Dual core performance ?

[Darkmeteor]

Am I the only one experiencing low performance when running both playfield and backglass videos at the same time ?

So I've been testing PinballX on my quad core i5, no issues at all, but when I tried on my pincab which is a core 2 duo the framerate dramatically dropped when 2 videos are played, to the point PinballX become a bit unstable and sometimes even crashes when quickly browsing. I tried to play with settings in shark007 codecs, but nothing helps... The task manager also shows a CPU utilisation of about 97% while the 2 videos are playing. To be sure of the problem, I then started PinballX on my quad core and limited it to using 2 cores only, and then it started to stutter too.

I'm pretty sure a c2d should be able to decode 2 h264 streams at the same time without stuttering, hyperpin runs the videos just fine, and I just tried playing a playfield video in 2 instances of VLC on each screen and got only 34% of CPU utilisation, I really don't know if it's a codec issue or something else.

[open6l]

I'm running a quadcore and yeah - I have seen the same performance issue. My playfield videos are 1920x1080 with music and my backglass videos are 1080x1920 (vertical) but still it should be able to handle it (HP can play them). I'm thinking it might be decoding / codecs since a new splitter was required under Pinballx to play the same flash videos that HP plays without needing additional splitters. Gonna dig deeper into it over next few days when I get some free time.

[pocketpal]

I thought maybe I was the only one having troubles, too. My problem seems to be just backglass videos, regardless of whether or not there is also a playfield video playing. For instance, I have noticed Capt. Fantastic bogs down my performance something fierce, and I don't have a playfield video for it. The back glass video plays fine, although it does seem to slow down some, but key presses stop working.ive noticed that Ctrl-Alt-Del seems to bring it out of its funk, for some reason.

[horseyhorsey]

Like you mention Pocketpal it isn't the PF videos. I'm not sure it matters how BG is encoded, it still lags. For me it just makes the menu real slow and the BG music still plays, untill its finished playing when you're in a table.

I only had 3 backglass videos, these were ones I knocked up. All with custom music I mixed for the tables. They pretty much got removed on day one and I said no more of it.

[Darkmeteor]

It's better to separate the audio with PinballX, just put the audio file in the Table audio directory and it will play whenever you are viewing this table, when I tried to have audio in the videos the audio was playing as long as I did not browse on another table with audio in the PF vid.

[horseyhorsey]

Yeah it probably is, these videos were made a while back. Will try at some point, I still have source audio.

[Agrajag]

For what it's worth, I've got a 1st generation core i7-920 @ 2.67 GHz, and playing backglass videos brings PinballX juddering to a halt - to the point that I have to use the task manager to kill it. Mind you, I couldn't work out how to get them to play at all in HyperPin so at least it's a bit of an improvement!

I'm slowly assembling the parts for a mini cabinet, although actually building it is going to be put off until later in the year after finishing some more pressing DIY projects. However, I will be upgrading my PC before then and may even get the hang of overclocking, so I'll see what having the latest generation i5 @ 4.5 GHz or so does for the performance.

[Darkmeteor]

In the meantime I renamed the backglass video folders so they don't play, and now PinballX runs like a charm, even when stressing it.

[Tom Speirs]

Ive improved performance. Could you please try the attached replacement exe and let me know the results.

Thanks.

Tom

PinballX.zip

[Tom Speirs]

Ive just released a new version which improves the performance of backglass videos to where I am going to get it right now without messing with other stuff.

[Tom Speirs]

PS: The performance issue is down to the rendering but like I said it should be better now.

[pocketpal]

Yeah, the new version appears to have done the trick for me! Thanks!

[Darkmeteor]

It's A LOT better now, but it still slow down quite a bit and CPU utilisation is still almost at 100%. When browsing quickly sometimes the playfield video just crash and I have to restart PinballX to get video on that screen again. Can I do something on my end to get better performances ? I've got shark007 codecs, don't know what else to do :/

[Draco1962]

It's A LOT better now, but it still slow down quite a bit and CPU utilisation is still almost at 100%. When browsing quickly sometimes the playfield video just crash and I have to restart PinballX to get video on that screen again. Can I do something on my end to get better performances ? I've got shark007 codecs, don't know what else to do :/

As you are aware, performance can vary depending on the machine and OS it is running. Per your original post you are running on a Core 2 Duo. What OS are you running (if Win 7 or Vista - 32 or 64-bit)? How much RAM? Onboard GPU or add-on? GPU RAM? Are there any other processes running that may be helping to push utilization up so high?

[Tom Speirs]

It's A LOT better now, but it still slow down quite a bit and CPU utilisation is still almost at 100%. When browsing quickly sometimes the playfield video just crash and I have to restart PinballX to get video on that screen again. Can I do something on my end to get better performances ? I've got shark007 codecs, don't know what else to do :/

Did you try the actual latest release? Also try setting the Codecs to Shark recommended settings. There is not much else I can do to improve performance of the backglass and DMD videos right now.

I can run backglass, DMD and playfield videos at the same time on a single i7 2600k core without any real slow down.

[Darkmeteor]

Yes it was with the latest release. Draco1962, It was Seven 64 bit, 8GB of ram, GPU is GeForce GTX660 with 2GB of GDDR5 ram, without PinballX running the utilization is at a normal 1%, nothing else is running. Anyway, I just crashed that windows installation, it just won't start anymore, blue screen each time... So I'm giving a try at a lite XP install CD I had laying around.

[Tom Speirs]

Hey,

I've just released 1.18. I squeezed a few more optimizations out of it but I don't know if it will be significantly better. Let me know how you get on.

Thanks.

Tom.

[Draco1962]

Sounds like it may be a bad 7 install. I would recommend sticking with 7 as it has much better memory management than XP. While I have no problems with XP, keep in mind that any "lite" versions will be difficult to troubleshoot (and we cannot support these versions) vs. a normal install. If XP 32-bit, then only about 3.5GB of your 8GB RAM will be available.

[horseyhorsey]

Hey,

I've just released 1.18. I squeezed a few more optimizations out of it but I don't know if it will be significantly better. Let me know how you get on.

Thanks.

Tom.

Actual menus speeded up a bit after this, I had tried 1.17 not long ago and can notice difference there , but still pretty laggy on my BG videos made. Will try one of bitupsets BG to see if they run ok, maybe it doesn't like the way mines encoded.

[Tom Speirs]

Actual menus speeded up a bit after this, I had tried 1.17 not long ago and can notice difference there , but still pretty laggy on my BG videos made. Will try one of bitupsets BG to see if they run ok, maybe it doesn't like the way mines encoded.

Is the whole front end laggy or just the BG video?

[Tom Speirs]

Also, I updated 1.18 again so please download again.

[Agrajag]

This is a vast improvement in speed, thanks. However, I think I'll have to spend some time at the weekend tinkering with codecs and looking for better backglass videos, as at the moment they are being divided into blocks and there are green dots sparkling all over the screen.

I'm using a 10 year old 1280x1024 Viewsonic VP191 (a classic of it's time!) as a temporary measure, and think it is being driven at the wrong frequency by these videos.

[Darkmeteor]

Yes I've seen these little green dots everywhere too on backglass videos.

[Agrajag]

After my previous post last night I moved the backglass over to one of my Dell widescreens and the few videos I checked looked fine, apart from Back To The Future. This went into black and white with a diagonal distortion that made it look like an old VHS tape in its last death throes.

I need to spend more time getting to grips with this, but it has at least convinced me to give the old monitor the heave ho and buy a small widescreen for the cab.

[Tom Speirs]

The glitches may be on my end, so don't go splashing out on new equipment just yet!