hyperspin and CPU usage

[arximidis]

A friend of mine, gave me three machines to fix them and convert them to mame simulators. Two of them already had pc2jamma boards, but very old computers (the were based on arcadeos and the DOS versions of mame). The third one had nothing... only the arcade monitor (and buttons).

Anyway, I have already fixed them and set up hyperspin. Everything works fine, with only one exception. CPU usage goes at 100%, when I am in hyperspin, especially when something is moving or a video is playing. This make things go a little bit slow (games are loaded fine)
Has anybody encounter the same problem? Is this happening due to the default codec? If I install k-Lite codec pack, will this solve the problem or I need to download another codec?
Even with a pentium 4 3GHz (with hyperthreading) CPU usage goes very high

[Mysterioii]

Have you disabled things like advanced animations, particle effects etc. in Hyperspin?  Apparently even though Hyperspin looks pretty straightforward there is a lot going on under the hood and it will be one of the most taxing things running on your system...  I've been told by one of the mods on the Hyperspin forums (Dazz) that he wouldn't even consider running it on less than a dual core.  (I am not an expert on hyperthreading but I don't think it's truly equivalent to running a dual core?)  My current machine in my cabinet is an 8-year-old 3GHz intel single core and it runs Hyperspin ok if I disable the advanced animations and particle effects, but even then there are some minor glitches and hesitations. I just live with them, though I am contemplating upgrading.

IIRC the optimizations like I mentioned are available through the HyperHQ utility.

[arximidis]

Thanks for your answer!

Yes I have disabled some things and I will play around with some other settings too. In the end, I will tell to my frient to live with it

P.S. Yes it's not the same thing. Even if it looks like a separate core in windows, it's not an actual core


The weird thing is that cpu usage goes high when playing videos (e.g. the startup video) -> that was why I disabled it
And I was wondering if installing codecs would solve the problem

[Mysterioii]

Honestly I don't know, I guess you could try.  I remember seeing the other day that when someone was listing out the optimizations they had done that they had disabled the intro video because it wouldn't play smoothly on their system.  It might just be "one of those things"...

[JoeB]

HyperSpin is compiled flash (remember that whole Apple "flash is a pig .. flash should die" thing?)

I had an AMD XP 2400+ system that ran MAMEWAH perfectly, but I couldn't resist the HyperSpin eye candy (the themes are amazing!) I ended upgrading to a i3 system just for that reason alone!

[xmenxmen]

HyperSpin is compiled flash (remember that whole Apple "flash is a pig .. flash should die" thing?)

I had an AMD XP 2400+ system that ran MAMEWAH perfectly, but I couldn't resist the HyperSpin eye candy (the themes are amazing!) I ended upgrading to a i3 system just for that reason alone!

agreed, hyperspin was the main reason to upgrade to something newer.  Start with something that run win7 decidely as a desktop.  Go from there.

Sent from my Iconia A500 using Tapatalk

[Dazz]

A friend of mine, gave me three machines to fix them and convert them to mame simulators. Two of them already had pc2jamma boards, but very old computers (the were based on arcadeos and the DOS versions of mame). The third one had nothing... only the arcade monitor (and buttons).

Anyway, I have already fixed them and set up hyperspin. Everything works fine, with only one exception. CPU usage goes at 100%, when I am in hyperspin, especially when something is moving or a video is playing. This make things go a little bit slow (games are loaded fine)
Has anybody encounter the same problem? Is this happening due to the default codec? If I install k-Lite codec pack, will this solve the problem or I need to download another codec?
Even with a pentium 4 3GHz (with hyperthreading) CPU usage goes very high

HyperSpin isn't your grandmothers front end...  I wouldn't suggest using her PC for it.

Seriously, Dual core with a minimum of 2gb is recommended.  You should be able to run on a lesser machine if you disable the advanced transitions and video features.

[kahlid74]

Don't forget too the cheaper class of processors that run Hyperspin just fine like the 620's.  Cheaper than i3/i5 and powerful enough to run smoothly.

[JoeB]

Is there any particular reason why Hyperspin was written in compiled flash and not a real compiled language (like C++) ??

The only reason I can think (and no disrespect to the hyperspin developers .. you guys make a great looking product) is the HyperSpin developers aren't developers - but rather artists, and flash was the only language they knew.

If MAME was written in compiled flash, there doesn't exist a computer powerful enough to play any games more complex than pacman!! 

[wweumina]

Is there any particular reason why Hyperspin was written in compiled flash and not a real compiled language (like C++) ??

The only reason I can think (and no disrespect to the hyperspin developers .. you guys make a great looking product) is the HyperSpin developers aren't developers - but rather artists, and flash was the only language they knew.

If MAME was written in compiled flash, there doesn't exist a computer powerful enough to play any games more complex than pacman!! 

You've answered your own question really - though I'm sure Flash could simulate many more complex games than PacMan. Im sure Flash was chosen due to the development environment and easy access to transitions etc.  Ultimately it's all about choice.  If you've got an older computer there are many other front ends more suitable.