Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Supported by

OpenSesame running slower than usual

Hi all,


Recently I have been experiencing some lag when using the OpenSesame programme. I tried updating the programme to the latest version, but that did not solve the issue. I'm starting to wonder whether there's something I did wrong when coding the experiment (I also got an unexpected OSWeb error, which I posted elsewhere on the forum already). I have attached the experiment below.

Best

Jelle

Comments

  • Hi Jelle,

    In what sense do you experience lag? I suspect that the interface freezes every second or so? Could you confirm (or disconfirm) that that's it?

    If this is the case, then I think that's because of the items that are being preloaded in the background. This happens so that you don't experience any lag when you click on an item to open it. However, if you have a lot of items (145 in your experiment), then this preloading can become a source of lag in itself. I'll think about the best way to deal with this.

    Cheers!

    Sebastiaan

  • Hi Sebastiaan,

    That's exactly what it is! Sorry, I should have been more elaborate in my post about what exactly I was experiencing with the programme.

    I've thought about it for a second and I could probably use a google forms before the experiment to gather the demographic data, and send out individual links with just the instructions, training and experimental phase. This would reduce the number of items in the experiment considerably. So I tried that, and the lag issue is resolved for now at least! However, I do get the same OSWeb error the moment my training loop starts. I'll update the other thread with more information on it.

    Thanks Sebastiaan!

    ~Jelle

  • Hi Sebastiaan,

    I have another, rather large experiment, with many items and unfortunately the same issue again. Has this since been resolved? Or is there a way to turn off preloading?


    Many thanks!

    Jelle

  • Hi @JelleStudentRug ,

    The latest versions of OpenSesame (I don't remember exactly since when, but certain 3.3.6) should preload items only when the system is idle, such that preloading doesn't slow down things at inconvenient moments. But I'm not sure how well this works across operating systems, because it's not trivial to detect when a system is idle. But if you're running an older version of OpenSesame, then updating would be an option. You can also deactivate the preload_items extension under Menu → Tools → Plug-in and extension manager.

    — Sebastiaan

Sign In or Register to comment.