advmenu startup delay - normal?

[currygoat11]

Hi all. On my PII, 400mhz, 128MB ram, Nvidia Geforce2MX when I start advmenu (compiled for SDL mind you, not svgalib) from a plain console, the program will show:

AdvanceMENU - Copyright (C) 1999-2004 by Andrea Mazzoleni

and then it takes about 11 seconds to actually display the menu. When I run from X it takes the same time..

I realize I'm on a PII, 400mhz, but my question is: is this delay fairly typical for this processor speed (about?).

Thanks

Here my advmenu.rc

config save_at_exit
device_alsa_device default
device_alsa_mixer channel
device_color_bgr15 yes
device_color_bgr16 yes
device_color_bgr24 yes
device_color_bgr32 yes
device_color_bgr8 yes
device_color_palette8 yes
device_color_yuy2 yes
device_joystick none
device_keyboard sdl
device_mouse none
device_raw_firstkeyhack no
device_raw_mousedev[0] auto
device_raw_mousedev[1] auto
device_raw_mousedev[2] auto
device_raw_mousedev[3] auto
device_raw_mousetype[0] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[1] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[2] pnp
device_raw_mousetype[3] pnp
device_sdl_samples 512
device_sound auto
device_video sdl
device_video_cursor auto
device_video_doublescan yes
device_video_fastchange no
device_video_interlace yes
device_video_output auto
device_video_overlaysize 1024
device_video_singlescan yes
display_orientation flip_xy mirror_x
difficulty none
display_brightness 1
display_gamma 1
display_restoreatexit yes
display_restoreatgame yes
display_size 480
emulator "xmame.svgalib" xmame "xmame.svgalib" "-ror -nomouse -skip_disclaimer -skip_gameinfo"
#emulator_roms "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/roms
emulator_marquees "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/marquees
emulator_flyers "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/flyers
emulator_cabinets "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/cabinets
emulator_icons "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/icons
emulator_titles "xmame.svgalib" /usr/local/share/xmame/titles
event_alpha yes
event_assign up up or 8_pad
event_assign down down or 2_pad
event_assign left left or 4_pad
event_assign right right or 6_pad
event_assign enter enter or enter_pad
event_assign esc esc
event_assign space space
event_assign home home
event_assign end end
event_assign pgup pgup
event_assign pgdn pgdn
event_assign del del
event_assign ins insert
event_assign shutdown lcontrol esc
event_assign mode tab
event_assign help f1
event_assign group f2
event_assign type f3
event_assign exclude f4
event_assign sort f5
event_assign setgroup f9
event_assign settype f10
event_assign runclone f12
event_assign command f8
event_assign menu backquote or backslash
event_assign emulator f6
event_assign rotate 0_pad
event_assign lock scrlock
event_assign preview space
event_mode fast
event_repeat 500 50
icon_space 43
idle_screensaver 60 10
idle_screensaver_preview cabinets
idle_start 0 0
include
lock no
menu_base 22
menu_rel 18
merge differential
misc_exit normal
misc_quiet no
mode list
mode_skip
mouse_delta 100
preview cabinets
preview_default none
preview_default_cabinet none
preview_default_flyer none
preview_default_icon none
preview_default_marquee none
preview_default_snap none
preview_default_title none
preview_expand 1.15
sort name
sound_background_begin none
sound_background_end none
sound_background_loop none
sound_background_loop_dir "mp3"
sound_background_start none
sound_background_stop none
sound_buffer 0.1
sound_foreground_begin default
sound_foreground_end default
sound_foreground_key default
sound_foreground_start default
sound_foreground_stop default
sound_latency 0.1
sound_samplerate 44100
sound_volume -3
ui_background none
ui_bottombar no
ui_clip single
ui_color help 000000 ffffff
ui_color help_tag 247ef0 ffffff
ui_color submenu_bar 247ef0 ffffff
ui_color submenu_item 000000 ffffff
ui_color submenu_item_select 000000 bfffff
ui_color submenu_hidden 808080 ffffff
ui_color submenu_hidden_select 808080 bfffff
ui_color menu_item 000000 ffffff
ui_color menu_hidden 808080 ffffff
ui_color menu_tag 247ef0 ffffff
ui_color menu_item_select 000000 bfffff
ui_color menu_hidden_select 808080 bfffff
ui_color menu_tag_select 247ef0 bfffff
ui_color bar 000000 ffffff
ui_color bar_tag 247ef0 ffffff
ui_color bar_hidden 808080 ffffff
ui_color grid 247ef0 ffffff
ui_color backdrop 000000 808080
ui_color icon ffffff ffffff
ui_color cursor 808080 ffffff
ui_command_error Error running the command
ui_command_menu Command...
ui_console no
ui_exit none
ui_font auto
ui_fontsize auto
ui_game snap
ui_gamemsg "Loading"
ui_help none
ui_menukey no
ui_skipbottom 5
ui_skipleft 5
ui_skipright 5
ui_skiptop 5
ui_topbar no
xmame.svgalib/mode list_mixed
group_include "<undefined>"
group_include "Bad"
group_include "Good"
group_include "Very Good"
type_include "<undefined>"
type_include "Application"
type_include "Arcade"
type_include "Bet 'em Up"
type_include "Breakout"
type_include "Computer"
type_include "Console"
type_include "Fight"
type_include "Filler"
type_include "Flipper"
type_include "Gun"
type_include "Puzzle"
type_include "RPG"
type_include "Racing"
type_include "Shot 'em Up"
type_include "Sport"
emulator_include "xmame.svgalib"
group "<undefined>"
group "Bad"
group "Good"
group "Very Good"
type "<undefined>"
type "Application"
type "Arcade"
type "Bet 'em Up"
type "Breakout"
type "Computer"
type "Console"
type "Fight"
type "Filler"
type "Flipper"
type "Gun"
type "Puzzle"
type "Racing"
type "RPG"
type "Shot 'em Up"
type "Sport"
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" missing exclude
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" clone exclude
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" bad exclude
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" vector include
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" vertical include
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" neogeo include
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" deco exclude
emulator_attrib "xmame.svgalib" playchoice exclude
game "xmame.svgalib/dkong" "" "" 35 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/dkongjr" "" "" 0 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/frogger" "" "" 21 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/galaga" "" "" 0 2 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/galaga88" "" "" 44 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/galaxian" "" "" 30 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/gorf" "" "" 19 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/gyruss" "" "" 36 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/jrpacman" "" "" 68 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/milliped" "" "" 74 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/mooncrst" "" "" 10 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/mspacman" "" "" 25 6 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/nunchaku" "" "" 36 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/pacmania" "" "" 0 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/pacplus" "" "" 19 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/puckman" "" "" 11 2 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/qbert" "" "" 10 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/qbertqub" "" "" 45 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/qix" "" "" 63 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/starwars" "" "" 0 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/tempest" "" "" 0 1 ""
game "xmame.svgalib/thepit" "" "" 0 1 ""

