Heavy slowdown when viewport is covered by vista start button

[Masterxilo]

I just noticed that FPS drop heavily when a window's client area is covered by the vista start orb.

Did anyone ever notice that?

 

(the number in the upper left corner of the following pictures is the UPS of the application)

Window placed normally (viewport not overlapped by vista start icon):

Window placed in such a way that the round part of the start orb covers it

(If a viewport is being covered by the taskbar only, fps stay normal, so it's really the round, transparent start icon that causes this)

 

It looks to me as if the application has to wait for the os to render that small round part of the start button over the viewport. What a waste! Why didn't they stay with the simple rectangular taskbar with a start button that fits in it? Why does it have to overlap???

 

This is nothing le or opengl specific, but obviously happens with any engine and graphics api (tested).

 

So if you make windowed applications: make sure your realtime viewport NEVER covers the vista start button!

---

Use this code if you want to see for yourself:

#include "engine.h"
#include "mathlib.h"

int main(void)
{
   // Init
   Initialize();
   Graphics(640,480);
   TEntity world = CreateWorld();


   // Main Loop
   while(!KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE) && !AppTerminate())
   {
       UpdateWorld();
       UpdateAppTime();

       RenderWorld();

       DrawText(0,0,"%f",UPS());

       Flip(0);
   }

   // Terminate
   return Terminate();
}

 

I'd appreciate if some people could try that out and report if the experience the same slowdown.

Maybe there's just something bad going on with my vista/opengl/graphics driver/graphics card/computer...

[Canardia]

You could write in the game manual that when using Windows 2000 theme under Vista, your game will run 6 times faster in certain circumstances.

[Cornell Cook]

I can vouch what Lumooja said, I had this same issue he helped me solve it. Never knew win eye candy was that intensive I was getting .5fps just booting it up until set windows for win 2k visual.

[Josh]

Wow, that's interesting. In Windows 7, they made the bar thick enough to contain the whole button.

[Masterxilo]

Maybe this is one reason...