Unity / Ubuntu performance problems (was: mouse issue) [Solved]

[DaveMB]

Hi, using the latest dev version on Ubuntu and the mouse response is really bad, i have altered the mouse settings % in the launcher and that does speed things up a bit but the mouse speed is not the problem.

The problem is that the pointer appears like it's being heavily filtered (smoothing?) and it's movement is behind the actual movement of my mouse (like the pointer is moving through treacle is the only way i can think of to describe it).

This is making games like cannon fodder impossible to play correctly.

I dont know if this is an FS-UAE issue or an issue with Ubuntu/My hardware.

Any help very greatfully accepted.

PS: i never had this issue with winuae and my mouse works perfectly for everything else on Ubuntu.

[FrodeSolheim]

No, I don't think it's a mouse issue either. It is more likely a general "slowness" issue with FS-UAE on your system. It is possible you have the problem where the compositing desktop in Unity/Ubuntu interferes with the OpenGL rendering of FS-UAE. This is unfortunately a common problem, and not just with FS-UAE. OpenGL apps runs slowly when they try to sync to vblank to avoid tearing.

Try to disable video sync - either use the option video_sync=off, or with FS-UAE Launcher 2.1.x, you can also set this option to off in the settings GUI.

[DaveMB]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Try to disable video sync - either use the option video_sync=off, or with FS-UAE Launcher 2.1.x, you can also set this option to off in the settings GUI.

Hi, sorry forgot to mention I allready have vsync forced off

[FrodeSolheim]

OK, can you press Ctrl+F10 while running FS-UAE (this should enable some graphs at the bottom of the window), use FS-UAE a bit while the problem is present, take a screenshot of the window and post there?

Has it worked better with earlier versions of FS-UAE?

[DaveMB]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

OK, can you press Ctrl+F10 while running FS-UAE (this should enable some graphs at the bottom of the window), use FS-UAE a bit while the problem is present, take a screenshot of the window and post there?

Ok will do that when i get my laptop back (at my friends house at the moment whilst he tries Ubuntu to see if he likes it enough to replace Windows)

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Has it worked better with earlier versions of FS-UAE?

Can't answer that as I have only been using it a short while and up untill today i had only used it for watching music demos.

[DaveMB]

how do i take screenshots? FS-UAE takes over the prt sc key and takes a picture of the FS-UAE screen rather than the actual screen,

PS: the resulting shots don't capture the graph.

PPS: reducing mouse speed to 75% has helped quite a lot, and now the pointer moves correctly with the mouse but feels like it's skating on ice, It's almost right but just not quite.

[FrodeSolheim]

Try ungrabbing the input (F12+g or middle mouse button) before taking a screenshot in windowed mode. This will allow your desktop environment to intercept the screenshot key.

[DaveMB]

Here you go

PS: It may be worth noting that the problem is much less obvious in windowed mode, In fact it's pretty much perfect

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by DaveMB

Here you go

PS: It may be worth noting that the problem is much less obvious in windowed mode, In fact it's pretty much perfect

And the graphs shows that the video performance is fine (in windowed mode). You may be affected by another Unity/Compiz problem - bad OpenGL fullscreen performance, and this may be fixed by enabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" in CompizConfig Settings Manager

http://askubuntu.com/questions/20093...ullscreen-slow
http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/10/h...rmance-in.html

[DaveMB]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

You may be affected by another Unity/Compiz problem - bad OpenGL fullscreen performance, and this may be fixed by enabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" in CompizConfig Settings Manager

you superstar consider this problem solved....Many thanks for all of your help and excellent emulator.

[FrodeSolheim]

Great I have added some more information to http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/performance regarding this problem.

It is a shame that the Unity desktop, while quite nice in itself, causes so much trouble for OpenGL applications (games). I use GNOME 3 currently (well, Cinnamon actually) because this desktop does not have the same performance problems.

Also, KDE 4 works well with FS-UAE in fullscreen mode, and windowed mode is fine (even with video_sync) if compositing is turned off (Alt+F12 is the default shortcut for this, I think). Any desktop environment without compositing has generally no performance issues.

I hope Steam for Ubuntu gives Canonical extra motivation to fix OpenGL performance for games in Unity

[DaveMB]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

I hope Steam for Ubuntu gives Canonical extra motivation to fix OpenGL performance for games in Unity

I'm really looking forward to Steam, I've just bought Bastion from the software center and although buying software goes against the reason i switched to Ubuntu in the first place I have to say it's an excellent game and shows what can be done on Linux.