[1.4.0 - 1.5.x] Audio Muffler Redux [v2.6.1] (2018 May, 7)

[Ninadragonborn]

4 hours ago, Ser said:

Tested with 1.4.5 and everything seems to be fine. And it was compiled last time against 1.4.3, so it should work in 1.4.4. What king of troubles do you have with the mod?

 

Your trouble is most likely caused by some mod incompatibility. I'd recommend you to try running KSP with only this mod installed and see if you still have FPS drops. It's not hard, you only have to move all other mods to a different folder out of GameData and that takes a fraction of second if you move to the same drive. Otherwise you'll have to find the interfering mod. Only then there will be something to look at.

By the way, what do you use to measure FPS? Isn't it Fraps?

thanks i have not played ksp for several days but i will test it thanks for answer 

[Gordon Dry]

@Ser KerboKatz Small Utilities FPS Viewer

I always had bad fps issues with AudioMuffler - and testing it stock or with a hypothetical minimum of mods I never would play with is something from the past - I never found any culprit for the fps drops which was more meaningful than AudioMuffler itself.

And over the time passed by also others wrote that they have performance issues.

I'm not sure if this mod is waiting for something to happen before it updates which is unnecessary to wait for... I'm not in coding that much.

[Jacke]

1 hour ago, Gordon Dry said:

@Ser KerboKatz Small Utilities FPS Viewer

You may already know about these, but just in case.  Available manually and in CKAN.

GCMonitor has an FPS and memory overlay.  [Mod]-F1 to toggle the main window, [Mod]-F to toggle the FPS and memory overlay.

Memgraph can provide more info and can pad the heap memory.   [Mod]-Pad* to toggle the window, see the OP for more functions.

 

[Ser]

9 hours ago, Jacke said:

You may already know about these, but just in case.  Available manually and in CKAN.

 

Thanks, I know about them. I've just had a stupid issue with Fraps: it has a default hotkey to start recording a video bound to F9 - the same key KSP's quickload is bound to. So every time I had Fraps running and pressed F9 it started recording and certainly caused "strange" FPS drops. I found that accidentally while inspecting my HDD and looking into Fraps folder that contained over 16Gb of randomly recorded 30 second videos.

[Gordon Dry]

It just seems NOT to be an issue if the CPU is hyperthreading-capable AND this is disabled.

Otherwise the fps drop - I just read several pages of this thread again and this is my conclusion ...

[Ser]

Verified to work with KSP 1.5.1

[dave1904]

I run the game with 113 mods at between 60 and 30 fps depending on the craft. As soon as I install this my FPS tanks to 10-15. To bad since it is a really nice addition. Its hard to test the performance with audio muffler alone since the stock game is not really demanding. 

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Thank you for this. Now, I am able to fly a plane at full volume without going deaf (from IVA -- from outside, it still is very loud.)

[Ser]

14 hours ago, dave1904 said:

I run the game with 113 mods at between 60 and 30 fps depending on the craft. As soon as I install this my FPS tanks to 10-15. To bad since it is a really nice addition. Its hard to test the performance with audio muffler alone since the stock game is not really demanding. 

Several people report that here too. I've tried everything to isolate and fix that with no luck. "Stock game is not really demanding" - I've tried the mod on the PC where KSP barely runs with all the settings nerfed to the bottom, and AMR still had no effect on performance. One of possibilities is that some mod(s) is interfering so you could help if you tried to figure that out: first, move the mods that are unlikely to create audio sources or parts away from your GameData. If FPS drops persist, move half of the remaining mods and so on. 113 mods should take  at most just 7 steps to find the one causing issues.

[dave1904]

9 hours ago, Ser said:

Several people report that here too. I've tried everything to isolate and fix that with no luck. "Stock game is not really demanding" - I've tried the mod on the PC where KSP barely runs with all the settings nerfed to the bottom, and AMR still had no effect on performance. One of possibilities is that some mod(s) is interfering so you could help if you tried to figure that out: first, move the mods that are unlikely to create audio sources or parts away from your GameData. If FPS drops persist, move half of the remaining mods and so on. 113 mods should take  at most just 7 steps to find the one causing issues.

Well I don't know what to say. I should have tested it without a frame limit.. Stupid me. Here are the results

Stock game 122 fps

Stock game with AMR 70fps 

That is a 40-50 % performance loss with one mod on a pc with a 4770k, gtx970, windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. 

