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Lag when no joystick is plugged in

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/Lag when no joystick is plugged in

B(Posted 2013) [#1]
Hi guys,

my program lags heavy when no joystick is connected,
but when it is connected there is no lag.

I have commands that check if joyhit() and joydown().
I also recoded the whole thing to check if joycount() > 0 before I
attempt to use any joyhit() or joydown() commands.

No luck. :(

any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

PS - i am in a bit of a hurry as I write this. Any additional information
will be supplied if you need it. Thanks again.


Brucey(Posted 2013) [#2]
That's interesting. What version number of BlitzMax is that?


skidracer(Posted 2013) [#3]
Are you calling JoyCount multiple times per update? If so don't!

I would also suggest you should only use it on your games title page / main menu as on some systems it will not be very fast.

I assume also that you are not in debug mode?


B(Posted 2013) [#4]
I am running 1.48

I am only calling joycount() once in my player method, which is only called once per loop.

I am in debug mode and have tried running the game with and without debug mode and quick build. No luck. :/

remed out all the references to joy and it ran fine.

I am using this framework:



if that helps at all.

Quite unsure of what is causing it.
This has halted my game development. :(


Zeke(Posted 2013) [#5]
Import "--enable-stdcall-fixup"

?win32
Extern
	Function joyGetNumDevs:Int()
End Extern

Print joyGetNumDevs()+" Joysticks supported"
?

For Local i:Int=0 To 10
	Local t1:Int=MilliSecs()
	Local j:Int=JoyCount()
	Print "joycount time="+(MilliSecs()-t1)
Next

what results you get (joystick connected and disconnected?

Last edited 2013


SLotman(Posted 2013) [#6]
I can't reproduce it here. I just wrote joy support on my "Fruzzle" game here, and (at least on XP, didn't test yet on other OS) it works pretty well - no lag at all.

I tested the game with no joystick and with joystick connected, then disconnected - My game stayed at 60 fps all times.

In the game title screen, I check JoyCount() and set joyConnected to true if there is any joystick on the system.

Then, in the game I have

If joyConnected then 
   if JoyCount()=0 then 
      ' show joystick disconnected dialog
      (...)
      ' if joystick still disconnected
      if joyCount()=0 then joyConnected = false
   end if
End if

Everywhere else, I just test my joyConnected flag - not JoyCount.


jkrankie(Posted 2013) [#7]
You shouldn't be calling joycount from a loop. Just once at the start of the program.

Cheers
Charlie


B(Posted 2013) [#8]
I'm away from my computer at the moment,
I'll try calling for joy input from a variable instead
of joycount. That sounds like it will work.
Thanks for the help.
I'll post my results tonight.

Also if you wanna checkout the game I'm working on
Click here!

Tho the most recent version up does not support game pads.

Last edited 2013


skidracer(Posted 2013) [#9]
You shouldn't be calling joycount from a loop. Just once at the start of the program.


I get a little annoyed when I need to quit and restart a game because I need to plug my USB controller in so I think it is OK to poll joycount on the title page / main menu.


jkrankie(Posted 2013) [#10]
Does that *actually* work though? I remember trying a few years back with no success.

Cheers
Charlie


SLotman(Posted 2013) [#11]
Yes, it works - but again, only tested on XP, and with an XBox 360 controller;

And yes - calling joycount (or at least some other way to check if the controller is connected) is necessary during gameplay - you should pause your game if the controller gets disconnected for some reason (could be dead battery on a wireless controller, someone could trip in the cable...).


jkrankie(Posted 2013) [#12]
Thinking back, i probably tested on a mac. Perhaps that's why?

Cheers
Charlie


skidracer(Posted 2013) [#13]
I did some testing on both Mac and Windows yesterday and yes, Mac freejoy code was not good at handling the controller being removed and added.


B(Posted 2013) [#14]
@Zeke
Just for it's own sake.

With Joystick connected:


Without Joystick connected:



Good test! and the times are obviously longer for calling JoyCount()
without a joystick connected.
Makes me want to take a look in the source code to see why.


I did some fps testing, and then fps is indeed higher with the new code,
checking JoyTrue:int every loop instead of JoyCount() itself.

Thanks guys. Will post back if I have any more problems.

:)