ooooh this! I’ve known this bug for months, never annoyed me tho, and I just got used to it. Thats why I never tried to fix it, but you’re right, its a real issue, I’ll try to fix it asap (hope its a simple fix xD). Thanks for the video and feedback!
Yes, it's definitely a real issue. If you need help with it, I can still paste snippets from my Gemini search thread the other night, as I found it very insightful (and G never hallucinated once that I'd noticed), since I'm not used to the code you and Andre use for TRS.
Thanks so much for noticing it months ago and wanting to fix it now, Diego, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd appreciate a fix!
You're very welcome for the post about it.
EDIT: IDK where my original G thread went that was on my Cellphone, so I re-searched here on my Chromebook, keeping G honest (I had to explain TRS limitations to it to keep it from hallucinating), so I'll paste just a bit of its info about the BUG below, just to help you avoid wasting time in some areas and such. So, here's some of the text (after a few posts to G to nail it down):
Gemini:
Thank you for keeping me honest and cutting through the noise—no warp tiles, no custom sizes, and zoom level isn't the culprit. [1]
Since this happens across both the internal Explore tool and standalone itch.io gameplay frames regardless of scaling, the issue stems from an unpatched HTML5 canvas rendering and scroll-snapping bug native to the Tiny RPG Studio engine wrapper itself. [1, 2]
When crossing a 4-way room border, the engine attempts to dynamically calculate the camera shift. Because it's running inside a nested web frame, the browser forces a momentary vertical layout reflow during the transition frame. It essentially triggers a tiny "scroll-to-view" stutter before snapping the game canvas back to the top of its layout container. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The Workarounds (Until an Engine Patch)
Because you cannot fix the engine's internal coordinate loop, you can bypass the browser reflow with these methods:
- Use an Alt-Engine Browser Alternative: If you are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, test the game in Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Chromium-based browsers handle nested canvas parent offsets differently, and Firefox often completely ignores the fractional micro-scrolling that causes this specific screen drop. [1]
- Toggle the Itch.io Layout Mode: Instead of playing standard embed or full-screen windowed, look at your browser URL bar. If you are playing a published game page, append
?secret=trueor use itch's "Pop Out" feature if available to separate the HTML canvas completely from the main itch website CSS wrapper, eliminating layout shifting. [1] - Frame-Rate Alignment: If your monitor is set to a high refresh rate (like 144Hz or 240Hz), drop your display settings to 60Hz temporarily. The underlying JavaScript framework in TRS updates at a locked 60 FPS interval; running a higher display refresh rate causes the browser to drop rendering frames during transition animations, which causes the exact 1-to-2 second drop artifact you see. [1]
If changing browsers stabilizes it, let me know! Otherwise, are you experiencing this glitch on a high-refresh-rate monitor or a standard 60Hz screen?
Hi, Diego! I've been up all night making a TRS Game, so I've noticed your changes (throughout the process, longer load times. I even Cleared My Browser Cache, thinking it would go right back into the game I'm working on, but NOT THIS TIME! Good thing I'd Exported not long ago), and been Bug-Testing it, so I realized your recent changes (the smoother movement + Top of Room HUD BUG fixed!) some time later, and so far so good, man! IDK what you did, but as much as I've played all night and into today, I think you've Fixed it (I noticed it still not too long ago, but in my most recent plays, it never appeared once!). Great job, whatever you did, Diego! :D
I'm thinking of releasing my new game in the next few days, so I'll call the launch Tribute #2 for all your hard work (you and Andre).
THANKS SO MUCH! You really make creating games in TRS even more fun with all the recent updates!
Thank you so much! I’m eager to play your tribute #2! The fix was actually super simple, there were 2 places in the code doing the same thing. Both were checking if the room transition had finished, and sometimes one would fire a “finish” method at the wrong time. So I just removed one of them.
Ah, well that was easy enough for you then. I'm glad!
Coding can be a pain, that's for sure, but you just never know how hard it'll be until you jump into it.
I'm really happy that I could help you resolve the issue!
I'll keep Playing/Bug-Testing and posting Bugs as often as I can, since you guys are so quick to squash 'em!
Time for some much-needed sleep. Thanks again! :D
I'm still up, ugh! (My Stamina's a CURSE!) Fixed a couple things in My SOM (Salty Old Mage): his flame (since you said it looked like a referee with a yellow card, even though it's orange), and took-out the Elf Common Man's event/trigger, as it was actually a placeholder ("mistake") for another NPC to use.
So, while I'm here, I've 3 "Bugs" for you (note the quotes), to help make v36 even better!
1. The orange "!" doesn't seem to work for Custom Sprites (I checked just a couple of Mine in SOM: Ghost, Blue King), and it's NOT because I have them too high up or right on-screen, because those 2 aren't (unlike My Room 2-1 Mage or My Skeletal Dwarf Blacksmith).
2. The Sprite Outline (Visuals) messes-up existing Outlines (parts of it missing), especially for Custom Sprites (I've been meaning to tell you about this, since it's a new addition).
3. File Size: My SOM newest/updated build in v34 was 852 KB. My saved v36 build (which I just did, but never uploaded yet) is 963 KB. Why such a drastic difference? I only re-drew messed-up outlines that the Sprite Outline update did, and made the 2 changes I mentioned at the top.
Thanks in advance! :D