17 replies to this topic

[Michael2]

Last year I bought a Toshiba laptop with windows 7 and a nvidia GPU.

 

I had tried VP 912, 914 and Kodiacs builds (up to 439) and always experienced the dreaded nvidia optimus no framerate issue.... until today.

 

After reading JPs Star Wars support thread I noted a post that kodiacs 445 and 450 builds had framerate improvements so I decided to try out the new table.

 

I created a shortcut to vp 450 build, with compatibility set it to run as administrator. (all other setting default)

right click the shortcut and select run with nvidia GPU

 

First try - table to my surprise loaded perfectly with hardware rendering on using the nvidia GPU achieving over 100fps.

 

tried an earlier vp (914) and koadic build 439. yep back to no framerate and unplayable.

 

Tried 450 build again the same table loaded to a black playfield with the editor overlayed and a DMD. (

 

crap. back to editor reload table without restarting VP. table and to my surprise the table worked again.

 

Tried this multiple times and every time fails to load first time, loaded successfully (as long as vp wasn't shut down) the second.

 

Thought I'd push my luck and try another table.  VP started from scratch (again 450). I tried JPs TOTAN 3.4 (classic). VP either crashed or resulted in the same black playfield with the overlay when I attempted play the table. Interestingly the table did not load on a second attempt.

 

Next I tried loading Star Wars again. same as before, black screen with overlay on first load. second load perfect. (remember VP was not shutdown between loads). Tried TOTAN again without restarting VP, table loaded playing at approx 100fps - perfect.

 

Tried this multiple times. again worked perfectly. Tried it with STTNG 1.2 same result.

 

I've now tried this over a dozen times. This was the only combination that I could repeatably get the tables to load.

 

I haven't rebooted yet. I hope it still works after the reboot.

 

triplejackpot

 

update:

 

system rebooted . same result.

 

system details - as i know from a stack of research on nvidia optimus last year that all systems are not the same when it comes to optimus issues.

 

Toshiba laptop

windows 7 64Bit

graphics GT630M / Intel HD 4000

nvidia driver: 306.97

 

triplejackpot.

 

update 2:

 

tried a few more tables, after star wars successfully loaded once, could load tables one after the other with great frame rates

 

Interestingly the more going on on the table the higher the frame rate. Circus Voltaire was running between 150fps to 200fps. 

 

I suspect this is caused by the the power saving technology as I still had the nvidia power saving set to adaptive (default) settings and the windows 7/Toshiba power options to balanced (again default) settings.

Edited by Michael2, 26 February 2013 - 02:31 PM.

[xio]

That's interesting, thanks for sharing Michael. Got to try this tonight !

 

I hope the DX9 additions Toxie made are the reason why it's beginning to work with optimus, it woud mean a brighter future for us poor optimus users

[Michael2]

That's interesting, thanks for sharing Michael. Got to try this tonight !

 

I hope the DX9 additions Toxie made are the reason why it's beginning to work with optimus, it woud mean a brighter future for us poor optimus users

 

Good luck hope it works for you too.

[koadic]

Sounds interesting, just so you know though, 450 has a few ball collision issues. 445 is a much more stable option if it works for you. If it doesn't, I think those issues may have been fixed in the most recent dx9 branch commits, I just haven't compiled it.

[xio]

Unfortunately it does not work on my system

 

Tried both 445 & 450 with admin mode, but forcing nvidia gpu leads to unplayable game

 

windows 7 64Bit

graphics GT650M / Intel HD 4000

nvidia driver: 310.90

[Michael2]

Kodiac, thankyou for the daily builds. I'm about to go to work, but had to try 445 after reading your post.

 

445 runs about 20fps slower than 450, around 80fps on star wars and a solid 130fps on cirqus voltaire. After a real short play I'd have to say 445 has better gameplay

Looking forward to trying your next daily build

 

xio sorry to hear it didn't work but don't give up yet. There's another optimus thread on the forum and I'm reasonably sure that the driver I'm running isn't the one recommended in that thread.

 

triplejackpot

[fuzzel]

Hi guys,

 

I wouldn't try the dx9 branch yet. I'm deeply in the middle of porting the whole stuff to dx9. If you like try revision 456 this should fix the collision problem.

 

fuzzel

[TheMcD]

I bloody well don't know what you guys did, but it did something. I just gave rev445 a spin and told my Optimus to launch VP with the dedicated card, and it was just as cruddy as ever. But then I told it to launch it with the integrated card, and suddenly, all problems were fixed. It's really late, so I can't go into intensive testing, but I gave JP's TOM a spin, and it remained playable even during multiball and with alpha lights running.

