STEEM D3D Blit Error with Mirillis Action

[Cogweasel]

I have been having some issues with my D3D versions of STEEM SSE when having Mirillis Action running. When I pause and then unpause the emulation I get a BLIT ERROR. And if I am in full screen mode I cant stop STEEM or minimize the window, can't even access the task manager to terminate STEEM. I have to logout of Windows and back in again to shut it down.

If I start STEEM first and then start Action I can usually get it to work for a bit. But once I try and pause the emulation I usually get a BLIT ERROR again. Video capture is working fine though, as long as I don't try and pause...

When using 3.7.3 DD it works quite a lot better, no BLIT error, but still some weird behaviour when pausing/unpausing in full screen. I have been having this problem for a month or so, maybe more. I did update my NVIDIA drivers and that seemed to make it a bit better... I think. Kind of suspect the problem here might be Action , but just thought I would hear what you think of this Steven?

[Steven Seagal]

Sorry for the crashes, especially in fullscreen, I know it's a pain, believe me I've had my deal during development. I partly blame Windows.
Don't know this program, I'll look at it.

Does BLIT ERROR appears when you restart?
If you stop recording before restarting, do you have an error?
Or if you stop recording then start it again?
Does wrong behaviour start with a specific version of Steem or the other program?
Could you specify your fullscreen options?
Did you try FRAPS? I had success with it but it's been a while:
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 58#p282592

[Cogweasel]

Thanks for replying Steven!

Sorry for the crashes, especially in fullscreen, I know it's a pain, believe me I've had my deal during development. I partly blame Windows.
Don't know this program, I'll look at it.

Its basically a screen capture software : https://mirillis.com/en/products/action.html

Does BLIT ERROR appears when you restart?

Nope, it only happens when pausing the emulation.

If you stop recording before restarting, do you have an error?
Or if you stop recording then start it again?

The error occurs even if I am not recording. It's enough to have Action running in the background.

Does wrong behaviour start with a specific version of Steem or the other program?

I have tried 3 of the most recent versions of SSE D3D and all have the problem.

Could you specify your fullscreen options?

Here you go :

Untitled-1.png

Did you try FRAPS? I had success with it but it's been a while:
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 58#p282592

No I haven't, Action is my go to recording software and it has been working fine with SSE until recently. I think I have noticed that having Action running in the background has also crashed Adobe Premiere CC 2017, at least I suspect that was the cause. I am pretty sure we can blame Windows or Mirillis here....

[Cogweasel]

sorry, butter fingers on the keyboard... double post!

[Steven Seagal]

One thing you could try is without option 'Windowed Borderless Mode', it's fake fullscreen, but it should work as a window.
I'll make it more obvious in next version.
Also if you uncheck Fullscreen GUI, you have more chances of going back to the desktop.

[Cogweasel]

When I disabled "Window Borderless Mode" it almost seemed like it was working, but nope, same thing again after a while. I don't really want to disable fullscreen gui, because I need that when recording. If the window gets minimized the recording usually screws up...

[Steven Seagal]

It was just a guess.
Since it's been working before and it can't be pinpointed to a Steem version, the problem may be elsewhere.
Another (very) wild guess: user rights (administrator...) may interfere with video rendering.

[Cogweasel]

I tried "run as administrator", didnt make any difference sadly. I suspect the problems lies with Action, NVIDIA drivers or Windows... or maybe all three of them. I might contact Mirillis and see what they say. I was just curious to hear what you thought of the problem...

BTW just noticed that when the Blit Error occurs and I have to force STEEM to shut down... its actually still running... see there's 10% cpu ...

[Cogweasel]

I got curious and tried running 3.9.3 on my Win 8 laptop with Action running in the background. I don't get a Blit Error any more here, nor does the emulator window freeze in full frame mode. But there is still something rotten in the state of Denmark. When I pause emulation in full screen mode and minimize the window, often the window turns black, even though the emulator is still running in the background. If I full screen again, the picture comes back. Doesn't happen if I don't have Action running in the background...

I also noticed that I still have that weird audio crackling/distortion on my laptop, that I also have been having on my desktop running STEEM. Ever since you introduced that "oversampling" thing, where you can choose a higher frequency in the sound settings. I thought that was a problem with my desktop actually, so I haven't actually reported on that ...

