Latest DisplayLink drivers and DirectX fullscreen errors

[picafoodigs]

The last drivers 7.6 M0 fix one of the two main issues I've had
with the displaylink drivers on only one game. (Windowed mode only)

I have the ASUS USB 2.0 USB20_HZ1_DOCKINGSTATION running on an ASUS X73S and Nvidia GT 540M with Win7 64bit

The new drivers let the game SSF4 AE start in Windowed mode only. You cannot go into full screen as the screen will literally flicker endlessly.

Other games behave still the same "Cannot create D3D Device..."

I'd also appreciate some feedback from DisplayLink. At least tell us it will never work so we can get rid of these expensive USB hubs. I have not recommended any of Displaylink's products to costumers, colleagues and friends because of this.

[Fektoer]

I'll add my two cents.

With the latest drivers:
Final Fantasy XIV won't work in full screen (directx error)
League of Legends won't work at all (directx error)

On top of it all, the applications that do work -all- suffer from severe fps drops at irregular intervals. The application would run fine for a while on 59-60 fps until it suddenly drops to an unplayable 6-7 fps for a few minutes after which it will go back to normal fps. Rince and repeat. This happens with windows 7, windows 8, windows 8.1. With the dock connected ánd the dock unplugged. With extended display, projected display, non projected display.

Also, even when it's working 'fine' the displaymanager service hogs up an insane amount of cpu power. On my laptop with an i7-4771 processor, 16 gig of internal memory, nvidia 7600m gfx card, simply moving my internet explorer window around will use 40-50% (!!) of cpu capacity.

I uninstalled everything that had displaylink in the name and now all my applications show a noticable fps improvement, i can play my games fullscreen on a projected display, no more fps drops and moving my windows around won't use half of my cpu.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Fektoer

I'll add my two cents.

With the latest drivers:
Final Fantasy XIV won't work in full screen (directx error)
League of Legends won't work at all (directx error)

On top of it all, the applications that do work -all- suffer from severe fps drops at irregular intervals. The application would run fine for a while on 59-60 fps until it suddenly drops to an unplayable 6-7 fps for a few minutes after which it will go back to normal fps. Rince and repeat. This happens with windows 7, windows 8, windows 8.1. With the dock connected ánd the dock unplugged. With extended display, projected display, non projected display.

Also, even when it's working 'fine' the displaymanager service hogs up an insane amount of cpu power. On my laptop with an i7-4771 processor, 16 gig of internal memory, nvidia 7500m gfx card, simply moving my internet explorer window around will use 40-50% (!!) of cpu capacity.

I uninstalled everything that had displaylink in the name and now all my applications show a noticable fps improvement, i can play my games fullscreen on a projected display, no more fps drops and moving my windows around won't use half of my cpu.

I'm not an expert, but I believe the DisplayLink software essentially works by emulating a graphics renderer entirely in software. This is why you see such a large CPU spike as it scrambles to update its virtual framebuffer.

I don't know enough to know how well this can be optimised, I'd like to think that it could be little more than a blitting operation between the actual graphics card's framebuffer and the displaylink one but that's above my level of knowledge. Ideally, they'd utilise the graphics hardware itself to do all of this and maybe they do, but there certainly seems to be room for improvement.

In any case, it seems their implimentation isn't complete and certain operations (such as fullscreen directX) cause their driver to fall over somewhat. It would be nice if they could disable the displaylink stuff when the dock is not in use, for a start.

[Fektoer]

That would solve the problem that you "can't" use your laptop anymore even when it's not docked. When you have it docked, you still have the same problem. Yes it's would help a bit but there's a reason i need the dock (ethernet mainly).

Thanks for the reply though, the load would make more sense if that's true. Not to say i understand -why- it would have to emulate anything. It only has to pass through the signal received from the hdmi cable, done. Let my laptop handle all the graphical heavylifting.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Fektoer

Thanks for the reply though, the load would make more sense if that's true. Not to say i understand -why- it would have to emulate anything. It only has to pass through the signal received from the hdmi cable, done. Let my laptop handle all the graphical heavylifting.

I don't know which dock you're using, but the one I have is connected with a single USB cable - not the HDMI port of my laptop. While I agree that it should be just passing through the data from the graphics card, I'm not sure how much "access" they have to that and there will definitely be a delay between grabbing the graphics chip's framebuffer and the displaylink one. It also has to compress that into a format compatible with the decoder inside the dock itself (I doubt it's a raw RGB stream or anything similar, especially considering that it can support multiple displays, ethernet and USB - not much bandwidth to spare, even on USB3, let alone USB2),which again will have an impact.

I think that much we all accept though, it's the fact that it's outright incompatible with some software that we have issues with. That and the fact that they just don't want to respond.

[Fektoer]

Fair enough, i was a bit too enthusiastic with my response. Mine is connected with a single usb cable too. So yes, it might not be as easy as a simple throughput.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...n&sku=332-0446

Going by the description of the product you would assume it could handle an HD display with less problems. Especially since it's advertised as being able to connect two displays at once. I don't wanna know what it would do to my cpu if i would have 2 1920x1080 displays in extended setup...

And yes, i would accept a bit of slowdown. But i won't accept incompatibility with software or issues like persistent fps drops. Especially for the price they come at.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Fektoer

Fair enough, i was a bit too enthusiastic with my response. Mine is connected with a single usb cable too. So yes, it might not be as easy as a simple throughput.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...n&sku=332-0446

Going by the description of the product you would assume it could handle an HD display with less problems. Especially since it's advertised as being able to connect two displays at once. I don't wanna know what it would do to my cpu if i would have 2 1920x1080 displays in extended setup...

And yes, i would accept a bit of slowdown. But i won't accept incompatibility with software or issues like persistent fps drops. Especially for the price they come at.

I completely agree with you, the compatibility issues are indeed a problem and even if they can't fix it, they need to be more up front about it.

Interestingly, I don't actually see large CPU spikes on my setup and I am running 2x 1080p monitors

[Trekari]

Displaylink,

Would you mind explaining the customer service you believe you're providing with this issue STILL outstanding?

Just tried to play Skyrim...kept crashing at startup. Removed displaylink drivers, which means no DCS A-10C or Falcon BMS 4, and Skyrim magically works again.


Seriously, this is beyond absurd to not be capable or willing to fix this problem for your users, and I'll be making sure my flight sim buddies know about it.

[Trekari]

I've begun my anti-displaylink campaign, and it's going to continue on Facebook, Twitter, and my flight sim forums until you resolve this issue.

Your company has NO excuse for this. Honestly this is worse support than even Saitek or EA provides, and those companies are sh**.