Edit Steam Fps counter on top right

 

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by dave1904

[lodiped]

I gotta say it's very sad that this mod is tanking my fps. I consider this an absolute MUST for playing KSP. Eveytime I hop on it for a new playthrough I immediately download realChutes, Scatterer and AMR for this vanilla++ experience. I don't usually post here but I feel like this is a problem that really needs fixing. I wish I knew how to code bacause I see how small this mod is (at least on the cfg) and yet I can't just start changing stuff without knowing better. I really wish you guys can help fix this issue because this mod, for me, is one of the best ones out there.

[Beetlecat]

30 minutes ago, lodiped said:

I gotta say it's very sad that this mod is tanking my fps. I consider this an absolute MUST for playing KSP. Eveytime I hop on it for a new playthrough I immediately download realChutes, Scatterer and AMR for this vanilla++ experience. I don't usually post here but I feel like this is a problem that really needs fixing. I wish I knew how to code bacause I see how small this mod is (at least on the cfg) and yet I can't just start changing stuff without knowing better. I really wish you guys can help fix this issue because this mod, for me, is one of the best ones out there.

Read a couple posts above. Ser posted a request to see if a separate mod in combination with AMR might be contributing to this slowdown. I've experienced both things (slowdown and no slowdown) over the last few game versions/installations. It's more than likely not *just* this mod.

[dave1904]

40 minutes ago, Beetlecat said:

Read a couple posts above. Ser posted a request to see if a separate mod in combination with AMR might be contributing to this slowdown. I've experienced both things (slowdown and no slowdown) over the last few game versions/installations. It's more than likely not *just* this mod.

except if you read my post 2 posts above you see that I have proof that it is. What else would cause it. 

[Beetlecat]

2 hours ago, dave1904 said:

except if you read my post 2 posts above you see that I have proof that it is. What else would cause it. 

Fair enough, but I'm in no position to argue anecdotes since I've experienced slowdowns and no-slowdowns, both with varying versions and mod-loads.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Beetlecat

[Ser]

13 hours ago, dave1904 said:

That is a 40-50 % performance loss with one mod on a pc with a 4770k, gtx970, windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

Please post your save and vessel files. Does the performance loss get bigger with part count increase (say x10)? Also try ALCOR mod (it has a bunch of gauges and audio sources), what is the performance with AMR and without it?

13 hours ago, lodiped said:

I gotta say it's very sad that this mod is tanking my fps. I consider this an absolute MUST for playing KSP. Eveytime I hop on it for a new playthrough I immediately download realChutes, Scatterer and AMR for this vanilla++ experience. I don't usually post here but I feel like this is a problem that really needs fixing. I wish I knew how to code bacause I see how small this mod is (at least on the cfg) and yet I can't just start changing stuff without knowing better. I really wish you guys can help fix this issue because this mod, for me, is one of the best ones out there.

You should post for modders knew about troubles and their scale. Yes the mod isn't as complex as FAR or MechJeb, but it does some tricky things like eurisitics and caching parts and audio sources to not scan every single piece every fraction of second, else FPS would just drop to 1 on large vessels. The problem is some people experience lags and some don't. And it seems (in common) to be not dependent on CPU, GPU, mods, parts and KSP version. The sad thing is I don't have lags too on all the PCs in my possession so I can't reproduce it. If I could I'd new what to look for at least.

[dave1904]

1 hour ago, Ser said:

Please post your save and vessel files. Does the performance loss get bigger with part count increase (say x10)? Also try ALCOR mod (it has a bunch of gauges and audio sources), what is the performance with AMR and without it?

The screenshot you see there is 100% stock fresh sandbox save game. The vessel is the kerbal x. Of course the performance loss gets higher the more parts and mods are added but audio muffler on its own is the issue in my case. When I get home I will do a fresh steam download and even delete module manager to confirm everything. 

[dave1904]

4 hours ago, Ser said:

Please post your save and vessel files. Does the performance loss get bigger with part count increase (say x10)? Also try ALCOR mod (it has a bunch of gauges and audio sources), what is the performance with AMR and without it?

