[RESOLVED] Visual Pinball is running significantly slower under PinballX :(

[djrobx]

I've been banging my head against the wall at this particular problem for over a month now and I just cannot figure it out.   I am raising the white flag in hopes that someone has some idea that I haven't thought of.

This is an i7 4790 4.0ghz processor with a Nvidia 960, on Windows 8.1.  It should be able to handle this with ease. 

I'm experiencing slower - sometimes SIGNIFICANTLY slower VIsual Pinball performance when launched from PinballX.   I thought it only affected VPX but I was wrong.  I noticed some ball stutter when playing Indiana Jones PhysMod5, so I started to monitor its behavior.   I typically run with Vsync On so its pretty obvious when performance dips.    I turned off VSYNC to see the raw FPS throughput of my system and was pretty surrprised to see the result:

Launching VP_PhysMod5 directly from Windows: ~350fps.

Luanching VP_PhysMod5 from PinballX: ~70fps, jumpy ball.  

Launching through HyperPin: 600fps (!?!) - gameplay is super smooth, though.

 

Things I have tried:

1) Setting CPU affinity to separate PinballX and VP/VPM/B2S.  No change.

2) Different versions of PinballX - No real change.   Newer versions seem to be a bit better than older ones.

3) Disabling B2S - No change

4) Adding RAM (4gb to 8gb) - No change.

5) Turning off EnableLUA (to really kill UAC) - No change.

6) If I go into the Task Manager while the table is running (at 70fps) and kill PinballX.exe, FPS will jump up to 350.

7) If I go into Task Manager and reduce the priority or change the priority of running processes - no change.

8) Disabling Intel SpeedStep

9) Disabling HyperThreading

10) Changing video driver versions to older ones

11) Checked refresh rates on all monitors - all 60hz.

12) Tried moving DMD to onboard video just for kicks- no change.

12a) Disable/Enable onboard video controller - no change

13) Played with the hide DMD / Hide backglass settings - no change

14) Using "Other system" and "Custom" type to disable Visual Pinball specific launching.  No change.

15) Disable windows defender / exclude folders. 

16) Verified that compatibility mode for XP is NOT set per post I found googling the issue (also tried turning it on.. no change).

Under VPX, using Exclusive Fullscreen mode helps a lot - to a point where this problem is pretty much unnoticeable.  

Help?!

pinballx_log_config.rar

[delta6014]

I have this same problem. PinballX 2.27 and 2.28 cause massive slowdown for me. I loaded PinballX 2.16 which I still had saved somewhere, and it runs fine. Don't know what the problem is

[Tom Speirs]

Is it the same if left running for a while?

[Tom Speirs]

I am not sure why this has just come up now but here is the latest version to test. By what you have tried its obviously not PinballX taking up too many resources while in the background.

It is just PhyMod? I didn't realise it had fullscreen exclusive mode yet? Is it the same when PBX is running windowed? How do other tables fair?

I am not testing the same table and am on windows 10 but am not seeing this issue here. Could you PM me the files please?

PinballX.zip

[Tom Speirs]

Yeah, not sure what I can do on this one.

On my fastest PC (single screen). I get 1000fps on that table within PBX!

I assume we are talking about the newish table from VPUniverse?

I will test on the cab later. Maybe the extra displays affect things?

[Tom Speirs]

I just tested on the cab (Which is a lower although similar spec but running windows 10) and I am getting 500fps.

So I have tested on three machines all look good. Although all running Windows 10.

So really not sure, although thanks for motivating me to turn on the cab!

They seem like strange numbers you are reporting as I was even getting 300fps during a TeamViewer session. I get 1000fps with PBX and without on my 6700k like I said above.

 

So all I can really say if your waving the white flag is.. Windows 10 or check the gfx and/or RAM.

I have a 4790 (non k) and GeForce 620 and 770 in the cab. It does run off an SSD but it actually sounds lower spec. I am using the physmod version with my own VP install (dated 2014) and the latest pinmame from Angrim. I have NVIDIA settings at let the application decide. Geforce experience is not installed. I tested with the current release of PinballX plus the one above. All the machines have 16GB or over. 4GB, really? Maybe its paging? I didn't actually play the game. Just let it sit, few credits and start.

