Input lag, video tear or minor video stutter...

[Franpa]

With Hardware rendering, Direct3D 9/10 and Aero I get no screen tearing but I get random bursts of stutter periodically caused by Aero as discussed over in this forum/thread. Currently only experienced in Bsnes and PCSX2.

This problem has been found to occur in several other programs, notably VBA, VBA-M, DESMUME, PJ64 and several others.

Verduga Greeneyes has discovered what the problem is with regards to Windows Aero being enabled resulting in periodic moments of severe stutter. He has also documented a solution to the problem as well as created a working Direct3D driver for Bsnes that does not suffer from the problem resulting in no more periodic stutter! (Proving that both the problem is real, I'm not making it up and that there is a working solution for it.)

You can read about what the problem is and the solution at these places:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=386624#p386624 (Latest, correct info)

[Squall Leonhart]

This problem has been found to occur in several other programs, notably VBA, VBA-M, DESMUME, PJ64 and several others.

Yes and no.
VBA has no such issue. (apart from on first gen Athlon64's with the unusual thread scheduling)
VBA-M does hitch, but only when you try to use auto frame skipping with the audio sync enabled. (frame skipping was getting a rewrite by adamn, before he vanished)
DESMUME has no such issue, (though same as VBA)
PJ64... ah, thats a tricky one. There is a hitching that can occur due to the accurate audio timing, though only in the beta. in the current release it was a architecture issue that jabo fixed in his 1.6.1 plugin pack. Then theres the input lag.... this is actually hardware accurate. if you really pay attention to the actual console on a crt you will notice there is a slight delay before some games start moving... Zelda64 one of the worst offenders.'

even forcing Vsync via Nvidia control panel does nothing to resolve it.

NVCP vsync has never worked on D3D10 applications. and it barely works on any D3D9 titles.

as for Aero causing stuttering, never happened.
that thread is full of byuushit

any instance of stuttering in that case is interference between the driver and other apps running in the background that inject a screen hook.

[Franpa]

NVCP hasn't failed me so far with regards to forcing Vsync in Direct3D 9 applications, thank you for informing me about it not working for Direct3D 10+ applications however Oh and as for the problem I describe it isn't stutter as in the program as a whole stutters, no, it's more like the visual output stutters, emulation/sound is unaffected.

[Franpa]

As of v1.0 I still can't get functional Vsync to happen while using a Basic desktop theme under Windows 7, I've tried both Windowed and Fullscreen.

No Aero, No Vsync, 50hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free" video frame rate.
No Aero, Vsync on, 50hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free video" frame rate.
No Aero, Vsync forced on via NVCP, 50hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free" video frame rate.
No Aero, No Vsync, 60hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free" video frame rate.
No Aero, Vsync on, 60hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free" video frame rate.
No Aero, Vsync forced on via NVCP, 60hz = Top half of the display suffers excess tearing and "smooth stutter free" video frame rate.

Aero, No Vsync, 50hz = No screen tearing and occasional visual output stutter.
Aero, Vsync on, 50hz = No screen tearing and occasional visual output stutter.
Aero, No Vsync, 60hz = No screen tearing and occasional visual output stutter.
Aero, Vsync on, 60hz = No screen tearing and occasional visual output stutter.

Aero it self causes periods of massive visual stutter to occur every 20~ or so seconds hence why I seriously want some kind of functional Vsync when using a Basic desktop theme. Currently runing a newer Geforce 560Ti 2048MB video card with notably newer 304.79 display drivers and the GSD11 hardware video plugin.

[Squall Leonhart]

no it doesn't

replace your hdd's, mainboard and make sure your mainboard isn't implementing a faulty hardware timer.

[Franpa]

no it doesn't

replace your hdd's, mainboard and make sure your mainboard isn't implementing a faulty hardware timer.

If nothing comes of this then I'll just stick to the presumably less accurate GSD9 Hardware mode which supports Vsync being forced via NVCP while Aero is disabled. I am curious though, why are you so adamant about not getting functional vsync implemented within the emulator and instead depending on other things such as NVCP or the Windows Vista/7 broken compositor?

[Squall Leonhart]

Gabest concluded long ago that forcing system refresh timings on the emulation will cause more harm than good.

[Franpa]

Gabest concluded long ago that forcing system refresh timings on the emulation will cause more harm than good.

Well okay, that's a pretty good yet very vague reason. I'll quiet down now.

[Mr.Bonkers]

So what, just use Aero to force Vsync even if it causes it's own issues now?
Because i've never been able to get Vsync in any form or way in any build i've used of PCSX2 to work at all.

[Franpa]

yeah Aero totally eliminates the screen tear 100% here or at the very least greatly minimizes the likely hood of it happening but here on my PC it comes at the expense of periodic bursts of stutter like what Verduga Greeneyes described. Games that seemingly run in a fullscreen exclusive display mode and games with there own functional method of Vsync that works without Aero (DWM vsync), don't suffer any problems with Vsync.