Low fps in Track View unless I click on the menus at the top of the window.

[Destiny]

So, when i click on the track view or anything that's below the top menu of Cakewalk (where it has File, Edit, Views, Insert, etc) when I press play, the track goes through at like 30 fps however when i press play and then click on one of the options at the top that opens a drop down menu like File or Edit, the fps goes to 60 on the track view until i click on it again. I've seen the issue before and it's kind like clicking off an application the fps goes down for performance reasons, so I feel like it's linked to the fact that cakewalk kind of uses these windows and it's not registering me being on the whole application. Idk, has anyone else had this issue and has a fix? 

[Lord Tim]

No, I've seen this too, but rarely.  This is different to the Pause thing which updates the UI very slowly. This isn't anywhere near that slow.

This happens on particularly heavy projects especially, I've found, so things scroll along a little more... low frame rate(?) as was said. Definitely less screen redraws, obviously favouring audio performance rather than screen repaints. But if you open a MFC menu, it'll start scrolling entirely smoothly.

[msmcleod]

Pressing the "Pause" button ( next to Scroll Lock / Prn Scr buttons) normally fixes this.

The Pause button is used to toggle CPU throttle mode, which limits screen updates to give more CPU to audio processing if you start getting clicks & pops.

[Destiny]

20 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Pressing the "Pause" button ( next to Scroll Lock / Prn Scr buttons) normally fixes this.

The Pause button is used to toggle CPU throttle mode, which limits screen updates to give more CPU to audio processing if you start getting clicks & pops.

Wait, found it and pressed it, still didn't fix it though.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Destiny

[Destiny]

21 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

No, I've seen this too, but rarely.  This is different to the Pause thing which updates the UI very slowly. This isn't anywhere near that slow.

This happens on particularly heavy projects especially, I've found, so things scroll along a little more... low frame rate(?) as was said. Definitely less screen redraws, obviously favouring audio performance rather than screen repaints. But if you open a MFC menu, it'll start scrolling entirely smoothly.

Yup, exactly.

[Bill Phillips]

On 6/10/2023 at 2:03 PM, Lord Tim said:

No, I've seen this too, but rarely.  This is different to the Pause thing which updates the UI very slowly. This isn't anywhere near that slow.

This happens on particularly heavy projects especially, I've found, so things scroll along a little more... low frame rate(?) as was said. Definitely less screen redraws, obviously favouring audio performance rather than screen repaints. But if you open a MFC menu, it'll start scrolling entirely smoothly.

Is MFC Microsoft Foundation Class? Where are the MFC menus found/identified? 

Sorry for the dumb question. I see MFC in a lot of forum posts. Usually I just blow past them, but this time I'm interested. My really capable self-built DAW PC failed fatally. While I'm sorting that out, I'm relying on my not so capable Surface Pro 3 and thought this Pause thing might help. But,  that's still not enough to get through your demo project (Thanks!) without pops and clicks in busy parts.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Bill Phillips

[Lord Tim]

Ah, sorry! Yeah like standard Windows dialogue boxes rather than custom controls. Think of like the menus that pop up when you click on File / Edit / Views, etc. - those standard grey Windows ones, as opposed to when you right click in a FX Bin and you notice the text is different, there's colours for different VST types, etc.

[Bill Phillips]

2 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

Ah, sorry! Yeah like standard Windows dialogue boxes rather than custom controls. Think of like the menus that pop up when you click on File / Edit / Views, etc. - those standard grey Windows ones, as opposed to when you right click in a FX Bin and you notice the text is different, there's colours for different VST types, etc.

Thanks.

[Noel Borthwick]

On 6/10/2023 at 8:07 AM, Destiny said:

So, when i click on the track view or anything that's below the top menu of Cakewalk (where it has File, Edit, Views, Insert, etc) when I press play, the track goes through at like 30 fps however when i press play and then click on one of the options at the top that opens a drop down menu like File or Edit, the fps goes to 60 on the track view until i click on it again. I've seen the issue before and it's kind like clicking off an application the fps goes down for performance reasons, so I feel like it's linked to the fact that cakewalk kind of uses these windows and it's not registering me being on the whole application. Idk, has anyone else had this issue and has a fix? 

I havent seen this. Which menu are you clicking that results in this slow drawing?

[Lord Tim]

5 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

I havent seen this. Which menu are you clicking that results in this slow drawing?

For me, when it does happen (as I said, it's rarely for me), it can be pretty much any older style menu, eg: File / Edit. Or even a context menu from right-clicking. I don't really have a repeatable recipe, unfortunately.  

[Destiny]

On 6/12/2023 at 7:00 PM, Noel Borthwick said:

I havent seen this. Which menu are you clicking that results in this slow drawing?

Whenever I click or interact with anything that isn't that top menu with file, edit etc, it slows, but the minute i click back on any of those top menus it goes to normal.

[robert lungren]

Same for me: 25-30 fps while playback, but becomes 120 fps (very smooth feeling ) when clicking on any of the upper menus (file, edit, views...). Even on the default two-track project. I notices that playback cursor movement is not smooth a while ago, but only recently i saw how smooth things can be, and now it bothers me

[robert lungren]

ok i think i found the reason. The playback cursor refresh rate is tied to audio meters frame rate (Preferences->Customization->Audio Meters), which is set to refresh every 40ms by default (which is 25 fps) and the min value cakewalk let you set is 25 ms (40 fps) unfortunately. As I understand you hardly need more fps for audio meters, and the problem is that playback cursor frame rate is tied to it. Maybe cakewalk codebase doesn't provide a quick way to untie those, and limiting the fps of the whole GUI during playback was a quick hack.