[Merged] Power Saver feature

[Hex]

@pjft What you have mentioned is actually my long term plan. It will take a long time to refactor and test everything. I am interested in implementing this asap while what you mention will be taken up later. I do not have an idea of how rendering currently works so I will have to get familiar with that first.

Another problem with your idea is that SDL has to wait for events, so if we dont render when render is not needed we end up with a busy wait loop which is even worse for power.

Currently stock code looks like this

While(Event.get())
   if Event != null 
        Handle event
   Render()

What you are proposing would work like this (over simplifying)

While(Event.get())
   if Event != null 
        Handle event
   if (Render.needed())
       Render()

Problem would be if both conditions are false it will just be a while loop, which is bad. Having an empty while loop puts the cpu in overdrive.

Another problem with your psudocode is events will not be triggered if rendering is running. ie when you press right on carousel it takes 1 secs to move one system and no event will be consumed till that animation is over. Event.get() needs to be called as fast as possible even while animating.

It is very complicated to redesign rendering to be optimized for PS. And that is time i dont have presently. Hence baby steps.

[pjft]

@hex great! Then start with just on and off. There will be no need to complicate things if you head in that direction.

As for the code, as I mention, it was pseudo code.

The way to handle the loop when both are false is to sleep until (time - time at start of the loop) is larger than whatever max frame rate we want to enforce. That way we ensure we only run the loop, if both are false, a max of 60 times per second, assuming we want to keep it at 60 fps max. It's a standard frame rate loop controller. Hopefully that's not terrible in terms of performance.

But great to hear that that is where it's headed. Take your time and launch something now. Then iterate.

[Hex]

@pjft said in Testers needed :: Power Saver features :: PR #172:

@hex great! Then start with just on and off. There will be no need to complicate things if you head in that direction.

Its not that complicated to implement. I shall be submitting final updates soon. Was just interested in checking if others had any better suggestions to the names: None/Min/Full

I know that keeping defaulted to Min will be sufficient for majority of users. Optionally None is also worth using if you are connected to wall socket and have good cooling. Full is for portable setups and there is a whole community for it : sudomod.com

As for the code, as I mention, it was pseudo code.

Yes I know. Your psudo code had nested while loops which wouldnt work and hence i pointed it out. Nothing more than that.

[TMNTturtlguy]

@hex I have another thought which might not be popular, but I am not sure that these options need to be available in the main build. I don't know if a third ES build is worth the effort to keep updated but it seems to me that havin a RPI1 a RPI2/3 and a RPI-handheld might make sense. This build could be created efficiently to work for handhelds and you could maximize it to the fullest PS settings.

[Hex]

@TMNTturtlguy I wouldnt vouch for code divergence.

[jdrassa]

@hex Please correct me if I am wrong, but is the only difference between Minimal, Full, and MAX the time delay between switching from SDL_PollEvent to SDL_WaitEventTimeout?

If so, I have a suggestion.

• PowerSaver mode is always on. There are no menu options to enable or configure it.
• The default delay before enabling PowerSaver mode is the users configured Screen Saver delay.
• If a user wants to change the delay to achieve more power savings, they can modify es_settings.cfg directly to specify a different value. This process can be documented on the RetroPie wiki. This is how the hide splashscreen option works.

I think this approach will give the most benefit to all users without changing functionality, while still giving users who want more power savings the ability to do so.

[Hex]

@jdrassa said in Testers needed :: Power Saver features :: PR #172:

@hex Please correct me if I am wrong, but is the only difference between Minimal, Full, and MAX the time delay between switching from SDL_PollEvent to SDL_WaitEventTimeout?

@jdrassa Very simply, yes. Although there is an enforcer in addition to the counter. Enforcer ensures counter is overridden when PS is disabled and Counter ensures trailing animations after last event. Both are equally important.

If so, I have a suggestion.

• PowerSaver mode is always on. There are no menu options to enable or configure it.

Auto scroll doesnt work in that case

• The default delay before enabling PowerSaver mode is the users configured Screen Saver delay.

Screensaver delay is at minimum 1m so switching timeout goes from 12 secs to 1m which is not good. Also if video screensaver is enabled PS will never be triggered (generally)

• If a user wants to change the delay to achieve more power savings, they can modify es_settings.cfg directly to specify a different value. This process can be documented on the RetroPie wiki. This is how the hide splashscreen option works.

