Unnecessary high and gpu-unfriendly framerate in dx9 mode (+hint to solution)

[brussell1]

Using sfall's (or high resolution's) dx9 mode results in extreme framerates (300 - 1000+) on modern systems.
This leads to coil whine and heating-up of the gpu, especially when using additional post-processing shaders. Capping the framerate at screen refresh results in an unbearable slow game. Even a cap of 200 fps can be a sluggish experience.
I know at least two ddraw-wrapper that don't have this problem: cnc-ddraw and dgvoodoo. Latter has implementend a solution to this, after I reported the same problem here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=66706&sid=6146fa50b2e0c4784f9cfbd341d3c9d1 (Dege explains a little bit in the fifth answer).

So hopefully this could be implemented in sfall as well.

[FakelsHub]

Invite a specialist who will be able to implement it.

[NovaRain]

I didn't notice unusually high GPU load when using DX9 (sfall graphics mode 5) with global shader on my desktop (E3-1231 V3 + GTX 970 + Win7). Maybe it's because I don't use additional shader stuff like ReShade?

[blackpaulillyria]

My GPU is regularly overheating in Mapper, not sure if that could help here.

[FakelsHub]

My GPU is regularly overheating in Mapper, not sure if that could help here.

try enable ProcessorIdle option in sfall-m for mapper.

[blackpaulillyria]

try enable ProcessorIdle option in sfall-m for mapper.

I'm not familiar with sfall-m. Where can I download it? Or I can just use the regular sfall with Mapper?

[NovaRain]

I'm not familiar with sfall-m. Where can I download it? Or I can just use the regular sfall with Mapper?

sfall for Mapper: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5tzif2mgmv4b4z/sfallM.7z?dl=0
And no, regular sfall does not work with Mapper.

[blackpaulillyria]

sfall for Mapper: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5tzif2mgmv4b4z/sfallM.7z?dl=0
And no, regular sfall does not work with Mapper.

Thank you!

[phobos2077]

I did some testing today on 2 different systems, experiencing the same issues with different settings (with and w/o HRP, different DX9 modes, resolutions, etc.):

1. Windows 10 PC with NVidia GPU.

2. Windows 11 laptop with Intel Iris Xe (iGPU).

In both cases to get rid of sluggish mouse movements and choppy gameplay animations I had to completely disable any external FPS limiters:

1. Max Frame Rate and VSync (affects only full-screen mode) in case of NVidia.
2. Smart VSync (global setting) in case of Intel.

Naturally this resulted in FPS as high as several thousands, which is bad for power efficiency and heat.

Seems like the way main loop is implemented in DX9 mode is wrong and needs some fixes. Probably different CPU idle settings needs to go (they seem like ugly half-working hacks) in favor of a proper frame pacing solution.

[eierfrucht]

You can manually patch and configure sFall to chainload cnc-ddraw and take full advantage of its every feature incl. the OpenGL and GDI renderers, fancy GLSL shaders, etc: #504 (comment)