Cycle action slows REAPER down when RAM usage is high

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 04:47:04

You'll need a project with a high RAM load, probably more than half of all available system RAM (in my case I have 4GB and I can reproduce this problem with a project using around 2.1GB). You'll also need a new cycle action to change layouts (described here: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=84978&highlight=layout ). Now, once you have this new cycle action in a toolbar button (attached to main window, on top) and the RAM load starts going too high, you'll experience how it becomes slower and slower to navigate, edit and/or click/move elements in the UI. REAPER struggles.

After a bit of bug hunting I noticed that removing this action from my toolbar solved the problem, completely. The action itself doesn't take any RAM as far as I can tell but CPU spikes start happening all of a sudden. Maybe this problem is also fully reproducible at lower RAM loads but I think it's very noticeable when the system is above a 50% of it.

Also, I feel this bug is also affecting how fast/slow the action list is displayed. I'm not sure but it certainly "feels" like that since I also had problems (huge delays after trying to open the action list) with it and since I removed that action completely from my list (not just from the toolbar), the action list is displayed quicker.

I tried it with different builds, official and pre-releases, and it's always the same. I experienced this with REAPER 4.10 and current pre-release versions, 64 bit. My system has a Core i5 750, 4GB RAM and Windows 7 64bit.

Thanks for reading!

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/sws-extension/issues/detail?id=397

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 08:07:27

Thanks a lot for the detailed report David! I can't really reproduce, even with intensive CPU/RAM projects..

Anyway, thanks to your inputs I don't think cycle actions are the culprit.. I bet you have the auto-refresh toolbars option enabled (Extensions > SWS options > Auto-refresh toolbars") and that disabling this option fixes the issue, right?

Status: Investigating
Owner: jeffos...@gmail.com

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 12:52:31

Hi Jeffos,

No, that's the first thing I disabled. In fact, I disabled all "SWS Options". Only removing that action from my toolbar did the trick. There's something I didn't try, though; I'll delete my S&M file and see what happens. I'll report it here.

Thanks again, Jeffos!

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 12:57:26

Dang! ok.. wait! before deleting it, can you please attach this file here?

__

I just made some updates that can only help, including a "Consolidated undo points" option in the action editor: when released, can you tell me if disabling it helps?

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 13:07:46

Sure, attached! I also included the "S&M_Cycleactions.ini" file.

Ok, in the next build, you want me to disable "Consolidate undo points" in the action editor, right?

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 13:09:26

Sigh... now... it is... attached, sorry.

Attachment: S&M.ini+S&M_Cycleactions.ini.rar

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 13:12:05

thanks! yes, disable it, to see..

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 13:34:29

Deleting my "S&M.ini" and "S&M_Cycleaction.ini" files solved it.

I created the same cycle action, added it to my toolbar and tried my test project once again. Everything is OK now. Do you see something strange in those files?

Thanks.

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 14:08:47

ha ha! Well, it's cool you solved your issue but, wow, I'm lost here :) right now, I have really no idea of what happened. the weirdest thing is that your S&M.ini file does not contain any cycle action (!) => it's a dumb question, I know, but are you sure you didn't remove it before attaching the file? In S&M_Cycleaction.ini, there is a "Cycle default-sidebar layouts for MCP" defined but this file is not really used, i.e. this is not where cycle actions are stored (it is the default filename for export/import).

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 14:22:35

Yeah, I'm 100% sure I didn't remove that cycle action. Let me explain. When the problem happened I did a backup of all my REAPER folder in my desktop (I use to do that when troubleshooting), and then I started to remove/add/move stuff to pinpoint the issue. I attached those 2 files I had in my backup folder in that post above :) If there's no cycle action there then I was working with an imaginary cycle action lol (though maybe that WEIRD thing was the culprit, we'll never know hahah). Anyways, thanks for letting me waste your time as usual Jeffos, I should've deleted those two files when troubleshooting but somehow I missed that.

Take care, bro!

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 14:39:18

thanks for the details.

The "imaginary cycle action": lol! But yes, imaginary: exactly! That's why I said "I'm lost here". If you have a minute you can check yourself, there is no cycle action defined in your file (look at the sections "[MAIN_CYCLACTIONS], "[ME_LIST_CYCLACTIONS]" and "[ME_PIANO_CYCLACTIONS]").

I think the issue is due to the way Win7 handles ini file (caches, that can explain the imaginary thing). Will check that route..

BTW, when I see things like these, I'm very happy I have choosen to persist things in a different ini file than REAPER.ini :)

[Jeff0S]

From mercadon...@gmail.com on October 18, 2011 14:57:52

Yeah, there's nothing there heh. Weird! Maybe it was a Windows 7 thing, just like you said.

And yes! I'm very happy you guys chosen to store stuff in your own .ini files, that surely makes things easier when troubleshooting.

Thanks again, mate!

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on October 19, 2011 11:07:17

what I can is to force Windows' ini file cache refresh, done in r606 (will be available in the next release). As discussed, I'm not 100% sure it is the root of this weird issue, though: could be an "imaginary" fix :) I set this issue as "fixed" but do not hesitate to bump it again if needed!

Status: Fixed