SDArcade v2 Layout Issue in 3.811

[FrizzleFried]

I had this posted over in the Update 3.811 post where it appears to have gotten lost in the mix over there... I figured I'd re-post it here where it should have gone to begin with.

I've documented the behavior of the SDArcade (all versions, but using v2) in regards to a "speed color selector" issue that presented itself with the upgrade from 3.72 to 3.811. The behavior is as this: Upon loadup the layout looks perfect. Select a game... exit the game... the layout looks great but the selector box runs about 5x-10x the normal speed for a specific time then slows to normal speed again.

Here is the key... the length of time that it runs super fast directly correlates with how long you play the game. Pop in and immediately exit, and the colors run super fast for 3 seconds or so. Hang out for 15 - 20 seconds in game and the colors run maybe 7 seconds. Hang out and play a game... the colors run for 20...30...40 seconds.

MY UNINFORMED NON-PROGRAMMER BARELY A HACK HYPOTHESIS: While the game is running... for some reason... the color changes (each tick/frame) is being buffered waiting to be unleashed in a speedy color explosion when the game exits.

NOW, if this is true... i wonder what would happen if i played a game (or just left it sitting there) for a long time... would some buffer overflow somewhere?

[dee2eR]

I wonder if this is the same issue as the keyboard presses in game getting passed to Attract-Mode. It seems like A-M runs counters and maybe a keyboard input buffer (and possibly other bits too) in the background while a game is running and then at game exit speeds through it all as fast as possible to get back to real time.

I didn't notice a difference between 3.7 and 3.8 as far as this behaviour goes but Attract-Mode was updated and has some differing behaviour from before. If it was introduced by the update I assume it will be fixed in another. That said I'll do some research and see if it's not a setting change or something else I've done.

I should take another look at the SDarcade code too as it runs 2 sepperate counters due to me hacking together bits and pieces out of a few themes to make it all work on a Pi. It's possible that's part of the issue, I could probably reduce it to only using one counter for both functions.

It's plausible there could be memory issues with longer runnning times, not sure. In older versions of Attract-Mode I have seen it freeze up twice after running for 6+ hours (mainly sitting in menu and runnning the screensaver) but I'm not sure if it was an Attract problem or something else (I didn't have a network connection or keyboard hooked up either time to try and investigate what happened). If it was an Attract issue I'm not sure if it was changed in the newer version but I haven't experienced another lockup since updating it.

[FrizzleFried]

The issue is apparent on all 3 versions (or is it 4?) of SDArcade theme in 3.811... The issue was not apparent on 3.72. If I get a chance, I will take a comparison video...

I can tell you for 100% certain that the length of time that the "negative effect" happens is dependent on how long you are "in game". A ROM that loads, plays for 1 second then is exited produces about 3-4 seconds of "negative effect". If I play a full game for, say, 10 minutes... the "negative effect" will run for a minute or more then stop. If I run the game for 20 seconds... I might get 10 seconds of "negative effect" upon exit.

Now, again, I am just guessing here, but it sounds to me like it's stacking up (buffering) every "tick" of color change while the game ROM is playing and then running through that buffer super fast upon exit...

This issue does happen with a bone-stock install of the 3.811 image + only ROMS & PREVIEW folders added...

That's about the best I can explain it with words.

[FrizzleFried]

Here is a video of the issue ...

Not an award-winning production but I think you can see the issue I'm referring to...

https://youtu.be/XKGIPeK0B-Q

BTW - I am confident this issue has nothing to do with keyboard presses as it happens even if you drop in to the ROM... sit there doing nothing... then exit... again, I am 100% confident it has to do with "length of time" that you are in a ROM.

[dee2eR]

I didn't mean to imply I thought it was caused by key presses. Figured the 2 issues were related though, maybe not if the coloured box timing issue didn't happen in earlier versions.

Thanks for the vid.

[FrizzleFried]

Nope... the color box issue worked perfectly in 3.72 ... all the different builds (including v2).

[dee2eR]

Good, that means it's not an SDL 2.0 issue but is likely a change made in Attract-Mode.

I'll have to check the code in the theme as I checked the machines theme I based the coloured box code on (it's the same as the tiny images on the monitors of the machines in the machines theme - basically a slideshow on a timer) and it doesn't seem to have the problem (but it would be easy to miss on my small testing monitor for that theme those little screens are tiny) so it may be I missed something obvious making the coloured box.

If I figure it out I'll also fix the aspect of the box in horizontal mode and release a v3 of the theme. Been putting off the coloured box hori aspect fix as it involves tedious photoshopping of the entire slideshow to create a second for horizontal use.

[Skiwee]

Is there any way to get the SDArcade layout to display videos instead of snaps?

[Matt68061]

Hey Frizz...

Just curious, was there ever a solution to this?

Thanks,

Matt

[FrizzleFried]

Matt... Not 100% sure... as I moved to another layout... then when I upgraded to the latest Pi3+ build and started from scratch I didn't have this issue show up...