Stuttering movement in Godot 4 with CharacterBody2D

printer6yo

Hello, I recently switched from Godot 3.5 to Godot 4, and I'm attempting to make a 2D pixelart game. I've set up a CharacterBody2D for my player, but when I try to test it out the movement stutters (will stop and skip forward) randomly while attempting to move the player. Even without changing any settings in Godot 4 and using only the provided template script for 2D movement this seems to be a problem.
I initially thought it was a hardware problem, but I have since purchased a new laptop (needed to upgrade anyways), and the issue still exists on the new laptop (although the stutter maybe seems slightly less frequent?)
Trying to move a KinematicBody2D in Godot 3.5, on BOTH machines is absolutely no problem, so what is causing this issue? What do I need to do to get the same fluid movement in Godot 4 as I experienced in 3.5? I've watched a few Godot 4 tutorials, and nobody else seems to be having this issue, so I imagine it is something simple- a setting in either Godot or on my PC that I'm overlooking- but I'm not sure what.
I've tried turning on and off VSynch, to no effect (and would prefer to keep VSynch on anyways), pixel-snapping wasn't the issue, frame rate set to 60, etc. What am I missing? Again, 3.5 works perfectly right out of the gate, on both machines.

xyz

printer6yo Let's see the movement code.

printer6yo

xyz

It's happening even with the provided template code (which I'll provide below, as if I can get rid of the stutter there, I can figure out how to get rid of it where ever else I need to).

Code:

extends CharacterBody2D


const SPEED = 300.0
const JUMP_VELOCITY = -400.0

# Get the gravity from the project settings to be synced with RigidBody nodes.
var gravity = ProjectSettings.get_setting("physics/2d/default_gravity")


func _physics_process(delta):
	# Add the gravity.
	if not is_on_floor():
		velocity.y += gravity * delta

	# Handle Jump.
	if Input.is_action_just_pressed("ui_accept") and is_on_floor():
		velocity.y = JUMP_VELOCITY

	# Get the input direction and handle the movement/deceleration.
	# As good practice, you should replace UI actions with custom gameplay actions.
	var direction = Input.get_axis("ui_left", "ui_right")
	if direction:
		velocity.x = direction * SPEED
	else:
		velocity.x = move_toward(velocity.x, 0, SPEED)

	move_and_slide()

xyz

printer6yo What's the profiler saying?

printer6yo

xyz

What should I be looking for? I'm occasionally getting spikes in frame time (moreso on the older laptop).

edit: after letting it run for a while with profiler (about 8000 frames) the spikes seem to have stopped, and movement is smoother...

printer6yo

Problem still persists; stuttering happens every time I try to test the game, and when I use my own movement code (for topdown movement, I'll include it below) it doesn't seem to go away. There's also a weird blur when the player sprite moves on the newer laptop.
Movement code:

extends CharacterBody2D


@export var WALK_MAX_SPEED = 60
@export var ACCELERATION = 100
@export var FRICTION = 100
@export var SLOWED = 30



func _physics_process(_delta):
	
	var moveDirection = Vector2.ZERO
	moveDirection.x = Input.get_axis("ui_left", "ui_right")
	moveDirection.y = Input.get_axis("ui_up", "ui_down")
	
	if moveDirection != Vector2.ZERO:
		velocity = velocity.move_toward(moveDirection * WALK_MAX_SPEED, ACCELERATION)
	
	else:
		velocity = velocity.move_toward(Vector2.ZERO, FRICTION)

	move_and_slide()

edit: code didn't format correctly on first try

JPlou

Hey @printer6yo, I'm late to the party.

I encountered the same thing exactly half an hour ago, and what was happening is that I had a controller plugged into the computer.
And I imagine it was sending micro inputs, at the same time as the ones sent by my keyboard. Interestingly, it had priority over the keyboard, so moving with the controller I had no issue.

Unplugging the controller solved the problem, the movement was smooth like in the tutorials, without touching any other setting. I hope it will help someone else!

printer6yo

JPlou I appreciate the update!

What seemed to work for me back when I was experiencing this was switching the renderer from compatibility to forward+, and even mobile worked better. I had initially thought that since I was making a simple 2D, pixel art game that compatibility would be my best option, but after switching the stuttering problem immediately stopped.

Roxigo

None of these solutions fixed my problem. I also tried building the game to see if that fixed it. Eventually I discovered that, it was because I was using a CapsuleShape2D collider. I switched to a RectangleShape2D and it solved the stuttering, among other problems. Such as sticking to walls.