[Request] - Set Priority Mode option for gPhotoShow

[Ray]

Hi There!

I Just upgraded to gPhotoShow version 9.0 and I am happy with the openGL support too. Overall very happy to support the development of this prorgam!

But I was wondering whether it would be possible to incorporate a feature where you can set the gPhotoShow Slideshow Priority mode, like for example Realtime, High, Normal, Below, Below Normal, Idle.

I would love to be able to set the priority whilst running a slideshow to Realtime for the most smoothest display of images (Especially when using the Photowall mode). Still using an old GPU as I mostly do music production (I am using a GT 710, yeah please do have a laugh )

For version 8 I remember I used a custom Batch file, that I executed whilst the screensaver/slideshow was running. It contained the following code

@ECHO OFF
Start /Realtime
"E:\__TELEVISION\Screensavers\2021\The Slideshow - Photowall - First Two Screens Only SSD.gss"
exit cmd.exe

I don't know if the Batch file still works, I think the gPhotoShow process name itself has also changed to gPhotoShow64 or something a like.

I am still running windows 10 with the following installation + updates:
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎08-‎Feb-‎24
OS build 19045.4651
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19060.1000.0

But I noticed I cannot manually select the priority process through the Task Manager and simply clicking on the gPhotoShow prorgam inside the task manager, and not being able to set the priority mode. It's just not there anymore (probably they removed it after updates.

I do know that for example OBS, still has this option available in the advanced settings menu where you can custom select the process priority from within the program itself, so it should still be possible.

Would be a cool feature to see incorporated into the actual creation of the slideshows.

Looking forward to your input on this !

Many thanks in advance, and looking forward to future updates. Been using this programs for years, for both custom television player, and slideshows. A true life changer!

Keep up the great work! And thank you for the work and program!

Kind Regards,

Ray

[Ray]

A little update a few minutes later:

I did found out, that when you open task manager > go to the gPhotoShow process > right click > go to details > then a list will show with the gPhotoShow process listed, from there you can still set the priority.

But however, it would be a nice feature to have this enabled by default by having an option to select this from within the gPhotoShow Slideshow Maker Program, when creating & running certain screensavers / slideshows...

That's all for now!

[gpb]

Hello,
Changing the priority of a process in general is not useful with recent multi-core computers and was not very useful in the past either.
It was useful when PCs had only one CPU that had to do everything and therefore a way was needed to give priority to a process to the detriment of the others. With multi-core CPUs it has become useless because it is rare that all 4-6-8 cores are 100% busy and if they are, raising the priority does not solve the problem because the RAM and disk will also be busy.
The only case in which gPhotoShow raises its priority is when it has to perform standard 2D transitions that require 100% of the CPU
For the rest, performance depends on the PC CPU, GPU, disk as a whole.
In particular, using OpenGL/DirectX, Photo Wall performance is generally limited by the time the PC takes to load the images and this depends not only on the CPU but also on the disk.

You are free to change gPhotoShow priority from a bat file or from task manager but as I wrote before I don't think it is worth the effort.

[Ray]

Hi gpb!

Thank you for your quick response! Your answer made a lot of sense. '

I have 12 total cores, running from 4 to 5 Ghz, and whilst running the slideshow my Streamdeck and Steelseries Keyboard LCD system specs indicator indicate a very low CPU usage indeed, like around 11 to 15%. So it's not my processor that's the bottleneck. I think it's more related to my old GPU, which uses about 83%, but as you can tell it still does have a little headroom.

Your explanation made a lot of sense! Thanks for that, so there really is no need for a priority option.

I do however would like to have a faster scrolling speed in photowall mode. Would it be possible to implement that in the next upgrade? I think a speed upgrade of about 50% more as the current max would be cool, perhaps even a total of 200% increase in speed, would be cool. so basically just double the current maximum speed, as my M.2 drive can easily handle it.

My slideshow consists of about 240.000 images, that are all located on a 4tb NVMe M.2 Drive Samsung 990 Pro, so the drive is not bottlenecking the speed either. Whenever I start the slideshow everything is indexed and starts running in a matter of a single second.

Most of the times it runs just really smooth, but sometimes there is a little lagging, minute though, nothing to serious (perhaps some background processes doing some work, like windows stuff, streamdeck communications etc), but I can live with that.

Just would also love to see a faster scrolling speed setting.

Thanks again, and looking forward to the next update/upgrade, curious to see what improvements you come with now .

Thanks and have great weekend!

[gpb]

I do however would like to have a faster scrolling speed in photowall mode. Would it be possible to implement that in the next upgrade? I think a speed upgrade of about 50% more as the current max would be cool, perhaps even a total of 200% increase in speed, would be cool. so basically just double the current maximum speed, as my M.2 drive can easily handle it.

I did some tests with my current PC and with quite large images it can maintain a speed 4 times the current maximum.
The main limit of Photowall is given by images loading speed, gPhotoShow only uses the main thread for loading and if you have more than one monitor with small images the scrolling speed is still limited
However for the next version I think it is possible to set a limit to 200% of the current one

The lags can have the same cause, since gPhotoShow uses a timer in the main thread for loading it can be delayed by other programs running.
I should use a secondary thread for loading but this would require a redesign of the program and for now it is not planned