[Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.49)

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byron
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

Yea, I've tried most of those things as well...but the things I've changed now should be a permanent solution to the issue (or a big part of it).
Reptile wrote:And lastly, sorry if I'm not understanding you completely. Is 3.5.45 the latest version with all of the updated changes?
It's the latest tagged version for a release, but I'm working in svn so I work/commit things and then push when I'm happy with bumping the version. To get the latest changes download TortoiseSVN. Once installed right click somewhere on your desktop, choose svn checkout and point it to my repository then click ok:
svn.jpg
once you've got the latest revision, please do what I was suggesting with guisettings.xml and instead of copying the whole skin just try replacing the old 720p folder (xbox) with the one you just got - next copy and replace the entire scripts folder (rcm/scripts not xbmc/scripts) and you should be good to go.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by Reptile »

Will do tonight!
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by Reptile »

Alrighty. I've followed all of your steps: Replaced 720p folder, rcm scripts folder, and the guisettings.xml file.

Looks like whatever that changed is a step in the right direction. Firstly, the whole skin just operates quicker. It used to take a good 3-4 seconds to get back to the home menu from any other menu. Now it's only 1 or 2 even with high-res backgrounds, video or visualization playback, which is just as fast as any other skin I've tried. HUGE improvement.

The CPU usage seems to have dropped about 6% as well. RAM usage may have dropped too, but minimally from what I can remember it reading before.

Videos seem to be working about 90% of the time now. It seems as though I can launch a movie without any problems from either the Library menu or the Files menu right after start up. However, if I navigate the menus for a while and then launch a video, it will still freeze most of the time. Also, playing one movie after another, or after music playback, has resulted in freezes.

Thanks for the lesson in SVN, by the way. I had no idea how people were downloading these builds for the longest time.

Anyway this is definitely a good step forward. Based on what I've found here, do you think you know what's causing the problem? It definitely seems like CPU usage now that I've been monitoring it more. Playing a movie seems to use a lot less CPU than the skin's image backgrounds do. I'm hoping it isn't the backgrounds that are the issue, because they're kind of the heart of the skin.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

Really glad you followed up on this, and am happy to see that what I was thinking worked for someone else...I've got a couple of other things to tweak for this and then I'll push a new version.
Reptile wrote:The CPU usage seems to have dropped about 6% as well. RAM usage may have dropped too, but minimally from what I can remember it reading before.
Positive results for both actually, and here's why starting on line 625:

https://code.google.com/p/rapier-clarit ... ttings.xml

this is roughly the file I had you curb...it's about 100kb and the new that was generated is probably 25-50. These are all things that I'm pretty sure have to be parsed by the program at startup and stay in memory. I've found a way around it for the non custom home menu users...but I've still got to iron out exactly how to make the custom home users not crash their sessions too.
Videos seem to be working about 90% of the time now. It seems as though I can launch a movie without any problems from either the Library menu or the Files menu right after start up. However, if I navigate the menus for a while and then launch a video, it will still freeze most of the time. Also, playing one movie after another, or after music playback, has resulted in freezes.
If you've been using the same xbmc build for a good while, it may benenfit you to scan your thumbs with ToDDS...I personally find it worthwhile, and part of the reason you might be experiencing crashes is because the progam is trying to load thumbs after a scroll for example, but you've already selected an item to play...also, playing file after file in quick succession (clearly in this example it was extreme for testing) will slowly eat away ram and eventually the quick burst it takes to start a movie will crash the session. As for the music, have you noticed this in other skins? The backgrounds are not the issue imo, I think the skin has enough ram/cpu to handle them just fine, the settings to change them on the other hand are not helping...but not enough harm to even bother with probably. Thanks again for posting, let me know if you come across any other issues, and stay tuned for updates :)
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by Reptile »

Well, I may have spoken too soon. I experimented with it a lot more tonight and even recorded about an hour of bug testing. The problem seems to be caused when launching a movie from scratch, as opposed to resuming playback. After multiple cache deletions and even another guisesettings.xml reset, that's the best I can come up with. Even monitoring CPU and memory usage, sometimes movies just fail to start, regardless of the memory or CPU. It's so weird.

But they NEVER fail to resume playback from a previous point. I will send you the videos I took if you'd like. It'll just take me a while to upload them because I have an iPhone and it shoots everything in 1080p lol.

