Media Player .NET (MPDN) - D3D HQ GPU Video Renderer [v2.49.0/v1.31.0 27 Dec 2018]

[Belphemur]

Originally Posted by madshi

Argh, that's bad. Is there a known email address? I don't remember...

Yup there is on his website (footer of it) : http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kes25c

I also found he published couple of conference paper in 2012 all linked (unsurprisingly) to image analysis

[Zachs]

Yeah, just sent him an email. Belphemur found his email address. Let's see if he replies.

[madshi]

FYI, the latest madVR build should now fix the LGPL issues. See "legal stuff\Shiandow\readme.txt" for details. If there's still something to do, please let me know.

[Anima123]

Originally Posted by ryrynz

.NET Framework Repair Tool

Which version should I re-install to be used with MPDN?

[Zachs]

Version 4.0.

[Belphemur]

Good news, in the last PlayerExtension you have an UpdateChecker (activated by default). It'll notify you when opening the player if there is a new version and redirect you on the website to download it.

You can easily disable it in the configuration of the player extension and also choose to forget this particular update.

[ryrynz]

Is that just with new versions of just the player or does it include extensions as well?

[Belphemur]

Originally Posted by ryrynz

Is that just with new versions of just the player or does it include extensions as well?

Only the player, but everyday the extensions' zip get pulled from Github and is available along the latest version as you can see here : http://mpdn.zachsaw.com/Latest/

[Zachs]

Good news!

tritical has given MPDN the rights to use NNEDI3 with an LGPL license, so MPDN extensions can remain exactly the way it is.

[Shiandow]

The debanding algorithm has been improved again, with the new version you can achieve better debanding with lower values of the "threshold" parameter. It's recommended to revert to defaults, or lower the "threshold" parameter manually.

Also fixed this issue.

[mrcorbo]

Originally Posted by ryrynz

.NET Framework Repair Tool

I finally got to try this (thanks for posting the direct link) and this may have fixed both my crash issues. Aside from the crash on right-click menu exit option selection during fullscreen playback I was also having an eventual crash during playback when crossfire was enabled (I have twin 4GB 270x's). I also just had some Windows Updates install, though, so I can't be sure which fixed the issues. I'll report back if the issues pop back up during more extended testing (pretty sure the "exit" crash at least is fixed), but for now things are looking good.

[ryrynz]

Originally Posted by mrcorbo

I finally got to try this (thanks for posting the direct link) and this may have fixed both my crash issues. things are looking good.

Awesome sauce.

Originally Posted by Zachs

Good news!

tritical has given MPDN the rights to use NNEDI3 with an LGPL license, so MPDN extensions can remain exactly the way it is.

Was he actually required to give the rights though? I thought it would've been better for him to clear up his licensing arrangements.

[Zachs]

Hi everyone,

I've added a new render script called "Scripted Render Chain" which allows you to write Avisynth-like scripts. It's based on JavaScript, so you can use any of JavaScript's built-in features (e.g. string processing).

The default script goes like this (it's does exactly everything Custom.MyRenderScript.cs does and it's a good starting point to write your own script).

PHP Code:

// Example render script

// Scale chroma first (this bypasses MPDN's chroma scaler)
BicubicChroma( Preset = Presets.MitchellNetravali )

// Apply some filtering pixel shaders
ImageProcessor( ShaderFileNames = ["SweetFX\\Bloom.hlsl", "SweetFX\\LiftGammaGain.hlsl"] )

// Use NEDI once only.
// Note: To use NEDI as many times as required to get the image past target size,
//       change the following *if* to *while*
if (input.NeedsUpscaling)
{
    Nedi( AlwaysDoubleImage = true )
}

if (input.NeedsDownscaling)
{
    // Use linear light for downscaling
    ImageProcessor( ShaderFileNames = ["ConvertToLinearLight.hlsl"] )
    Resizer( ResizerOption = ResizerOption.TargetSize100Percent )
    ImageProcessor( ShaderFileNames = ["ConvertToGammaLight.hlsl"] )
}

if (input.SourceSize.Width < 1920)
{
    // Sharpen only if video isn't full HD
    // Or if you have FineSharp installed, replace the following line with it
    ImageProcessor( ShaderFileNames = ["SweetFX\\LumaSharpen.hlsl"] )
} 


This script is currently saved in %localappdata%\MediaPlayerDotNet\DefaultScript.rs (there's no need to know this - you can simply change the script in the config screen).

As you can see, it uses a very simple syntax to add filters to the chain. More importantly though, you can change the script and have MPDN use it on the fly without having to restart MPDN!

Note that if you edit the file externally, you'll need to manually resize the MPDN window for it to take effect. If you an error with your script, MPDN will display the error on the screen in place of the video.

All functions that the 'rs' script can access are available in the Clip and Host classes (see Mpdn.ScriptedRenderChain.ScriptHelpers.cs). 'Clip' is available via the 'input' object while 'Host' is 'host'. There's also a "Debug.Output" function that allows you to dump debug messages to the DbgView app.

For example,

PHP Code:

input.FileName // returns the full path and file name of the video file
input.FrameRateHz // returns the fps of your video
input.SourceSize.Width // returns video source width
host.ExePath // returns the folder name of which MPDN's executable file resides 


The render scripts you can use in the 'rs' script currently are,

PHP Code:

Lut3DColorCorrection    
ImageProcessor    
Preset
Resizer    
BicubicChroma    
Deband    
Nedi    
NNedi3    
OclNNedi3    // OpenCL version of NNEDI3
SuperChromaRes    
SuperRes 


Have fun!

