interface redraws getting asio stream corrupted

[MichaelBenjamin]

lately i have made the observation, that (limited to refresh rate) redraws, of say ~10 png knobs at once takes about 30%cpu and this also affects the asio stream if there is other processing going on and cpu maxes out.
the effect is much less when you turn off the interface, but still about ~4% cpu just with 10 automated hidden knobs.
is there any possibility to lower the interface cpu hit, take it it to a lower priority, so it never gets into asio corruption?

[infuzion]

1) All VSTs have redraw-CPU issues. Some are better than others, some don't have "green data" like us, but they'll do all math in real-time (like our stream), so their CPU% will not change in automation.

2) kirkagur's reduced knob also reduces automation CPU% (without the readout display), since there is less green math than SM's bloated knobs. I think mine is slightly faster than his:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6470&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=28
Please let me know if this works at all, & if it is indeed better or not. More green reduction on these will also help reduce CPU%.

3) Less frequent & smaller sized refreshing via Redraw will reduce CPU% greatly if you are very aggressive.

4) Lots of traffic in "green" data eats CPU more than stream sometimes. If your host/MIDI controller can filter out superfilous/unneeded MIDI data into the the VST, you should see a VSI CPU% reduction.

5) IMHO, there should be a newer "Redraw Limiter" that caps the refresh rate to 12-25FPS, which is what the human eye can be tricked into thinking is animation. I think it currently runs at 100FPS? Or somehow changing SM's "refresh rate" so something user-settable.


Is the ASIO stream issues only inside the editor, or also inside the hosts please? If so, what hosts?

[MichaelBenjamin]

thank you for the hints. i have a look at the reduced knob.
but i still wonder why redrawing of 2d pixels has such a huge hit. its the almost same cpu when i am playing a full 3d game.
i know, 3d game uses "asio for graphics", and maybe its the vst 2.3 container thats simply not made for graphics, but as synthmaker can do so much with graphics, it should be somehow doable without using all cpu.
the asio crackling is really nasty, like your computer is about to completely hang up. both in reaper and energy xt 1.41 (ok thats getting a bit old)

[infuzion]

If you have 5 knobs going at once, you'll have 5*100+=500+ screen updates/second?
You might need to increase the ASIO buffer?

[MichaelBenjamin]

no, the graphics updates need to be optimized internally in sm:)

[aliasant]

no, the graphics updates need to be optimized internally in sm:)

Yes. Totally.

Malc knows this but has his hands full.... =( I wish he could afford to hire a couple of extra coders.....