Slow menus on Windows 10

[iridium]

I have Attract Mode 2.6.1 running on an old Windows 10 laptop with a Core2Duo T6600 and 4gb ram. It is an older system so it isn't the fastest, but it works fine for running MAME.

Attract Mode works great except for one thing: The menu system to select games or configure the system is very slow. When I'm browsing my MAME game list each up or down on the joystick takes around a second to move to the next item. While that doesn't seem like much it makes the process of selecting a game seem very slow and sluggish.

I thought it might be because the MAME games were loading screenshots. But it is still slow when I hit Tab and go into the config settings. The up/down to select different items is just as slow there. I'm using the Basic layout so there isn't too much going on that would slow it down.

I tried running Attract Mode on my more modern laptop and the menus are very fast on that machine. Do the menus just require a more powerful machine? Or could there be some other issue?

[progets]

AM running the basic layout shouldn't require much hardware. Run the attract-console.exe from the command line and see if there are errors or delays. How large is your romlist? Maybe try a smaller romlist just to test.

Possible things to look at:
- Configure-->Basic-->Video Decoder = software/hardware
- make sure another process isn't running (like antivirus, anti-spyware, etc.)
- look to see if your CPU or RAM are being maxed out
- make sure that directx is patched and working properly
- make sure that ms visual c++ runtime is patched and working properly
- make sure you have the correct and latest video card drivers
- try a different layout
- try a different resolution

[iridium]

I ran attract-console.exe and it says that hardware acceleration is not available (see below for full output). I believe this is correct, since this is an older laptop I don't think the video card supports hardware 3d. I have the latest Windows Update video drivers installed, I don't think there are any newer Win10 drivers since HP doesn't support Win10 on this laptop.

According to task manager there is still enough RAM available and the CPU is only going to 40% when using the menus.

DirectX: According to a Microsoft page I found, it said DirectX is included in Win10 so there isn't an installer?

I did some further testing:
If I remove all of the displays and go to the config menu then it is fast. Up/down keypresses are responsive.

If I add one display with one MAME rom then things slow down again. The number of ROMs that I have doesn't seem to affect the speed.

I tried a few different layouts and all of them were slow.

Maybe the software rendering is just slow when there is a layout that needs to be displayed?


attractmode-console output:
Attract-Mode v2.6.1 (Windows, SFML 2.5.1 +SWF +7z +Curl)
avcodec 58.54.100 / avformat 58.29.100 / swscale 5.5.100 / avutil 56.31.100 / swresample 3.5.100

Config: C:\arcade\apps\attract.251\attract.cfg
 - Constructed 1 filters in 0 ms (1 comparisons)
Warning: Detected "Microsoft Corporation GDI Generic" OpenGL implementation
The current OpenGL implementation is not hardware-accelerated
Setting vertical sync not supported
OpenGL extension SGIS_texture_edge_clamp unavailable
Artifacts may occur along texture edges
Ensure that hardware acceleration is enabled if available

[progets]

Based on what you provided it looks like the video drivers are the issue. I would get the latest drivers from the video card's manufacture (not HP or Microsoft).

[iridium]

Thanks for helping out with this. As far as I know Win10 drivers were never released for this video card. I guess I'll just have to live with the slow menus. At least the games run at full speed which is the most important thing.

[iridium]

In case someone stumbles upon this post in the future:
I did some further testing and found that if I remove the bg.png image from the Basic layout then things run a lot faster. The borders around the UI components are no longer there, but it looks good enough for my use. The speed of selecting games seems reasonable now, not sluggish like before.

Probably the issue is that on older computers like mine, OpenGL software rendering is just really slow to display a full screen image like bg.png. By removing the image there is a lot less work for the video driver to do.

[boriskarloff]

I have lag problems.
Sometimes the wheel is fast, sometimes slow and sometimes stucks.

Attract Mode 2.6.1
Windows 10 home with intel I3 and SSD.
Video driver updated.
No programs and antivirus installed.
I use the OS in a cabinet.