Edit: I should add some numbers, I guess. I'm running this from a 64 meg stock Xbox with a 500 gig 7200 rpm HDD. This is of course with your latest changes to the skin in XBMC 3.5. Even if the CPU is maxed out to 100% and isn't given a chance to drop before a video is resumed, the video launches. But if the video is launched freshly, even if the CPU drops to 40% usage beforehand, it can and most likely will fail.

One time, deleting the e:/cache and rebooting allowed a movie to launch freshly. A second go around proved the exact opposite. It seems random.

Throw whatever you want at me and I will try it.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by fxmech »

I kind of think it is something to do with the jump from the menu system to the fullscreen video playback

My 128mb box handles things well usually. But erratic behavior on the stock boxes. The most common experience is a black hanging fullscreen video, with audio playback for a few seconds, no escaping before a definite crash.

Maybe it isn't only skin related... I'm usually trying to watch video streams online with plugins. Just my lazy input, I've been plagued by this on multiple different installs.

I've had streams fail then successfully load after a reboot without changing anything.....
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

fxmech wrote:Maybe it isn't only skin related... I'm usually trying to watch video streams online with plugins. Just my lazy input, I've been plagued by this on multiple different installs.
you might be correct, I was actually going to make a bug report because I was getting this error from RenderManager.cpp

"-Timeout waiting for previous frame to be presented" and sometimes "...called without a valid Renderer object"

A real debug log is necessary for sure, but I know these were being thrown just before the hang and imminent crash. I think it's something to do with several windows being loaded at once when a video is initiated. I had crashes while using Confluence Lite (to test against), but never with PMIII which led me to believe that I could combat it through lightening up certain windows. For instance, I really started to notice this after altering DialogFullscreenInfo.xml around r149. Once I changed this up, it started freezing so I thought it was animations, too much code, blah buh dee blah...taking the media flags out of the code and putting them into includes seems to have also helped...who knows. If you have it happen again post a log if you wouldn't mind, it could be a simple tweak in the .cpp file to make it work better.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by l11l1venom1l11l »

Still, one thing I stand by is that Resume Playback never seems to result in a crash. I'm going to play with it a lot on Sunday again and I'll enable debug logging. If it's crashing with skins other than PMIII, I'd imagine it has something to do with the the video being visible in the background? I will disable that option in RCM and see if it helps.

And if it isn't only RCM causing it, I did read somewhere that it was a known issue in a recent build of XBMC (before Kodi). Unfortunately I can't find that thread again. What are the odds of a new version of XBMC4XBOX being pushed if this is addressed?
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

@ venom...don't think it's a problem with the vid being visible in the background. This skin has plenty of ram/cpu to have that, it's got something to do with the windows that open by default when we have video initiation...

I've made some more changes that should help even more, taking a queue from PMIII I've decided to add as much as possible from these windows into includes.xml - it seems to have helped but at this point who knows - more feedback would be nice and is more than welcome (r196). I've got a couple more loose ends to tie up with disabling custom home items and I'll push another version.

Had a crash last night...here's a log: http://pastebin.com/YJp94QL6

Maybe someone can shed some light on this...maybe a bug report needs to be made?
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by l11l1venom1l11l »

That's the same error I get every time. For the record, I'm Reptile. Couldn't remember my password for the site or the email address I used for it, so I created a new account, but found the password was stored on my laptop. Sorry, probably should have specified.

You're right. I did more testing, now on a completely new Xbox with a fresh installation of XBMC with the last changes you had me use. Even with only 1 movie to choose from, no library set up, and video backgrounds disabled - it still crashed on the second attempt. It worked the first time WITH video backgrounds enabled. But the next time I booted the Xbox and switched it off (trying to make a failsafe build for future Xboxes that I am modding), the movie crashed the Xbox.

I just can't wrap my head around its randomness. I have tried other skins on my personal Xbox - PMIII HD, Confluence, XTV, Xii and the unfinished build of Night. They all played videos fine. Then again it's hard to tell because of said randomness.

I do notice that SOMETIMES RCM will display the loading circles before launching a movie and sometimes it won't, regardless of the movie (whether it's the same one twice or a different one, regardless if it's resuming from playback or starting fresh). I can't tell exactly if this is making a difference.

Do you think it might have something to do with the loading circles or screen dimming?


And I have two more small suggestions for the interface itself:

Coverflow - is there an easy way to stop the first and last thumbnails from fading in and out and instead just display them until they are pulled into and pushed off of screen completely? I've noticed that while video is playing (when it does play), coverflow will become very choppy. I was wondering if disabling the fade-out effect would smooth it out a little, but I know that the extra two visible icons might counteract the disabling of the effect. However, Poster View displays more thumbnails and operates smoothly during video playback.

