So I did some quick optimization work on the exploding sprites algorithm. One of the very noticeable problems was the delay during the initial and last frame of the explosion or combination. The delay came when the PC had to write a large amount of objects to and from arrays. By introducing a random delay to the algorithm I made it so that all the pixels don't arrive at their destination at the same time so the array writes are spread out over multiple CPU cycles instead of all at once. It removed the delay at the end. I'm leaving the slight delay at the explosion because I think it is worth it to have them all go at once.
I have a couple problems to solve:
