Show is bogging...CPU, GPU, LSP, PN?

[Corey872]

Trying to get set up for Halloween.  I've got a great 'fire' effect working - on one string, it looks very lifelike.  When I expand it to 5 strings and 4 strips, it bogs down quite a bit.  Any thoughts on where the bottleneck would lie?

[Mickpat]

Does running the show from the LSP scheduler vs. LSP sequencer help?

[Corey872]

Well, that is a good question - I've been running from sequencer.  I'll give scheduler a shot tomorrow (later today) and see if it works any better.

[akonkman]

I experienced the same bogging down / slow frame rate issue from LSP driving several strings also.  I'm sure the issue is something with LSP... I ended up exporting the sequence to LOR format, and then drove the show with xLights.  The show then ran very smoothly.

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I'm planning on running my entire show this year using xLights... hopefully a future version of LSP will address the sluggishness during output when you have high channel counts.  (LSP has been working great for me during the sequencing process, by the way... it's just on the output side of things where things seem to bog down).

[taybrynn]

Everything I have heard and experienced personally with LSP 2.x is that the LSP scheduler is far less laggy and troublesome (I.e. needing optimization, inconsistent results)  than running a sequence from within the LSP sequencer.  I've even seen where I just need to exit the sequencer, go back in ... ok, everything is fine now.  Normally a re-optimize just fixes everything ... but I've seen times where strange things happen, but I don't fret too much knowing how it works from sequencer vs. scheduler.  It's mostly an annoyance.

Overall, I can run lights from LSP sequencer ... just sometimes there are issues ... issues that don't exist when player from the LSP Scheduler.

[Corey872]

Thanks for all the additional info.  I'm planning to give sequencer a shot tonight once I get some other things out of the way.  Will report back on the findings.

Guess I was thinking that once the number crunching is done, it's just a matter of sending the data through the USB pipe and driving the nodes.  I never looked at scheduler because I don't really need to 'schedule' the show, just turn it on Halloween night and run for several hours, then turn it off.  But if that is the way to go for smoothness, I'll give it a shot.

[Corey872]

OK - got scheduler set up and ran the show through that.  It did seem to eliminate the bogging / jerky steps, so I guess that is the solution.  This was running 20 fps / 50ms timing over ~3400 channels, so not setting any world records, but neat to see it all starting to come together.  Now will it all happen by Halloween?!?!

[rrowan]

So this is a LSP issue and not a Smart String issue

Mind if I move it to the correct board?

Rick R.

[Corey872]

Yes, the root cause is an LSP issue, though only seems to show up with the massive channel count running on smart strings.   So feel free to move it - I should have minded my posting a bit better in the first place. 

I just didn't know where to turn but knew there were a bunch of people hanging out here who are much more knowledgeable than me!

[keitha43]

Okay since I am not so smart, When you export the LOR file do you have to recombine the 3 smartstring channels RGB back into 1 node for each node? (I have over 1000 nodes in my megatree). And if so, what do you choose as the controller type? Sequence maybe? Do I set my LOR as the default network and Smartstrings as the auxilary? I wish someone would post a step by step process of how to go from a combo LOR/Smartstring LSP sequence into a xlights sequence.

[dandyman]

I was starting to use XLights because of the LSP lag, but found out XLights doesn't yet support the 'Windows Command' which I use for changing the song title on my scrolling LED sign and soon for RDS output... So I went back to LSP (I'm using my faster computer for the show now)

Anyway, here are the steps I used to get the exported .lms file to run in XLights (YMMV)... the first network you set up in xlights will be the com port that LOR is running from, the second network will be the pixelnet network. (that's why you need to add the network="1" to the pixelnet part).

Exported LSP sequence to .lms
Changed .lms extender to .txt
Opened file in Wordpad
Selected the Pixelnet portion, copied and cut (Ctrl X).
Opened another session of Wordpad (not ‘new’ in existing Wordpad)
Pasted the copied Pixelnet portion
Selected savedIndex="0" and then opened Replace
Replaced savedIndex="0" with network=”1” savedIndex="0" (replace all)
Selected All (Ctrl A) and copied (Ctrl C)
Pasted back into original Wordpad and saved as .txt, changed the extender back to .lms and tested in LOR

When LSP exports to LOR, rounding error in the current version (fixed in the upcoming release) causes all the intensities that are “0” to be ‘1”… this causes the SmartString pixels to glow slightly… so I went in and replaced the “1” with “0” . works, but is time consuming… I would suggest waiting for the next LSP release (in test now).

Selected endIntensity=”1” and replaced with endIntensity=”0”
Saved as .txt, changed the extender back to .lms and tested in LOR
Selected Intensity=”1” and replaced with Intensity=”0”
Saved as .txt, changed the extender back to .lms and tested in LOR
Selected startIntensity=”1” and replaced with startIntensity=”0”
Saved as .txt, changed the extender back to .lms and tested in LOR

Hope that helps...

[keitha43]

Did you have to recombine the rgb channels for each node? (which would take a long time for 1000 nodes.) Or choose a controller type in LOR?

[dandyman]

nope... the pixelnet part just exported as one BIG controller... when I changed the pixelnet part to network 1 and ran it thru XLights...it worked like it was supposed to...

[keitha43]

None of my nodes say savedIndex="0". They start at 110 and go up sequentionally with each node. Should I just add network = "1" in front of each savedIndex= entry?

[dandyman]

Sorry... my bad...

you would search for savedIndex=" and then open Replace
Replace savedIndex=" with network=”1” savedIndex=" (replace all)

That will find all of the savedIndex's in the file and replace with the added network...

Here is where my sequence changed over to the pixelnet 'stuff'... between 335 & 336 (336 starts the pixelnet)

<channel name="Channel #16" color="17919" centiseconds="113379" deviceType="LOR" unit="21" circuit="16" savedIndex="335" />
<channel name="Channel #1" color="255" centiseconds="113379" deviceType="LOR" unit="1" circuit="1" savedIndex="336">

Hope that makes sense :-)