Screen updates fine, but UI very laggy

[MagicMan]

First off, I would like to say that I'm very impressed with SEQ. Kudos to those that have made it happen.

I am having one annoying problem, however. I'm not a Linux person, so it may be something simple. Here goes...

Quite often I find SEQ in a state where the screen is updating fine. I can watch myself move, along with all the mobs around me, very much in real time. But when I try to do anything on the user interface, there is a HUGE delay. Doesn't matter what I try to do. Could be click a menu, scroll the contents of the spawn window, or just hover my mouse over something on the screen. It is all delayed.

For example, when in this state, if I click on a menu item it will be up to 10 seconds before the menu drops down! Needless to say, this delay makes SEQ quite unusable.

I have found that if I zone a few times, the problem will often clear itself up eventually. Once cleared up, it seems fine, and everything is very responsive. Once it clears up I finally get to experience the power of this wonderful program! Which makes it extra frustrating the next time I start it up and find myself back in the lagged state.

The machine I run SEQ on is pretty high-end. 2.0 GHz P4 with 1 GByte of RAM. And Linux/SEQ is the *only* thing running on it.

Anyone have any idea what's happening?

Thanks!

[S_B_R]

next time you are running SEQ open a Terminal window and run the top command. See what process is at the top of the list. I'm guessing its going to be X and not SEQ... Let us know what you find.

[Pigeon]

Toggle the map on and off a few times (View -> Map) and it'll work eventually.

Not sure what causes this but it bugs the hell outta me =\

[MagicMan]

Thanks for the replies! Both very helpful, as it turns out.

When I logged in tonight, the SEQ UI was lagged as usual. I brought up a terminal window and ran top, as S_B_R suggested. The top process was in fact X, taking about 98% of my processor! Second was showeq, taking up a whopping 1.7%.

Why is X eating my processor? It would be nice to understand this, especially since it seems to affect more folks than just me.

Second, I took Pigeon's advice and toggled the Map window (View -> Map). This worked! A couple times I had to do it more than once, but usually once was enough. At least now I have a workaround, so I'm happy! =)

Thanks again for the help!

[Merrick]

Well I believe this is the same problem I am having, however it locks my seq and linux up completly with only mouse curser movement remaining. Only thing I can do is reset, it only happens while seq is running and when I do stuff like scrolling and parusing through spawns (which causes alot of lag then just gives out). Linux does not lock if Im browsing the net or whatever while seq is running.. its only when I do tasks within seq. So other then the menu trick(which I have not been home to try) what are the other preferred methods that could fix this?

BTW, seq compiles perfectly and ive done everything from changing diff variables on the .conf to only running the basic things in seq, seq has worked fine for me on this laptop and switch+hub for over a year so there is nothing new in my setup. Oh and im using RH 7.2.

[Dedpoet]

For what it's worth, I am having this issue now that I am running SEQ on a new 1.13GHz laptop. I never once had it on my Athlon 1100 that I was running it on. Perhaps it's an Intel issue?

I have also been working around it by toggling the map off and on. It's not too big a deal, as I don't touch SEQ much except to change zoom levels on maps, but it's noticeable. Even on this 1.13, it may take 10 seconds to redraw the map after I hit a zoom key.

[Edited for a typo]

[S_B_R]

Nope not just Intel, I have the same problem on a Cyrix M2 300MHz. I'll have to try closing/opening the map(s) a few times....

==EDIT==
FYI:
I posted everything I've tried regaurding this issue in this thread (http://seq.sourceforge.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1067) last week.

[HanzO]

Call me simple...

I just go back to the Console window I launched seq from, Ctrl-C, then rerun it. Log out and log back in EQ.

Usually quicker than full reboots for me.