[Zachs]

Originally Posted by ryrynz

Was he actually required to give the rights though? I thought it would've been better for him to clear up his licensing arrangements.

Yes, because it was GPL. He's given MPDN the approval to relicense it as LGPL.

[pirlouy]

I took time to do tests I wanted to do a long time.
For now, I use MPC-HC + LAV + madVR, a well known configuration which works. But I wanted to compare with MPDN.
So for now, I wanted to test how both perform in windowed D3D9 mode. The window is maximized, and process hacker allows me to see CPU, and GPU-Z sensors allows me to follow GPU states.

And I can see MPDN uses a lot more CPU+GPU.
I tried to use the same config as madVR, then bilinear everywhere, but it's the same, MPDN uses more CPU and GPU. I tried to disable fluid motion, dithering, I don't use any render script. I've tried with D3D10.1 et D3D11 but no changes.

Have you any idea on what can causes this ? Can it be linked to .Net ? For now, it makes no sense comparing glitches/dropped frames if CPU/GPU is way more used.

[Zachs]

Not that I've seen. The last time I tested it, it was faster than madvr on both CPU and GPU.

EDIT: You're right. It would seem madVR has indeed gained some performance with the recent versions - it has a lower base GPU load over all even with HW bilinear.

EDIT2: It turns out it's not entirely true - it depends on what material you're testing them with... were you testing it with 1080p materials btw?

EDIT3: LOL. Testing it with another different machine, madVR's GPU load is higher on most materials except 1080p which it is just 1% lower than MPDN. This is why I hate comparing performance between different renderers - they are so reliant on the drivers / system you have. CPU usage wise, both are within a difference of +/-1% with the different materials I've tested.

EDIT4: With more testing, I found with older GPUs, you can find sources with certain resolutions that would cause higher GPU usage with MPDN. I'm not sure what the cause of that is but it's not something I'm keen to put my time on seeing as those GPUs are really old (> 5 years old) and typically only run legacy drivers.

[foxyshadis]

Coming back to MPDN after a while, I have some questions which have probably been answered at some point, but... 100+ pages. Maybe the answers would be a good fit for the wiki.

Is there a comprehensive list of everything in PlayerControl? That's the only way to set custom keybindings right now, AFAIK.
Is there a way to display statistics on the screen? A lot of people seem to be doing this, but I can't find how.
When should I check or leave unchecked the boxes on the Presentation config panel? (New windowed mode & DWM VSync.) Are they better, worse, legacy compatibility?
Do you use a frame-adaptive ordered dither, like madvr?

[pirlouy]

@Zachs: If I look at CPU only (even if GPU is higher as I said). The processor I use is a Intel Core i3-2100.
With MPC-HC / LAV / madVR, I am at 30-35% with/without stats displayed
With MPDN, I am at 50-55% with stats displayed, 45-50% without stats displayed.

I've tried with all MPDN version (64, 32, anyCPU). I've also used the repair tool mentioned earlier, just in case (but he found nothing).
PS: I don't use DXVA at all.

[Zachs]

Originally Posted by foxyshadis

Coming back to MPDN after a while, I have some questions which have probably been answered at some point, but... 100+ pages. Maybe the answers would be a good fit for the wiki.

Is there a comprehensive list of everything in PlayerControl? That's the only way to set custom keybindings right now, AFAIK.
Is there a way to display statistics on the screen? A lot of people seem to be doing this, but I can't find how.
When should I check or leave unchecked the boxes on the Presentation config panel? (New windowed mode & DWM VSync.) Are they better, worse, legacy compatibility?
Do you use a frame-adaptive ordered dither, like madvr?

MPDN lacks documentation at the moment but there are quite a few devs who frequent the forum who started not knowing how to program in C# but managed to cook up a new extension in a couple of days, so I'm sure they're happy to help if you need something. That said, the best way to get that list would be via the IDE's intellisense.

Statistics on the screen? Ctrl+J should bring it up or you can do it via the menu: show player statistics.

If you don't find any problems with high presentation durations, you should just leave those in their default states. They're mainly for those systems (e.g. Optimus) that need specific settings.

MPDN's ordered dithering does not randomize across frames, it uses a different algorithm to madVR's ordered dithering. The very definition of ordered means its not random, so there's no such option for ordered dithering.

Originally Posted by pirlouy

@Zachs: If I look at CPU only (even if GPU is higher as I said). The processor I use is a Intel Core i3-2100.
With MPC-HC / LAV / madVR, I am at 30-35% with/without stats displayed
With MPDN, I am at 50-55% with stats displayed, 45-50% without stats displayed.

I've tried with all MPDN version (64, 32, anyCPU). I've also used the repair tool mentioned earlier, just in case (but he found nothing).
PS: I don't use DXVA at all.

I've tried it on 5 different machines from Core2Duo through to 4th gen i7 and they all consistently get slightly lower CPU usage vs MPC-HC/madVR both 32/64 bit editions. You're not by any chance using ffdshow in your filter chain are you? It was established that it's a CPU hogger when used with .NET host a long time ago (my rough guess is it's silently trapping its own exceptions). It's a dead project, so there's nothing we could do.

[pirlouy]

I don't use ffdshow or any post-processing filter. You were on Windows 8.1 ?
I really don't know what could cause this then. :/