and momentary freezing, it's just not the smoothest experience at the moment.

DNA3000

I'd say probably not. Animations are not really in and of themselves problematic. They don't require a lot of extra computational power or memory. Whether a champion does a front kick or a backflip into a swan dive the overall resource consumption difference is trivial.

More detailed champion models can burn more memory, and more VFX (sparkles, explosions, flames, etc) can also increase the resource load on the game client and device it is running on. But I don't think animations specifically would cause problems.
I don't really understand the pedantic, splitting of hair, distinction you're making between animation, champion models, and the VFX effects added in specials... I was generalizing them all part of the champion's animations.

How would anyone possibly know that?

I've actually done a substantial amount of testing and troubleshooting for performance related issues. To the best of my knowledge, none of them have been caused by animation issues. But if you're combining all possible everything and calling it "animation issues" then yes, animation issues are almost certainly one of the causes of the problem. But probably not in the way you think.

I am confused that you seem to agree that more complicated champion models and effects (animated during specials) would cause an increase in the required resources and memory to accomplish. Yet, your answer, to if it could be causing lag/gameplay-issues, is "probably not"? If the device doesn't have the additional resources/memory available, it will need to do some processing to gather the resources (typically from other closed apps/threads) which could result in lag to gather. (forced garbage collection?)

This gets into "pedantic" details. The game client can't just "run out" of resources in the middle of a fight and have to garbage collect memory for no reason**, and it cannot run out of resources just because of the nature of the character models. If that were the case, then your own observations that lag tends to occur deeper into long fights, or as I and other players have observed tends to occur after a significant amount of gameplay time, would tend to contradict that, because those resources are referenced and loaded at the start of the fight.

The most likely root cause (or at least one of many) is resource thrashing and/or fragmentation. It isn't the resources that are required in the fight that explicitly cause the problem. It is the nature of how those resources are being allocated and freed that are causing the problem. And in such situations, it is not the size or even the "complexity" (as we humans see it) of the resources that is the issue. It would be more subtle ways in which those resources were structured and dynamically handled that would be the ultimate cause of the problem.***

This is a known line of thinking. I was doing extensive testing with another player when these issues first cropped up and we submitted the results of those tests and our conjectures of what was happening directly to the developers. There were/are memory leaks discovered under certain circumstances that were causing issues (these were not explicitly linked to model complexity or dynamic content) and there were other more subtle issues which appeared to be related to resource management problems of some (indeterminant at the time) kind.

** Except when background tasks intervene, which is not coincidentally often a cause of lagging in the game client

*** As experienced resource engineers will attest, it isn't the big stuff that is the problem, and it isn't the little stuff. It is the mix of the two that can drive resource allocators crazy

Palatinus3

Same problem, now it's almost impossible to evade korg’s sp 1 or joe fixit, for example, now sp 1 gonna hit you if you try to dex last phase of his shooting

GrandOldKai

My game has been a bit weird lately, but it's not even with newer champs

Sometimes I get lag spikes... other times it just randomly force quits

One time I dropped a combo due to lag, another time my Mr Fantastic's SP2 crashed the game on the final hit (which was kind of amusing, but inconvenient)

Camby01

I'd say probably not. Animations are not really in and of themselves problematic. They don't require a lot of extra computational power or memory. Whether a champion does a front kick or a backflip into a swan dive the overall resource consumption difference is trivial.

More detailed champion models can burn more memory, and more VFX (sparkles, explosions, flames, etc) can also increase the resource load on the game client and device it is running on. But I don't think animations specifically would cause problems.
I don't really understand the pedantic, splitting of hair, distinction you're making between animation, champion models, and the VFX effects added in specials... I was generalizing them all part of the champion's animations.

I am confused that you seem to agree that more complicated champion models and effects (animated during specials) would cause an increase in the required resources and memory to accomplish. Yet, your answer, to if it could be causing lag/gameplay-issues, is "probably not"? If the device doesn't have the additional resources/memory available, it will need to do some processing to gather the resources (typically from other closed apps/threads) which could result in lag to gather. (forced garbage collection?)

My theory is that these new champions with flashy "animations" (typically during specials) are causing giant spikes in memory/resource requirements that most devices cannot handle well... This also would account for another aspect that I frequently see, which is that the issues seem to appear more in longer fights where memory consumption may be growing and the device needs to gather additional resources to handle. Other players seem to agree with this possible correlation, which is why I started this thread.
I’d suggest that, in a vacuum, he may be correct.

But MCoC isn’t that. There’s likely so much code layered on so much code. I’d guess that’s what lay at the root of the Unity engine issues that plagued the game for over a year. Who knows what’s interacting with what? If that’s even part correct, no wonder it’s such a daunting task to resolve bugs.

Dr. Zola

For the last 6 or 7 years, many, many times, asked kabam to quit trying to put a bandaid on, spend some of the revenue and FIX it.