1.6 slowness, crashes etc

[TheThingIs]

I'm getting reports from a few of my beta testers that 1.6 is having serious issues with slowing down. Crashes a few times but mainly slowdown issues. Sometimes right down to va taking 10 or 15 secs to respond to a command and also keypresses. I've personally experienced this myself but not as often as others seem to be having it. A restart of VA seems to fix the issue for a while until it comes back again. I can't give a lot of info on it but my profile is pretty big and was getting concerned that I'd hit the limits of what va can handle. Especially as it'll get bigger every time a new hcs voicepack comes out as it's an all in one multi-crew pack with every character in. The amount of commands doesn't increase any so the load on the voice recognition shouldnt change.

It's an official HCS profile btw.

Any thoughts or what can I do to help you figure it out?

[Andydigital]

I'm one of the guys with a problem. It's even effecting my mouse buttons. I have a button on the mouse which activates the Windows 10 task switch interface, normally it happens the very moment I press the button, but with this 1.6.0.1 build (you sent me a link to a test build because of TTS crashes in another thread) its taking over a second to do anything. The moment I close VA it works instantly again.

[Gary]

I will need specific steps to reproduce the problem.  Does the problem persist if the plugins are turned off?

[Andydigital]

I cleared out the Apps folder completely and tested if that counts. Didn't make any difference for me. I've also now just tried unticking enable plugins and restarted and that didn't change anything. It does seem to get progressively worse though with time. After restarting my PC after dinner time it seems to be a bit better, but still not like it used to be. My mouse is behaving at the moment though, plugins enabled or not.

Up until I deleted my VA dat file and started again, VA was taking 12 seconds to load before I saw the GUI. After clearing the dat and starting afresh its got down to 5 seconds, is that normal? I don't remember it always being that slow to start. The slow starting was bad even before I started beta testing this new HCS profile, so I don't think the profile is related to this slow start.

I'm running 4 SSD's in my PC which is an i7 4770k overclocked to 4.4Ghz.

[Gary]

You might want to give what is in this thread a try (ignore the title):

http://voiceattack.com/smf/index.php?topic=64.0

Surprisingly, that seems to solve a lot of mysterious issues.

[Andydigital]

I've noticed if you disable the keyboard by clicking the Keyboard Shortcuts on off button, but then press a key to trigger the event then it is fast, but if I enable the keyboard shortcuts then that same key is slow like the joystick button is all the time when firing the same event.

I've had to create a new speech profile about a fortnight after I started using VA a couple of months ago, cant remember now exactly what the issue was but I do remember it fixed it. I'll give that a bash later.

[Gary]

Is it possible there is other software running that may be interfering?

[Andydigital]

I don't think anything has changed at this end since it was working well in 1.5.12.31 other than this new beta HCS profile and 1.6 and 1.6.0.1.

[Gary]

To be clear, is this only with the HCS pack or is this across the board?

[Andydigital]

It isn't across the board for me no, the more complex the profile the bigger the issue I think. I still need to create a new speech profile yet, that will have to wait till tomorrow though, I've been on here for nearly 12 hours today lol.

[Gary]

Is it possible to identify certain commands in the new HCS pack that is causing the issue to occur?

[TheThingIs]

it seems 1.6.1 may have resolved the issue. I'll update you on this next week when I've recovered from the weekend with Paul

[Andydigital]

Sorry ThingIs, it came back again the moment I tried your Beta 3, so whatever it is it seems intermittent.

[BlackJack]

From my perspective, the issue is still present. (v1.6.1.1)
Complexer TTS commands need 350+ seconds to proceed.

Not sure, but it also seems to have something to do with memory:
From time to time I get this Error-Message if I want to save a edited Profile.
I have to replace the VoiceAttack.dat with one of the backups in the roaming-folder.
Otherwise VA won't start again.

[Gary]

Is this with using a third-party TTS voice?  The VA TTS code was put back completely to what it was prior to v1.5.12.32.

