Different gameplay speed in Fullscreen vs Windowed

[andrybak]

I am playing on Linux with Proton. For me, the gameplay in Fullscreen is chill, while Windowed is extremely fast. I've made a screen recording demonstrating the difference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I9TZk3vF8c

I've only noticed the difference after 40 hours of gameplay. I played it in Fullscreen. I would like to know which of these is the indented gameplay speed. Or maybe both are intended? It seems that speedruns are done on the super speed, while non-speedrunning gamers are using the chill speed.

[gamatecal]

Windowed looks like the normal speed. It's slowing down in full screen

[andrybak]

Thoughts so far:

1. I'm 95% sure it's intentional, because the music doesn't seem to change speed.
   
2. The gameplay speed is dependent on the size of the screen. From the fast gameplay in a small window, the game slows down when the window's width reaches ~90% of the screen's width (because talking about area/size is confusing). However, the opposite is not true: I need to get the big window's width down to ~60% for the game to speed up again. In this interpretation fullscreen simply counts as 100% width.

[gamatecal]

I'm 100% sure it's an emulation bug. Just tested on my Windows PC, made the smallest window possible, and the speed is consistent. Nothing changed.

[andrybak]

What about the biggest window possible? I'm playing on a 2560×1440 monitor.

[andrybak]

Hmm, now the gameplay speed isn't dependent on the screen size, but on which room is shown on the screen. For example, the room with the map chest and the peacock room are much slower than most other rooms.

[Perseus]

Originally posted by andrybak:

I'm 95% sure it's intentional, because the music doesn't seem to change speed.

With modern computers, music and sounds can be independent from the rest of the game in how they are processed by the computer.
The "rest of the game" part just "tells" the music/sound parts what music/sound to play.
Since they are independent, if the "rest of the game" is slowed down, that doesn't necessarily mean that the music/sound part will be.
In fact, because playing sounds and music is usually a simple task compared to handling the logic for the rest of the game, you'll almost never hear music/sounds slow down along with the rest of the game.
Some games have bugs that will make them crash without actually closing the game window (freeze). depending on how badly the game crashes, the music might continue playing.

tl;dr: Your slowdown is not an intended thing.

[andrybak]

Similar symptoms – the game running at different speeds depending on the size of the window – were reported on the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/animalWell/comments/1drli5k/why_does_the_game_run_so_slowly_for_me/lazik69/?context=3

[PsyBlade]

Do the large windows cause your FPS to drop? Coz on the deck the frame limiter causes gameplay to slow down.

[andrybak]

For me, as far as I can tell, I no longer see slowing down or speeding up depending on the window size.

For me, as far as I can tell, it is no longer dependent on the window size. Now, some screens are very slowed down. Importantly – not all my saves are affected. Only the save file with layer four ( Time Capsule ) completed is affected.

Examples of screens affected:

• screens with stationary ghosts (e.g. many of the screens near the starting are after collecting all flames)
  
• screen where P. Flame used to be

[andrybak]

I mapped out all locations, where I am noticing a significant slowdown of the game. https://i.imgur.com/FONIHfp.png – this screenshot was created using https://animal-well.pages.dev/eggs

List of affected screens:

• Bottom warp room is affected, but the top one isn't
  
• Almost all of post-flames Manticore area is affected, except for one disc/fan puzzle room
  
• Two screens near the Egg Room are affected
  
• The Big Bat room is affected
  
• The P. Flame room is affected and the Mock Disc Shrine room just above it
  
• Five screens are affected near the starting area, where Firecrackers are found
  
• The screen with the Eel Head shortcut is affected

Overall 29 out of 256 screen are affected.

[andrybak]

I've reposted my most recent findings with more details to the official Discord server: https://discord.com/channels/850387302446399509/1238121606753157131/1258909479504973975