I updated my gpu drivers and now big box graphics are low resolution and slow/laggy

[Hamburglin]

It's almost like it decided to start using my CPU or onboard GPU for its graphics or something. Is there a setting for this somewhere?

I've tried changing resolutions, hz and image scaling.

When I go to the unlock screen in big box, it takes a second to load even though I hear sounds and button presses. When I moved the arrow keys around to select my pin, it doesn't update the image for like 3 seconds even though I hear my button presses.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Hamburglin

[Hamburglin]

So I tried a different tv and it worked fine.It's just struggling with my main tv I've been using.

Still trying to figure out if it's a new setting or drivers/LB are off sync somehow.

I'm starting to wonder if it's an issue with the latest beta build because that just installed yesterday too.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Hamburglin

[moudrost]

If you are using RetroArch, check to see what your refresh rate is. I had that issue before on one of my TVs. It was showing 30 hz instead of 60. Changed that and all was well.

[Hamburglin]

9 minutes ago, moudrost said:

If you are using RetroArch, check to see what your refresh rate is. I had that issue before on one of my TVs. It was showing 30 hz instead of 60. Changed that and all was well.

Ok but I don't have retroarch open, this is just big box.

Are you saying this still might help?

[moudrost]

Sorry I missed the fact you said this was in Big Box. So can I assume everything is fine when you play your games? This really sounds like a refresh rate issue. What does your graphics driver report when you check? When I had this issue, it was slow in Big Box and every emulator I tried. Everything showed 30 Hz

[Hamburglin]

2 minutes ago, moudrost said:

Sorry I missed the fact you said this was in Big Box. So can I assume everything is fine when you play your games? This really sounds like a refresh rate issue. What does your graphics driver report when you check? When I had this issue, it was slow in Big Box and every emulator I tried. Everything showed 30 Hz

Ok yeah I checked my refresh rate and resolutions and stuff already and they are correct (60hz or 120hz)

[C-Beats]

I'd vet if you TV has a "game mode" in it that helps with response times. If the same program works on one TV but not the other it has to be because of the device of the OS settings for that device. The way LB works it really doesn't pay any attention to the monitor it's on other then to determine scaling values.

[Hamburglin]

2 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

I'd vet if you TV has a "game mode" in it that helps with response times. If the same program works on one TV but not the other it has to be because of the device of the OS settings for that device. The way LB works it really doesn't pay any attention to the monitor it's on other then to determine scaling values.

Well, it works now on game mode with amd variable refresh rare at 120hz. It just took plugging it into another tv first.

I imagine something changed between driver version and LB did not catch it or was defaulting to some weird mode since everything else worked fine.

[C-Beats]

LaunchBox doesn't have any custom code to handle rendering, it's all done by the WPF framework which is just using Direct X to do everything. A lot of what you're talking about is far too low level for the application to have any idea about it, let alone change behavior because of it.

[Hamburglin]

Just now, C-Beats said:

LaunchBox doesn't have any custom code to handle rendering, it's all done by the WPF framework which is just using Direct X to do everything. A lot of what you're talking about is far too low level for the application to have any idea about it, let alone change behavior because of it.

That's all fine and dandy. Not placing blame, just letting you guys know that ONLY big box had an issue after a driver update. Nothing else did, including retroarch, srand alone emulators, windows gui and pc games.

I also getting flickering in big box's UI sometimes as well. The entire screen where it's black flickers really obviously a couple times a second and its a random rhythm. Not sure if it's a vudeo driver setting, resolution or framerate thing and I haven't tried to figure it out. Again, everything else works fine.

[C-Beats]

Yeah, np. I get where you're coming from. Out of curiosity what card are you using, and does your system have an integrated card, a dedicated one, or both? I do know that intel integrated cards have known issues with WPF applications, so curious if something similar may be occurring on your machine.

[Hamburglin]

11 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Yeah, np. I get where you're coming from. Out of curiosity what card are you using, and does your system have an integrated card, a dedicated one, or both? I do know that intel integrated cards have known issues with WPF applications, so curious if something similar may be occurring on your machine.

It's a weird one. It's an amd Vega laptop style gpu that comes physically attached onto a NUC Hades Canyon board from around 2018.

Intel is in charge of the drivers now (even though it's red amd styled) and I think they used this relationship to start their own gpu business.