[BlackJack]

Yes. I've a IVONA voice installed. But it happens also with other voices, even with the build in Microsoft voice Anna.
It started with a version earlier then 1.5.12.32. With .28 or .29 I think.
The same TTS Test need 0.4 seconds to finish with 1.5.12.15. (profile attached)

[BlackJack]

That was not quite correct, I'm afraid. After tests with other betas, I've noticed, that this issue has started with v1.5.12.17.
side mark: The file size of earlier betas was around 2.6MB. The file size of 1.5.12.17 and later is 3.5MB?!

[Gary]

Here I was thinking it's some sort of simple tts thing.  So, its not just a simple TTS thing.  It's this lol:

Code: [Select]

[Confirmed;acknowledged;affirmative] [{TXT:name:%USERNAME%};Comander;Sir;]. [we have take-off clearance;we are ready for take-off;take-off clearance is positive]. [Initiate the;initialize the;continue the] [undock;Start] [sequence;procedure]
. [Please adjust your backrest vertically and fold up the table in front of you.;All systems work within normal parameters;I wish you a pleasant flight;We are required to clear the docking area as soon as possible]!

{EXP: IIF({INT:Route}=1,'[{TXT:name:%USERNAME%};Comander;Sir], the Routeplan was set to beginning! current destination? 1! {TXT:System 1}','destination {INT:Route}? {TXT:System {INT:Route}} locked in')}



{EXP:IIF({INT:Route}={INT:SummSystems},'This is the last route in the current route plan.','')}



Can you do me a favor and go into your settings and uncheck the, 'Use Nested Tokens' option and see if that works?  My guess is that this existed before nested tokens was a thing and will need to be refactored.

[Pfeil]

It's this lol

Well, now that's a nifty way to crash VoiceAttack instantly. Attempting to preview TTS will completely freeze VoiceAttack unless "Use Nested Tokens" is unchecked.

Looking at it, I don't actually see where it's going wrong. When saved into a command it becomes clear that it loops infinitely, but only when all three lines are present.

EDIT: I had a good laugh just now, it's not actually an infinite loop. I had VoiceAttack running still, with the "looping" command running in the background, and suddenly TTS started playing. So it does eventually work, after a few minutes

[Gary]

Sorry...  I was lol'ing at the complexity of it (and mostly because... wow... that's possible?) and not at BlackJack.

[BlackJack]

(..) go into your settings and uncheck the, 'Use Nested Tokens' option and see (..)

Hmm.. only a tick?
To say it in the style of Pfeil:



But that does the trick! This is what you mean, when you write in the manual: 'you can end up in an infinite loop'.

I never would have expected, that this is the reason for.
Because I don't understand how these 'nested tokens' works and what's the benefit of them or how they look like.
Can you give me a short piece of code that makes it a bit clearer?

I had a good laugh just now, it's not actually an infinite loop.

As I told, it needs nearly six minutes to proceed. But yeah, I was also amused. (the first time)

[Pfeil]

I don't understand how these 'nested tokens' works and what's the benefit of them or how they look like.
Can you give me a short piece of code that makes it a bit clearer?

Not the best example, but take the following:

Code: [Select]

Set Text [TheLetterA] to 'A'
Write '[Purple] {D{TXT:TheLetterA}TEYEAR}' to log
With "Use Nested Tokens" unchecked, it will print "{DATEYEAR}" to the log, whereas with it checked, "2016" is printed instead.

This is because the text is processed multiple times, until there are no more tokens to process, if the "Use Nested Tokens" checkbox is checked. If it's not, only a single pass will be done, which is why "{DATEYEAR}", despite being a valid token, is not processed.

[BlackJack]

Thanks, Pfeil!

Now I just need to figure out where I have to place the pipes to make my commands 1.6 ready.

[badbud65]

I'm one of the beta testers of the above HCS Multi-Crew Pack and I'm experiencing similar problems with unresponsiveness, freezes and slowness when undertaking commands.

I will need specific steps to reproduce the problem.
- This is hugely difficult due to it's intermittent nature, as sometimes VA is responding as expected then after a while it suddenly slows down ad also freezes up. Freezes ca last for up to 30 seconds, and when it unfreezes any and all commands issues during the freeze are then initiated.

