GZDoom secret stutter

[pritch]

Apologies if this has been asked before - I found a similar issue on search but not quite as specific as my issue.

 

The first secret I reveal in a GZDoom session causes a noticeable stutter, of random duration from up to about a second. After that I have no such stutter with any future secret reveals, so I'm guessing it must be a loading sound resource issue?

 

Any clues as to what can alleviate it? I use the doom software renderer and OpenAL.

[Edward850]

2 hours ago, pritch said:

so I'm guessing it must be a loading sound resource issue?

That's pretty much exactly it. The sound file is a FLAC and can take a bit of time to access, decompress (because it's inside a compressed zip file, the pk3) and load on some systems when first played. Sound loading isn't asynchronous in GZDoom so any bottleneck in this process can cause the whole process to stall.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Edward850

[Nevander]

4 hours ago, pritch said:

Any clues as to what can alleviate it?

This may not be what you want, but personally I don't like the sound in the first place so I made this:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=32522

 

Should alleviate or eliminate the stutter.

[Graf Zahl]

It may make sense to precache this sound and keep it loaded for the entire game. That said, I think most Doom ports are still way to conservative with RAM, they tend to throw out data when they think it's not needed anymore. With today's systems a lot more should be kept in RAM indefinitely to improve performance.

 

 

[CyberDreams]

Not really helpful but i've experienced this same stutter now for quite a while but i always thought it was just my PC. I guess it wasn't after all. I've gotten used to it though so it doesn't really matter much to me.

Edited January 19, 2020 by CyberDreams

[Graf Zahl]

I've added this to the precache list yesterday, Can any of you check if it improves matters? On my system this has never been an issue so I cannot verify if it's better now.

[CyberDreams]

@Graf ZahlLate reply but i don't get any secret stutter anymore in version 4.3.3 so thanks for w/e you did!

[Bauul]

What version of GZDoom did you have before?

 

I have a memory that the secret sound was recently switched to an .ogg format that takes less computing power to decompress and play.

[CyberDreams]

I was actually still using 4.2.1 as i haven't upgraded in a while although i did try 4.2.3 but that had issues with translucent objects in the software renderer so i downgraded back to 4.2.1 and stayed there. I didn't bother upgrading when a fix came as i wasn't playing Doom much at the time.

 

I do know that the stutter did happen in 4.2.1 and 4.2.3. on my PC anyways. It must have just been recently switched. My PC isn't new anymore but i think it should still be able to run a modern GZDoom. It's not like i'm playing with mods anyways. Frankly, i really love how the mouse movement feels in GZDoom so that's the main reason why i use it haha! Keep it up, w/e the hell you're doing.

[Graf Zahl]

2 hours ago, Bauul said:

What version of GZDoom did you have before?

 

I have a memory that the secret sound was recently switched to an .ogg format that takes less computing power to decompress and play.

 

dssecret is and has always been a FLAC. The file has been unchanged since 2009.

[Bauul]

7 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

 

dssecret is and has always been a FLAC. The file has been unchanged since 2009.

 

Thanks for the correction! I must have been getting it mixed up with something else.