338 replies to this topic

[jpsalas]

I just uninstalled the Nvidia driver and install it again. And the slowness/tearing is gone. I never thought it could be the driver, since the older VP versions worked very well (rev 434, rev 442), but the newest didn't. I also could run several 3D games without a problem, like Crysis 3. But it was the driver.

Edited by jpsalas, 19 March 2013 - 05:47 PM.

[Sir Cheddar]

I'm not positive I have exactly the same symptoms here since I switched to rev 474. It seems I see it most often on the plunger lane of various tables, the most extreme I found being Mistermixer's recent Robocop FS mod. On this table I don't see the ball moving when I use the plunger key at all, I first see the ball after it reenters the playfield on the top of the table.

I tried a clean reinstall of the graphics drivers, didn't help. Disabling ball shadow seems to have to fixed the issue.

 

Will test more.

[TedB]

My major problems with VP are usually driver related too. Might there be a benchmark program to see if a problem is VP or driver related? 

 

Why is VP so incredibly picky when it comes to NVIDIA driver versions? Only one seems to work for me, so I always go back to a pretty old version. With the latest drivers I have issues with tables that can hang the PC and/or introduce stutter.. 

[fuzzel]

hmm I don't have these problems on my ATI HD7770 system with the newest drivers...jpsalas could you please test rev 466 and rev 467?

 

I added render and texture state caches to the render engine, because DX7 doesn't like it if you change the states too much. Normaly it won't have

a real effect because most of the table is pre rendered at the beginning, but the ball and the primitives are rendered every frame.

If your driver handles those states in a different way it could interfere the rendering of the objects and you can get these effects you described.

 

So rev 467 is the one with cache. If rev466 plays better and the problem starts with 467 we have a lead..

[shanknitrate]

I am running the 3.14 drivers on my pinball cabinet. It has an E6500 dual core, 2gb of ram, GTX560ti 1gb, running on XP 32-bit. The graphics card is a new addition after the 8800GTX that was previously in it died. The upgrade has meant I can finally set texture sizes to unlimited rather than 1024. Using 9.14 I can run the 120 tables I have installed with no stutter. That includes tables that many people seem to have issue with: monopoly, lethal weapon, indy 500 gi8, etc. My playfield is 1920x1080, blackglass/DMD 1280x1024. I have played around with FXAA and AA with no noticeable hit to performance but I have decided to leave FXAA off as I don't like the subtle softening to textures it introduces.

 

Because I wanted to play JP's new Star Wars table I started using vPinball rev476 and the majority of tables still play flawlessly. However I did notice some instances where the ball would leave behind an image of itself. Usually in the trough or near the top of the playfield - on the ramp in Elvira and the Party Monsters for example where the ball leaves the screen.

 

The main issue I had though was that about 5 tables would slow the system down to a crawl when they started. This could only be fixed by resetting vPinmame and then everything would be fine again. I was told on these forums that the problem was caused by the fact I was using the 3.14 nvidia drivers, but this doesn't happen on ANY table using v9.14. For now I am just making Hyper-Pin use the rev476 exe to load the Star Wars table and 9.14 for everything else. I initally had it the other way - just using v9.14 to load the tables that cause the slowdown, but I thought better to wait until 9.15 is finalised.

 

Off the top of my head some tables that caused the slowdown were: Congo, Lord of the Rings, Indy 500 GI8, and Stargate.

 

I'm perfectly happy running 9.14 and I realise that 9.15 is still being worked on but I thought this information might help/interest the developers. I'm happy to try out any other revisions if it may help isolate a bug.

 

Cheers

[jpsalas]

hmm I don't have these problems on my ATI HD7770 system with the newest drivers...jpsalas could you please test rev 466 and rev 467?

 

I added render and texture state caches to the render engine, because DX7 doesn't like it if you change the states too much. Normaly it won't have

a real effect because most of the table is pre rendered at the beginning, but the ball and the primitives are rendered every frame.

If your driver handles those states in a different way it could interfere the rendering of the objects and you can get these effects you described.

 

So rev 467 is the one with cache. If rev466 plays better and the problem starts with 467 we have a lead..

 

At work I have an Ati 5xxx (I don't remember exactly the number ) and all the versions play well. The computer isn't very powerful, but I can't see any visible change with the versions. All them play great.

 

Now, I'm having trouble again with the Nvidia GTX 680. Yesterday I reinstalled the driver and all the versions worked great. The latest one 476, had a frame rate of 1300-1500 (FPS count using F11). And everything was silk smooth, like it use to be before I started with the problems. Now (after I turned off the computer) it is back to the sluggish 30 - 50 FPS, with the ball disappearing when the ball speed is high, like when you shoot the ball from the plunger or from the flippers, and the flippers are also terrible, with really weird angles.

 

There is no compiled version (from Koadic) of 466, but the versions up to 442 work at about 350-390FS, and the tables are playable. From 444 to 476 I get from 30 to 50 FPS. I know it is driver related, since a clean install of the latest driver works fine. Now I'll go back one and one driver until I find one that plays great even after I turn off the computer

[jpsalas]

I have tried the latest Nvidia beta driver 314.21 and so far so good. I only turn on anisotropic filtering, nothing else, no AA or any other option.