[djrobx]

Hi Tom, thanks for checking on it.

I have an SSD also.   I did check the RAM (it's now 8gb and going from 4 to 8 didn't make the slightest difference).   It's seriously a strange problem.   The resource monitor shows PinballX not using any CPU, so it makes zero sense why it has such an impact.    Another data point is that the game starts out running fine, but after 2-3 seconds the performance dips.   It will sometimes oscillate upwards but stays draggy.   I've messed around with the Nvidia Control panel settings too.  They can affect the frame rate, but don't really matter in terms of the PinballX difference.   I never install the GeForce experience stuff. 

I FIRST observed this issue with VPX when testing Scared Stiff.   I think I never noticed problems on PhysMod or VP9 tables, probably because they perform so much faster.     When I turned on Exclusive Fullscreen in VPX the issue mostly went away, so I assumed it was more or less solved.   Until I started playing IJ:TPA on physmod5, and noticed the performance drag there too.   For PhysMod5, I can't use exclusive mode to work around the problem like I can on VPX. 

I guess I can try moving to Windows 10 to see what happens.   I seem to be in a minority group using windows 8, and I haven't heard much negative about Windows 10.   

 

[Drybonz]

DJR, I'm running Windows 8.1 and I have never seen this issue.  I don't think it makes sense to switch OS over this issue if you don't want to.  It's probably something else.

I know this is kind of a catch-all bs suggestion, but is your PBX running as admin?

[djrobx]

I'm at the point of trying anything and everything.   I'm happily accepting "catch all BS suggestions".

Yep I've tried running PBX as admin and not as admin.    I later tried EnableLUA=0 to make sure the whole UAC/user account thing wasn't involved.  No change.    In fact one of the reasons I was trying to stick with Windows 8.1 is that EnableLUA=0 doesn't work as well on Win10.     I really hate UAC.   

I'm installing win10 now and we'll see what happens.   I'm not hopeful but ya never know. 

[tthurman]

What system diagnostics have you ran?

I never ran PBX on 8.1, but I'm one of the odd ones that found 8.1 to be silky smooth, and easier on resources than 10.  That said I agree with Drybonz assessment that it likely isn't the os..

Have you tried running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt just to see if it finds anything?

 

It can't hurt checking

Some other ideas:

If your're running AMD graphics ensure you don't have Rptor Gaming Involved installed. and also run full  screen windowed

Edited December 2, 2016 by tthurman

[fuzgi]

Another catch all bs suggestion: Update .Net Framework if it's not up to date. I had a bad 4.5.2 installation, which caused PinballX and also the B2S Server used in the frontend to hang themselves from time to time. The issue got fixed with an offline installation of .NET 4.6.2. Only now, PinballX crashes everytime I exit it and closing the application takes significantly longer (will address that soon, Tom). Anyway, as I said, probably just another bs suggestion.

Do you have access to the event manager of your system? This is usually where I start looking for seemingly incomprehensible os-issues.

 

[djrobx]

Whelp, I did a Windows 10 upgrade-install (not a clean wipe).    I wanted to keep as much of the config the same as possible to see if the OS itself would make a difference all else being equal   I was surprised at how well it kept my settings and such. It pretty much kept eveything in-tact except the DMD monitor resolution.

Now I get a steady 317FPS under PinballX.    So whatever the problem was, it went away with the upgrade.   Yay?!? 

My Windows 8.1 install was pretty fresh, I had done a clean install maybe 3 or 4 months ago.  

So weird. 

 

[fuzgi]

Great to hear! Now play some Indy or check out the wonderfull backglass art and pinball sound by just browsing your tables in PinballX :-))

[djrobx]

Quote

or check out the wonderfull backglass art and pinball sound by just browsing your tables in PinballX :-))

Doing exactly that, I noticed that PinballX's wheel movement is now BUTTERY smooth.   It used to have a bit of stutter to it.    It also seems to start up about 3x faster.   So it seems whatever was going on was actually impacting PinbalX itself.  

By the way, your suggestion to check out / update the .NET framework was a good one I hadn't really thought of.  Could very well have been the culprit.   I guess I won't worry about it now and just be happy it finally is working right.  

Thanks for your help everyone! 

[Draco1962]

Glad to see you got it sorted!