Still has issues on the Pi 4

[tonberryhunter]

Ive gotten Attract Mode mostly working on the Pi 4 but noticing videos are tearing like crazy now and still freeze or stop playing.  None of my videos are particularly high quality and they ran well on the Pi3.  They are all non HD videos.

Oh and I cant seem to change the screen mode within attract mode or via ftp.  Everytime I make a change it reverts back to Fullscreen. 

Thank you

P.S. Keyboard still wont allow me to type when editing configs in Attract Mode. 

[progets]

How recent is your compile of AM? Less than a month ago there has been a commit to allow AM to run on the Pi 4 without needing xwindows http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=3665.msg25896#msg25896

If you want to make changes to the attract.cfg file, they need to be done when AM is NOT running.

Keyboard might need a boot delay if you are booting directly to AM. This was a old issue with xwindows.

You might want to check out the Pi FAQ (it's dated but still has a lot of good info) http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1249.msg9046#msg9046

I should mention these are just things for you to try/think about. I haven't used AM on a Pi 4, but have used it on Pi 1, Pi 2 and Pi 3.

[tonberryhunter]

How recent is your compile of AM? Less than a month ago there has been a commit to allow AM to run on the Pi 4 without needing xwindows http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=3665.msg25896#msg25896

If you want to make changes to the attract.cfg file, they need to be done when AM is NOT running.

Keyboard might need a boot delay if you are booting directly to AM. This was a old issue with xwindows.

You might want to check out the Pi FAQ (it's dated but still has a lot of good info) http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1249.msg9046#msg9046

I should mention these are just things for you to try/think about. I haven't used AM on a Pi 4, but have used it on Pi 1, Pi 2 and Pi 3.

The configs Ive tried editing from command, via ftp and ssh.  The screen mode does not seem to stick.  Maybe that setting is obsolete in the latest Attract Mode.  I copied over an old config from an earlier version of Attract.  Seems videos are fixed now on a fresh stock Retropie and fresh Attract Mode.  Im getting a new issue though with theme images or layers loading at different speeds or too slow causing this really awkward glitch.  It seems once it loads it loads quicker upon exiting and re entering the menu.  Although restating Attract Mode it comes back again.  My images arent particularly high res or anything.  This whole theme ran fine on the Pi 3.  Ever since we moved over to the Pi 4 I have experienced a new set of issues that seem to slowly become fixed but I imagine the Pi5 will be out before this gets working 100% and by that point we will be at square 1 again.  Ha ha I guess I should learn how to code so I can work on it all myself.

Here is a video of the bug below (dont mind my overscan)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15_aRsenj4Mg1dJ12rVMAuurZFYmw_SD0/view?usp=sharing

[progets]

Are you using ffmpeg?
Are you booting directly to AM?
Are you compiling AM or installing from the retropie menu?
What sdcard are you using?
Have you tried overclocking anything or everything?
Do you have attractmode running when you try to change the screen mode?

[tonberryhunter]

Are you using ffmpeg?
Are you booting directly to AM?
Are you compiling AM or installing from the retropie menu?
What sdcard are you using?
Have you tried overclocking anything or everything?
Do you have attractmode running when you try to change the screen mode?

I built from source from within the Retropie Setup menu on the latest Retropie. 

The error seems to be a memory error and not a video one.  Videos are playing fine its the theme thats lagging here.

Im booting directly to AM.

Gigastone 64GB Micro SD rated for up to 90mbs

Have not overclocked yet.  Although as I said this is a brand new issue with the latest Attract Mode and latest Retropie.  Perhaps it has to do with the new screen driver?  I didnt notice it on earlier test with the Pi  4

The screen mode option is now gone in this new build so perhaps it was obsolete. 

[progets]

Layouts/themes can be a big factor on a Pi. Have you tried other layouts and do they have the same issue?

What is your memory/video split set at?

Never heard of gigastone. Forget about what a company claims about their SD speed. I have tested many and there are places on the internet that show that higher end sandisk and samsung sdcards are leaps above most others. I'm not saying this is your issue but it could be. Do you have different sdcard you can copy to and test on?