The user base inerested in PS will be more than hide splashscreen guys. Not many users look at the documentation for latest features.

[cyperghost]

@hex Do you think it would be better to show no PS feature in main menu... so it's disabled by default and all users got a working ES as it looks like now. But create a bash-file within RetroPie menu. There you can choose between PS settings and can tell all advantages and disadvantages of each setting and ES reads out a value in a cfg file stored as you want?

I'm very intereted in the PS feature your know and I personally would enable it by default. Because I have no scrolling filenames, I don't use video preview....
I would also activate it in my Pi0 portable :)

[Hex]

@cyperghost I dont know if that is possible. Are there any Es settings currently in Retropie-setup?

[cyperghost]

@hex Well you load Themes for ex. within RetroPie-Menu and activcate them through ES
So yes items for ES are changed through RP-Menu

and yes .sh files can be located to ~/RetroPie/retropiemenu/ and they are visible and executable by default. So why not using this way? You can even create an icon for your set and descripe it in gamelist.xml - very nifty possibilty to create a settings menu :)

Since we know How to: Restart ES via bash script an activation/change of values of ES is also possible :)

So you may create a file names advanced_settings.xml (is there a good place to locate??) and can descripe option there and it could be usefull for future tweaks. For changing file advanced users can do edit manually and/or you write a small bash-script that also explains every option and does a restart automatically after settings were done.

---

Here you can also find answer of what is ment by EUREKA

[Hex]

@cyperghost Themes are loaded via Retropie menu but selected using ES alone. I dont think it is a viable solution.

[cyperghost]

@hex If ES is executed it checks presence/values of advanced_settings.xml one time. Is there is a tag like

<!--
      Hello,
         I am a multi-line XML comment
         I want to tell you a new feature of ES, the powersaver....
        0 = disabled
        1 = min, value Video support works, Scrolling not....
        9 = may the force be with you
               -->

<powersaving>
  <mode>0</mode>
  <timeout>90</timeout>
</powersaving>

or file is missing then PS is disabled.
via batch script and xmlstartlet you can change XML values easily and then force a restart. I think it's a possible solution and you don't need to mess around with explanations pop ups within ES but of course ES must be prepared for the value you've setted in PS-mode.

Of course it's your decision but it will also help to keep ES menu slim but it's still easy configurable by scripting menus.

[Hex]

@cyperghost I do not want to complicate this further. It has already been decided to have PS enabled by default and a timeout set such that description scrolls. I want to have a setting for people not using/caring about descriptions, hence the Full option. I might think about MAX:EXP option for instant and no carousel users (Might not be implemented). Timeout access shall not be available to user as wrong setting will render ES unusable.

So None/Minimal/Full are three options thought of being implemented for certain. I want your input on changing the names of these modes if necessary. I had name changing suggestions at a later stage while submitting additional animations. I dont want to repeat that. Hence if you have better suggestions for Mode Names, let me know.

[Zigurana]

@hex
Good idea's all around, even better to come to a decision 😀.
Question: For users, there is no difference between none and minimal, right? Why do we need both?

I would go for default / Improved

[cyperghost]

@zigurana @hex

I would go for usecase disabled/comfortable/portable

[Hex]

@Zigurana

None -> PS is disabled always
Minimal -> PS is enabled after Description has scrolled once (approximately)
Full -> Game name scrolls, Description doesnt scroll
MAX:EXP -> PS has very short trigger time. Great for instant and no carousel transition users. For those who dont care about animations

MAX might not be implemented, who knows. There is currently just one bug. PS isnt disabled while running scrapper (Fetch MD). That needs to be taken care of.

Timeouts

• MAX -> 20-40 cycles (Needs testing to reduce range)
• Full -> 100-200 cycles
• Min -> 10-12 secs ~ 1000-1200 cycles
• None -> Not needed

Do you have any suggestions for Mode names?

[Hex]

@cyperghost Nice suggestions. Lets see what others think.

[Zigurana]

Why would you want to disable PS?

[Hex]

I dont know. I think having an option to disable it prevents complaints about unexpected behaviour. Another reason would be if we decide to default it no None while merging.

[pjft]

@Hex Does PS stop the animations or no longer?