You should post for modders knew about troubles and their scale. Yes the mod isn't as complex as FAR or MechJeb, but it does some tricky things like eurisitics and caching parts and audio sources to not scan every single piece every fraction of second, else FPS would just drop to 1 on large vessels. The problem is some people experience lags and some don't. And it seems (in common) to be not dependent on CPU, GPU, mods, parts and KSP version. The sad thing is I don't have lags too on all the PCs in my possession so I can't reproduce it. If I could I'd new what to look for at least.

I have used many versions of audio muffler and it always was hard on performance. What are your framerates on stock and then with audio muffler? You cannot say there is 0% impact. I really have a hard time believing that many of us notice huge frame drops and others nothing. I am willing to bet most people do not notice because they are not running as many other mods and they are using vsync. If I was using 10 mods I would also never have noticed it since I am locked at 60. 

14 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

Fair enough, but I'm in no position to argue anecdotes since I've experienced slowdowns and no-slowdowns, both with varying versions and mod-loads.

Then please do the same test I did. Even if you don't notice the slow downs. Unlock you framerates. Set graphics to minimal unless your fps is 100+ anyway. The run game on stock and compare fps to audio muffler alone with no other mod. 

Edited December 11, 2018 by dave1904

[Ser]

4 hours ago, dave1904 said:

I have used many versions of audio muffler and it always was hard on performance. What are your framerates on stock and then with audio muffler? You cannot say there is 0% impact.

My PC isn't a monster one at the moment (i5-4690, GTX 550Ti). I have around 30-35 FPS on stock  and exactly same with AMR. While fixing issues with ShipEffects and ALCOR mods I've noticed that ALCOR takes some FPS away on it's own but absolutely all of them are there when AMR is added. I measure this when looking at clear sky to mitigate the impact of the visuals. Have to admit that I haven't played with as many as 100 mods for a long time, though.

And there's another thing I've ran into one day, so you could do the next: open Windows' task manager on performance page and GPU-Z software. And then run lagging KSP with AMR. Once you notice FPS drops, Alt-TAB and look at the envelopes. Which one has the biggest spikes and how severe are they? The only way AMR could cause lags is with CPU load as it does absolutely nothing with graphics. (The story is once I had my eyes popped out when I saw 100% GPU usage but later on I've found that Fraps had F9 bound to "Start recording" by default ).

[dave1904]

1 hour ago, Ser said:

My PC isn't a monster one at the moment (i5-4690, GTX 550Ti). I have around 30-35 FPS on stock  and exactly same with AMR. While fixing issues with ShipEffects and ALCOR mods I've noticed that ALCOR takes some FPS away on it's own but absolutely all of them are there when AMR is added. I measure this when looking at clear sky to mitigate the impact of the visuals. Have to admit that I haven't played with as many as 100 mods for a long time, though.

And there's another thing I've ran into one day, so you could do the next: open Windows' task manager on performance page and GPU-Z software. And then run lagging KSP with AMR. Once you notice FPS drops, Alt-TAB and look at the envelopes. Which one has the biggest spikes and how severe are they? The only way AMR could cause lags is with CPU load as it does absolutely nothing with graphics. (The story is once I had my eyes popped out when I saw 100% GPU usage but later on I've found that Fraps had F9 bound to "Start recording" by default ).

I have tested a 100% clean install ksp stock. FPS are 130 with all base settings except for vsync disabled. Then I put AMR into Gamefolder and the fps goes to 68. I even disabled my soundcard and used HDMI for sound to be certain nothing was causing issues. I closed all programs to be 100% certain and now I am. The issue is AMR. There is nothing else. I use alcor to and am aware it uses some resourses but at the end of the day people need to make the choice. Is a certain mod worth the performance decrease. As much as I want to use this mod I cannot because 50% less FPS is to much. If so many people are reporting the same issue you need to accept its this mod and not another. 

My exact specs are in this screenshot.

[Ser]

On 12/11/2018 at 8:33 PM, dave1904 said:

I have tested a 100% clean install ksp stock. FPS are 130 with all base settings except for vsync disabled. Then I put AMR into Gamefolder and the fps goes to 68. I even disabled my soundcard and used HDMI for sound to be certain nothing was causing issues. I closed all programs to be 100% certain and now I am. The issue is AMR. There is nothing else. I use alcor to and am aware it uses some resourses but at the end of the day people need to make the choice. Is a certain mod worth the performance decrease. As much as I want to use this mod I cannot because 50% less FPS is to much. If so many people are reporting the same issue you need to accept its this mod and not another. 