Large icons/small icon dimming - I've noticed that small icons are not dimmed. Large icons are dimmed until they are highlighted. Can we disable the dimming of large icons? Just seems like a continuity thing, and I think small icons look great when they're all bright. You can easily tell which is selected still with the border and background.

I just purchased an Elgato HD capture device, so I'm planning to record the way I have your skin set up. It looks glorious! I will send you a video soon.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

@ venom...you need to right click on the r-c-m folder that you checked out and select SVN Update - when you first checked out it was r194 and I've made changes to help this issue since (on r196 atm). I really think I've got the issue mostly cornered so update and replace the 720p folder and see how that helps. I've noticed no crashing at all except that log I posted and that was after switching skins...

CoverFlow Vs. PosterWrap - the poster view is an actual list...the coverflow is a fake list to get the content and then about 1000 lines of code for groups that represent the images of the fake list (all of which have their own visible/hidden animations). It's a view that I didn't invent, and am not going to mess with at this point...sorry. I'd like to suggest using ToDDS again if you haven't already given it a shot, the results will speed up and smooth out many things (especially in a view such as coverflow).

As for the Icons view, I'll look at it...but may or may not mess with it. I understand the continuity thing though and I appreciate you pointing it out. First matter of business however is resolving this issue with video killing our x4x sessions ;) Please test those changes and report back whenever it's convenient and thanks again for helping out.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

r198 is up for checkout - anyone using the skin and interested please test and report back (TIA). I've moved most of the controls from VideoOSD, FullscreenVideo, and FullscreenVideoInfo into includes...seems to have all but taken care of the problem (small issue still with MyVideo) - I'd really like to know if it's just me or if it's working better for others as well at this point...
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by fxmech »

Checked out. Should I try and get my 128 to recreate the issue? If I have debugging enabled and "survive" the error, maybe it can give more insight?
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by fxmech »

Still crashed on the stock Xbox, worked in confluence lite
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

Well, that sucks...I'll start sifting through MyVideo.xml for the problem. I've found a file that crashes x4x 9/10 times but but not when launched from favorites. I'm really having a hard time understanding exactly what's going on. Thanks for the feedback btw.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by fxmech »

Everything works on my upgraded board. I'll get you a debug if you want (it worked though...)

I'll try more to see if I can get it to crash
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

Sure, maybe the log might shed some light...
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by fxmech »

I got a few frames of video before hanging this time around on my 128.

I have a long shift at work tonight and tomorrow, but I'll get a proper log PMed this weekend. I don't think it's memory, as I still had around 64mb free upon the freeze. (was using a third party plugin so won't post the log here)
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by l11l1venom1l11l »

Sorry it's taken me a while to test the latest changes. No difference on my end.

Is there a way to download a previous build? I'd like to give the first build I ever tried a shot again because, granted I didn't have many movies on the Xbox at the time, none of them seemed to lock up at all. And I did a lot of testing with it when I first found this skin because I was showing it off to friends and whatnot.

I'm now wondering if it has something to do with new views that were created for the later builds, or just a views problem in general (somehow). I've noticed that the skin does wonky things in some areas that aren't really a concern. For example, if I create an "All Programs" source in the programs menu and point it to all of the folders that contain subfolders with default.xbe's in them, all of them will work fine except for my f:/emus/arcade folder, which contains MAME, CPS3, FBL, and Midway Arcade Treasures 3. If I include the arcade folder, drilling into the "All Programs" source will mysteriously lead it to my F:/Apps folder. This didn't happen until more views such as Coverflow were added in the later builds. And again, I don't think this is a problem as far as navigation goes for the most part because I don't know ANYONE who would actually want all of their programs (apps, games, homebrew and emulators) lumped into one folder. I only did it because I had 7 sources in the Programs menu and wanted to square it out with 8, lol.

But I figure it might be worth mentioning because the issue didn't happen until the later builds. Unfortunately I have no idea which exact build it started in.
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Re: [Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.45)

Post by byron »

Sure...you can checkout whatever revision you like, but it isn't always just 720p that's changing. All you have to do is right click the folder, and instead of checking out head revision tick the radio button below it and enter the revision you wish to have...this will update your version to that revision.

Here's a list of the changes about where you came along: https://code.google.com/p/rapier-clarit ... &start=148

As for the other things...do they happen with other skins? Sounds like a bug with the program, maybe a clean install of xbmc might be the first place to start with a fresh copy of whatever revision you update to ;)
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