Author Topic: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back  (Read 5586 times)

Asterra

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That's really the main thing that's missing.  Not a single one of my videos, which are all 60fps, plays at their full framerate, which in turn causes them to lose sync with their audio.  And the logo wheel also doesn't scroll at 60fps (or even half of that, really -- the loading of images makes it chug too much).  HyperSpin is a dated kludge that has its own issues but it has no problems with smooth graphics and video playback, despite its considerable age.

I really feel like this is something AttractMode should see as a focus.

bjose2345

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2017, 05:39:03 AM »
Are you talking about the video issues in the Pi? if i remember right, there is some tutorial to use mmal for video decoding.

akafox

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2017, 09:37:44 AM »
Well your post says "PC" so I am going with that...

that said I run attract mode on a dual core I have no issues like that and I run from a usb drive. I have no audio problems at all.

Ray Is working on hardware support I am sure....now if we could get the mame dev team to do that ( just kidding! :P)
People want life easy..then complain about it

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2017, 10:39:15 AM »
I've run attractmode on both linux and windows 7 on a p4 with a radeon 7500 vga video card with zero issues.

We are going to need more info about your setup.
What OS
what CPU
What video card.


Asterra

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2017, 11:27:19 AM »
I've run attractmode on both linux and windows 7 on a p4 with a radeon 7500 vga video card with zero issues.

We are going to need more info about your setup.
What OS
what CPU
What video card.
I actually didn't think this was an unknown issue, seeing as how a quick Google search can find plenty of other people bringing up the problem, with the typical recommend "solution" being to personally downgrade one's videos, especially if they are over 30fps.  For what it's worth:

Windows 7 64-bit, i7 980x, Nvidia GTX 1070.  I access these files over USB2, but I've tried running everything off a local drive and get the same results, so that's definitely not it.

Here, a quick link to one of the videos I use: https://mega.nz/#F!CgwzQJ5S!xysgH9Uydl0QJ9fXtqXriw  (main menu video.rar).  Try it for yourself (on PC).  Watch it in AttractMode until you get to the part with the Link/King cartoon with the dialogue.  On my system, in a media player, this part is in perfect sync, while in AttractMode it is by that point a full two seconds out of sync (video is ahead of the audio, due to dropped frames).  If that's the same with you, then you now know what I'm talking about.  If it's not, then maybe there is some hope after all.  Some setting I've overlooked.  The topic of hardware acceleration has been brought up many times here, but there is a lack of information.  Currently it is assumed that the option is simply not available on the PC iteration, and its presence as an "option" is an overlooked redundancy.  When I watch the CPU usage, one core gets 100% of the responsibility of processing these videos, and it gets capped out.  That would certainly do it.

I'll add that probably most video packs out there are only 29.97 or 30fps, and certainly those play in AttractMode without issue because of the dramatic reduction in required CPU power.  So if you discover that the above video gives you sync issues you weren't expecting, then at least you know the probable reason why.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2017, 11:31:32 AM by Asterra »

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2017, 10:23:16 AM »
I guess I don't understand what you are trying to do.
Are you watching movies in attractmode?

what is the resolution of the video's and what file formats?
what are you using them for?
Preview video's?
I don't currently have attractmode on a PC anymore.


Asterra

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2017, 01:49:35 AM »
I guess I don't understand what you are trying to do.
Are you watching movies in attractmode?
AttractMode can make use of "video snaps" to showcase whatever is highlighted -- typically a game.  These movies get framed on screen based on the theme being used.

what is the resolution of the video's and what file formats?
Generally 640x480.  Generally 59.94 or 60fps.  Basically NTSC (deinterlaced).  Standard resolution and framerate for the vast majority of video games that exist.

what are you using them for?
Preview video's?
Correct.

I get it.  Most people use this software on their Raspberry Pi, and happily it does include the all-too-ubiquitous hardware acceleration on those devices.  Obviously that's going to limit the number of people who notice that videos have major problems on PC.  So will the fact that one doesn't necessarily make use of high-quality videos and thus never encounters a scenario where AttractMode's 1-core-only playback caps out their CPU.  I am just saying that when a person _is_ using PC and _is_ using decent video snaps, the utility of this software gets hampered dramatically, because no other frontend suffers from this particular problem.

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Lack of hardware acceleration on PC holds this frontend back
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2017, 10:53:39 AM »
I guess I don't understand what you are trying to do.
Are you watching movies in attractmode?
AttractMode can make use of "video snaps" to showcase whatever is highlighted -- typically a game.  These movies get framed on screen based on the theme being used.

what is the resolution of the video's and what file formats?
Generally 640x480.  Generally 59.94 or 60fps.  Basically NTSC (deinterlaced).  Standard resolution and framerate for the vast majority of video games that exist.

what are you using them for?
Preview video's?
Correct.

I get it.  Most people use this software on their Raspberry Pi, and happily it does include the all-too-ubiquitous hardware acceleration on those devices.  Obviously that's going to limit the number of people who notice that videos have major problems on PC.  So will the fact that one doesn't necessarily make use of high-quality videos and thus never encounters a scenario where AttractMode's 1-core-only playback caps out their CPU.  I am just saying that when a person _is_ using PC and _is_ using decent video snaps, the utility of this software gets hampered dramatically, because no other frontend suffers from this particular problem.

I thought you were using high-res video's.
i'm pretty sure I used video's at that resolution with no issues on linux on hardware ancient compared to what you have.
But with a dedicated video card.
Not the on-die graphics.

I'm on vacation next week and need the next few days to get stuff done before i go but i'll try to toss attractmode on my win 10 i5 machine with dedicated video card tonight and use the linked video you have.
to see if I see what you are talking about.