I have also noticed that occasionally after editing commands a few times ad quitting and restarting VA it can then suffer from these performance issue. Although this could be coincidental as I've not been able to determine specific steps that will always reproduce this problem.

Does the problem persist if the plugins are turned off?
- I haven't notice any difference when this is ON/OFF also I have removed all APPS from the APP directory and again no difference in slow down behaviour

Tried the actions in the post :http://voiceattack.com/smf/index.php?topic=64.0
- No difference

Is it possible there is other software running that may be interfering?
- This is always a possibility, but considering it has worked previously without issues prior to the last few versions of 1.5.x to 1.6.1 on the same system it seems unlikely, as I always have the same stuff running.

To be clear, is this only with the HCS pack or is this across the board?
- I have tried with a standard HCS pack and not Multi-Crew and the problem persists. Do you have a test pack I could use? Then I could try and find out if the problem persists with that also.

Is it possible to identify certain commands in the new HCS pack that is causing the issue to occur?
- Once the issue occurs it affects all commands that I use, it doesn't appear to be command specific related.

Is this with using a third-party TTS voice?
- On my system no, I don't have any TTS packs installed except what comes as standard with Windows 10

Have you tried with Nested Tokens unchecked?
- I'm currently testing with this OFF and Plugin Support off.
-- UPDATE: Neither have resolved the problem, which started to happen 15 minutes into gaming session

I have noticed that performing a reboot of windows and starting again resolves the problem for a while, but slowly the problem reappears. The time it takes to reaper is inconsistent. Sometimes it happens almost immediately, other times it can last for up to hour before VA performance is affected.

This video shows how slow button presses can get in Elite Dangerous, VA is pressing the cursor keys in this example. Once Down arrow then left/right or up arrows twice for the different system settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8XkRWLg7yw

ADDITIONAL:
When VA starts suffering for performance issues, even opening the options menu is slow and opening a voice pack to edit, it can take around 5 to 10 seconds.

[TheThingIs]

watching a streamer right now using VA with their own profile and they are having the exact same issues with VA delaying 10 secs or so before running the command. I was scared that it was the size of my profile that was causing the issues but I'm 99% sure that it's not the case. Relief for me but more troubling as this is a bigger widespread issue than I first thought.

[Gary]

I apologize, as I really do not have an answer for you as of this moment.  I can usually fix a problem if I can reproduce a problem.  I know I sound like a broken record.  If there is something happening inside an HCS pack that is causing VA to hang up, there's either something that they are doing that is hanging things up (loops, token parsing, subcommands, etc), or they are doing something that VA is breaking on (broken code).  You would need to increase your log size and keep track of the commands that you are calling to see if there's something in there in particular that is hanging up.  If it's something I can just get a handle on, I'll knock it out for sure

[Gary]

As a sanity check, can you guys try something?  Try moving the VAJS.dll and the MSTaskBar.dll files to another folder temporarily to see if that changes anything.  I know that sounds weird, but I just want to see.  VA needs to be closed before moving them, though.

Also, if I haven't mentioned it yet, a system scan is always good:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

[TheThingIs]

Gary, I know that you can cause va to crash by editing the .vap manually and messing something up so is there anything that would scan a whole .vap to verify it's integrity?

[Gary]

Generally if it's messed up you'll get a message when you try to open it.

[Andydigital]

As a sanity check, can you guys try something?  Try moving the VAJS.dll and the MSTaskBar.dll files to another folder temporarily to see if that changes anything.  I know that sounds weird, but I just want to see.  VA needs to be closed before moving them, though.

Also, if I haven't mentioned it yet, a system scan is always good:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

Tried everything in this post, the surface scan did find quite a bit of stuff to fix but it was mainly to do with the stupid Microsoft Store. Also when I removed the two files you mentioned and rebooted VA just stopped processing Joystick button presses. It made no difference to the speed of processing voice commands and TTs responses. They were the same speed as normal i.e. slow'ish and no where near as fast as it can be SOMETIMES.