My tv is a 77" LG C2 ran in 2560×1440 @ 120hz in its new fancy game mode with amd free sync premium (vrr) enabled.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Hamburglin

[C-Beats]

Intel drivers are known to have issues with WPF applications (at least for their integrated graphics cards). Do you have the intel graphics software for that card? Or whatever AMD calls theirs? If so look for a setting to force anti-aliasing off or on. Intel drivers by default attempt to "auto-detect" whether they should use it or not and it causing a lot of artifacting. I've never seen it cause the issue you're reporting, but is worth a shot.

[Hamburglin]

Ok, sounds like I'll need to flip through a few settings.

I did just figure out what's causing the flickering (when it does occur).

Something is fighting for the refresh rate in BB to be 61hz whereas the tv is trying to use 119hz:https://gfycat.com/badterrificant

I flipped freesync off and on it got rid of the flickering. Im going to check if its a BB thing only or all around: https://ibb.co/KKk9Y2t

Edit: only keeping premium free sync on and turning vrr + gsync off, I don't see the framerste fought over (and therefore flickering) anymore. For now...

Strange how that only showed up in BB but maybe it's another WPF app thing.

Edit 2: Nope, the 61 vs 119 fps fight continues on and ONLY when LB or BB are the focus window.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Hamburglin

[Hamburglin]

Ok, I found one way to trigger the fps tug of war.

1. Alt tab to any window besides LB to get the frame rate back up to the intended 119hz

2. Go back into LB. It should still be at 119hz

3. Click tools -> manage -> emulators to bring up a menu window. 

4. OR, just launch big box and it happens immediately.

Boom, fps is all over the place. It sometimes triggers JUST by clicking on the tools drop down menu and letting it sit there for a second.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Hamburglin

[Hamburglin]

It looks like a workaround is to disable hardware acceleration for the app.

Is this possible in LB and BB?

[Hamburglin]

Ok sorry for the spam but the fps battle and flickering in LB and BB is occurring due to freesync premium being on.

If I turn it off then bringing up the menus holds the fps at 119 instead of flailing around.

Shit... yeah I think id really prefer to disable hardware/gpu rendering for LB/BB. Freesync is huge for gaming to me. 

[C-Beats]

4 minutes ago, Hamburglin said:

Ok sorry for the spam but the fps battle and flickering in LB and BB is occurring due to freesync premium being on.

If I turn it off then bringing up the menus holds the fps at 119 instead of flailing around.

Shit... yeah I think id really prefer to disable hardware/gpu rendering for LB/BB. Freesync is huge for gaming to me. 

I know my Nvidia cards have the ability to mess with settings like that per app. I'd check and see if you can do any app overrides and just turn it off for LaunchBox/Big Box and leave the global setting to on.

[Hamburglin]

17 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

I know my Nvidia cards have the ability to mess with settings like that per app. I'd check and see if you can do any app overrides and just turn it off for LaunchBox/Big Box and leave the global setting to on.

Sadly I don't see any options for that in my drivers or even for windows under advanced display settings.

[skizzosjt]

58 minutes ago, Hamburglin said:

Sadly I don't see any options for that in my drivers or even for windows under advanced display settings.

Using VRR/Freesync really messes up Big Box. Runs very jittery and stuttering with this kind of option enabled. I have to add Big Box as a game/app in AMD Radeon Settings and customize it to turn off VRR/Freesync when Big Box is booted. I like using VRR/Freesync too much to have it off all the time. Though this helps out, this method isn't perfect as some games do not seem to use the VRR/Freesync feature right when booted from Big Box. As in if you were to close Big Box and launch the game through it's normal launcher without changing any settings, it would work fine that way. As a back up plan, if I can, turning on v-sync in the in game settings is a good plan-B.

Additionally, lots of artifacts appear when image sharpening is used. I also need to have that turned off when Big Box is booted because I also have that on as a global setting.

That, or both of those settings need to be off in the global settings. My point being these settings are possible to customize per game or app on an AMD GPU. You need to add a new game, it might be called "profile"..... or whatever it's technically called. You select the app (the game's exe....in this case bigbox.exe) and then edit the settings you want to change. Next time that exe is launched it loads the settings specific for that game/profile

This isn't perfect. Lots of times when games do use VRR/Freesync appropriately when booted from Big Box, when I'm done playing and close the game and return to Big Box, now Big Box will be stuttering and jittery. I then have to ALT+TAB in/out of Big Box to get motion back to being smooth. 

Really the TLDR PSA here is don't use VRR/Freesync with BB if you want an user experience that doesn't involve any special settings and hoop jumping....which I know is a hard pill to swallow as someone who loves using VRR/Freesync. Otherwise you have a couple quirks to deal with in order to keep motion looking good between both Big Box and the games launched from Big Box.