3.x Solved - Vixen 3 Choppy Performance - Looking for a fix

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
So far Vixen 3 has been flawless, however with the addition of a 64 strand mega tree running about 4600 pixels and somewhere along the lines of 26,000 channels total for the whole show, the inbuilt scheduler is becoming somewhat problematic. A computer with a 10700K i7 CPU just handles it with only a little stutter here and there.

I'm aware Xschedule is pretty powerful, I've had a small play around however that would require me to remap a lot of channels/props over to Xlights. Is there an easy way to do this? I really do not want to spend hours remapping though I will if it is the only real option. I've had a hunt through Vixen for export options and I don't see anything relating to show information or controller setup. If at all possible, I would rather stick with Vixen3, the layout is something I'm familiar with and it works pretty well (Aside the fact I don't want to spend hundreds of hours remaking everything I have done so far)

FPP - Is this really as simple as exporting a Vix3 sequence, taking note of channel start/stop info etc and sending it to the Pi?

I'm clueless as where to start looking regarding the FPP side of things, if someone could point me in the right direction I'd be very happy.
 
Last edited:

i13

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
I haven't used Vixen 3 since 2015 but I'll have a try at helping. Are there any other outputs from the computer other than the E1.31? If so then I'd suggest trying the E1.31 on its own.

How much RAM is there?
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
I haven't used Vixen 3 since 2015 but I'll have a try at helping. Are there any other outputs from the computer other than the E1.31? If so then I'd suggest trying the E1.31 on its own.

How much RAM is there?
The only outputs are the ones in use. 3 Pixlite MkII controllers, 1 Sandevices E682 and one pixel stick

Computer is specially built for this, 32gb DDR4 ram.
 

i13

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
Am I correctly presuming that you're using unicast? If all controllers receive every universe and respond only to the ones that they need then this might be the source of the problem.
 

i13

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
I do remember lithgowlights saying he had trouble with a PixLite controller. He asked Advatek about it and the reason was that he had some low universe numbers and some high universe numbers on the same controller. The PixLite wanted its universes to be close together. Could this be it?
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
Sandevices E682 Universe 1 - 12 - 3000 outputs
Pixlite 1: Universe 11-16 - 2562 outputs
Pixlite2: Universe 20-34 - Also with DMX output on universe 60 - 5803 outputs
PixelStick: universe 51 - 393 outputs
Megatree Pixlite Universe 60-90 - 15661 outputs

Big gap between Pixlite2 and Pixel stick is because Pixlite 2 handles everything else so I left room for expansion. Wasn't an issue last year at all running on a computer 1/10th as powerful.

If the issue is due to Pixlite2 having it's DMX output set so high, that'd be nice but I highly doubt it.
 

BAZMick

Full time elf
Generous elf
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
484
is Hardware Acceleration turned on with the new PC?
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
is Hardware Acceleration turned on with the new PC?
It's not an option that I can turn on or off, The video card GT520 doesn't support it. Can you explain why it would matter having this turned on or off for a scheduled show? I'm not using the visualiser on this computer, it's not the computer I create the sequences on.
 

tooms

12v4life
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
208
Location
Kalgoorlie
What does taskmgr / resmon show in windows as the bottleneck? high cpu usage? high memory, disk i/o or network? also are you using the 64bit build of Vixen?

FPP is pretty simple, export sequences to the FPP instance and let FPP handling the scheduling / playing, I use to use vixen a few years ago and was running it with FPP back then, I note now you can export directly to FPP from within Vixen.
 

Attachments

  • FPP_export.JPG
    FPP_export.JPG
    66.4 KB · Views: 4

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
What does taskmgr / resmon show in windows as the bottleneck? high cpu usage? high memory, disk i/o or network? also are you using the 64bit build of Vixen?

FPP is pretty simple, export sequences to the FPP instance and let FPP handling the scheduling / playing, I use to use vixen a few years ago and was running it with FPP back then, I note now you can export directly to FPP from within Vixen.
I see no bottleneck when it runs, CPU uses all available cores, to about 50% maximum. Sits at a comfortable 16-20GB ram used. I think i'll give FFP a shot, to be honest it seems like it handles things a little better, as Vixen's own documentation suggests their inbuilt scheduler is a no go for anything over 2000 channels.
 

BAZMick

Full time elf
Generous elf
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
484
It's not an option that I can turn on or off, The video card GT520 doesn't support it. Can you explain why it would matter having this turned on or off for a scheduled show? I'm not using the visualiser on this computer, it's not the computer I create the sequences on.
I just verbally vomitted that out, I've got software at work that does strange things when the HWD Acc is on. Yeah if you're not visuallising the show on the screen the same time the show is running then just ignore me and my vomitus.
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
I just verbally vomitted that out, I've got software at work that does strange things when the HWD Acc is on. Yeah if you're not visuallising the show on the screen the same time the show is running then just ignore me and my vomitus.
Ah I was hoping it would be some magical fix all problems solution :cry:
 

BAZMick

Full time elf
Generous elf
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
484
Yeah I'm sorry, though it did feel like magic when we first got pointed to it years ago.
Just another rumbling in my verbal tummy was i13 mentioning high universe numbers, I used some ws2801's in my show this year and found they wouldn't work when I sent high universe numbers to them (could be only high channel numbers by the time the pixels receive the data) so I changed the universe numbers down below 50 for them and they worked perfectly.
As an xlights user I quite often see warnings about large gaps in channel numbers in my check sequence reports and have read somewhere that this can be problematic??
Should I get the paper towel ready?
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
639
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
I wouldn't assume high gaps like mine to be an issue, as they are gaps between actual controllers, not within one controller.

I had an attempt at making it "smooth" as I took note at what times the sequences were getting sluggish, and took a few effects out, it did fix it, but only to the point of making the show look slightly less cool. I think it's just a Vixen scheduler issue.
 
Top