not a bug Cursor becomes slow when hovering over an image and panning is laggy (NEW VIDEO)

It probably is, but it's not the combo of Windows Game Mode + the v-sync on the card setting because both are disabled and it is still slow moving the cursor over the image. System is an AMD 1920x threadripper + Radeon RX 570 video card + ASRock x399 motherboard. Windows 10 Pro.

Hallo guyroch, hello forum,

I have to agree. My Win10 machine (PI 1.8.8-5) has a NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 750 Ti DriverVersion 432.00) card and I am also suffering from a small but disturbing lag. Disabling game mode and disabling v-sync as discribed does not fix it.

My Linux Workstation with PI 1.8.8-4 does not have this lag.
Code:
System:
  Host: shark Kernel: 4.15.0-96-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
  v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina
  base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nvidia
  v: 390.116 bus ID: 01:00.0
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: nvidia
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 3840x1600~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1050/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.116
  direct render: Yes
 
My Linux Workstation with PI 1.8.8-4 does not have this lag.

Which demonstrates that this is a machine-specific, driver-specific issue. The most probable cause for this problem on Windows is input lag caused by v-sync, Adaptive VSync and/or G-SYNC, the latter two specific to GeForce cards.

I am sorry for not being able to offer a solution. Please understand that I cannot offer a solution for every possible issue caused by multiple hardware and driver combinations and configurations. This problem cannot be reproduced under normal conditions on any of our machines, but should be solvable with appropriate video driver settings.
 
Can someone please list their graphics cards where this is not an issue? This is driving me crazy and I can't fix it with my Radeon 570 RX despite any setting I try.

I have all of these software on that PC an none have this slow behavior when I move the cursor over an image.

Nebulosity => non-issue
Photoshop => non-issue
MaximDL => non-issue
AstroPixelPreprocessor => non-issue

PixInsight => issue


Guylain.
 
Here is what I don't understand with Juan's comment claiming this is not a Pix issue.

I tried older versions and it seems like this started between 1.8.8 (2019-11-08) and PixInsight 1.8.8-3 (2019-12-16). This confirms something in Pix changed that is causing this.

PixInsight 1.07.00.0697 (2011-06-01) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.00.0963 (2013-01-24) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.02.1098 (2014-06-24) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.03.1123 (2014-11-18)-> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.04.1195 (2015-12-18) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.05.1353 (2017-08-09) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.08.06.1473 (2019-05-14) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.8.7 (2019-09-30) -> non-issue

PixInsight 1.8.8 (2019-11-08) -> non-issue
PixInsight 1.8.8-2 (updated inside Pix from 1.8.8) -> non-issue ::: QT 5.13.2

<<< something happened between these 2 releases >>>

PixInsight 1.8.8-3 (2019-12-16) -> issue ::: QT 5.13.2


PixInsight 1.8.8-4 (2020-01-26) -> issue
PixInsight 1.8.8-5 (2020-02-28) -> issue

Guylain
 
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since you have all those versions and can run them, check the version of Qt in each one. (Resources > Qt version...)

more than likely you'll see the change is related to the version of Qt. that's my guess anyway.

rob
 
I updated my post above.

Both 1.8.8 and 1.8.8-3 have the same QT 5.13-2 version.

I ran the update inside Pix 1.8.8 to and it auto-updated to 1.8.8-2. Pix 1.8.8-2 does not have the issue. I updated my post above to reflect this.

So the issue was introduced in 1.8.8-3 and it is not related to QT since when both 1.8.8-2 and 1.8.8-3 have QT 5.13.2.

Guylain
 
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well that is unexpected since the root of most of these problems is Qt. but that's a good datapoint. i suppose there is probably compile-time and runtime configuration of Qt that might make the difference here.
 
Any news on this subject ?
I have the same problem with PI 1.8.8-5 and GTX1060 (Win10).
Disabling v-Sync did not solve the problem.
I can see an improvement if I disable the display of cursor position and pixel values on bottom bar.
So it seems that reading the data from the image to display it on status bar is time consuming on my configuration.
 
This is a machine-specific issue that cannot be reproduced under normal working conditions on any supported platform. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to solve it. It is an anomaly that we are not causing and should be fixable through hardware changes and/or driver configuration settings.
 
Hello,
I am digging out this post because I am encountering the same issue and perhaps my investigation could help to find an issue:
- previously, I was using a labtop (i5 - 16Mb RAM - SSD - GeForce 1050)
- yesterday i installed a workstation : AMD 5900x - 64Mb RAM - SSD PCI4.0 ... and a GeForce 710 !! there are no graphic card on the market for the moment

Both are installed with Windows Pro. I have the exact same issue with my new workstation : a very annoying "lag" of the mouse cursor when it goes over an image. I tried to deactivate V Sync and game mode, it did nothing

I looked at the GPU load with the task manager (the 3D tab).
With my "high end configuration" and a "low end" graphic cards:
- PI open, a .xisf file open, mouse is not moving : the GPU load is at 0%
- PI open, a .xisf file is open, mouse is moving in PI but is not on the image : load of the GPU is at 80% (!!)
- PI open, a .xisf file is open, mouse is moving over the image : the lag phenomenon is visible (and very annoying !) and the GPU load is 100%

I attached the print screen, when I move again the mouse outside the image, the load goes back to 80% and to zero when the mouse is not moving, again 100% when I move in the image :
GPU Load in PixInsights.png



This is with a 710 graphics card. If I do the same with my labtop and its 1050 graphic card:
- load 0% when mouse is not moving
- load 0% (or a barely visible u) when mouse is moving around the image
- load 20% when mouse is moving over the image
Here follows the same print, a labtop with 1050 graphics cards:
GPU Load 1050.png




So my conclusion, perhaps I am wrong, is that this is a phenomenon which always exists but which is not always visible, it appears when the GPU is overloaded.

