10 replies to this topic

[DJRobX]

In order to troubleshoot problems with stuttering with the new DX9 test builds, there is a new feature that shows maximum frame-render times in the F11 display.   This measures, in milliseconds, the longest period of time that VP took to render a frame.    This is more telling than a simple FPS number, in that it will highlight periodic delays that result in slowdowns.    This reveals an issue that some backglasses are not performing well, and contributing to stutter.  

 

On my cab (XP 32 bit, GTI 650ti playfield, GTI 240 backglass) - Most directb2s files don't seem to have too much impact (sometimes 3-5ms), but others have severe impacts (as high as 50ms, which causes noticeable stutter). A couple examples are Indiana Jones and Apollo 13.     In both of these cases changing the frameskip options in the B2S settings makes no improvement to this whatsoever.     

 

I would expect to see that increasing the frame-skips to have an impact on lowering this delay, but that does not happen.  I did play around with different video cards (using onboard Intel IGP, and having both displays on the same GTX 650ti).    Better video cards do lower the impact, so it seems that at least for these two backglass files, they are somehow excessively updating the display.     What's most interesting is the Indiana Jones case - the backglass does not actually change very much.   It's nearly static during play.    I've seen other B2S backglasses full of animation and blinking lights, with much more negligible impact to the table. 

 

Looking at another thread there was some discussion of better performance in an earlier version, but I saw no difference when I tried that older build.   I also confirmed that B2S Server and DOF, by themselves do not contribute to this problem.  If you rename the IJ or A13 backglasses away but suppress error messages, DOF works fine, and the performance is excellent.   So this is not a VPM/B2S/DOF interaction problem, it seems to be strictly related to the way the backglasses are being drawn to the display. 

 

Are the sources for B2S server available?   I'd like to dig into what's causing this further, but I'm afraid I'm at the limit of what I can do without seeing the underlying code.  

Edited by DJRobX, 10 March 2014 - 04:04 PM.

[ClarkKent]

I noticed severe ball stutter with backglasses using a lot of animations and/or lights simultaneously. AFM is one of them, in Roadshow it affects physics somehow.

[Slydog43]

DirectB2S was such a great improvement to VP, I thought that any stutter introduced could be eliminated by changing the skip frames.  Guess not.  Really glad people are looking into this!  I have just renamed my directb2s file and tables seem to play without stutter and fire off DOF stuff just fine, so I also believe it has something to do with updating the backglass.

Edited by Slydog43, 10 March 2014 - 04:59 PM.

[DJRobX]

I noticed severe ball stutter with backglasses using a lot of animations and/or lights simultaneously. AFM is one of them, in Roadshow it affects physics somehow.

 

What I find the most fascinating about this issue is that the amount of activity doesn't always correspond to the performance hit.   As I mentioned, Indiana Jones takes a huge performance hit, while absolutely nothing is visibly changing on the backglass.   Meanwhile, Scared Stiff with its spinning spider is taking minimal impact.

[pincade]

Do you think that a static backglass gives more performance to the table? I'm not so interested in animated backglass and there is a program to build static and animated BG.. if my thoughts are right I can create several static bg to gain some fps

[DJRobX]

If you want a static BG, usually your front-end (Hyperpin, PinballX, or whatnot) will leave the image up from its media folder while you play.   So in the Indiana Jones example, I simply removed the Directb2s file, and Hyperpin's static IJ image is there while I play, and the measured performance is much better.   In my case, I still want B2S itself, because DOF needs B2S to access my toys.   The impact of DOF is very minimal from my testing.

 

It's also pretty easy to remove all of the animated bits from a directb2s file (or create a static BG from an image) with the B2S editor. 

Edited by DJRobX, 12 March 2014 - 08:46 PM.

[pincade]

uhm...ok! 

I use PinballX and it's possible to set a bg  image from a folder but in this case I need to edit the script by changing "B2S Server" with "VPinMame Control" ...is it right? 

[bent98]

Djrob I would work with Herweth to get a copy if the source code.

[insx]

uhm...ok! 

I use PinballX and it's possible to set a bg  image from a folder but in this case I need to edit the script by changing "B2S Server" with "VPinMame Control" ...is it right? 

That's right. If you have both in there with one commented out, you just change which one is commented.

[DJRobX]

uhm...ok! 

I use PinballX and it's possible to set a bg  image from a folder but in this case I need to edit the script by changing "B2S Server" with "VPinMame Control" ...is it right? 

 

You have a couple choices.   There's an option in the B2S settings (right click on a working B2S BG) to disable startup error messages.   If you turn that on, you can just rename/delete/remove the directb2s files without touching the scripts.   Otherwise yes, you would have to change the script back from "B2S.Server" to "VPinMame.Controller"

[slashbot]

I got stutter after finishing my cab, changed B2S and Visual Pinball to the same videocard and set DMD to 2 onboard videocard solved all my stutterproblems.