Isadora 4 Severe Lagging
-
It's possible you are running video through the Intel GPU, by using certain plugs.
On many laptops some video ports connect direct to the Intel GPU while others may connect direct to the dedicated card. Unfortunately not all machines handle this as smoothly. Some introduce significant bottlenecks while others can use both rather quickly.
Try detaching any external displays, and see if that speeds things up. The Load should drop instantly if this was the issue.
-
@dusx Thank you so much for the help. Unfortunately no luck, I disconnected all external displays and it was still spiking up to 180% with a keyboard watcher connected to a colorizer.
-
I'm on basically the same machine as you and any time I've had a problem like this, it's been the video codec. Maybe try re-encoding the video with Shutter Encoder? Use the HAP codec - any of the wrappers will do. Note that this will make the video unplayable in windows media player, but VLC will work.
Cheers,
Hugh
-
@mark_m Thanks so much for your help. I couldn't do that in BIOS, and though I found it in device manager, I need admin permissions to disable it. I can ask my IT department if they'd be willing to disable it tomorrow.
I'm not sure if the other university laptop has multiple GPUs, but my personal laptop at home does. I also have that one set to default to NVIDIA for Isadora, but I didn't disable the intel GPU on it.
-
@citizenjoe That is so strange! I wonder why that happens with some Dell models? Unfortunately I don't have permission to download programs without IT (they're very strict) so I can't re-encode it to HAP with Shutter Encoder (at least not right now) - could I try a different codec that I could export from AfterEffects, or do you have an alternative re-encoder I could try?
-
@lwebster said:
@citizenjoe That is so strange! I wonder why that happens with some Dell models? Unfortunately I don't have permission to download programs without IT (they're very strict) so I can't re-encode it to HAP with Shutter Encoder (at least not right now) - could I try a different codec that I could export from AfterEffects, or do you have an alternative re-encoder I could try?
You may not be able to do this without IT, but you can install the HAP codec for Adobe Creative Suite and do it direct. For the sake of trying it, could you convert the media files on a different computer?
You can try H264 if you're not working interactively with the files. Look at tips 5, 6 and 7 here: Hot Tips to get the Best Performance from Isadora : TroikaTronix for further ideas.
Also here: Create Windows Native HAP avi Video Files : TroikaTronix
For the record, my machine works REALLY well with Isadora and I do have the A4000 GPU running independently of the integrated graphics!
Cheers,
Hugh
-
@citizenjoe Apologies, my IT department hasn't been able to help me yet, and I wasn't comfortable downloading the shutter encoder to my personal laptop. Is HAP the only codec that works if I do need interactivity? That's a large reason why I use Isadora. I'll admit I'm not sure how to download and install something from github, it's always been a bit of a mystery to me. I think AfterEffects removed to option to export HAP.
I'm really glad to hear your machine works well and there's hope! So, just to confirm, your issue is purely because of the codec and needing HAP? Nothing to do with integrated GPU vs NVIDIA? Or external displays?Thank you!
-
@lwebster said:
HAP
Isadora installs the HAP codec when installed. I think it will be registered by Shutter encoder automatically. I don't think the adobe hap codec is needed.
HAP is not the only codec for interactivity. It is probably the best however. PhotoJpeg is another that will allow video scrubbing. MP4 or H264 is probably the worst choice.
-
@dusx I'm so sorry, I'm not following. What do you mean that Isadora installs the HAP codec? If I don't have shutter encoder, is there another way to transcode my files into HAP? Or photojpeg? Thank you, apologies for more questions.
-
-
@lwebster said:
<p>@citizenjoe Apologies, my IT department hasn't been able to help me yet, and I wasn't comfortable downloading the shutter encoder to my personal laptop. Is HAP the only codec that works if I do need interactivity? That's a large reason why I use Isadora. I'll admit I'm not sure how to download and install something from github, it's always been a bit of a mystery to me. I think AfterEffects removed to option to export HAP.</p><p><br />I'm really glad to hear your machine works well and there's hope! So, just to confirm, your issue is purely because of the codec and needing HAP? Nothing to do with integrated GPU vs NVIDIA? Or external displays? </p><p>Thank you!</p>
What @DusX means is that Isadora has HAP built into it for its own use... There's no reason to worry about installing Shutter Encoder (or HAP) on your machine! If you use it to translate the files to HAP, they will work in Isadora even if you haven't installed the Codec on the University machine. You just won't be able to play those files in any other software. As he mentions, PhotoJPEG will also work, and it is probably already installed on both machines and AE should see it. I didn't mention it because it very old. HAP is modern technology.
Cheers,
Hugh
-
So sorry for the late reply - other projects were prioritized, now I finally have the time to look back into this. My IT department has essentially abandoned me, so I'm on my own.
I'm still a bit confused, apologies that I'm not following. You're saying I *don't* need to convert the video to HAP? Isadora does that automatically?
Just to try your suggestion, I did convert it to the HAP codec manually in media encoder to try it out, but when testing in Isadora there's no difference between the original video and the new HAP video.
It seems that the spikes are better, I think because my computer finally transitioned to using the NVIDIA graphics card after I forced the setting. Once I start "show stages" the little NVIDIA manager pops up to tell me it switched over, which didn't happen previously.
I'm no longer spiking at 180-200% load, but I am at a consistent 80% load. It spikes up to to the higher end of 80 when videos restart on the loop. It spikes over 100% when I use any watchers or generators. The same file on my personal computer doesn't go above 40%. It's not sputtering and lagging like it did before, but the spike is still concerning to me, especially because I'm doing relatively simple stuff. No depth cameras, external accessories, or generative content yet. This is all with the projector connected.
If it's not the HAP codec, and it's not the GPU, and it's not the security permissions, what else could it be? Agh!Thank you so much!!
