UPDATE: Question about Themes on 18.05 - Laggy menu transition?

[ClassicGMR]

Update: I installed 18.05 and had the same results listed below. Logs have been attached from 18.05.

I got everything back to normal and fully updated to the newest software. I never had this problem before this week. My system specs:

1. Intel i5-6400 CPU @ 2.7GHz
2. 16GB RAM
3. nVidia GeForce GTX 950 2GB
4. Windows 10 Home
5. GameEx 17.22 (Now 18.01) (Now 18.04 5/18/2022) (Now 18.05 5/21/2022)
6. Draco's Space Invaders Theme (both normal and HD)
7. All times listed are from the stopwatch on my iPhone

My issue is in transitions - specifically going from a sub-menu to the main menu. Here's what I have observed:

1. I load GameEx to the home menu and then select MAME. It comes right up to the sub-menu for MAME. Now I select ALL MAME GAMES and that list loads almost immediately. When I hit back and return to the MAME menu it also loads immediately. However when I hit back again to go to the Home menu it takes 21 seconds to load.
2. I load Emulated Games and it loads right up to my console list. I select Atari 2600 (for example) and it loads right up. Select BACK and the console list comes right up. I hit BACK again to go to the Home menu and it takes 21 seconds.
3. To shorten this ... any menu I select from the Home menu and then return it takes 21-22 seconds to load. This also applies to selecting HOME from the menu at the top.

EDIT: Well ... after I wrote this I tried a few more 1920x1080 themes - ExNano is sluggish everywhere, Hexed acts the same as above BUT Retro Arcade HD and Pure GameEx run perfectly. Also the basic themes included all seem to run fine. I'm confused.  

2nd EDIT: Just for clarification I just did a new install last night from scratch thinking it was related to my restore efforts so this is brand-y new.

3rd EDIT: Updated to 18.01. Same behavior.

4th EDIT: Updated to 18.04. Same behavior. 5/18/2022

5th EDIT: Updated to 18.05. Same behavior. 5/21/2022

 

log.txt GameEx.ini

[tthurman]

18.01 is out and resolves the below, perhaps the update will provide the fix for you.

 

[ClassicGMR]

Will give it a run through this weekend.

[ClassicGMR]

Bump. New info.

[tthurman]

It's strange this just started.  Have you checked for malware or background processes to see if something else is up?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/processhacker/

 

It may be a stretch, but did you update dotnet too?

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0

[ClassicGMR]

2 hours ago, tthurman said:

It's strange this just started.  Have you checked for malware or background processes to see if something else is up?

Yes PC is clean. I run MalwareBytes and AV scans regularly and I initiated one as soon as I suspected something was up. Nothing I don't expect to see in Task manager. I also deleted and downloaded the themes again. On top of that I shut down Battle.net, Epic Games Launcher, Steam and, just because, Daemon Tools. I also shut down the internet to test if that was causing something to slow down. Nothing is running behind the scenes that shouldn't be.

2 hours ago, tthurman said:

It may be a stretch, but did you update dotnet too?

Yes I did that as well since you suggested it last week. Any time GameEx wants to load the main menu (HOME) - including initially loading it from the desktop (which I am sorry I forgot to add) - takes 20-22 seconds to load. All submenus load quickly and cleanly in under a second.

[tthurman]

I'm sure the delay is very frustrating!   You have a much more extensive configuration of GameEx than I've ever had set up, so I can imagine the latency is a real deal breaker.  I've never experienced this issue and these basic trouble shooting suggestions have exhausted what immediately comes to mind.  Perhaps @Tom Speirs will have some idea as to what the culprit could be.

[Draco1962]

You mentioned that the Space Invaders and ExNano themes were laggy. I have not experienced it myself, yet I am wondering if part of what you are experiencing is due to the fact that both themes use a combination of foreground and background images.  The default theme does not.

[ClassicGMR]

I'm not at home at the moment (vacation week) but I can double-check the themes again and see what gives me trouble. I am almost 100% sure, though, that the list above is accurate. As for the types of themes I have to rely on your creation experience since I never made one myself.

[ClassicGMR]

For the record 18.04 is still behaving the same way.

[Draco1962]

You may want to try v18.05 and attach updated files post-update and issue occurrence if still happening.

[ClassicGMR]

Done. Nothing changed. I don't get this. I'll probably just have to change the theme. Just love the SI HD theme - I've had it since release.

[Draco1962]

Up to date on GPU drivers?

[ClassicGMR]

GPU, Windows 10, motherboard drivers and the NET 6 mentioned above. All yes.  

 

[Draco1962]

Do you recall the version your were running prior to the lag?

[ClassicGMR]

My laptop is running 16.90 so I would have to guess something similar or earlier.

OK holy sh.... Wow.... I feel like an ass. I booted the Qosmio laptop to check the version and it is 16.90... but it's doing the same thing? I just never noticed it before maybe? I usually boot up the PC or laptop, play a few games then ESC out of the system before shutting it down. When I noticed the problem with my arcade cabinet I was resetting my Tankstick controls so I went through every menu option.

Now I can't honestly say how long this has been happening... I'm sorry but I have no idea. I'll just have to live with it or swap I guess. I am sorry I didn't noticed sooner. I DO know, however, that this used to work flawlessly. Like I said above I have used this theme since about the time you released it. The only time I had an issue was when it was doing the black backgrounds last year - in fact I think 16.89 or 16.90 is what fixed that.

EDIT: Just a thought. I repair PCs but I am no programmer so this would mostly be a question and not a suggestion - but maybe this is a Windows issue? Some update they did with the OS recently?

ADD SPECS: Laptop is running an i5-2430M with 8GB RAM and a GTX 560M all of which is also fully updated.

[Draco1962]

Could be an update that is interfering with the rendering.  What makes this difficult to triage is not being able to reproduce for you.b

Your hardware seems well within spec.