I have turned off my computer twice and it still is working fine. The FPS are back to over 1200, and the tables are smooth again. Now let's see how long it keeps like this

[JumJumPin]

I have tried the latest Nvidia beta driver 314.21 and so far so good. I only turn on anisotropic filtering, nothing else, no AA or any other option.

I have turned off my computer twice and it still is working fine. The FPS are back to over 1200, and the tables are smooth again. Now let's see how long it keeps like this

jpsalas: great hint! I had the same problemes, are discussed in this thread. Tables are to slow (afm 9.14, totan, t2 ...) a lot of them are stuttering if use the new vp (9.15  r450 to r467). At my first trial with yours settings i had great perfomance boost. My trial tables are: totan and afm (9.14). After reseting the driver settings to manufacture setting and changing the antistropic filtering (16x), it works fine. But with vp9.15 r467 it will bugs the playfield: one of the background flash lights (right side) is flashing in the foreground. At best, i'll upload a screenshot for better grasp (later at the weekend).

[chepas]

I have tried the latest Nvidia beta driver 314.21 and so far so good. I only turn on anisotropic filtering, nothing else, no AA or any other option.

I have turned off my computer twice and it still is working fine. The FPS are back to over 1200, and the tables are smooth again. Now let's see how long it keeps like this

 

Installed 314 and running rev476. FPS has shot up over 1000 here. Enable Soft FXAA runs good now too. Cheers

Edited by chepas, 20 March 2013 - 07:39 AM.

[fuzzel]

really funny stuff maybe we should make an extra option to enabe/disable the caches, if someone has driver problems he can disable it. Today I tried CFTBL and I had some ball problems too. Will check it...

[LoadedWeapon]

Well I can confirm this I just tested the New supranos table I had the Nvidia 314.14 drivers installed running the new VP478 I was getting 800fps and when I would try FXAA it would tank to 14FPS and was unplayable... I installed the new Nvidia beta drivers 314.21 and then restarted.. Sopranos running 1100fps and when I turned on FXAA it dropped to 350fps but was still very much playable thanks Nvidia... Oh I forgot to say this was on my 560Ti I havent tried the 660 yet.. 660 about the same 1100 up to 1300+

Edited by LoadedWeapon, 20 March 2013 - 11:19 PM.

[ressof]

Hi

 

Is there a way so see what rev. you have in the vpinball.exe file? If there isn't it would be great to add the revision number in the Help>About popup.

[toxie]

Hmmm.. Curious to try the new NV drivers myself then!

Maybe they optimized some of the memory management and transfers that VP can benefit from?

 

Who knows, maybe the bugging with the Win7/FXAA and the Laptop issues caused somebody to optimize something in the driver that helps VP??

Can more guys confirm if the new drivers improve performance for them?

[koadic]

Well, I just downloaded and did a clean install of 314.07... my performance is exactly the same as what it previously had been, but then again I have never had any big issues with framerate. I have tried every build I have compiled multiple times, mainly for a quick bug and framerate check. On JP's Star Wars table (because it throws in a good mix of primitives), I almost consistently get 300-330 fps with fxaa off and around 60 fps with fxaa on (on the newer builds) with my W7 x64/i5 3570k/GTS450 1GB, and about 30 more fps w/o fxaa on my cab with a GTX460(same specs otherwise).

Will go ahead and try the beta drivers... 314.21...

And with 314.21 it pretty much provides the same performance as the previous drivers for me.

Edited by koadic, 21 March 2013 - 01:00 PM.

[jpsalas]

The performance in my computer is the same, but the 310.90 and 314.07 were not stable, and after a while they started to be very slow (but only with VP). 314.21 is still very stable.

The problem was that I didn't noticed the performance loss since I were mostly only building the Sopranos table. So when I first started playing I noticed the low frame rate.

I tried to enable the FXAA in the Nvidia panel, but they still don't work with Windows 7 64 bits.

[koadic]

Well, previously, I was using 306.97 and never had an issue with any slowdowns... my VP performance pretty much stayed the same respective to the specific compile (didn't degrade). Updating didn't provide any noticable improvement though.

[teppotee]

Has anyone tried these new 314.21 drivers with XP?

[GRONI]

Wow, I just tried the latest Build. No slowdowns at all with the latest Nvidia Drivers on my GTX580! I played my Banzai Run, which always was a bit stuttering cause of that many transparent ramps. I even setted the ramps on maximum.

Very Nice to see some performance progress.

[luvthatapex]

No these drivers are for windows 7 and 8.

 

The latest nVidia drivers for XP are  314.07 - and I am going to try them soon on my cab (XP).

 

Has anyone tried these new 314.21 drivers with XP?

[RipleYYY]

open your eyes Luv... they are available while searching a few

 

http://www.guru3d.co...r_download.html

 

@Teppotee : just installed, i see no diff with, still got same little ball freeze on few tables