cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

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Q8-V08
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Joined:Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:29 am
cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Q8-V08 » Fri May 08, 2015 2:54 pm

Currently i'm playing all my nds games from a smb share with cifsmanager

192.168.0.1/volume(sdb1)/nds/roms
binded to
/mnt/cifs/volume(sdb1)/nds/roms

during screen transitions / door loading etc I notice a extra 1-3 delay / pause on screen before gameplay resumes,
my tablet says i'm connected at 150Mbps over 5Ghz wireless connection, the share is located on my usb 3.0 hdd connected directly to the wireless router which is usb 2.0, i'm able to stream 1080p 8-10Mbps mp4 movies to my tablet without any lag, how fast is the nds cart read?

TkSilver
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Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by TkSilver » Fri May 08, 2015 4:34 pm

I do not think the speed is the issue, but more likely the type of access needed for the 2 different activities. Generally speaking you only watch a video in one main direction with occasional searches for a particular part so the information can be buffered logically to a degree. Game cartridges have assets that need to be read and code that needs executing in different places. Also since in a game you can go where ever you want (within the limits of the game) buffering does not help unless you buffer it all. Add in the fact that your tablet is not always receiving packets and you have some latency issues that are bound to pop up.

Personally I tend to use my nas to deep store any games I don't need at the moment and I use my local storage to hold the games I currently want to play. I find this strikes a nice balance between storage space concerns and access to my library of games

To answer your nds question the access time for the eeprom chips the cartridges use is 150ns (nanoseconds) something that is noticeably lower then any access request that goes over a wireless connection.

Q8-V08
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Joined:Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:29 am

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Q8-V08 » Fri May 08, 2015 7:23 pm

Maybe the ability to temporary copy the selected .nds from the cifsmanger folder to smb_cache/temp.nds could be added, then when you exit drastic it deletes the temp.ds from the sdcard to save space.
I don't really understand why that isn't the case for the unzip_cache too, it seems rather pointless to me as it leaves all the unzipped games in that folder without emptying it on exit, it's no better than just using a unzip / extract app for each game, I thought the whole point of it was to save storage space and just unzip the current game you wanted to play.

Lordus
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Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Lordus » Fri May 08, 2015 7:46 pm

Q8-V08 wrote:Maybe the ability to temporary copy the selected .nds from the cifsmanger folder to smb_cache/temp.nds could be added, then when you exit drastic it deletes the temp.ds from the sdcard to save space.
I don't really understand why that isn't the case for the unzip_cache too, it seems rather pointless to me as it leaves all the unzipped games in that folder without emptying it on exit, it's no better than just using a unzip / extract app for each game, I thought the whole point of it was to save storage space and just unzip the current game you wanted to play.
There is only one file in unzip_cache (unzipped_rom.nds), which is overwritten every time you load another game.
The reason it's not deleted is, that you can load the game faster the next time, if you don't play another game in between.

DraStic doesn't care where your ROMs are, if they're already uncompressed .nds files, it will open them directly. In your case it'd be better, if they were compressed, then they would be uncompressed into unzip_cache and opened from your internal memory, if the setting 'Uncompress to file' is enabled.
You can also use compressed files and disable the setting, then they will be uncompressed into RAM, which loads faster, and also has the fastest access times, but you can get into trouble, if your device doesn't have enough RAM to handle that.

Q8-V08
Posts:22
Joined:Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:29 am

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Q8-V08 » Fri May 08, 2015 11:14 pm

My device has 2GB RAM so it shouldn't really be an issue, the unzipping process is relatively slow though,
I have more than enough storage on my nas to store my games .nds uncompressed, can't they be copied into ram instead?

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ericbazinga
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Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by ericbazinga » Fri May 08, 2015 11:38 pm

Q8-V08 wrote:My device has 2GB RAM so it shouldn't really be an issue, the unzipping process is relatively slow though,
I have more than enough storage on my nas to store my games .nds uncompressed, can't they be copied into ram instead?
Getting a Micro SD card for your phone and putting the games on there is a very convenient option.
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You can also find me on Reddit (u/Ericbazinga) and Discord (in the DraStic Discord server). You'll find me in those places almost daily and here almost never.

Q8-V08
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Joined:Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:29 am

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Q8-V08 » Sat May 09, 2015 12:51 am

I'm using a tablet and having otg storage stuck out the side is a less than perfect solution.

I wish google would get their act together and offer smb storage for obb game files etc, a 16-32GB device
is easily filled, why most they make us jump through hoops, whilst at same time having a bee in their bonet about
rooting / selinux permissions etc just add a permissions admin manager to Android ffs, they complain about shit like this whilst at same time having no builtin file manager, firewall / ports control.

TkSilver
Posts:576
Joined:Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:30 am

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by TkSilver » Sat May 09, 2015 3:21 am

Q8-V08 wrote:I'm using a tablet and having otg storage stuck out the side is a less than perfect solution.

I wish google would get their act together and offer smb storage for obb game files etc, a 16-32GB device
is easily filled, why most they make us jump through hoops, whilst at same time having a bee in their bonet about
rooting / selinux permissions etc just add a permissions admin manager to Android ffs, they complain about shit like this whilst at same time having no builtin file manager, firewall / ports control.
First off let me say you are preaching to the choir when ypu talk of google having its head in the sand on storage, file managers, and permission managers, also with the lack of very useful port and firewall controls. I am also going to guess your tablet is one that "listened" google's almost Apple bad idea that microSD card slots are the devil's tools and everying should be in the "cloud" somewhere. I really do feel for you.

With that said if you think drastic loading ds roms from NAS (network attached storage) is bad then you do not want to feel the horror and pain introducing that kind of lag on obb (resource files) being onna seprate device will bring.

Actually if you have a seprate computer with a wireless card you can test the fun by say loading elder scrolls daggerfall (free from Bethesda) on your nas mount it to your computer and try playing it for a little bit. You will probably need dosbox to run it but luckily it does not need registry entries and other things to run being a dos program it runs from a simple folder. Give it a go.

Q8-V08
Posts:22
Joined:Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:29 am

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Q8-V08 » Sat May 09, 2015 6:06 am

I only have a ancient winxp pentium 4 with intergrated gpu so I probably couldn't run it anyway.
That said my router supports 802.11ac 433Mbps surely that's enough to fully saturate it's usb 2.0 port?
are you saying i'd need a usb 3.0 router with 802.11ac 1300Mbps wireless?

Lordus
Posts:517
Joined:Mon Aug 05, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: cifs share mount / cifsmanager delays

Post by Lordus » Sat May 09, 2015 2:40 pm

Q8-V08 wrote:My device has 2GB RAM so it shouldn't really be an issue, the unzipping process is relatively slow though,
I have more than enough storage on my nas to store my games .nds uncompressed, can't they be copied into ram instead?
You could use zip files without compression, then it should be loaded into RAM, if you disable the option 'Uncompress to file', and the loading time should be fast, too.

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