1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

General discussion about StarTools.
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3367
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:51 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by admin »

cytan299 wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:57 am there are no longer any streaking in the images.
Thank you so much for confirming this. This has helped me narrow down the problem; it is either a GPU memory allocation issue or - much more likely - a GPU timeout issue (e.g. GPU taking too long to process to the operating system's liking).

I am hopeful the fixes in 1.7.440 have addressed this, Do let me know if the issue persists!
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
Stefan B
Posts: 422
Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2020 8:59 pm

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by Stefan B »

admin wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2020 12:50 am Thanks Stefan. It's the information displayed when you click 'About' in the home screen;
Hi Ivo,

sorry for the late reply. You'll find the about dialog attached. 1.7.440 works for me so far. Thanks!

Best regards
Stefan
Attachments
about.JPG
about.JPG (16.02 KiB) Viewed 4234 times
cytan299
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:49 am

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by cytan299 »

admin wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 4:33 am
cytan299 wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:57 am there are no longer any streaking in the images.
Thank you so much for confirming this. This has helped me narrow down the problem; it is either a GPU memory allocation issue or - much more likely - a GPU timeout issue (e.g. GPU taking too long to process to the operating system's liking).

I am hopeful the fixes in 1.7.440 have addressed this, Do let me know if the issue persists!
Hi Ivo,
Problem persists with 1.7.440. Here's the results.
dimsmall (looks like no streaks, but I see it when I zoom in, zoomed out version can be seen in my next post):
dimsmall_zoom.jpg
dimsmall_zoom.jpg (48.8 KiB) Viewed 4230 times
airy:
airy.jpg
airy.jpg (351.53 KiB) Viewed 4230 times
isolate:
isolate.jpg
isolate.jpg (432.9 KiB) Viewed 4230 times
cytan
Last edited by cytan299 on Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
cytan299
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:49 am

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by cytan299 »

admin wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 4:33 am
cytan299 wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:57 am there are no longer any streaking in the images.
Thank you so much for confirming this. This has helped me narrow down the problem; it is either a GPU memory allocation issue or - much more likely - a GPU timeout issue (e.g. GPU taking too long to process to the operating system's liking).

I am hopeful the fixes in 1.7.440 have addressed this, Do let me know if the issue persists!
And heres dimsmall zoomed out:
dimsmall.jpg
dimsmall.jpg (424.25 KiB) Viewed 4230 times
If you want the fits file to play with, you can download it here:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApsRFMpkd9cwgRZuTBU ... M?e=bhcPp4

cytan
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3367
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:51 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by admin »

cytan299 wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:17 pm Problem persists with 1.7.440. Here's the results.
I'm afraid we're quickly nearing the end of the road for your particular machine. :cry:

Are you absolutely, 100% sure you are running the latest version (1.7.440alpha, including its 'resources' file)?
Are you absolutely, 100% sure your RX 5500M is being used and not, say, your iGPU? (see About dialog)

Thank you!
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
cytan299
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:49 am

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by cytan299 »

admin wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:48 pm
cytan299 wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:17 pm Problem persists with 1.7.440. Here's the results.
I'm afraid we're quickly nearing the end of the road for your particular machine. :cry:

Are you absolutely, 100% sure you are running the latest version (1.7.440alpha, including its 'resources' file)?
Are you absolutely, 100% sure your RX 5500M is being used and not, say, your iGPU? (see About dialog)

Thank you!
Here's the screenshot from StarTools:
track.jpg
track.jpg (46.9 KiB) Viewed 4205 times
And here's the checksum of the resources file and size:

Code: Select all

/Applications/Startools@belle% cksum resources
1691887530 1887771 resources

/Applications/Startools@belle% ls -l resources
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 cytan  staff  1887771 Nov  6 09:54 resources*

Is this what you'd expect? I double checked that the resources file has the same checksums as that in the zip distribution.

Do you see the same problem that I see when you work on the fits file from the link?

I've attached my StarTools.log file.

cytan
Attachments
startools.zip
(87.87 KiB) Downloaded 164 times
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3367
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:51 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by admin »

cytan299 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:26 am And here's the checksum of the resources file and size:
Is this what you'd expect? I double checked that the resources file has the same checksums as that in the zip distribution.
That all looks in order!
Do you see the same problem that I see when you work on the fits file from the link?
I can no longer replicate this and that's the strange thing... The GPU load is now so granularized that processing the load should not be a problem any more.

Since your system is also a dual graphics solution, you could try switching between iGPU for display duties and freeing up the 5500M for compute (see here). (or the other way around of course)

Let me know if that makes any difference!
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
cytan299
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:49 am

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by cytan299 »

admin wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 7:24 am
cytan299 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:26 am And here's the checksum of the resources file and size:
Is this what you'd expect? I double checked that the resources file has the same checksums as that in the zip distribution.
That all looks in order!
Do you see the same problem that I see when you work on the fits file from the link?
I can no longer replicate this and that's the strange thing... The GPU load is now so granularized that processing the load should not be a problem any more.

Since your system is also a dual graphics solution, you could try switching between iGPU for display duties and freeing up the 5500M for compute (see here). (or the other way around of course)

Let me know if that makes any difference!
Hi Ivo,
I just tried both "0" and "1" in the opencldeviceindex.cfg file. Is there some indication that the 5500M has been freed up for computation? I looked at the About panel and there's nothing obvious.

cytan
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 3367
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 10:51 pm
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by admin »

cytan299 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:09 pm Hi Ivo,
I just tried both "0" and "1" in the opencldeviceindex.cfg file. Is there some indication that the 5500M has been freed up for computation? I looked at the About panel and there's nothing obvious.
I just found this application for macOS;

https://codyschrank.github.io/gSwitch/

explained here

https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/sw ... gpu-macos/

This may hold some promise for your system.

The idea is to switch macOS to use Integrated Only (for display duties), thereby freeing up the discrete GPU (for compute).

The screenshots at addictivetips also mention a Recovery_Timeouts feature. This may be a way to change the watchdog timeout? (though I'm still not 100% sure this is the issue right now in your particular case)
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
cytan299
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:49 am

Re: 1.7.430 alpha with new Super Structure module (Life replacement)

Post by cytan299 »

admin wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 2:01 pm
cytan299 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:09 pm Hi Ivo,
I just tried both "0" and "1" in the opencldeviceindex.cfg file. Is there some indication that the 5500M has been freed up for computation? I looked at the About panel and there's nothing obvious.
I just found this application for macOS;

https://codyschrank.github.io/gSwitch/

explained here

https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/sw ... gpu-macos/

This may hold some promise for your system.

The idea is to switch macOS to use Integrated Only (for display duties), thereby freeing up the discrete GPU (for compute).

The screenshots at addictivetips also mention a Recovery_Timeouts feature. This may be a way to change the watchdog timeout? (though I'm still not 100% sure this is the issue right now in your particular case)
I'll install and try it out. But there's one other possibility, if I understand from the FAQ in the first link:

*************
Why does the app go back to dynamic switching when a display is plugged in?

Unfortunately your mac is designed such that in order to use an external display, it has to use the discrete graphics card. And since you plugged in the cable I’m assuming you want to use the display.
**************

It seems that the GPU will necessarily be used when I use an external display. I *was* using an external display when I was ST. So, I think the easiest thing to do first is to use my MacBook Pro display and not my external monitor first to see if the problem goes away.

cytan
Post Reply