Slowdown problem in PPC Warp3D software

[Mugo]

     Hello guys,

   Let's see if i manage to explain the problem, in english . . .

   Everytime i run some software that uses Warp3D on my PPC, i have slowdowns every second (aproximately).
   
   Take as an example the GLQuake WOS. The game runs fine, and the demo starts. But the movie goes jumpy. It runs fine and then slows down, then goes fine again, and aproximately one second after that, it slows down again, and that goes on and on.

   This happens when i'm playing the game as well, and so for every PPC Warp3D stuff i tried: Wipeout, Sopoblock, d3GNOP, Alybox, and even the Warp3d Gears demo.

   Do someone have the same problem here ?

   Do you guys know what can cause such problem ?

   I appreciate any help. Really !

   Thank you guys.

   Edit:

   Forgot to give some configuration details:

   A4000D (in a tower), Cyberstorm PPC (Stock, not overclocked) with 128MB FastRam, CVision PPC, Mediator 4000D, Voodoo 3 3000, Realtek Ethernet, Video Toaster 4000, SCSI HD in Cyberstorm's SCSI interface, IDE CD-Rom in the Motherboard IDE interface.

   As for the software side, i have two OS3.9 installs. One that i've used all my life, with lots of patches and everything, and the Amikit, that i've managed to adapt to run on my system. In the Amikit install i have the original installation, except for the Mediator drivers, and Warp3D for Mediator, as well as the Picasso drivers for the Voodoo on Mediator. Everything else is what came with Amikit.

   In both systems, the behaviour is the same.

   Thanks !

[Doraemon]

I have the same problem.
Any help will be apreciated.

[quenthal]

There is quite a lot of patches in AmiKit, that could cause your problems.

1) Remember, that when copying stuff directly from AmiKit, that there are some versions of software compiled for 68060, while versions in AmiKit are usually for 68020 etc. You can ofcourse get much more performance out of your machine when using correct libraries and utilities

2) Check that if there is some program doing something that requires switching between 68k/PPC - if it is every second, maybe you have some sort of screensaver polling, clock or taskmanager etc. Especially that MemTrailer -patch that is used in AmiKit might make your Amiga slower.

I recommend you to take AmiKit as a guide, do not copy directly from it. Look it one (utility/library) by one, check if it useful for you in emulator and then download best version of it for your real amiga.

[Doraemon]

I found my problem... it was limpidclock !
Thx for the tip!
Now my amiga its clock free like me

[Amigaz]

Doraemon wrote:
I found my problem... it was limpidclock !
Thx for the tip!
Now my amiga its clock free like me

Ahh..another one with that problem.
So you were not alone.
Limpidclock did that on my A1200T PPC

[quenthal]

Hmm.. is the developer aware of this?

[Legerdemain]

Concerning LimpidClock... it constantly sucks up ~10% of my CPU... while running on my Blizzard1260. I have no clue as of why.

[Mugo]

        Hey Quenthal,

quenthal wrote:
There is quite a lot of patches in AmiKit, that could cause your problems.

1) Remember, that when copying stuff directly from AmiKit, that there are some versions of software compiled for 68060, while versions in AmiKit are usually for 68020 etc. You can ofcourse get much more performance out of your machine when using correct libraries and utilities

      I had to make some (a lot of) tweaking to make the Amikit work on my real Amiga.
      I did it most for experiment purposes.
      I hadn't time yet to replace the programs that I'll use, for the right versions, but that was my first intension.
      In the process of making Amikit work in my A4000, i've left behind some programs and utilities, as for example the taskbar (forgot the name).
      All in all, the system is a bit slower than my previous install, but is quite useable.

2) Check that if there is some program doing something that requires switching between 68k/PPC - if it is every second, maybe you have some sort of screensaver polling, clock or taskmanager etc. Especially that MemTrailer -patch that is used in AmiKit might make your Amiga slower.

      Yeah . . . you've got it.
      The problem is now solved.
      It was the GLMatrix, that i've replaced for the WOS version, that was "competing" with my games and Warp3D stuff.
      Now everything is smooth again.
      I need to find the problem in my former install tough, as the same occurs there.
      But now i know where to look for.
      The problem sounded very obvious after you mentioned it ;-)
      Thank you very much, and all the people that gave their input as well.

[Thomas]

Hi all,

I am aware that LimpidClock needs a lot of CPU but it surely does not use 10% all the time. It rather sleeps most of the time and wakes up every second to redraw the display. Currently it always redraws the entire window and not only those parts which changed, that's why it needs so much CPU. So it is well possible that it sleeps 9/10ths of a second and then needs 100% CPU for 1/10th of a second. Your measurement tool probably only gives you the average of 10% per second.

Concerning the "my game stops every second" issue, this is easy to solve. There is a config item where you can set the task priority. Just decrease it to below 0 and the problem will go away. The shipped config has a prio of 1 IIRC, so that the clock runs accurate without being stopped by other tasks. If you lower the prio, the other tasks run smooth but LimpidClock's display might be delayed. Especially if you run tasks which use up all CPU (e.g. UAE).

There is a big potential of optimisation in LimpidClock. Up to now the main attention in development was on features. Now it's time to look at speed.

Bye,
Thomas

[Crumb]

A friend of mine used a clock on his wb backdrop and it  slowed down the system, specially ppc games/demos. I don't know if it was limpid clock or what app, but it slowed down everything...