Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Found a bug? Post it here.
Post Reply
danzigism
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:42 pm

Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by danzigism »

Hey there folks, it appears that ever since I upgraded to the latest version 1.9.3b that the Rasberry Pi version of SunVox has slowed down to a crawl. I'm currently using JACK at 48000hz and 512 frames. Prior to the upgrade, my system worked great and it used on average 15-50% CPU usage which is definitely tolerable.

After upgrading to 1.9.3, SunVox appears to be maxing out the CPU at 100%, takes a very long time to startup, and there is an immense amount of lag when navigating the modules and menus. For example, if you click the main menu button, it will take approximately 10 seconds for the menu to drop down.

I have since downgraded back to 1.9.2 but I was just wondering if there was any significant change that could have caused these performance issues? I'd love to use 1.9.3 since there are so many cool features to utilize!

I have confirmed this issue on both the Raspberry Pi 3 and the Pi Zero W. Although the Pi Zero has a much slower CPU, it can still use 1.9.2 without any noticeable performance issues.

Here is the verbose output of version 1.9.2: https://pastebin.com/aXa7Ag2S

And here's version 1.9.3b: https://pastebin.com/j3WZkiih

Any help is great appreciated.
User avatar
NightRadio
Site Admin
Posts: 3944
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:28 am
Location: Ekaterinburg. Russia
Contact:

Re: Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by NightRadio »

If the problem is only in the slow interface, then most likely this is because the SunVox is now based on libsdl2 instead of libsdl1.
Please read the last paragraph in this instruction: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4454
danzigism
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:42 pm

Re: Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by danzigism »

Hey NightRadio, thanks so much for the thoughtful response. I was excited to try out putting libsdl2 on there, but alas I already had the current version of libsdl2-dev on there.

The slowness is definitely being caused by something else specific with SunVox, but I'm not sure how I can debug it enough to see what's causing the problem. All I can see in my process monitor, is SunVox way up at the top, taking up 75% of the CPU, Raspbian and Xorg seems to be taking up the rest.

Mind you, I've tried both JACK and ALSA with the same results. I turned off a lot of GUI settings as well, and made the window super small. It's definitely unusable. I had a viewer on YouTube confirm that 1.9.2 was night/day faster on his Pi 3.

Happy to try any other tricks. Until then, I'll stick with 1.9.2.
User avatar
NightRadio
Site Admin
Posts: 3944
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:28 am
Location: Ekaterinburg. Russia
Contact:

Re: Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by NightRadio »

Did you try the following ways?

* add the "softrender" option to the SunVox config (~/.config/SunVox/sunvox_config.ini)
OR
* enable desktop OpenGL driver: Terminal -> sudo raspi-config -> Advanced Options -> GL Driver -> OpenGL desktop driver with full KMS

Without these options the new SunVox will work very slow (several frames per second or lower) on Raspbian.
(choose only one option, but not both)
danzigism
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:42 pm

Re: Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by danzigism »

By Jove, I think you've solved it! I used the softrender option in my config file, and it runs remarkably better! I upgraded my Pi 3 to the latest version and it runs fantastically.

Just for fun I also loaded it on my Pi Zero W, and it even runs great on there! I've tried it with a super cheap $6.99 Sabrent USB audio adapter, JACK running at 48000hz sample rate, 256 frames, priority 4.

The Pi Zero W idles at around 71% CPU utilization, when playing a MIDI device, I've seen it jump up to about 90%-95%. This is completely usable.

Which definitely proves to me that even a $5 Pi Zero could make a great single-purpose synth machine.

Ideally, I'd love to remove the Xorg component completely and use libsdl straight in the console. Have you had any luck with doing that? I'd like to strip Linux down to almost nothing, and just run SunVox on boot.

I can't thank you enough for the tips and especially introducing me to the config file that I for some reason didn't even think to check for its existence.
User avatar
NightRadio
Site Admin
Posts: 3944
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:28 am
Location: Ekaterinburg. Russia
Contact:

Re: Major Performance Issues with Raspberry Pi after 1.9.2 to 1.9.3b Upgrade

Post by NightRadio »

I used the softrender option in my config file, and it runs remarkably better! I upgraded my Pi 3 to the latest version and it runs fantastically.
Great! :good:

Ideally, I'd love to remove the Xorg component completely and use libsdl straight in the console. Have you had any luck with doing that?
I have not done such tests yet. But it is possible in theory :)
Post Reply