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5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:07 pm
by aka
Unlike "RemoteFX" buzzword, that appears everywhere, Microsoft didn't invent any buzzword for this graphic codec. This codec is fantastic. Microsoft finished lossy codec from RemoteFX for photo/video, added cashes and lossless codec, that were not included in RemoteFX.

Codec is embedded into 2012R2 and Windows 10. It's turned on by default, no need to specially turn on anything. Whether it works or not - depends on the client.

If WTware starts with this codec you'll se in the log:
Untitled.png
Untitled.png (23.57 KiB) Viewed 34751 times
One tile thread runs for each processor kernel.

In addition: in 5.4.58 new graphics is turned on for x86 and uefi. It won't work for old processors without SSE. Color depth bpp=32 bit is now by default, unless another value is specified in config. For old x86 computers and to work with 2008 server, i.e. where there's no new graphics, it's better to specify bpp=16 in config.

With new graphics even Pi 2 shows youtube in browser default size smoothly (default youtube size is less then quarter of screen, do not expect fullscreen video!). Photo view also became more smooth.

If new codec runs, WTware automatically turns on font smoothing and Desktop Composition (graphic=fg).

With this codec difference between 16- and 32-bit color became significant. With 16-bit color - looks bad, steps and twitches on smooth gradients in video. And a problem appeared: very clever codec sometimes slightly changes background color for text pieces. In browsers you may see areas with a little different background color. That's why by default 32-bit color is set. Slightly slower, but nice. Color depth on Raspberry may be changed in config.txt on SD.

Full-screen video on Raspberry is still slow. And it's not comfortable: it slowly reacts to keyboard/mouse. Heavily loaded by big video playback queues on server and in WTware become full. WTware immediately send command for mouse key click to server and server immediately executes it. But result will be shown on the screen only when command queues will be empty and executed. We saw lags up to 3 seconds. Right now I see no ways how to fix it. Just don't hurry, while watching big video on the screen.

Sound sometimes fails. Will be fixed. When processes will calm down, sound works ok, but at new video start several times it will click.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:09 pm
by J1mbo
Very excited by this, excellent!

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:55 pm
by Pi3 and Win2016
Will full screen video work nice on Pi3 in combination with Windows 2016 server?
I tested Pi2 but fullscreen video is not fluent. Sound is a little out of sync.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 4:36 pm
by aka
Full screen video will NEVER be nice on thin client. WTware plays youtube in RDP session on Raspberry at quarter of screen, and I think it's amazing.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:43 pm
by Wouwie
I don't quite understand.
Raspberry Pi2 with Kodi plays movies in HD on 40" TV's like a charm.

Internet RDP connection from Win2016 on Proliant DL360 server without special graphic card to Win10 on 8 year old PC with onboard graphics plays full screen 1080p youtube movies pretty good.
Could be better with remote FX and quardro card in server.

So, why will thin client never be able to play full screen video nicely?

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:45 am
by aka
Here are videos:
http://download.blender.org/peach/bigbu ... p_h264.mov
http://download.blender.org/peach/bigbu ... p_h264.mov
http://download.blender.org/peach/bigbu ... p_h264.mov
Run internet RDP session with 1920x1080 resolution.
Open videos in media player in RDP session, maximize video window to full screen.
Do you see difference between image quality of these three videos?
Then run 1080p locally, not in RDP. Do you see difference between 1080p in RDP and 1080p locally?
Then run 480p locally, not in RDP. Which image quality is better - 480p locally or 1080p over RDP?

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:59 pm
by robertvg
Our RDS server is a VM. Is there anything special I would need to do to enable RemoteFX ?
Because we experience slow and stuttering movies when we play them (e.g. Youtube movies)

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:21 pm
by akatik
robertvg
Please, read the first message in thread.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 4:53 pm
by robertvg
Found it: 3D support was not enabled on the VMware W2K16 VM - after selecting Windows 10 as the OS the 3D options became available and video is now running smoothly on the WTware client.
Perfect :-)

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:02 pm
by akatik
Does 3D support option for server virtual machine affect video performance in client? I am surprised. Please, check it again to be absolutely sure. Also check you give all CPUs and CPU cores to virtual machine. Video stream unpacked and then compressed again into RDP format on server, so CPU performance is important for server. But 3D is strange to me.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 6:59 pm
by robertvg
Well you must be right, probably at the same moment I have allocated more CPU's to the VM.
I have now configured 2 virtual sockets * 4 cores = 8 CPU's and small resolution videos are running smoothly.
What would 3D support on a VM add to the client ?

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 9:46 am
by akatik
robertvg wrote:What would 3D support on a VM add to the client ?
I don't know. 3D is not only 3D but GPU - graphical processing unit. It can help server to decode youtube video stream. Then it can help to encode stream into RDP video format. Or not. Microsoft can tell mode.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 1:36 pm
by robertvg
akatik wrote:Also check you give all CPUs and CPU cores to virtual machine. Video stream unpacked and then compressed again into RDP format on server, so CPU performance is important for server
On a VM server, would it be better to allocated CPU's or cores to the VM to maximize the performance ?
E.g. we can allocated 8 cpu's each with 1 core.
Or 1 CPU with 8 cores.
Or 2 * 4 etc.

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:53 pm
by frexican
Is it possible to force a connection to use RemoteFX? Seems like video runs better with RemoteFX vs the GFX codec.
I followed the instructions at viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47274 and other clients connect with RemoteFX, but can't seem to get the WTware clients to connect with RemoteFX

Re: 5.4.54-5.4.62 - new graphics for 2012R2

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:21 pm
by akatik
frexican wrote: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:53 pm Seems like video runs better with RemoteFX vs the GFX codec.
Really? Tell more about your tests.