If anyone besides me is irritated at the amount of lag, this is what you have to do (To have this work on Chrome, type in “chrome://plugins” then go to the top right, click “Details” so that it shows 2 versions of Flash. Now disable the top version of Flash, or the one that says “PepperFlash” in it). The lag is not Scratch's fault, but instead it is Adobe Flash's. We are here to fix that.

-If you don't have Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer, download and install those first (You will have to go on Scratch on either of these 3 browsers that you choose to have the lag fix installed in). After that, search Adobe Flash Player Uninstall (Adobe Flash Uninstall Site), then run the program to uninstall it from your computer. Now, go to search again but this time look up Adobe Flash Archive.
-Click on the link for Archived Flash Player Versions (Adobe Flash Player Version Archive Site). Now hit CTRL+F to search for ‘11.7.700.169’ on the page (not including the apostrophes). This is the version that we want, so go ahead and download that. It's a pretty big file, so it may take awhile.



-After it is complete, go to your downloads folder, and move that file we just got (called ‘fp_11.7.700.169_archive’) to your desktop. Here you should right click on the ZIP folder, and click ‘Extract Here’.



-It should produce a regular folder with the same name. Go inside that folder and open the folder that does not have the word ‘debug’ at the end of it.



-Inside here, there are lots of things. What we need are the .exe files that end with ‘_win.exe’ and ‘_winax.exe’. If you use Internet Explorer run the ‘_winax.exe’ to install it. If you use a browser besides Internet Explorer, run the ‘_win.exe’ to install it.
(NOTE: this installs the version to ALL browsers that apply. For example, if you run “_win.exe” it will install it on Firefox AND Chrome.)




Congratulations! There should be no more lag



Now you can visit the site: (Adobe Flash Version Site) to see what version you are using. It should say 11.7.700.169. If you can't see the movie where it says, check your plugins and make sure it think that that Flash version is safe. It may try to get you to update it, but don't as that is what caused the lag in the first place

Keep in mind using old plugins bear a security threat to your computer, a gateway for malware.
Therefore either use an isolated system(and be safe with what you're doing online) or do not downgrade.

Cool guide, The screenshots are really good.

Have you done any benchmarks/comparisons of the current version of flash and this older version?

TRocket wrote:

Cool guide, The screenshots are really good.

Have you done any benchmarks/comparisons of the current version of flash and this older version?

Yes, it is MUCH faster. One of the games that I made is literally unplayable as of now, but after doing this it almost runs perfectly. You can see what I mean by going to it, if you want, (Space Shooter)

Could you run this benchmark tool?

jji7skyline wrote:

Could you run this benchmark tool?

I did. On Chrome (what I usually use), there is no way to fix the lag so these results should be the slower ones.

Chrome (no fix):

I can see that it is very slow clone-wise.


Firefox(fix):

Halved the time for the clone test, and the pen test was alternating.

So I'd say everything was about the same except the cloning and test #2, which had a dramatic difference for the better.

Well I get similar results (Chrome is very slow at cloning), even without installing your fix, which is why I use Firefox whenever I work on the game which has clone generated particles. Maybe you should try upgrading flash on Firefox and redoing the test? Just to see, because it might actually be Chrome's own version of Flash that is problematic

jji7skyline wrote:

Well I get similar results (Chrome is very slow at cloning), even without installing your fix, which is why I use Firefox whenever I work on the game which has clone generated particles. Maybe you should try upgrading flash on Firefox and redoing the test? Just to see, because it might actually be Chrome's own version of Flash that is problematic

I already know it is much better because on my game, like I said before, even on Firefox (before I did the fix) it was lagging to the point where I could barely play. Now it runs almost perfectly. I guess I'll go ahead and try it out again anyway.. lol

Unfortunately, your benchmark does not show the lag like my game does… it probably has to do with the fact that my project has a lot more going on at the same time.. But I'll show you the results I got with just using Firefox.
Without the Fix (FIREFOX):



With the Fix (FIREFOX):



I'm going to try and do a screen recording of my game, to show you just how much of a difference it make.. Hopefully it won't lag too much with the recording

Alright, I've managed to record me playing my game ‘Space Shooter’. Here's the link so that you can see the difference
http://youtu.be/C-do0zp6D18

@jji7skyline:

The problem with newer Flash is to do with applying graphic effects (colour/brightness/etc.)

Unfortunately, it's very common to see Scratch script that looks something a bit like this:

forever
if (some-variable-check) then
set brightness to 50
else
set brightness to 20

i.e. the effect is being applied forever, whether it needs to be or not (rather than only making the change when necessary). This is clearly a performance hog, but in the newer versions of Flash on certain browsers (cough Chrome cough), it locks up the browser for good.

Some topics on the subject:
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/12110/
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/10697/
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/12551/
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/11753/
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/12588/

In particular, see these posts from cheddargirl:
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/95852/
http://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/102808/

I thonk you can disable Chrome's builtin flash: about:plugins should do the trick

scratchisthebest wrote:

I thonk you can disable Chrome's builtin flash: about:plugins should do the trick

It seems you have to click “Details” at the top of the page to disable only Chrome's “Pepper” Flash player. If you don't click details first, it will disable both Flash players when you click disable.

nathanprocks wrote:

scratchisthebest wrote:

I thonk you can disable Chrome's builtin flash: about:plugins should do the trick

It seems you have to click “Details” at the top of the page to disable only Chrome's “Pepper” Flash player. If you don't click details first, it will disable both Flash players when you click disable.

Ahh, yes thank you! Now I can use Chrome and have less lag
It still lags less on Firefox, but its a definite improvement for Chrome.

Oops, fine now.
Thanks.

Oh good its not just my project! When willt he new flash come out?

cubby208 wrote:

Oh good its not just my project! When willt he new flash come out?

I'm not sure, but I've heard that the Scratch Team is working on making it so the costume effects generate less lag

I'm just gonna post this reply so I can find this again later.

super_salad wrote:

I'm just gonna post this reply so I can find this again later.

Just say “bump”

I find this very helpful. HOW DO YOU GET SCREENSHOTS THOUGH? / O_O /

Happiny-64 wrote:

I find this very helpful. HOW DO YOU GET SCREENSHOTS THOUGH? / O_O /

Windows: Use snipping tool
Mac: Press Command+Shift+3 for full screen or Command+Shift+4 to get only part of the screen. Screenshots on Mac are saved to the desktop.