Sign In

### Topic

#### Flash issues, tips and tricks

Some Glitchens who are Chrome users like myself have been experiencing horrendous lag recently, as well as strange stop-go walking motion and screen movement that can best be described by its more technical term of "herky-jerky." After many exhausting hours spent performing routine computer maintenance tasks and so forth, I finally stumbled across a solution posted here:
https://getsatisfaction.com/deadzone/topics/performance_issues_v1_06_build_2271
Basically, the issue is that in some cases, Chrome has two versions of flash installed, and one needs to be disabled. Here's how to do it:
1) Go to chrome://plugins and click the plus sign on the far right to show details. (Edit: broken link removed, thanks BlackWolf! You have to type it in the Chrome address bar.)
2) If you have more than one flash listed, disable version 11.3.31.222 and enable version 11,3,300,268. (Check out the website above for a more detailed version of this procedure.)
This solution has succeeded for many of us in getting rid of that god-awful herky-jerky motion, but I've still got some lag and sound issues. A friend recommended using the Opera browser, so I installed that and gave it a shot. While it's faster for me, I've got some issues with that, too. Most notably, there's a delay of about a second or so between action/response. So if I click the spacebar, it takes a second before I actually jump. (That was aggravating enough to make me switch back to Chrome...it was throwing off my running/jumping rhythm, and if we're ever going to have our own version of Glitch Olympics, I'd like to be in tip-top running/and/jumping shape. ;)
My technical skills are rather limited, so I'm opening this discussion in hopes that those of you who are more advanced in these areas would be kind enough to post some suggestions that those of us who are less advanced can benefit from. Got any flash or browser related tweaks that will help us get the most out of our Glitch gaming experience? Thanks muchly!

