[Work-around in 11.8.1] Very Long Initialization

[jmusco]

v. 11.8.0.1 running on Windows 10
After starting SCS, it takes over 50 seconds for the program to initialize before it loads the show. The previous version loaded a show almost immediately.
Joseph Musco

[Mike Daniell]

A log file will have been created and saved in a folder named "SCS Logs" under "Documents", and the name of the file includes a time-stamp indicating when the log started. Please email a relevant log file to support@showcuesystems.com.

[jmusco]

Couldn't attach the log file. Got an error message saying it was too large. Is there some other way to send it?

[jmusco]

Sorry, just saw that I was supposed to send the file in an email. It's on its way.

[d_korman]

I had exactly the same problem on Tuesday, but the next time I started SCS it was fine. If it happens again I'll send the log file too.

Dave

[Mike Daniell]

The long initialization Joseph encountered turned out to be caused by the Presonus Audiobox 181VSL. The DirectSound/WASAPI driver for this device publishes 4 stereo outputs plus an S/PDIF output. The log showed that the various initialization function calls for each of these 5 outputs took just over 9 seconds. The total time taken to start SCS, including loading the cue file, was just over 56 seconds, of which about 45 seconds was due to checking Audiobox connections, and just under 6 seconds loading the cue file. The remaining 5 seconds was taken up by other initialization activities.

As the Audiobox was not actually required for the selected production, Joseph disconnected the Audiobox before starting SCS and then achieved a much faster initialization of SCS.

[Mike Daniell]

On further investigation it appears that the long initialization is caused by the WASAPI driver of the Audiobox. In the next release of SCS there will be a new audio driver option: 'Do NOT use WASAPI' with the tooltip hint 'If you do not need to use WASAPI (eg to access all available speakers) then setting this option can significantly reduce device initialization time'. Joseph has tried a pre-release of this version, and with this new option set the program initialization time was reduced from 50.4 seconds to 4.6 seconds - with the same devices connected.

If anyone else needs this new version of SCS, then let me know.