I've noticed that the Encounter Builder tab (even just the "My Encounters" overview list) uses an excessive amount of processing power in my browser. I'm not sure if this starts right away or only after the tab is open for a while as I only noticed that my laptop was getting hot after I'd had the page open for about an hour.
My Chrome task manager shows the CPU load fluctutating between 20% and 80%, which is definitely above what it should be. This makes my laptop get dangerously hot and obviously drains the battery rapidly.
For reference, I am using Google Chrome 75 under Arch Linux, but if it's an issue with a script going haywire it should be platform independent.
We haven't done a full performance audit of the encounter builder yet, but I'll take a look since you're experiencing high CPU usage. I'm seeing my encounter builder tab CPU usage fluctuating between 0-15% on my computer (Windows 10, Chrome 75), but that could be due to any number of reasons.
Some questions that might help me identify performance issues:
How long has the page been open when you check the CPU usage? Does the CPU usage significantly change over time?
Did you go directly to the encounter builder from the new tab page? If not, what was the path you followed to get to the page?
How much memory is the page using when you check the Chrome task manager?
Do you have hardware acceleration enabled/disabled in Chrome? (chrome://settings/ > Advanced > System > "Use hardware acceleration when available") This added ~10% CPU usage for me when I disabled it and it's surprisingly a fairly common setting to disable.
Do you experience the same laptop heating when using the encounter builder on other browsers?
Are there other websites or applications that cause similar effects on your computer?
We haven't done a full performance audit of the encounter builder yet, but I'll take a look since you're experiencing high CPU usage. I'm seeing my encounter builder tab CPU usage fluctuating between 0-15% on my computer (Windows 10, Chrome 75), but that could be due to any number of reasons.
Thanks for taking the time to look into this, I really appreciate it!
Some questions that might help me identify performance issues:
How long has the page been open when you check the CPU usage? Does the CPU usage significantly change over time?
When I first noticed the high usage, the tab had been open for about an hour. I didn't check for change over a longer period of time, but there seemed to be a mostly random fluctuation between 20% and 80%. Most of the time it was around 50% to 60%. Whenever I closed and reopened the tab, the usage went directly back to those levels.
I am currently testing it again, and when I open the page, there is a short spike in usage but then it goes down to about 1% and seems to be staying there for now. I will keep it open for a while and see how long it takes to go up again.
Did you go directly to the encounter builder from the new tab page? If not, what was the path you followed to get to the page?
I went there through the top navigation bar -> Creations -> My Encounters. I also went there "directly" through Chrome's "Reopen Closed Tab" command.
How much memory is the page using when you check the Chrome task manager?
I didn't check the memory explicitly yesterday but it seemed to be reasonable, as it wasn't among the top tabs when sorting by memory footprint. Right now, it is around 85,000K.
Do you have hardware acceleration enabled/disabled in Chrome? (chrome://settings/ > Advanced > System > "Use hardware acceleration when available") This added ~10% CPU usage for me when I disabled it and it's surprisingly a fairly common setting to disable.
Hardware acceleration is enabled.
Do you experience the same laptop heating when using the encounter builder on other browsers?
I am testing in Firefox at the moment, and the CPU usage seems lower than in Chrome (less than 1%). I will see whether it increases over time.
Are there other websites or applications that cause similar effects on your computer?
No, none that I visit regularly. Of course I've had issues with resource-hogging sites in the past but it is definitely a rare occurence.
I think I have some more information that could be useful:
The tab has now been open for about 20 minutes, and I noticed something: Whenever I change to the tab (but without interacting with anything on the site), the CPU usage consistently goes up and then starts fluctuating between 15% and 60%. The memory footprint seems to steadily increase by about 1,000K every 3 seconds, plateauing at ~95,000K, while the tab is in the foreground.
Switching to another tab instantly reduces the CPU usage to 1%, while the memory footprint stays at 95,000K for a while before eventually (after a few minutes) going back down to 85,000K.
In Firefox, where the tab has been open for about the same time, there is a similar effect, but it's not as pronounced: The "Energy Impact" value goes from around "Low (0.25)" to around "Medium (1.1)" whenever I switch to the tab, while the memory seems relatively constant at around 25MB whether the tab is in the foreground or not.
