AtomicFe question

[protokatie]

I nearly finished my basic layout with atomicFE and thought it odd that it is constantly using 100% of the CPU. I have a 2 gHz cpu and DDR2 ram. The funny thing is tho, that I don't have any videos or animation effect at all in the front end. So basically, the only time anything changes on the screen is when I hit a direction button.

What could be causing AFE to use so much CPU time when there are no animations and such?

Just for info: The layout has 3 pic objects (snap dyn custom 1 and 2), it has the text list and a static pic (which is a blown up black pixel that I use to make dyn custom 2 be 50% darkened.




Here is my basic test pic. Note: the background and some other elements will be changed, and I was going to add borders for the various boxes. (Also, the snaps pic will eventually be different from the title pic behind the text list.)

Any ideas why this is constantly using 100% CPU time on a 2 gHz machine, when nothing is changing on screen?

Thanx.

[youki]

Hi,

Atomic is made like a video game, is refreshing permently his screen even if nothing change on the screen.

The problem is not the CPU it consume, the problem is : is it slow or not?

Don't worry about CPU consumption while Atomic is in foreground.  When Atomic is running a game or emulator  its own  CPU consumption go back to  0%. Atomic sleeps , and let all the power to the game.

Now, if you find your layout reacts too slow (it should not) , i can work with you to fix that.   I use more sophisticated layout on old celeron 500mhz...

FYI, if you use a multi-cpu or hyperthreaded , the CPU usage won't be 100% of course. On machine i tested it uses around 40%.

So except if you really have performance problem don't worry about the CPU usage of Atomic.

[SGT]

Just an FYI, AtomicFE has a dedicated support forum here:

http://spaceinvaders.7.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=81f1b374716928705f197ab51440af5e

[protokatie]

Youki, that I what I "feared". I was hoping it was something I did, but I did imagine that AFE just pumped out as many frames as it can. The only problem I have with it is that I dont want my MAME cab to be using 100% cpu time when sitting idle (100% cpu 24/7 is a good way to kill a cpu in a matter of a few years). Is there any way in future releases (or even as a patch) that you could allow user selectable framerates to make it so AFE doesnt constantly use 100% of the cpu all the time? (IE like after 15 seconds, have the thing go to 3 frames a second with the program being idle between frames, or even have the program stop running after a set time until new input is added)

[youki]

I think i can do easily a plugin for that.

Or if it is not urgent, just wait few weeks the next version is coming and i think i could introduce this feature in the engine itself.

Speaking about that, i remember to have done this kind of option few time ago for my personnal test. I think it is still in the engine.  I will dig in my code tonight to see if i can find it!

[youki]

I was just thinking. If you enable a windows screensaver. (the windows's one, not Atomic one) . When the screensaver is running Atomic sleeps! And should consume 0% of CPU.

Atomic sleeps each time it is not in foreground.

[protokatie]

I was just thinking. If you enable a windows screensaver. (the windows's one, not Atomic one) . When the screensaver is running Atomic sleeps! And should consume 0% of CPU.

Atomic sleeps each time it is not in foreground.

Well I guess I will just do that instead. I was going to have the monitor go blank (IE standby) after 5 minutes of no input anyways, so might as well use the blank windows screensaver too...

BTW, I am 95% finished with my front end setup. The only things left are to fill out the intrsuction card (this will be after the cab is built) and a few cleanups here and there. Here are some snaps of it (only looks good when full size). I decided to go with a simple and straight forward look (easy on the eye, but no real need for added bling). If anyone has any suggestions about minor tweaks I could do to it, please say so.


(Here are the links to the 800x600 images, as they look crappy scaled down)
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/protoplatapus/?action=view&current=screen1.jpg
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/protoplatapus/?action=view&current=screen2.jpg
http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/protoplatapus/?action=view&current=screen3.jpg

[youki]

Very nice layout. 

[protokatie]

Very nice layout. 

Thanx! Now lets see how I can use my alpha channel method I discovered to make the selector bar look a little better


EDIT: also, still, if anyone has suggestions about how to make my layout any better, please speak up!