Stuttering on loading media

[alondero]

Hi,

I've been away from GameEx for a couple of months but after updating I notice that the media (like box art, videos etc) seem to stutter quite a bit when loading. It's pretty evident when switching from one game to another and I didn't have this issue a few months ago. Any ideas?

I was wondering whether it may have anything to do with the preferred codec switch? I've installed the LAVFilters from the Pinball X page, whereas before I would imagine I had the Shark007 codecs installed.

gameex.ini

log.txt

[Draco1962]

Did you completely uninstall the Shark007 codecs pack? 

[alondero]

13 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Did you completely uninstall the Shark007 codecs pack? 

Yeah, I believe so. There's no trace of it in the Programs & Features nor the Apps & Features control panels, and the Shark007 folders are empty... I may try removing LAVFilters and putting Shark007 back to see if my problem goes away.

Edit - Just did that but the issue is still happening. Looks like it's not a codec issue....

[tthurman]

You many want to try a registry cleaner such as ccleaner to make sure you got it all.

[nullPointer]

You may also want to see if the same thing is happening in the default theme (just to rule it out as a theme issue).  I also noticed that you're running an AMD video card.  A while back AMD made some changes to their Catalyst Software Suite and their Raptr client that caused issues for both GameEx and PinballX.  You may want to further verify that these software components aren't the source of your issues.  Good luck man!

 

 

 

[nullPointer]

Sorry for double post.  It also occurred to me that you may want to toggle this setting (found on the Display Settings screen in the Setup Wizard) to see whether it makes a difference:

18 hours ago, Your GameEx.ini said:

RunFullScreenInWindow=True

[alondero]

Sadly nothing seems to affect the performance, I've even removed both the LAV filters and Shark007 codecs and the videos still play but with stutters when switching from one item to the next.

I've also removed the Raptor app and changed the fullScreenWindow setting (which I toggled as I was having issues with the text at 4k previously see 

I even tried disabling my AV to see if that was causing an issue - but still no luck.

[Draco1962]

Have you tried connecting to a 1080p monitor or display to rule-out your 4K display as the culprit? Keep in mind that in addition to refresh rates, you have to have a decent response time. As Tom noted in your other thread, many of the higher quality displays do not boast of a good response time which can hinder performance.

[alondero]

46 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

Have you tried connecting to a 1080p monitor or display to rule-out your 4K display as the culprit? Keep in mind that in addition to refresh rates, you have to have a decent response time. As Tom noted in your other thread, many of the higher quality displays do not boast of a good response time which can hinder performance.

I'm thinking this is a software rather than a hardware issue as it's causing momentary lock ups in GameEx as well as audio/video stutters. Weird thing is that just now I started GameEx up straight after logging in and there wasn't any stuttering, but on the second launch it stuttered again...

Are the recommended LAVFilter codecs still http://www.pinballx.com/codecs.exe? I will give another go at installing these codecs and seeing if that does anything. 

Edit - Just switched to a different theme (Smoked Glass) and noticed that whilst the stutter still happens this happened when the theme tried to load the next 'alternate video' (which the Aeon Inspirat theme doesn't show). I'm now convinced this is either:

* A Codec issue (and I was using the wrong LAVFilter codec)

* A conflicting Codec issue (even though I've run Codec a clean-up - I may still have something that conflicts)

* A disk issue - though videos run fine from other media players

[Draco1962]

The recommended LAV codecs are the ones linked as you noted. 

[Tom Speirs]

There was a small change to the video code to get the frame rate in the latest release. Please try the attached replacement file and see if it makes a difference.

 

Thanks.

Tom.

NetVideoPlayer.zip

[alondero]

17 hours ago, Tom Speirs said:

There was a small change to the video code to get the frame rate in the latest release. Please try the attached replacement file and see if it makes a difference.

 

Thanks.

Tom.

NetVideoPlayer.zip

Hi Tom,

Thanks for this, it's hard to tell but I think this had maybe only a slight improvement. It still stutters momentarily (about 500ms or so) when loading the next video (and stuttery audio from the video remains for say a second when switching to another game/console in the list).

It's almost as if the main UI thread is being blocked whilst it is loading a video?

Happy to help out where I can in debugging this.

[alondero]

I was getting even larger lags just now (in the region of about 10 seconds per video transition). I also noticed that the Windows Problem Reporting Tool was running during each of these pauses.

Looking further I saw this in my computer reliability log. I've also attached the background_log file from that run where you can see an exception raised.

Edit: Here's the info from a problems details page:

Problem signature
Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
Application Name:    GameEx.exe
Application Version:    1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp:    56be4d5a
Fault Module Name:    D3DIM700.DLL
Fault Module Version:    10.0.14271.1000
Fault Module Timestamp:    56c6ddba
Exception Code:    c0000005
Exception Offset:    0000dd37
OS Version:    10.0.14271.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID:    2057
Additional Information 1:    1d5b
Additional Information 2:    1d5b6d5a636807599897bcbc41cac059
Additional Information 3:    bd7c
Additional Information 4:    bd7c8606a2a7cfb0d971f1ae899462c1

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID:    7de4248a051f37b9374a4932495a2f49 (107990040080)
 

background_log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Looks like a display driver issue maybe. The D3D mentioned would appear to be related to DirectX.

Edit: Looks like an unrelated issue to me.

 

[Tom Speirs]

Maybe some issues on your network perhaps? Do they stutter when on the local drive?

[Tom Speirs]

I just tested over a wireless connection with the current release and I don't see anything untoward although my equipment is pretty high end. Is it emumovies content?

Has anything else changed? It could be to do with the view (change view)

 

[alondero]

6 hours ago, Tom Speirs said:

I just tested over a wireless connection with the current release and I don't see anything untoward although my equipment is pretty high end. Is it emumovies content?

Has anything else changed? It could be to do with the view (change view)

 

All my files are local. The only other thing that has changed that I may just put the issue down to for now is that I'm on the Windows 10 fast ring - maybe there is some issue with the DirectX in the current build (14271). Anyone else on this build having these issues?

[Draco1962]

I am running Windows 10 on two different machines and no issues with video stuttering or latency of any kind. Have you checked for a direct download of the latest DirectX? Sometimes updates do not install correctly. 

I recommend downloading the latest GameEx version and install over the top of your current installation. Please report back with updated gameex.ini and log.txt files and let us know if there is any improvement. Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

I have got no issues with Windows 10 and I don't see other reports of this issue. It is out scope though to support GameEx on Alpha/Beta versions of Windows