gourmet

23rd November 2002 17:15 UTC

What happened with bitmaps rendering?!
Damn, all worked good day before... I downloaded and installed new plugins and AVS presets. They are:

Scopeguru_AVS
Hybrids_720
Tuggumi-innovation
DreamRender3

I tried DreamRender but it worked slow on WinXP. I deinstalled it. After this I tried all presets shown above. Nothing wrong until I started my own presets VU-meters. DAMN! Computer goes too slow. Studio.exe sucks 85% of processor time. VU-meters show frame rate about 11 fps. BUT WHY?! It worked with about 50 fps! And colors in bitmaps are distorted. I started examine what part of them works wrong. After some time I found - when I switch off bitmap rendering - all start work fast and fine (but without background of course). Looks like some of presets or even DreamRender replaced or added WACs. I reinstalled WinAmp (over, not remove) but it wont' help. I tried some other presets with bitmaped background - same result. 85% of processor time lost for rendering without any reason.

What's wrong? What can I do to restore previous productivity? Are there any ways to fix this problem except remove WinAmp and install it (and all working presets and tunes) again?

jheriko

23rd November 2002 18:49 UTC

You can backup your avs directory and reinstall winamp. Also try using winamp2 to see if it is just a winamp3 flaw.

nixa

23rd November 2002 18:53 UTC

Try to copy all yore skins and avs to some other folder than remove and install winamp.

gourmet

23rd November 2002 20:02 UTC

It must be more elegant way such as delete improper wac or edit registry\settings. Anybody having ideas?

gourmet

23rd November 2002 22:52 UTC

From now looks like DreamRender 3 broken AVS. Probably it replaced some dlls. That means deinstallation of WinAmp can be useless. Anybody knowing internals of WinAmp3 - which dll works with bitmaps in AVS 2.5.1? Wich dll has to be restored?

Zevensoft

24th November 2002 01:11 UTC

Dreamrender is shit, I don't know why you'd bother installing it. But to fix the picture issue, I think reinstalling windows should work, or perhaps finding replacements for the core dlls (gdi32.dll, user.dll, etc.)

gourmet

24th November 2002 12:58 UTC

I checked - gdi32.dll and user32.dll have sizes and dates matching to sources stored on installation disk.
DreamRender is defenitely shit... I'll report it to rip.

UnConeD

25th November 2002 01:25 UTC

Why the HELL does a Winamp plug-in need to replace the GDI and USER dll's? These are CORE components of Windows!

GDI = Graphical Device Interface, i.e. everything that is drawn on the screen

USER = User <-> Computer interface, i.e. mouse, keyboard, windows, etc.

Zevensoft

25th November 2002 06:02 UTC

Have you tried DreamRender?? It basically is a new GUI, everything attempts to be hardware accelerated. The desktop icons become blurry (A sign of mipmapping), the desktop is 3D, and the famous Z-artifacts. I guess the only way they could do this was to modify core windows files. Windowblinds does the same.

Also render/picture most likely uses StretchBlt, which would explain why it's so slow.

gourmet

25th November 2002 07:58 UTC

Hardware accelerated?! It worked as drunk pig on my AthlonXP+GeFroce2GTS - same slow and unstable.

gourmet

25th November 2002 09:30 UTC

Nope... As I supposed before total removing and new instalation of WinAmp doesnt' help. I dont' know where look for yet cause I'm using WinXP and it protects (as I beleive) critical system files.

Any ideas?

dirkdeftly

25th November 2002 16:56 UTC

Well no wonder! You're using XP!!! Downgrade to something half useful, like Windows 98 Second Edition.

gourmet

25th November 2002 17:08 UTC

Nope. I use NT-like systems since NT4 appeared. 95\98\ME are not OSes but crash-machines. No flame about this more. Stick to the topic.

gourmet

25th November 2002 17:27 UTC

DAMN! I found sequence restoring original framerate for bitmaped presets. After I change twice "Keep aspect ratio" in picture settings - then all start go right. But TWICE - turn it off and on again. Looks like a bug.

Probably one of presets I downloaded (not DreamRender) changed this setting in some way. I found sevreal new APEs in avs dir. Dont' know yet wich one changes this setting.

But DreamRender anywhere is shit... Slow, ugly and not free.

gourmet

25th November 2002 19:09 UTC

Fooo... It is defintely a bug in WinAmp3. Read this until end please.

1. After some actions with picture rendering WinAmp crashed. I remember that I changed Keep aspect ratio again.
2. I run WinAmp3, opened bitmaped preset (not mine) and viola - it runs slowly again. 85-90% of processor time goes to Studio.exe
3. I tried repeat changnes of Keep aspect ratio. No help. After some changes WinAmp crashed.
4. I started it and created empty preset. First action was - + Picture rendering. I didnt' choose picture but clicked to Keep aspect ratio. Empty preset, no picture selected. WinAmp crashed immediately.
5. I rebooted system and started Windows98. I have it for 3D games. This system is almost empty. Just needed drivers, no WinAmps, no plugins. I installed WinAmp3 there. Repeated step 4. WinAmp crashed after change of Keep aspect ratio.

This looks like a bug with picture rendering. Manipulations with "Keep aspect ratio" cause slowing down computer or even crash WinAmp without reason.

dirkdeftly

25th November 2002 19:18 UTC

1: If W98SE is a 'crash machine,' how come no one who's using it is having trouble?
2: Have you tried WA2? I don't care what your preference is, WA2 is a shitload more stable than WA3.

gourmet

25th November 2002 21:18 UTC

WA2 runs in parallel to WA3. I even used it's AVS 2.5 together with 2.5.1 in WA3. And created skins for WA2 years ago.

gourmet

25th November 2002 23:24 UTC

Finally I found sequence causing bitmaped preset work properly...

1. Turn on overlay mode to allow AVS appear on desktop
2. Change Keep aspect ratio flag.

Hmmm... I used on thing working on desktop. That was DreamRender.

dirkdeftly

25th November 2002 23:53 UTC

ROTFLMAO...wa2 runs parallel to wa3...