I currently use an Asustor AS6404T NAS with SMB shares. I have a 1GB connection between my NAS and my beefy Alienware laptop running Windows 11. I have been nothing short of MAJORLY disappointed in BOTH softwares performance in this configuration. There has to be something I can do here .... or is there? Let's find out!
Current load/launch times:
Launchbox load to menu time is 31 seconds and almost 3 minutes to load a Mame game (3:31)
Hyperspin load to menu time is 15 second (now add 16 seconds addtional to load mame wheel) and 37 seconds to load mame game. (1:08). Wow Launchbox is absolute garbage right? Now hold on keep reading.
Changes made that had ZERO effect:
Disable Windows Defender, Altered NIC driver properties in different combinations, disable IPV6, disable file indexing, disable firewall. enabled SMB2 and 3 on NAS, enabled multichannel support and disabled opportunistic locking on NAS, added LB to Nvidia control panel and tweaked several settings.
Changes made that provides much lower load times:
Adding a hard path to the roms in the mame.ini decreased Hyperspins Mame wheel load time by 2 seconds. (It made no difference for Launchbox load times.)
Disabling the following option under Virus &Threat protecion: Disable Virus and threat protection settings
Disabling the following options under app and browser control: Reputation-based protection
Now let's look at load times!
Launchbox load to main menu time - 31 seconds (no change)
Launchbox- Mame game load time 24 seconds (MASSIVE change)
(FYI - 15 seconds before mame.exe is launched if real time protection is enabled)
Hyperspin - load to mame menu theme - 13 seconds (mame.ini changed dropped 2 seconds)
Hyperspin - Selecting mame wheel when becomes useable - 14 seconds (2 seconds lower)
Hypersin - Mame game load time 24 seconds (13 second improvement!)
(If real time protection is enabled it takes mame 8 seconds to start loading otherwise it's 2 seconds)
Total load times after changes:
Launchbox (55 seconds)
Hyperspin (51 seconds).
Final thoughts:
1.) Maybe the devs should consider an install menu notice warning users of slow poor performance due to Windows features and a link to click to take them to instructions?
2.) I'm disappointed I spent $1400 on a killer NAS to have to sit and wait for a damn 70KB game to load. There just has to be a way to at a minimum make a Launchbox "NAS friendly" edition.