Thank you for all this detailed info! This helps a lot with narrowing my search for performance bottlenecks.
So I've run some performance tests on the app and I'm not finding any specific major performance bottlenecks, but I have found a few leads on which areas of the code might be slowing things down. As we revisit these areas of the app, I'm going to use that as an opportunity to optimize the code.
On that topic, towards the end of last week, we deployed a new version (v0.0.45) that included a refactor to some sidebar code that I found was running much slower and more often than intended. Probably not a panacea for what you're experiencing, but a step in the right direction.
I've noticed that the Encounter Builder tab (even just the "My Encounters" overview list) uses an excessive amount of processing power in my browser. I'm not sure if this starts right away or only after the tab is open for a while as I only noticed that my laptop was getting hot after I'd had the page open for about an hour.
My Chrome task manager shows the CPU load fluctutating between 20% and 80%, which is definitely above what it should be. This makes my laptop get dangerously hot and obviously drains the battery rapidly.
For reference, I am using Google Chrome 75 under Arch Linux, but if it's an issue with a script going haywire it should be platform independent.
Have you submitted this information per the feedback option on the encounter builder? That's probably the best way to get this noticed.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat On - Mod Hat Off
Site Rules & Guidelines - Homebrew Rules - Looking for Players and Groups Rules
We haven't done a full performance audit of the encounter builder yet, but I'll take a look since you're experiencing high CPU usage. I'm seeing my encounter builder tab CPU usage fluctuating between 0-15% on my computer (Windows 10, Chrome 75), but that could be due to any number of reasons.
Some questions that might help me identify performance issues:
Thanks for taking the time to look into this, I really appreciate it!
When I first noticed the high usage, the tab had been open for about an hour. I didn't check for change over a longer period of time, but there seemed to be a mostly random fluctuation between 20% and 80%. Most of the time it was around 50% to 60%. Whenever I closed and reopened the tab, the usage went directly back to those levels.
I am currently testing it again, and when I open the page, there is a short spike in usage but then it goes down to about 1% and seems to be staying there for now. I will keep it open for a while and see how long it takes to go up again.
I went there through the top navigation bar -> Creations -> My Encounters. I also went there "directly" through Chrome's "Reopen Closed Tab" command.
I didn't check the memory explicitly yesterday but it seemed to be reasonable, as it wasn't among the top tabs when sorting by memory footprint. Right now, it is around 85,000K.
Hardware acceleration is enabled.
I am testing in Firefox at the moment, and the CPU usage seems lower than in Chrome (less than 1%). I will see whether it increases over time.
No, none that I visit regularly. Of course I've had issues with resource-hogging sites in the past but it is definitely a rare occurence.
Hope this helps, thanks again!
I think I have some more information that could be useful:
The tab has now been open for about 20 minutes, and I noticed something: Whenever I change to the tab (but without interacting with anything on the site), the CPU usage consistently goes up and then starts fluctuating between 15% and 60%. The memory footprint seems to steadily increase by about 1,000K every 3 seconds, plateauing at ~95,000K, while the tab is in the foreground.
Switching to another tab instantly reduces the CPU usage to 1%, while the memory footprint stays at 95,000K for a while before eventually (after a few minutes) going back down to 85,000K.
In Firefox, where the tab has been open for about the same time, there is a similar effect, but it's not as pronounced: The "Energy Impact" value goes from around "Low (0.25)" to around "Medium (1.1)" whenever I switch to the tab, while the memory seems relatively constant at around 25MB whether the tab is in the foreground or not.
Thank you for all this detailed info! This helps a lot with narrowing my search for performance bottlenecks.
So I've run some performance tests on the app and I'm not finding any specific major performance bottlenecks, but I have found a few leads on which areas of the code might be slowing things down. As we revisit these areas of the app, I'm going to use that as an opportunity to optimize the code.
On that topic, towards the end of last week, we deployed a new version (v0.0.45) that included a refactor to some sidebar code that I found was running much slower and more often than intended. Probably not a panacea for what you're experiencing, but a step in the right direction.