[maraxle]

Try UPX packing the executable.

[currygoat11]

I read up on this. The executible size of advmenu is 12.2 MB. upx is designed to compress executible files.

can you please help me understand why or how upx should help improve the speed? Remember when I run advmenu it shows the "AdvanceMENU - Copyright (C) 1999-2004 by Andrea Mazzoleni" text then sits there. I think it's searching the roms directory (?)

Thanks

[wpcmame]

AFAIK, advmenu parses the xml file at startup and also checks what roms are available. On a slow PC like yours (and mine) it just takes that amount of time.

What you can do is to move the roms that your PC can't play to another folder and maybe delete the same entries in the xml file. (The speed increase from the latter is probably small).

Advmame got a similar thing with the cheat file. The official cheat file takes 6 seconds to load on my PC which is similar to yours. I solved it by changing the cheat system to not load the cheat file until it is used. Submitted the change to the mame team about a year ago but nothing happened.

[maraxle]

I read up on this. The executible size of advmenu is 12.2 MB. upx is designed to compress executible files.

can you please help me understand why or how upx should help improve the speed? Remember when I run advmenu it shows the "AdvanceMENU - Copyright (C) 1999-2004 by Andrea Mazzoleni" text then sits there. I think it's searching the roms directory (?)

Thanks

I ran into a similar issue.  I figured out that my limiting factor was not memory or processor speed, but file i/o speed.  By UPX packing the executable, it cut my wait time from about 10 seconds to 4 seconds.  I cut it down another 2 seconds by shrinking the size of the XML file that stores all the game info.  Basically, I whipped up a little VB program that compared the XML file to my rom directory and took out all of the info about roms that I don't have.  This might not be a good idea for you if you frequently add new roms, but I never add anything new, so it's not an issue for me.

[currygoat11]

Hey this is all great info!  Stripping out some extranneous roms from the XML file is a great idea...

one other question: when I use UPX to compress the executable, how to I uncompress it?  i.e. how do I invoke advmenu?

[maraxle]

Hey this is all great info!  Stripping out some extranneous roms from the XML file is a great idea...

one other question: when I use UPX to compress the executable, how to I uncompress it?  i.e. how do I invoke advmenu?

You run advmenu like you always do.  It uncompresses automagically in memory.

[currygoat11]

maraxle: Hey thanks for the info!  I will likely try this tonight. I'll update on whether or not it helps !