My exact specs are in this screenshot.

I believe you. I wasn't exact on my FPS. In fact, I have 60 FPS on stock when looking at clear sky and around 44-47 on the horizon. It never goes over 60, seems like my GPU doesn't allow for more. If I could go over 60 FPS may be I saw some drop, but with or without mods it never goes from 30 to 10 just because of AMR.

So, what about your CPU load? Do you see AMR pushing it to the limit? I have a pair of ideas how to optimize it further with the optional cost of muffling quality.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Ser

[dave1904]

8 hours ago, Ser said:

I believe you. I wasn't exact on my FPS. In fact, I have 60 FPS on stock when looking at clear sky and around 44-47 on the horizon. It never goes over 60, seems like my GPU doesn't allow for more. If I could go over 60 FPS may be I saw some drop, but with or without mods it never goes from 30 to 10 just because of AMR.

So, what about your CPU load? Do you see AMR pushing it to the limit? I have a pair of ideas how to optimize it further with the optional cost of muffling quality.

My cpu load is less with amr for some odd reason. I'm using windows task manager to test and its around 30-35% stock and 20-25% with AMR. I don't know enough about the matter to explain why I have half the fps and 30% less cpu load....

it would be good for more people to give some data about how exactly their systems are handling the mod. 

[Ser]

@dave1904@Gordon Dry, or whoever has noticable performance issues with the mod

I've made a beta version with some settings that should affect performance, but I need you to test them and confirm which one is the issue indeed. Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x71yvukb0kjab2m/AudioMufflerRedux-2.6.2-beta.zip?dl=1

Try the following settings in the config:

1. objectScanFreq - this setting deals with the most probable hog - the object scan. Neither Unity nor the game itself have no means to warn me when a new sound is created so I have to scan through all the existing objects as often as I can to catch and process it immediately. The trouble is I have no means other than using the slowest method for that. The method seems to not perform any calculations, just searches through some structures in memory and that could explain why dave1904 had less CPU load with less FPS with AMR at the same time - everything just "rests" and waits until all the objects are scanned. The trick is to do it less often: value of 2 makes it happen 2 times less, 4 means 4 times less and so on. The downside is that you will hear a non-muffled "smack" sound every time an explosion happens or leg servo starts/finishes moving. So I recommend you to try some big value like 1000 first to determine if this setting helps with FPS. Then find some value suitable for you. I've found a value of 5 as 10 leads to a whole small portion of a sound to be played before it gets processed by the mod.
2. meshScanInterval - is the period in seconds to scan where the player's camera currently is. I have to do it every frame because the camera may move unpredictably but if the position change is detected a fraction of second later you shouldn't notice that and that will reduce the number of scans in times. So try it after the first setting. The value around 0.1 should be comfortable while the value of 1 second and more will lead to a noticeable delay in the mod's reaction to camera's position changes.

Try them and report here please which setting and values helped you more, if any.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Ser

[dave1904]

8 hours ago, Ser said:

objectScanFreq

increasing the number of objectScanFreq increases FPS alot. The higher the number the more the FPS. I am going to keep this file because I do not mind the short sound bursts. They were common in the old versions of the mod. Now I know why  I just want to find an perfect balance for performance vs immersion. This will take me a few days of gameplay.  

Increasing meshScanInterval  doesn't do much. Not enought to bother me atleast.

Cheers man and thanks alot. This mod is a must have and I really hope there is a way to optimize it more. Just ask if you need anything to be tested. 

[Ser]

13 hours ago, dave1904 said:

increasing the number of objectScanFreq increases FPS alot. The higher the number the more the FPS. I am going to keep this file because I do not mind the short sound bursts. They were common in the old versions of the mod. Now I know why  I just want to find an perfect balance for performance vs immersion. This will take me a few days of gameplay.  

Increasing meshScanInterval  doesn't do much. Not enought to bother me atleast.

Cheers man and thanks alot. This mod is a must have and I really hope there is a way to optimize it more. Just ask if you need anything to be tested. 

Thanks for your help. I think these settings will make their way to the release, the "space smacks" bug was there in the current version anyway.

[Pointblank66]

Can confirm that this mod works with 1.6.x