Arbiter lag

Area to discuss development and bugs of official clones (Clone, Arbiter, MSX, Viennasweeper)
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aradesh
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Arbiter lag

Post by aradesh »

I've been having problems with arbiter lagging a little lately. 90% of the time it's fine, but if my computer is running something else such as a youtube video in the background, or sometimes nothing at all that I can observe, when I play a game it lags to the point that my cursor drags and doesn't react properly, or there is a notable time for a square to open (few 10ths of a second).

Here is some rough data from the task manager:
Not doing anything with arbiter: 0% CPU
Playing with default counters window open: 25-30% CPU
Playing with default counters window closed: 15-25% CPU

Playing with counters window open, all counters disabled: 10-20% CPU
Closed and everything disabled: 10-20% CPU, even in this case the mouse was still lagging and dragging. Nothing else is running on my computer which is using up the CPU and the mouse doesn't lag when I'm not playing a game.

PS: I'm using the most recent version of arbiter as linked by Cryslon in the arbiter thread.
aclark
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by aclark »

Doesn't sound like an arbiter problem. Sounds like an OS issue, though I wouldn't know where to begin. Try another mouse? Reinstalling drivers? Reinstalling OS? New computer? Does the same thing happen in safe mode? If not, some other program may be running that's interfering.
qqwref
Posts: 125
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:17 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by qqwref »

Do older versions of Arbiter do this too? That might help pinpoint the issue, maybe some new code was added that caused problems on your end. Oh yeah, and do you have anything in the counter window updating as you play? I personally have it all at 0 until the game finishes.
aclark wrote:Reinstalling OS?
What kind of person reinstalls Windows when one of their programs is running slowly? :shock:
NF player. Best scores 1-10-39.
aradesh
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by aradesh »

I compared arbiter versions 0_48_4 and 0_48_5 and found fairly identical CPU usage and lagging.
Normal play:
30-35% CPU
counters closed: 20-25% CPU
counters completely disabled: 15-20% CPU

Interestingly though, the mouse lag on these versions was different compared to the newest version 0_49_5. In the old two versions, the cursor does not lag, but actions happen with a delay after when I do them. e.g. when clicking along 5 squares fast at the start of a game, I see the squares being opened slightly behind the cursor. In the new version, the cursor and the clicks are in sync., but the cursor itself lags.

I was able to get these excessive lags to occur while playing a Youtube video.
aradesh
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by aradesh »

It could well be "just my computer", and this is what I thought. But I'm not the only person to have complained about arbiter lagging, so I figure when a lot of people are having "just my computer" problems it might be worth sharing with the developer.
EWQMinesweeper
Posts: 419
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:50 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by EWQMinesweeper »

define a lot :P
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aradesh
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by aradesh »

EWQMinesweeper wrote:define a lot :P
Much greater than 1 ^^
aclark
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by aclark »

qqwref wrote:What kind of person reinstalls Windows when one of their programs is running slowly? :shock:
I reinstall Windows pretty regularly. As long you plan for it (mostly where you keep your files) it's not too much trouble and keeps everything running smoothly.
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Tjips
Posts: 74
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:15 am
Location: South Africa

Re: Arbiter lag

Post by Tjips »

aclark wrote:I reinstall Windows pretty regularly. As long you plan for it (mostly where you keep your files) it's not too much trouble and keeps everything running smoothly.
Hahahahaha... Windows sucks in the long-term reliability department. I really hope Linux becomes a viable alternative for me in the future. As it stands, I am also doomed to perpetually reinstall windows to get the damned thing to work. All this still doesn't solve aradesh's lag problem...
The number of minesweeper boards:
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Int: 13115156192346373485000211099954895788134532256 (1.3e46) &
Beg: 18934455246 (1.9e10)
:D
thefinerminer
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Re: Arbiter lag

Post by thefinerminer »

I tried many versions of Arbiter on my 2 previous computers and it always got slower the more it was played. Then I bought a new laptop this Autumn and Arbiter always works perfectly. (On the other computers disabling the counters helped but did not solve it). I was never able to understand why, and most other players had no problem, so it must have been "just my computer", lol.
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