[tonberryhunter]

Ive gone with a healthy overclock just now to see if that resolves it.  The slow loading background images is still a thing.  Also tried changing the memory split with no effect.

I typically run on SanDisk or Samsung SD cards but I figured Id try these odd name brand cards.  Im gonna backup and copy over to another SD card to see if that makes a difference. 

[progets]

What layout are you using? Can you test others to see if it might be the issue?

Have you tried overclocking the sd bus? Backup your sd card before you try this. If the card isn't fast enough it will get corrupted on the first boot.

[tonberryhunter]

Did you watch the video I linked above? 

The layout is Robo Spin heavily modified. 

[tonberryhunter]

Here are the SD card speed results in Windows.  Id say its not the SD causing the issues.  The writes are a little slower but reads are very much the same.

[tonberryhunter]

What layout are you using? Can you test others to see if it might be the issue?

Have you tried overclocking the sd bus? Backup your sd card before you try this. If the card isn't fast enough it will get corrupted on the first boot.

Backed up and put on a known working brand new Samsung SD card and the issue is the same.  The layers of each layout seem to load at different intervals.  Each Time with the video layer loading at the sametime first everytime.   

[progets]

Did you watch the video I linked above? 

The layout is Robo Spin heavily modified.

I did watch the video. How about trying a different layout? Maybe the original robospin. I'm not suggesting to change your build but you need to test to find where the problem is to fix it.

[tonberryhunter]

Is there a way to control the order in which elements are loaded into memory?  Once a menu loads it loads fine when you exit and load back in.  Its just the first load per sesssion seems to lag with the various png layers.  I'm not sure why this is an issue now on this more powerful hardware but I imagine it has something to do with how the new screen driver handles memory and image cache.  Its too bad Attract Mode does not offer more settings or Retropie for that matter.

I tested some other themes and cant seem to recreate the same issue.  I do notice things seem to load in the order of file size.  So smallest sized elements or layers load faster then everything else follows.  Similar to how a webpage loads.  Again nothing is over maybe 600kb in size aside from videos.  Videos should load last anyway so thats not the issue.

Im not gonna blame this on hardware since earlier X11 versions of Attract Mode on Pi4 didnt exhibit this behaviour.  This seems to have changed with the lastest Attract Mode and I suspect its related to this new cache implementation.   

[tonberryhunter]

Seems Im not the only one with this issue.

https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues/641

[mahuti]

I compiled the latest on 3b+ and 4 and haven't had issues on my layouts, including some many-layered PNG custom layouts with HD videos, marquees, wheels, etc.

Would you want me to test your layout on mine and see if there's a difference on this machine? I don't have it overclocked, and it handles what I've got just fine.

I compiled manually, so I don't know if that made a difference.

This is my compile instructions on Raspbian Buster on Pi 4. I have totally different instructions for the 3b+. Started with a CLEAN RetroPie install... i tried on a few other installs and didn't have much luck, so I started clean and it worked then. After adding other stuff in, it still seems fine.

Code: [Select]

*update*

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

*make development folder*

cd ~; mkdir develop
        cd ~/develop

*Install "sfml-pi" dependencies*

sudo apt-get install -y cmake libflac-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libopenal-dev libjpeg8-dev libfreetype6-dev libudev-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libegl1-mesa-dev
   
*Download and build sfml-pi*

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mickelson/sfml-pi sfml-pi
mkdir sfml-pi/build; cd sfml-pi/build
cmake .. -DSFML_DRM=1 -DSFML_OPENGL_ES=1
        make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

*Install attractmode dependencies

sudo apt-get install -y cmake libflac-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libavutil-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavfilter-dev libswscale-dev libavresample-dev libopenal-dev libfreetype6-dev libudev-dev libjpeg-dev libudev-dev libfontconfig1-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libxinerama-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

*Download and build Attract-Mode*

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mickelson/attract attract
cd attract
make USE_DRM=1 USE_MMAL=1          # it didn't seem to work when I added this -> USE_GLES=1
sudo make install USE_DRM=1 USE_MMAL=1

*Check to see that it was installed correctly.*

attract -v



Made sure I was running MMAL. Haven't noticed any problems since.