Toggling vsync

[Andrew Davison]

Dear All,

In fullscreen mode, show() is tied to the vsync rate,
which can slow games down.

Is there a Java-based way of turning vsync on and
off?

I've heard that there's an OpenGL extension which
can do this, so perhaps JOGL may be be useful?

- Andrew

[swpalmer]

What happens when you have more than 2 buffers in you BufferStrategy ?
V-sync is usually desirable to avoid tearing - so long as you can keep up and not cause the frame rate to drop in half if your rendering takes a bit too long.

[Abuse]

It maybe possible through the
createBufferStrategy(int numBuffers, BufferCapabilities caps) method (though I dont think it is)

The only other way of turning vsync off in fullscreen, is to not use BufferStrategy at all, and use your own VolatileImage backbuffer. (this would be less efficient though, as you wouldn't be page flipping anymore)
Seems a waste to have to recode something like that though, just because no1 had the for-thought to include it in the BufferStrategy api :-/

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[Orangy Tang]

Setting the  BufferCapabilities.FlipContents to something like COPIED will probably force a blit rather than a simple page flip/pointer swap. Whether this makes it no longer v-sync'ed is another matter.

But even on the worst displays you're going to be getting 60fps, is that really 'too slow'? If you're after a performance measure can't you just test it in windowed mode?

[princec]

I wish people would stop requesting to be able to turn off vsync. Nothing runs any faster with it on or off. It was a myth created by Quakeworld players due to a quirk in the design of Quakeworld.

Games without vsync look shit, period.

Cas

[kevglass]

To elaborate on this, I think what Cas is saying is don't tie your logic loop processing time to your rendering time. Fix you render loop at what ever FPS you want and only redraw that often. However, this doesn't negate you running your logic loop more often if you really feel you need to (although of course you won't see any changes on screen due to your logic resolution).

A useful thing would be to turn vsync on in windowed mode

Kev

[Abuse]

I wish people would stop requesting to be able to turn off vsync. Nothing runs any faster with it on or off. It was a myth created by Quakeworld players due to a quirk in the design of Quakeworld.

Games without vsync look shit, period.

Cas

I disagree, if your game running flat out gets ~50fps, on a 60hz vsync locked display, you are going to get alot less than 50fps. (somewhere in the region of 30fps)

In that scenario, it is alot better to turn vsync off, and get as much upto-date information to the screen as possible, 2/3rds of a screen update is better than no screen update.
Also, tearing in 3d games realy isn't that noticable.

[princec]

How can you say 2/3rds of a screen update is better than no update when it will be 1/3rd incorrect?

As I say - it is a Quake-player originated, developer-perpetuated illusion that 30fps on a 60Hz display is worse than 50fps on a 60Hz display. But I can't prove it to anyone You just have to do the experiments yourself.

Cas

[Abuse]

Setting the  BufferCapabilities.FlipContents to something like COPIED will probably force a blit rather than a simple page flip/pointer swap. Whether this makes it no longer v-sync'ed is another matter.

But even on the worst displays you're going to be getting 60fps, is that really 'too slow'? If you're after a performance measure can't you just test it in windowed mode?

To get a non-flipping strategy, you pass null in as the BufferCapabilities.FlipContents parameter. e.g.

1	createBufferStrategy(2, new BufferCapabilities(new ImageCapabilities(true),new ImageCapabilities(true), null));

I suppose the fundamental question is, can you use pageflipping and not have it vsynced?
If its impossible, then there is nothing wrong with the current API (in terms of not revealing necessary functionality).
If it is possible, then we need an extra parameter to the BufferCapabilities object, so we can specify vsync'ed or not.

[Abuse]

How can you say 2/3rds of a screen update is better than no update when it will be 1/3rd incorrect?

It won't be wrong as such, it will just be out of date.
But then, if no update occurs, ALL of it will be out of date.

Giving our brains partial information, and letting it correct for errors is far better than giving it no information.

As I say - it is a Quake-player originated, developer-perpetuated illusion that 30fps on a 60Hz display is worse than 50fps on a 60Hz display. But I can't prove it to anyone You just have to do the experiments yourself.

Cas

Indeed, self experiment time :p

vsync on, com_maxfps 30, spin around quickly.
vsync off, com_maxfps 50, spin around quickly.

I know which I prefer, and I know that I play with vsync off, com_maxfps 125

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