[BUG] Client tab locks up on production after long sessions (full terrain rebuild every tick) #13

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-10-18 07:21:40 +02:00 by agent-claude · 1 comment

agent-claude commented

2026-10-18 07:21:40 +02:00

Collaborator

Symptom

On production the game tab locks up after a while (reported at colony tick ~9,000 and ~294,000). Refreshing doesn't recover it; only a fresh tab does.

Root cause (client render path)

ColonySim.stepTick() marks every growing crop tile dirty every tick, so once any growing zone is planted, every 10 Hz S2C_COLONY_DELTA has non-empty changedTiles.
On each such delta the client's ColonyPixiRenderer.onTickDeltaApplied() destroys and recreates all 10,000 terrain sprites, all crop sprites, and every item stack (with a new Text per stack) — 10×/sec.
renderDynamicEntities() also destroys/recreates every pawn's Container, Graphics, Sprites and Text label on every animation frame.
Panel DOM (innerHTML roster/inspector) is rebuilt per delta.

As the colony grows, the main thread can't keep up with 10 deltas/sec; WebSocket messages queue up and the renderer process hangs. Chrome reuses the hung renderer process on reload, so refresh doesn't help but a new tab does.

Fix

Persistent per-tile terrain/crop sprites updated only for changed tiles.
Coalesce delta-driven redraws and DOM panel updates to once per animation frame.
Reuse pawn display nodes and labels instead of recreating each frame.

## Symptom On production the game tab locks up after a while (reported at colony tick ~9,000 and ~294,000). Refreshing doesn't recover it; only a fresh tab does. ## Root cause (client render path) - `ColonySim.stepTick()` marks every growing crop tile dirty **every tick**, so once any growing zone is planted, every 10 Hz `S2C_COLONY_DELTA` has non-empty `changedTiles`. - On each such delta the client's `ColonyPixiRenderer.onTickDeltaApplied()` destroys and recreates all **10,000 terrain sprites**, all crop sprites, and every item stack (with a new `Text` per stack) — 10×/sec. - `renderDynamicEntities()` also destroys/recreates every pawn's Container, Graphics, Sprites and `Text` label on **every animation frame**. - Panel DOM (`innerHTML` roster/inspector) is rebuilt per delta. As the colony grows, the main thread can't keep up with 10 deltas/sec; WebSocket messages queue up and the renderer process hangs. Chrome reuses the hung renderer process on reload, so refresh doesn't help but a new tab does. ## Fix - Persistent per-tile terrain/crop sprites updated only for changed tiles. - Coalesce delta-driven redraws and DOM panel updates to once per animation frame. - Reuse pawn display nodes and labels instead of recreating each frame.

agent-claude added the

labels

2026-10-18 07:21:40 +02:00

agent-bot referenced this issue from a commit

2026-10-18 07:30:36 +02:00

fix(client): stop per-tick full map rebuild that locks up the tab (fixes #13)

agent-claude referenced this issue from a pull request that will close it,

2026-10-18 07:30:46 +02:00

[PR] Fix client tab lockup from per-tick full map rebuild #14

agent-claude commented

2026-10-18 07:30:55 +02:00

Author

Collaborator

Handoff (agent-claude) — PR #14

Completed

client/src/colony-renderer.ts: incremental per-tile terrain/crop sprites, frame-coalesced dirty flushing, pooled pawn + item-stack views.
client/src/main.ts: HUD/inspector DOM refresh coalesced via rAF; passes TickDelta to the renderer.
Reproduced locally: before = heap 1.1 GB within ~14 s and 52% main-thread blocking; after = heap flat ~24 MB, no steady-state blocking. Tests + typecheck green.

Remains

Peer review (Gemini) + @johnw merge approval, then npm run deploy.
Follow-up: growing tiles are still sent in every delta (bandwidth/JSON.parse cost scales with farm size).

Gotchas

No sim-core/server/wire changes, so determinism and replay are unaffected.
ColonyPixiRenderer.onTickDeltaApplied(delta) signature changed (was two booleans).

**Handoff (agent-claude)** — PR #14 **Completed** - `client/src/colony-renderer.ts`: incremental per-tile terrain/crop sprites, frame-coalesced dirty flushing, pooled pawn + item-stack views. - `client/src/main.ts`: HUD/inspector DOM refresh coalesced via rAF; passes `TickDelta` to the renderer. - Reproduced locally: before = heap 1.1 GB within ~14 s and 52% main-thread blocking; after = heap flat ~24 MB, no steady-state blocking. Tests + typecheck green. **Remains** - Peer review (Gemini) + @johnw merge approval, then `npm run deploy`. - Follow-up: growing tiles are still sent in every delta (bandwidth/JSON.parse cost scales with farm size). **Gotchas** - No sim-core/server/wire changes, so determinism and replay are unaffected. - `ColonyPixiRenderer.onTickDeltaApplied(delta)` signature changed (was two booleans).

agent-claude added the

status/needs-review

label

2026-10-18 07:30:55 +02:00

agent-bot closed this issue

2026-10-18 09:00:05 +02:00

agent-bot referenced this issue from a commit

2026-10-18 09:00:05 +02:00

Merge pull request #14 from claude/13-client-render-lockup