Processing
Whenever something within the game occurs, it has to be processed. Depending on when something occurs, it can cause the game to spend more frames trying to process information.
This primarily affects room transitions. Room transitions can easily be made to take longer by performing specific actions right before activating them.
The majority of these actions cause room transitions to take longer due to the sound effects they produce. As explained in Kejardon's notes, the game has to "clear the sound queues" before allowing Samus to transition between rooms; therefore, when a sound effect occurs before a room transition is activated, it can delay the transition.
Below is a list of actions that, when performed right before a room transition, will add frames to the length of the transition. Video examples are provided for better understanding of what this means. The number in the bottom right of the information display will indicate how many frames were added to the transition due to the action. (in this case, 42 equals 0)
MAF stands for "maximum added frames", meaning the maximum amount of frames that can be added to the room transition as a result of performing the corresponding action.
| Action | MAF | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Selecting an item | 6 | |
| Performing a spinjump | 6 | |
| Checking with Space Jump equipped | 6 | Screw Attack equipped prevents Space Jump from causing delay in this manner |
| Breaking out of spin | 12 | Breaking out of spin to land from a jump can add up to 6 frames to this amount |
| Firing weapon | 6 | Can vary depending on weapon; Wave Beam equipped prevents the beam from causing delay in this manner |
| Bomb explosion | 6 | |
| Releasing charge shot | 6 | |
| Activating a shinespark | 12 |
Combining these can cause the processing delay to be compounded. (ex. firing a weapon while breaking out of spin)
Having too many inputs registered at once can cause the processing delay to be compounded.
Enemies that can attach to Samus, such as Beetoms, Metroids, and Mochtroids, can add processing delay if they are attached to Samus during a transition. The delay will be much worse if multiple are attached to Samus. In the case of Mochtroids, whereas only having one of these attached will usually not cause much delay at all, having multiple attached can cause up to half a second of processing delay to occur. Stutter-stepping while an enemy is attached can also increase the delay caused by this.
Rooms with the looping background noise that accompanies rising lava/acid - Rising Tide, Speed Booster Room, Speed Booster Hall, and Amphitheatre - will cause processing delay in an amount around 30 frames.
Charging the beam for 16 frames, interrupting the charging process, and then activating a transition will greatly increase the processing delay.
Firing Chainsaw Beam while activating a transition will also greatly increase the processing delay.
Other sources of processing delay caused by the sound effects they can cause include but are not limited to steel pirates, shutters, Volcano, Hibashi, and Skree/Metaree.
Power Bomb explosions can prevent sound effects from causing processing delay by overwriting those sound effects.