[Steven Seagal]

I also noticed that I still have that weird audio crackling/distortion on my laptop, that I also have been having on my desktop running STEEM. Ever since you introduced that "oversampling" thing, where you can choose a higher frequency in the sound settings. I thought that was a problem with my desktop actually, so I haven't actually reported on that ...

Precisely, what are your sound options?
Is it with/without options Sound/Sampled YM2149 and SSE/C2?
Is the ST accelerated?
Does it happen in monochrome, colour, STE, STF?

To be honest, sometimes I have crackling too, after some stop and start, and the only cure is reset the ST. Haven't figured out what the problem is yet.

[Cogweasel]

Precisely, what are your sound options?
Is it with/without options Sound/Sampled YM2149 and SSE/C2?
Is the ST accelerated?
Does it happen in monochrome, colour, STE, STF?

To be honest, sometimes I have crackling too, after some stop and start, and the only cure is reset the ST. Haven't figured out what the problem is yet.

No acceleration, I am mostly running the emulator in low res mode so don't know if it happens in the other modes. The problem sometimes fixes itself and sometimes it seems to get worse the longer the emulator keeps going. I am going to try and record it next time it happens.

Here's my settings... maybe should have included the ini file, but I like screenshots

Untitled-1.jpg

[Steven Seagal]

Here's my settings... maybe should have included the ini file, but I like screenshots

Untitled-1.jpg

That's fine too.
When you select 384Khz, Windows probably limits SR to 200Khz.
With the new anti-aliasing filter, it's not necessary to go so high anyway, 44.1Khz is OK now.
Maybe you will have less crackling so.

[Cogweasel]

That's fine too.
When you select 384Khz, Windows probably limits SR to 200Khz.
With the new anti-aliasing filter, it's not necessary to go so high anyway, 44.1Khz is OK now.
Maybe you will have less crackling so.

I have tried changing the frequency to various values including 44.1KHz and also messed around with the other settings; doesn't help. I will try and record it next time so you can hear how it sounds. Its most only audible with music and its not a problem in V 3.7.3. ...

[Steven Seagal]

Thx.
In what version does it become a problem? 3.9.2?
Do you also have the problem without option 'C2'?
Does the current 3.9.4 beta make a difference?

[Cogweasel]

Thx.
In what version does it become a problem? 3.9.2?
Do you also have the problem without option 'C2'?
Does the current 3.9.4 beta make a difference?

I believe it was in the version were you introduced the higher frequencies, was it 3.9.1? I don't quit remember the exact version number. But of the ones I have installed right now, I have the problem in 3.9.1, 3.9.2 and 3.9.3. Havent tested the beta 3.9.4, might do that if I have the time and get back to you...

[Steven Seagal]

Both higher SR and "MAME-like" YM emu were introduced in v3.9.2, so if it was bad in v3.9.1 too, there could be another reason...

[Cogweasel]

I will check and see, I might be miss remembering here. So many version numbers I might confuse them, especially since I have that other Blit Error problem as well ..

[Cogweasel]

I came across my audio problem again in STEEM 3.9.3, hasn't happened for quite some time. Since I promised to upload the audio the next time I encountered it, here's a link Steven : http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 1820282895

[Cogweasel]

*double post* sorry ...

[Steven Seagal]

Thx. Notice the current version is 3.9.4, in any case...
I have a similar intermittent problem with 'Alt YM2149 Emu'. To fix it I stop and play.
Unfortunately I haven't found the reason yet.
Could be the 3rd party filter.

[Cogweasel]

The sound problem usually fixes itself after a couple of minutes or so. But I will try the start and stop method next time. I saw that you had relesed 3.9.4, just haven't had time to test it yet. Saw that you hade made it possible to recover from "Blit errors" ... so maybe that could be helpful for my other problem.

About my other problem, I have been having a back and forth with Mirillis now for a while about it. I am pretty sure the problem is caused by Action, since it screws up both Premiere Pro CC and MAME as well by simply existing in the background. I haven't head anything back from Mirillis for a couple of weeks now. But I did get an older version of Action from them and that one is not causing any Blit Errors in STEEM.

[Steven Seagal]

About BLIT ERROR, the improvement in v3.9.4 is that Steem shouldn't hang on such problem. On *my* computer, if a screen saver messed up Steem, for example, by stopping and playing, video emulation resumes. But that's no promise as there are so many configurations.