Investigating Menu Lag

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by mkrater, May 11, 2015.

  1. ikickasss

    ikickasss Active Member

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    I get a lot of lag when navigating the menu and I'm running a gtx 750.
    Anijatsu likes this.
  2. Dainank

    Dainank Member

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    Yep, I have lag here, but also in-game when hovering over build options.
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  3. Anijatsu

    Anijatsu New Member

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    Sorry for gravedigging, but the problem still exists for me and I had no time to respond before.

    In-menu and in-game. In menu I can't tell since the counter updates so fast, it's anywhere between 2 to 15 msec. I don't mean the menu hangs while loading/building the map, I mean UI lag when hovering mouse between objects/icons/buttons/whatever. In the movement it also often skips out buttons, when I move the cursor over a row. I use the Steam launcher.

    48FPS on the start on Pacific. Screen goes here to show.
    That's with everything on high/on.

    On the lowest settings almost no change in FPS.
    And in the settings menu either.
    The counts are mostly stable with ~4 FPS variation, hence I allowed myself to show them as screens.

    Isn't my case, the CPU clock scales properly in usage

    Didn't fix anything.
    I have a mostly stable 25mbit download connection. It doesn't matter when it's a clientside issue of UI not responding.

    My drivers are 15.7.1, I'm not going to bother with downgrading them anymore since it didn't change a thing.
  4. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    If you are moving fast that is totally normal and not lag.
  5. xanoxis

    xanoxis Active Member

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    That IS a lag, and that is not normal. This implementation of UI is slow, and everybody can see it. Try Dota 2 Reborn, where UI is crazy fast, and compare it to PA. Dota has normal UI, PA dont. I always said that, but its not a big problem for me per se, because I use hotbuild 2 and other mods, but for casual player that can be a problem.
  6. Anijatsu

    Anijatsu New Member

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    I've just recorded UI response (or lack of) at the menu, using OBS at 60FPS, then slowed it down to half speed using Sony Vegas. And that shows around 5-6 frames of delay.
    https://my.mixtape.moe/hfltsc.mp4
    Last edited: August 1, 2015
  7. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    That's not lag. By that logic your browser would lag as well. In this very chat window move your cursor fast around over the button on the top. You will see the exact same behavior.
    It's a graphical gimmick that has limits. The buttons however respond perfectly fast if you click them.

    The hover effect is a completely useless test for UI responsiveness. Is there any delay before it reacts to a click on a button?
  8. xanoxis

    xanoxis Active Member

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    It's still very annoying, and can affect gameplay, if that happens in game. It feels sluggish and people see it that way.
  9. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Very annoying? I don't even...
    The video shows correct UI behavior. That glow effect is just a fancy gimmick. There is no input lag.
  10. xanoxis

    xanoxis Active Member

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    Then why some buttons dont light up?

    Anyway, PA's UI is not that great in menu anyway, and loading of another options menu is slow. Same with other things.
  11. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Because you are moving your mouse too fast. But that only affects things like this glow effect when moving at a mouse speed far beyond a speed at which you can actually click anything.

    I would define "input lag" as a behavior that delays inputs made by a noticeable time frame.

    When you click a button it only takes milliseconds before it reacts however.
    The loading of other menu pages indeed may take a moment, but often there is even network communication involved when opening other menu pages. Mods make that even worse. PA Stats especially can increase the load time of new menu scenes by a second or so.

    EDIT:
    Btw my thunderbird UI would be "lagging" by that test as well....
    Though I wonder if it is possible to force PA to make that glow behave "better".
    It'll probably eat CPU for nothing but the glow effect and create real input lag though.
    Last edited: August 1, 2015
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  12. Anijatsu

    Anijatsu New Member

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    As for input, you are actually right.
    https://my.mixtape.moe/nqeblr.mp4
    However the UI still displays information based on input with a delay, which isn't just about glow effects, but the rest of elements as well: construction, units management etc. That's what caused me to get confused about the input, interface may have been responsive, but the visuals that are meant to represent it weren't.
  13. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    There sure is a little delay in the reactions, but imho they are usually rather fast. If you can specify a specific scenario that is slow then maybe somebody can take a look at that specific scenario, maybe it can be improved. But a base delay of a few ms will stay due to technical limitations. But you really need to make a high fps video and then slow it down to see that base delay.
    There does not seem to be a technical issue specific to your system to, from the videos I would say it looks totally normal.

    I did find some references to a bug in chrome that causes slower rendering of hover effects in some cases btw. Not sure if PA triggers them. But that really makes the hover effects a pretty bad testing candidate. They really are just a fancy glow effect after all. Still I'll poke around some more. Maybe there is an easy fix. It seems making things look more responsive might be worth it to confuse less people.

    EDIT:
    Hmm no can't find anything. I guess one thing to do would be to disable the glow effect. Looks less nice though.
    Last edited: August 1, 2015
  14. radongog

    radongog Well-Known Member

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    @Anijatsu: Well, this really is the standard behaviour of PA.
    @cola_colin: Don´t try to be ridiculous! Thunderbird-UI is ultra-fast and there is no "Button-Skip" in there! In PA there is and this should clearly be fixed...
    ...if Uber wants to keep that effect at all!

    But this is still not the classic menu-lag anyways, menu-graphic-lag would have been a more correct term!
  15. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Is that sarcasm? Try to move over your email accounts and folders as fast as you can. I can clearly see the exact same behavior, albeit not as visible since Thunderbird doesnt use a glow effect that is that extreme. PA's choice to use glow effect that has an "afterglow" of 0.3 seconds kinda makes things very obvious with it.

    I don't get why people make a fuss about that glow effect. At all.
    Like wtf people it's a stupid graphical effect. It's supposed to look pretty. Not be a benchmark of responsivness. I mean do you really care about that glow at all while playing?
    tunsel11 likes this.
  16. radongog

    radongog Well-Known Member

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    No, was nothing more a then a psychological effect based on colours---resulting in the FEELING of faster responces!
    Maybe PA should also try to optimize in that way...

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