Link_2112 just told me the player "stutters" as they walk, "stuttering" every tile as though it were to stop. Now this could be a problem as I want the engine to run smoothly and I had explicitly written the code to keep the player moving and prevent stuttering while holding down a direction. But this "stuttering" is a very perceptual problem. Is there a way to objectively detect and eliminate this problem?

I figured the technical definition is that the player sprite is not moving the same amount of distance each frame even though the frame rate is nearly perfectly stable (~60 or so FPS) when I checked. A job for simple science- record the time factor (to verify the frame rate is nearly perfectly stable) and the distance the player moved (at RPG Maker 2003's scale it is pixels per frame). I recorded a segment where I walk back and forth on a map:



The BLUE line is the time factor which shows the frame rate is indeed stable, but you can see in RED that the player distance is not. There's frames where the player suddenly moves slower but does not actually stop at all which will, on some systems for some people, cause stuttering.

I can now start debugging and then test to see if the problem is eliminated objectively as opposed to just looking at the screen and saying "looks ok".


Never assume your perception or assumptions are always correct.