FGU using GPU at almost 100%

[Moon Wizard]

It affects how smoothly that graphics move on the screen including dice and tokens. At lower high vsync rates, the Unity engine and graphics card are basically skipping frames to improve performance.

Regards,
JPG

[caste381]

Hi All,

QQ: I understand there is a lot going on around testing and improvement. That's great to hear.
What I fail to comprehend is why the CPU/GPU is being heavily utilised when no one is doing anything? Or even without players connected. Surely in those cases we are just dealing with a static image with no need to dynamic calculations? I would expect utilisation close to 0%.
I am comparing this to the behaviour I see in other software. Especially apps that should be heavier than FGU but perform much better.
Unless I am missing something.
Thank you

[pablomaz]

The system frame rate matching change just went to Live channel. In this build, by default, the frame rate will match the system frame rate (defined by OS and monitor).
To override, you can type "/vsync #" into chat window while tabletop is running. You should only use if you've reported an issue, and we've asked you to try some other settings.

Regards,
JPG

Hey, Moon Wizard.
I'm glad now I have the ability to limit the fps - I don't believe anyone needs FGU running with 60fps (my system default). I've been able to test it for a couple of hours (no players connected), and GPU usage has been drastically reduced when caped to 30fps and, especially, to 20fps (apparently good enough for dice rolling and token movement).

Why you don't recommend everyone setting vsync, though?

I couldn't thank you guys enough for taking care of this issue. I'm glad I'll be able to run FGU as smoothly I used to run FGC from now on and I hope you guys figure it all out with a permanent solution.

[Moon Wizard]

@pablomaz,
To me personally, I notice the difference between 60fps and lower frame rates. (i.e. dice rolling, window dragging, token movement). Also, this does not appear to be a general issue for all users. When running at the default vsync 1 (60fps on my machine), I only see 20-30% GPU utilitization, and 2% CPU utilization.

@caste381,
There is a misunderstanding that FGU is somehow a simple static application. However, we're using a game engine (Unity) which requires frames to be drawn at the given frame rate, regardless of whether anything changes on screen. Also, FG is a platform, so we have to build it so that any combination and number of tabletop windows/fields can be displayed in addition to 3D dice. Also, many other games can downscale graphics when needed for performance, which isn't something we can do without directly affecting the end user experience. I'm not saying that there are not more optimizations that we could make in the future, but the focus is on making FG perform all the functions that it needs to and that we would like it to. The new vsync setting is to allow people with video cards which struggle with the Unity engine settings to scale back the frame rate.

Regards,
JPG

[caste381]

@pablomaz,
To me personally, I notice the difference between 60fps and lower frame rates. (i.e. dice rolling, window dragging, token movement). Also, this does not appear to be a general issue for all users. When running at the default vsync 1 (60fps on my machine), I only see 20-30% GPU utilitization, and 2% CPU utilization.

@caste381,
There is a misunderstanding that FGU is somehow a simple static application. However, we're using a game engine (Unity) which requires frames to be drawn at the given frame rate, regardless of whether anything changes on screen. Also, FG is a platform, so we have to build it so that any combination and number of tabletop windows/fields can be displayed in addition to 3D dice. Also, many other games can downscale graphics when needed for performance, which isn't something we can do without directly affecting the end user experience. I'm not saying that there are not more optimizations that we could make in the future, but the focus is on making FG perform all the functions that it needs to and that we would like it to. The new vsync setting is to allow people with video cards which struggle with the Unity engine settings to scale back the frame rate.

Regards,
JPG

Thank you. That’s very clear now.
Regards.

[pablomaz]

@pablomaz,
To me personally, I notice the difference between 60fps and lower frame rates. (i.e. dice rolling, window dragging, token movement). Also, this does not appear to be a general issue for all users. When running at the default vsync 1 (60fps on my machine), I only see 20-30% GPU utilitization, and 2% CPU utilization.

@caste381,
There is a misunderstanding that FGU is somehow a simple static application. However, we're using a game engine (Unity) which requires frames to be drawn at the given frame rate, regardless of whether anything changes on screen. Also, FG is a platform, so we have to build it so that any combination and number of tabletop windows/fields can be displayed in addition to 3D dice. Also, many other games can downscale graphics when needed for performance, which isn't something we can do without directly affecting the end user experience. I'm not saying that there are not more optimizations that we could make in the future, but the focus is on making FG perform all the functions that it needs to and that we would like it to. The new vsync setting is to allow people with video cards which struggle with the Unity engine settings to scale back the frame rate.

Regards,
JPG

Oh, I DO notice the difference, but if I have to choose between great performance + good enough fps or painful performance + as good as it gets (60) fps, no doubt I will chose the first option...
My machine is still pretty good by many standards, but certainty not as a gamer laptop - not anymore. Running anything on 1920x1080 at 60fps will be a pain. There's no need for me to see those yellow dice rolling that smoothly, man. :- )

Well, thanks again, Moon Wizard!
Best regards!

[Weissrolf]

FGU having to constantly redraw the screen even when nothing happens is one drawback compared to FGC. In Classic there is zero screen drawing and no GPU/CPU usage when nothing moves, screen output is effectively frozen unless you happen to move the mouse over certain elements.

[caste381]

FGU having to constantly redraw the screen even when nothing happens is one drawback compared to FGC. In Classic there is zero screen drawing and no GPU/CPU usage when nothing moves, screen output is effectively frozen unless you happen to move the mouse over certain elements.

That's exactly what I could not get my head around. It did not make sense until JPG explained the architectural difference. I find it strange though that Unity will not account for that and automatically adjust the framerate. Every piece of software I used in the past does it and the FPS drops to zero if there is no movement.
Anyhow, I am not a developer and probably I do not understand the implications

[Headshot Robot]

Thought I might add my 2 cents.

I was also getting 80% utilization on a 2080ti with the latest updates. After checking in Steam I saw that FG was running at 2300 FPS. I had to enable Vsync for FG in the Nvidia control panel to bring it in line.

Thanks for all the hard work, guys. Love the app.

[caste381]

A friend of mine mentioned that Unity supports on demand rendering, which would lower frame rate when nothing is changing on screen.
It might be a superfluous question but could this feature help?