 

So you guys are on to something here for sure. Great work.

[maceman]

I suspect this is caused by the the power saving technology as I still had the nvidia power saving set to adaptive (default) settings and the windows 7/Toshiba power options to balanced (again default) settings.

 

Hi Michael,

 

This is a known issue.  Without both the power options in windows set to highest, and this NVCP set to max, the new NVIDIA cards will not kick in. This is Straight from an Nvidia rep when i called for my iisues earlier.

Sory you had to find out the longer way   It is hard to document everything when there are many diverse issues happening, but this one is pretty much a mandatory first step.

Thanx for your reports on different settings with the newer builds. Hopefully this will all get sorted out soon!

I wonder how many of us have Optimus systems now? Kinda like having a disease together- he hee.

Cheers,

Maceman

[Michael2]

I suspect this is caused by the the power saving technology as I still had the nvidia power saving set to adaptive (default) settings and the windows 7/Toshiba power options to balanced (again default) settings.

 

Hi Michael,

 

This is a known issue.  Without both the power options in windows set to highest, and this NVCP set to max, the new NVIDIA cards will not kick in. This is Straight from an Nvidia rep when i called for my iisues earlier.

Sory you had to find out the longer way   It is hard to document everything when there are many diverse issues happening, but this one is pretty much a mandatory first step.

Thanx for your reports on different settings with the newer builds. Hopefully this will all get sorted out soon!

I wonder how many of us have Optimus systems now? Kinda like having a disease together- he hee.

Cheers,

Maceman

Hi Maceman,

 

I read the previous threads on nvidia and optimus a while back and had tried all the power settings fixes, different drivers but was unable to get any increase in framerate on the nvidia GPU. With the intel GPU I could always get good frame-rates if hardware rendering was turned off but the tables looked terrible.

 

My point is actually the opposite, something is kicking the nvidia GPU into gear by running the star wars table even with with all windows/nvidia power management settings in the normal/default settings.

 

from Michael (Triplejackpot)

[maceman]

I understand what you are saying. I have some weird anomolies as well. It been almost a year now i think.

For example, If the intel is running, the game runs pretty good, but you can tell it is not super smooth as it should be...but if I force the NGPU, I actually get worse gameplay, sometime screen is black and then it draws the screen whereever the ball goes, so if i played long enough and the ball travelled everywhere, i might have a picture

Ahhh... These anomolies are frustrating. I have determined it is a fault with the driver COMBO, meaning, it depends on what based Intel driver i use. I don't know why. In my case, an Asus, is picky i suppose with how it interacts with optimus.

You can try different drivers. My signature lists my current laptop drivers. I use a tweaked .inf to force my GT540M to work and i get some results, but then something else will suffer.

I don't think there will be a driver that wil be found to work with all optimus systems, but who knows. I think it will come down to finding a right match with your hardware.  The older drivers didn't require the power to be set to max for it to work, it is just with the optimus set-ups where this is required.

Cheers,

Maceman

 

EDIT: Just wanted to add that with build 450, my Ball Shadows are working for the FIRST TIME!!!!!  Only problem is that the radio box is toggled to OFF

Edited by maceman, 27 February 2013 - 02:28 PM.

[maceman]

Strange i couldn't get this to post in my above post.

Edited by maceman, 27 February 2013 - 02:38 PM.

[fuzzel]

Hi maceman,

build 450 has a collision problem with captiv balls and I mixed something with the settings when I render the balls. Better use an earlier build or update to

build 456 where the collision bug is fixed.

[toxie]

Small Update on the Optimus stuff: At least for my test setup here, i can have much better framerates when -disabling- the new 'Region Updates' option in the Video Options (available with rev 489 and up).

Please test this as soon as Koadic can provide a build which has this.

In addition, disabling the ddraw flag of VPinMame (registry, for each game set ddraw to 0) also helps a lot.

[koadic]

Revision 491 is uploaded and in my sig...

[xio]

Thanks toxie ! Indeed, disabling region updates in rev 491 makes it playable for the first time on my optimus system. It's not perfectly smooth, but so much better than what I had before when forcing nvidia gpu !

 

Though, setting ddraw to 0 gave me worse performance, so I went back to 1.

[toxie]

Yay! Thanks for the quick feedback!

[skinooe]

491 Rev: tested on amd dual 3000, Geforce gtx550Ti, 2 GB ram windos 7 64 bit: Test Tables:Monopoy and Simspon night mod

bevor average: 30 -120 FPS, Now 300 -350 FPS, with Region Upates 30-50FPS

Thanks so much, I am realy happy

Skinooe