Posted 4 months ago by KitchWitch | Permalink

### Replies

- There's a post from staff regarding the Chrome issue: http://www.glitch.com/forum/bugs/25404/
  Posted 4 months ago by Varaeth | Permalink
- Nice, thanks for that Vareath. I noticed there's also a running topic on lag issues in general in the same section, but not much in there regarding problems with flash and browsers. I'm still having major performance issues, and they seem to be getting worse. Out of curiosity I disabled the "correct" version of flash and enabled the buggy one and tried to load the game. I got a message from Glitch saying that the flash I was using was buggy, so that's good...hopefully that will further tip off Chrome users to that particular problem. But it's gotten so bad on my end that playing only brings frustration rather than joy, and I'm out of ideas as to how to improve things, so definitely open to any and all suggestions!
  PS Not sure if "general" is the proper area for this topic, so if not, please move it to bugs or off topic or wherever it belongs, thanks!
  Posted 4 months ago by KitchWitch | Permalink
- Thanks Kitchwitch! My laptop can't seem to handle Glitch in general so I could not see a big difference. It probably works.
  Posted 4 months ago by LųĉĩđεşşΨ | Permalink
- For me, going into "about chrome" and letting chrome update itself seems to have mostly resolved this issue
  Posted 4 months ago by Fern Connelly | Permalink
- Not seeing this chrome//plugins that you are referring to ??
  Click on the wrench and have gone through all the sub menus but there's nothing about plugins :(
  There's one that lists extensions but the only thing there is part of my antivirus.
  Update found it - you have to type chrome:plugins in the address bar to get to it
  Posted 4 months ago by BlackWolf | Permalink
- Hey Chrome users, an update for ya. Even after doing the solution I posted above, my performance issues have continued. It's been getting so bad that I could barely even get into game, nor stay there for any length of time, and any time I spent there was fraught with performance misery (sound issues, major action/response delays, street items not loading at all, etc.) Anyways, I'm one persistent sob, and I love me my glitch, so this is what I did.
  I uninstalled Chrome (yet again) as well as every version of flash I could find; I had a few. (I also uninstalled the Opera browser I'd been testing out; it had the newer flash, and I was experiencing similar performance issues there too.) I then went to Adobe's website and downloaded flash from them, checking the box "yes," to go ahead and install Chrome at the same time. (Chrome folks, that last part is important...you want to install Chrome as part of the Adobe flash install.)
  This time, when Chrome installed, I went to chrome://plugins, and found that I had been downgraded to version 10.3.181.26, my old version of flash before all these silly updates. I went into game, and bingo...everything worked great! No sound issues, everything running smoothly with only the mild garden-variety lag I've grown accustomed to. Whoo hoo...back in the game!
  All was running more or less smoothly for a couple hours, but I kept noticing my firewall alerting me that "google installer" was trying to access the internet. I went ahead and allowed it each time, and I think that's where I f***ed up because on the next reload, lo...my working flash version 10 had disappeared, and I had been given both the funky Chrome version of flash 11 as well as the new supposedly "working" version 11, both displayed and enabled under plugins. I disabled the wonky version, but my performance issues were back with a vengeance, including the dreaded "herky-jerky" walking motion.
  This all goes to show that before you rush out and buy a new computer that you can ill afford or blame the game for performance issues, the problem may lie with flash itself, or a browser/flash combo...that's apparently what's going on in my case. I've not only been having problems with Glitch, but with another flash-based game as well...and all of it started with the new flash 11 upgrade, at least to the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge. (Thankfully I had installed a new hard drive not too long ago, so it's relatively free of clutter and conflicting programs, which made it easier to pinpoint flash as the cause of the problems.)
  Soooooo...I uninstalled Chrome/flash YET AGAIN, and went back to the Adobe website and once again installed flash and Chrome together...man I was sweating that one, lemme tell you. Thankfully, it once again downgraded me to the old version 10, and once again, everything is working smoothly. So now my only problem is to figure out how to keep Chrome from automatically "upgrading" to version 11, at least for the time being. I think if I just tell my firewall to deny the Chrome installer access, that might work, but I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants here, so we'll see. If anyone has any sure-fire way of preventing google from "upgrading" flash, man, I'm all ears!!
  Also, if you want to try this solution, you might want to do it quick, cuz no telling how much longer Adobe flash will be installing Chrome with the older version 10 enabled...make haste, fair Glitchens, make haste. (For non-Chrome users who are having issues with flash, you can find the older version 10 on the web for download. I wouldn't be surprised if TS chimes in here and says they don't endorse this solution, but it's working for me, so you might want to give it a shot.)
  FYI - When I go to enter world, Glitch warns me that I'm using an older version of flash, and gives me the option of upgrading, or entering at my own risk, at the risk of (laugh) "bugs." Honey, I'll take my old garden-variety lag of flash 10 over the *extremely* buggy and horrid flash 11 any day. Hopefully the bugs will get worked out of flash 11 eventually, but here's a friendly word to the wise for devs everywhere...never release new content/updates/whatnot during mercury retrograde, ever, ever, EVER. (It's gone direct now, so hopefully a fix will be coming soon...that's all. :)
  Posted 4 months ago by KitchWitch | Permalink
- " For me, going into "about chrome" and letting chrome update itself seems to have mostly resolved this issue"
  I also did this - and Chrome with Flash 11 worked fine for me. I have a Dell Dimension 5150 on Windows XP - an oldy but goodie machine that I use to access gaming. The only upgrade I've done for this machine is to put in a ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 graphics card. There's a lot to be said for Windows XP being stable which is why I tend to use it for gaming.
  Posted 4 months ago by Moz Art | Permalink
- Before month or so Google made a deal with Adobe. They made a flash plugin which run on every version of Google Chrome browser - windows, linux, bsd, macos. Even more Adobe stopped to make standalone flash plugin for other OS except windows. It i called a Pepper Flash and from chrome 21 is enabled in windows version too.
  As i play from linux addition of pepper flash made things better for me. There is still some issues but i hope they soon will be fixed.
  Posted 4 months ago by Lilla My | Permalink
- @Lilla My Oh good to know, thanks for that hon!
  @Fern Connelly and Moz Art: Yeah, I tried "about Google" to update, but it said I was already using the most updated version, and I was still having the problems. Glad it worked for you! I too run XP, on a 6 year old HP laptop (dv6000t) with added RAM, and until this latest snafu, I've never had any major problems with flash, except some mild lag in gaming and the occasional slow-loading youtube video.
  As a PS, I blocked Google installer in my firewall (after the initial install of Chrome, of course) and have so far managed to fend off any forced upgrades. It's been a long and bloody battle, but I believe I may have finally emerged victorious, at least for now...knock wood!!
  Posted 4 months ago by KitchWitch | Permalink
- KW, I'm not technically savvy. How do I go about blocking the Google installer? I had just managed to get Chrome to work again -- after weeks of working fine, out of nowhere it had practically shut down where Glitch was concerned -- when my new HP 'puter notified me of an automatic update requiring rebooting. No biggie, right? Well, after the reboot, Chrome got funky again and it occurred to me: Maybe those HP updates were overriding my Chrome preference. Duh! I went immediately to the plugins and sure enough, the wrong "up-to-date" version was again enabled. I disabled it and voila! Back to Glitch again with no problems.
  I don't want to forgo HP updates, but I don't want to go through this again.
  Posted 4 months ago by Mollie | Permalink
- thank you kitchwitch
  I did not know where to find the plugin to see what version I had. My son had installed chrome about a month ago and while it was a little laggy it was starting to bother me. Now all is better
  much appreciated the great instructions
  Posted 4 months ago by Tat2 | Permalink
- Awesome Tat2, glad to hear it!
  Hey lovely Mollie! Sounds like you're having similar issues, luv. What kind of firewall do you use? Do you have one that alerts you to any internet traffic? You need to go to your firewall settings and block Google Installer from there. I doubt the HP update was the real culprit; more likely Chrome did an automatic update on its own.
  But if you've already disabled the wonky version and you're no longer having problems, then you're probably good to go, though you may have to check plugins periodically to make sure it's still disabled...hope that helps! (I'm not technically savvy either...I fly by the seat of my pants and with the help of my best friend Google...lol)
  Posted 4 months ago by KitchWitch | Permalink
- Oh, Kitch, I have had to disable the wrong version two, maybe three times now. Something is automatically enabling the wrong one, thus the right one is stymied. Of course, now that I realize this, I will be able to keep an eye on it! Thanks for a very timely post!
  Posted 4 months ago by Mollie | Permalink