Processing animation extremely choppy when getting data from a remote host - php

Question

I am connecting to a remote web server to get mouse movements stored in a database. The processing program I've written to animate these movements has been INCREDIBLY choppy since putting the code on the server. I realize this is because rather than running locally it's got to fetch the information, but is it possible to speed things up a bit? Here's the code I'm using
String get_users = "http://example.com/get_users.php";
String get_data = "http://example.com/get_data.php?user=";
ArrayList arrows;
PImage mouse;
int[] user_ids;
int num_users;
void setup() {
size(1024, 768);
frameRate(24);
smooth();
noStroke();
mouse = loadImage("arrow-clear.png");
arrows = new ArrayList();
getUsers();
for (int i = 0; i < num_users; i++){
arrows.add(new Arrow(user_ids[i], i*400, 2*i*100));
}
}
void getUsers(){
user_ids = int(loadStrings(get_users));
num_users = user_ids.length;
println(num_users);
}
void draw() {
background(0);
if (frameCount % 600 == 0){
getUsers();
for (int i = 0; i < num_users; i++){
arrows.add(new Arrow(user_ids[i], i*400, 2*i*100));
}
}
for (int i = arrows.size()-1; i >= 0; i--) {
Arrow arrow = (Arrow) arrows.get(i);
arrow.move();
if (arrow.finished()) {
arrows.remove(i);
}
}
}
class Arrow {
String[] all_moves, move_pairs, new_moves;
int[] moves;
float x;
float y;
int id;
int i = 0;
Boolean is_done = false;
Arrow(int tempID, float tempX, float tempY) {
all_moves = loadStrings(get_data + tempID);
id = tempID;
x = tempX;
y = tempY;
if (all_moves.length > 0){
move_pairs = shorten(split(all_moves[0], "|"));
}
}
void move() {
if (move_pairs != null){
if (i < move_pairs.length){
moves = int(split(move_pairs[i], ","));
image(mouse, moves[0], moves[1]);
++i;
} else {
all_moves = loadStrings(get_data + id);
if (all_moves.length > 0){
new_moves = shorten(split(all_moves[0], "|"));
for (int j = 0; j < new_moves.length; j++){
move_pairs = append(move_pairs, new_moves[j]);
}
println(move_pairs);
} else {
is_done = true;
}
}
} else {
is_done = true;
}
}
boolean finished() {
if (is_done) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
}
EDIT: To clarify: the Processing application doing all the animation is running locally. The X and Y points for the mouse is the only thing getting downloaded from the server.

Answer 1

You want to get all of the movement data (or large chunks of it) down to the client, and let the client do the work of animating everything.

Answer 2

I doubt it is a good idea to download the movement data on every single frame. If you don't need such detailed responsiveness, fetch a batch of movements from the server periodically and queue them for the draw method. Otherwise make sure the server sends only the data needed. I realized that you only use the first line of the data fetched from the server - all_moves[0]. If there is indeed only one line at all - fine.
You should consider using createInput(URL) and read from that stream, this way you wouldn't need to open a new input stream for every movement requested, but your server side code must be able to maintain the streams and write to them continuously.