Possible Low Fps Solution

I'm not 100% sure if anyone mentioned this, but here goes...

I wondered why Y'Z on my machine runs comparably slow (around 25 fps) to similar configurations...

also, i noticed how Y'Z dock's framerate drastically changes depending on font type, size and boldness...

and then it finally hit me! IT'S THE BLOODY FONT RENDERING ENGINE!!!

Since i have an LCD panel, i've been using cleartype since day one 'cause it looks much neater than standard anti-aliasing on it...

And today, when i switched back to noAA/standardAA it turned out Y'Z dock gains about 7-8 FPS!!!

It may seem like a small number difference, but it's actually 25-30% smoother, and makes a GREAT visual difference!

Seems this thingy works with latest OD too and with a much GREATER impact...

Orcinus

PS: Oh... forgot about the bug... also don't know if anyone mentioned this, but

((Y'Z dock) OR (Y'Z shadow)) AND ((Web) AND (Java)) == (a lot of obnoxious blinking)

#11420

#11439

what r the specs on your systems of a downs?

#11442

OK... Brainfart.... how do you change to noAA?

#11451

i think he means.. not on at all.. though i could be wrong just uncheck the smoothing of fonts

#11461

Yep, that's what i meant...

uncheck the font smoothing checkbox in Display Properties >> Appearance >> Effects...

My system is:

P3 CuMine @ 1GHz

512MB PC133 RAM

GF4 Ti4400

And BTW, if you have an nVidia card, kill the rundll32.exe (via TaskManager) and check if it makes the docks run even faster (without damaging anything)...

some people claim that rundll32 spins the detonator control panel applet, but i don't think so... i think it's just for the overclocking page of the applet... so no harm done if you kill it... (i'm too lazy to actually run through the registry and check what's it for )

Orcinus

#11498

orcinus,

i had 1.3 ghz with 512RDram and geforce 4 mmx 440 AGPx4 (obviously) and the dock ran pretty amazing (with the old YZ docks).

with the 1.8 + 768 RDram, it runs flawlessly, no matter what i have on, truetype, bold fonts, and such. I even have a heavey render with virtual memory on, and the dock runs good. not exaggerating or anything.

honestly if you dont wanna upgrade your pc (you have kicking ass graphics card) than thats the only thing that will really bring a good change for the desktop enhancement.

also, just in case you have your card on the PCI slot, then that is the first reason before the CPU.

many people claim their stuff is relatively slow, untill they mention their graphics card is on the pci. Its a HUGE W00t difference.

yz for me is perfect, but i would really like to see what moby will have on his released version of the DX9 dock.

(Check here)

#11546

Thanx for the advice, but

nope, my card is AGP...

And by slow i mean around 30 fps...

Just BTW, OD runs flawlessly on my machine (an eye estimate - around 60-70 fps) and although i've been using it in the past, i switched back to Y'Z dock because of all the bugs and slowdowns in new OD version and Y'Z features like context menus and docklets...

Well, it seems it's down to a big wait for DX9 mobydock now....

Orcinus

#11586

well i assume we'll have to either wait for mobydock or you get a new cpu...j/k

but anyway, when i get home, ill see whats the fps on my machine. i actually dont think its like OD (60-70) either, and pretty much lower. ill let you know.

take care,

#11587

I had 46FPS with nothing running, which isnt bad at all.

It dropped to 30FPS with yahoo cam on, and couple of chats and iE running.

so - i guess you're not the only one.

by the way, in the osx it behaves similar - the more ****ez you have, the choppier it becomes.

#11640

Originally posted by Goku@Jan 28 2003, 06:46 AM

I had 46FPS with nothing running, which isnt bad at all.

It dropped to 30FPS with yahoo cam on, and couple of chats and iE running.

so - i guess you're not the only one.

by the way, in the osx it behaves similar - the more ****ez you have, the choppier it becomes.

Thats when Moby releases his dock in DX9... and proves that FPS will murder on windows

#11707

by the way, in the osx it behaves similar - the more ****ez you have, the choppier it becomes.

I know... And it has about 30-40 fps when completely load free too... at least on G3 ibook and a G4 iMac (the 800GHz one with GF4MX)...

(Edit: ofcourse, again, based on subjective eye judgment)

It's not just the dock - it's the whole aqua gui engine...

it DOES look nice, but it's NOTICABLY slower than ANY windows version (with wblinds)...

Orcinus

PS: BTW, i tried switching thru agp 1x, 2x, 4x and, as i expected, it had ABSOLUTELY NO effect on Y'Z framerate...

i'm running on default WinXP AGP controller driver at the moment...

maybe i should try the official latest VIA one...

#11740

see the agp thing is mostly aimmed at mobydock dx9 since it uses most of the graphics power, then its really depended on your graphics card and its AGP base.

but on yz im not really sure if its the card, since its software renderer.

BUT STILL, PCI CARDS will give lower fps in general after trying to run benchmarks on our system

so thats it.

#11745

and just to let y'all know, the real OS X dock slows down too, when more applications are running.

#12558

Originally posted by Taha@Feb 1 2003, 01:59 PM

and just to let y'all know, the real OS X dock slows down too, when more applications are running.

i already said that few posts above you spammer

#12657

Originally posted by orcinus@Jan 28 2003, 10:07 PM

It's not just the dock - it's the whole aqua gui engine...

it DOES look nice, but it's NOTICABLY slower than ANY windows version (with wblinds)...

uhh?

i'm not sure about that....

you have the choice between quartz or quartz+ engine

the + will render transparency, everything, on ur video card, using very few resources

it would be Alot faster using a ge4 or radeon 9000 dedicated for rendering the gui, than haivng the proc sharing the resources. If you have a 1ghz or so comp, and render a high res premiere movie and one only has 256mb ram

it would be very slow in windows

while the proc power is used to render the video on Jaguar, the GPU will be used to render the menus, which proves a significant advantage over Luna

#12660

Erm... try sitting in front of a PC and a Mac simultaniously and do the following actions on both. Watch the smoothness (framerate) carefully, then review your statements.

1) Resize a window... not iTunes, ANY WINDOW!

2) MOVE a window

3) Switch views in finder/explorer (i.e. icons<->list),

and most importantly

4) Try scrolling any content with antialiased fonts...

To make the long story short, the problem is NOT in hardware rendering of gfx with alpha channel... The gfx render slow REGARDLESS of amount OR presence of transparent content in it...

DISCLAIMER: The above statements are based on experiences with an iMac 17'' G4@800, an iBook and a Powebook G4.... i admit the experiences were short - i.e. i had the iMac for about 2.5 weeks - but i REVIEWED it so i PAYED a great deal of attention to things like that... i also admit that i've lived with PCs for a long time (and with a Spectrum and few Amigas before that), but AM DEFINATELY NOT anti-Macishly oriented...

There...

Orcinus

PS: Installing latest VIA drivers (Hyperion) seems to obliterate the cleartype issue with the docks... after that they run at same framerate no matter what you do...

#12714