Tested Input Latency of TGM1-2-3, Tetris Friends, Playstation Sakura.

I was curious to test the actual input latency of the different Tetris variants I've been playing on my (on paper) suboptimal system.

Other threads report that both Windows 7 64 bit and the 'keyboard input hack' are dealbreakers for running TGM3 and even WinXP and a standard PC CRT will be more than 8 frames of input latency, but I measured on the low end of arcade clone WinXP+Arcade IO+lagless display results with only a Win7x64 system+LCD monitor in TGM3.

Results:
Actual time from keypress to piece moving on monitor (keyboard->indicator latency)+(indicator->display latency):

Tetris The Grandmaster shmupmametgm: 5 frames
TGM2+ shmupmametgm: 4 frames
TGM3: TI default keyboard input hack: 6 frames
Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura Eternal Heart epsxe windowed: 6 frames
Tetris Friends High Quality /w Adblock, Chrome: 6 Frames
edit Texmaster 3 frames
There was no difference between windowed and fullscreen latency for any TGM game on my system.

I used a novel testing method that I don't believe has been used elsewhere but is easily done on any system by anyone who has a 240fps or better camera.

Method:
1.Use 240fps camera to determine latency between capslock keypress and capslock indicator (measured as 4frames@240fps, equivalent to 1frame@60fps on my keyboard, consistently reproduced).

2.Rebind left input to capslock key in game. Use 240fps camera to determine latency between keyboard capslock indicator and piece moving left on screen. Add both to determine actual latency.

My PC:
Win7x64
Geforce GTX650Ti
i5-2400 12GB RAM
BenQ G2222HDL DVI

Using a CRT monitor would be ideal and further reduce these latencies (presumably significantly, perhaps a frame or more). I will try to get access to one.

I was just counting frames manually advancing one by one and doing my math in a notepad, but I believe this method is quite accurate. Am I just looking at old information and this is normal performance, or does this appear to be much better than expected for my configuration? Is my method horribly flawed? Putting together an analysis/proof video would be an lot of work if this is not contrary to what is currently believed.

 

Wow, I wouldn't have expected so much for Sakura. I thought the Playstation was emulated really well.

 

6 frames is not much, because apparently the LCD monitor JonnyFacepunch has already 4 frames (about 65 or 70 ms) of response time. So 2 frames is actually really good for an emulator, I’m playing on PCSX2 and it’s like a quarter-second, it’s so heavy it’s almost unplayable lol

Nice job measuring the input latency, I always knew it wasn’t THAT bad with TGM3, and really it’s not =p although yeah I already knew TGM2 would win (it’s like impossible to feel any lag on my CRT setup)

 

Where's 65-70 ms from?

 

1000 ms in a second

60 frames in a second
1000/60=16 and 2/3 ms in one frame

times 4 = 66 and 2/3 ms.

simple math.

 

I'm curious what Texmaster gets.

 

Testing in MAME by pausing the emulation, holding a direction and then advancing one frame at a time until the piece moves:

tgmj: 3 frames
tgm2p: 2 frames

Of course that ignores input device, OS and monitor lag etc.

 

Is this shmupmame or regular MAME?

 

Regular MAME 0.164. I don't have shmupmame, but if you try it in shmupmame please post your results.

Also, to clarify my previous post: By 2 frames I mean I have to advance twice until the piece moves. Maybe you could call this 1 frame of input lag, since the piece doesn't move for 1 frame.

 

Must not be Shmupmame. TAP in Shmupmame has no frames of lag.

MameTGM has one less frame of lag in TGM than other versions of MAME. Ideally you'd use Shmupmame for TAP and MameTGM for TGM1.

Edit: there you go

 

TAP shmupmame still seems to be wonky, I have problems with quick up+downs not registering when I can do it 100% of the time on Tex/Ti.

 

No problems in like 150 hours logged on 4.2 GUI.

 

Are you on stick or keyboard? It might have something to do with how it handles up+down on the same frame.

 

Stick. I assume you're using keyboard...?

 

Yeah. It uses the last pressed key which is the same as altinput and I think Tex, so I have no idea what the problem is.

 

Just figured out the config and made a texmaster vid. 3 frames. Texmaster is definitely more responsive than anything else.

I haven't been able to find input latency for my specific monitor online. Is 65-70ms verified from some source?

Still trying to get my hands on a CRT monitor...

 

Only MAMETGM or ShmupMameTGM are last direction pressed, since upy wrote that patch to MAME's 4-way behavior. The default behavior in mainline MAME (and hence, ShmupMAME or any other fork that didn't pull in the MAMETGM mod) is that opposing directions cancel.

 

shmupmametgm is what I have. Forgot to mention that.

 

Is it possible to use Mouse Script and whatever method that you guys mentioned here on the genuine TGM3 on Taito Type X machine? Would that make reduce input latency?