Knowing that, I tried to deactivated all the various option of 3D display without success:
- either in Nvidia control panel - 3D parameters
- either in PI parameters: even if it says this is not available yet, I tried de-activated the "CUDA" options in "parallel processing thread" tab

I hope that with that, perhaps you can help us who are concern @Juan Conejero : is there a specific option to disable that will help us ?
Clearly my current configuration is not balanced : an AMD 5900x next to a GeForce 710 is strange but I have enough processing power.
Knowing that this appears from a known software release, perhaps you know that this release correspond to a development where you transfered a part of the load to the graphic card ?

[EDIT : please see after, this is NOT a PixInsight related issue. It is a general issue where mouse cursor deplacement may overload the GPU. The next post describ a work around to reduce significantly the GPU load, even with a low end graphic card]

Thanks for your help, there won't be any graphics cards available in the coming months and this "lag" is very, very annoying :confused:

Thanks
Jean-Baptiste
 
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Hello @Juan Conejero
I made my previous post quickly but when I have somethinig is mind, it is stuck ;)

I think I have found a work around : I made further investigation with google search such as "mouse cursor is overloading the GPU"
I found various post.
One from nvidia forum showing this:
a link is made on the output format of the HDMI port (I forgot to say that I use a 4K screen), in a nutshell: use 4:4:4 or RGB, not 4:2:2 or 4:2:0

And this one to understand various ways to change the output format : very useful, it shows that your monitor may be seen as a TV and implement restricted output format:

I was in this case, my monitor seen as a "UHD".
So instead of using "UHD" / 4k x 2k , 3840x2160 which was in 60Hz but in 4:2:0
I used the resolution under "PC" 3840x2160 and select the full dynamic range option:
PC resolution.png



Now, when I do the same test :
- GPU load is at 0% when I move around the image
- GPU Load is at 50-60% when I move in the image

new gpu load.png


And I have no lag at all :)

The main drawback is that my refresh rate is now 30Hz but this is nothing compare to the "lag issue"

I hope it will help some of us who were confronted to this

Jean-Baptiste
 
Yeap. I can reproduce the same: My GPU 3D usage goes to ~30% just by moving the mouse over an image. Lag effect present. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 1920x1080, Windows 10.

Greetings.
 
As noted above, these are machine-specific issues completely out of our control. There is nothing we can do to solve them because they are not being caused by our code. The code that runs in PixInsight when you move the cursor over an image is quite simple and there is no reason at all for it to consume a 30% of your GPU resources (I can publish it if you want). This cannot be reproduced under normal conditions. These problems are not being caused by bugs in PixInsight, by any means.
 
I fully agree @Juan Conejero : this is not a bug from PixInsight, my first post was misplaced because I thought this could come from what was implemented.
In my second post, I precised that I found that this issue is related with Nvidia and the way the HDMI output format is implemented.
Do you want me to remove my post and the workaround that I found ?

I edited my first post to include these precisions.

I am not a lawyer and I don't want to sue anyone, just helping the colleagues that may face the same type of behaviour .. which can be easily reproduced under normal condition by the way ;) ^^
 
Just to add another data point, I can also confirm the GPU load increase while moving the mouse over an image. What's interesting, the load is higher (~25%) when moving the mouse, than quickly zooming-in and out an image (~15%). I am on a Win 10 Pro Dell laptop with the latest Intel drivers but with a rather old PI installation (1.08.05.1353).
 
I am also having an issue with the mouse becoming sluggish or not moving at all but I believe it is page fault related. When it happens I can have very low CPU/RAM/SSD/GPU usage - just idling. I am out of my comfort zone with this but when I googled the issue a post suggested it could be page file faults and I downloaded ProcessExplorer to check it out. This identified PixInsight as having a lot of page faults compared to other Processes. This goes beyond my technical knowledge, can anyone explain this result or offer a solution?
Capture.JPG
 
how much RAM does your computer have? how long has PI been running? moving the mouse around shouldn't cause a whole load of activity in PI - in order for page faults to be a performance problem a process has to be doing stuff and be accessing memory in such a way that really thrashes the OS and the hardware's VM mechanisms...

rob
 
I have 32GB RAM, not sure how long PI was running but maybe an hour or so. PI was running in the background when my mouse started lagging, cant remember what I was doing at the time but as I say above the PC was idling on all fronts, just the mouse being unresponsive.
 
As noted, this problem cannot be reproduced under normal working conditions. This is a machine-specific issue, which can be caused by a variety of factors, including conflicting third-party applications, all of them out of our control and scope. Unless you can provide a data set or a sequence of operations to reproduce this problem, I am sorry but there is nothing we can do. We cannot fix a problem that cannot be reproduced.
 
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