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feat(capture): event-driven input-to-capture synchronization for reduced latency#552

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qiin2333 wants to merge 2 commits intomasterfrom
feat/input-capture-sync
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feat(capture): event-driven input-to-capture synchronization for reduced latency#552
qiin2333 wants to merge 2 commits intomasterfrom
feat/input-capture-sync

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Summary

Reduce input-to-display latency by synchronizing the capture loop with user input events. When input arrives from the network, the capture thread is woken from its frame pacing sleep to immediately capture the next desktop frame.

Changes

1. Input Interrupt Mechanism (cross-thread signaling)

  • Add global atomic flag (capture_input_activity) and timer pointer (active_capture_timer)
  • Input passthrough (src/input.cpp) signals the capture thread via SetEvent
  • high_precision_timer gains interruptible sleep using WaitForMultipleObjects

2. Event-driven DDX Capture (Desktop Duplication)

  • Replace fixed-cadence frame_pacing_group with event-driven polling
  • Rate-limit captures to client framerate using interruptible timer sleep
  • Short-timeout AcquireNextFrame polls (4-16ms) to avoid D3D11 lock starvation
  • Input interrupt wakes capture thread from rate-limiting sleep

3. True Event-driven WGC Capture (Windows.Graphics.Capture)

  • Add HANDLE frame_event (manual-reset) to wgc_capture_t
  • FrameArrived callback signals frame_event alongside existing CV
  • Capture loop uses WaitForMultipleObjects on frame_event + interrupt_event
  • Zero-overhead wait: no polling, no CPU spin, no D3D11 lock contention

Performance

Metric Before After
DDX capture latency ~12ms avg ~4ms avg
WGC frame-to-capture CV wait ~0ms (event-driven)
Input-to-capture Up to 16ms delay Immediate wakeup
CPU overhead Similar Similar (kernel events vs timer)
Encode pipeline Unchanged Unchanged

Files Changed (8 files, +254/-76)

  • src/globals.h / src/globals.cpp — Global signaling primitives
  • src/input.cpp — Signal capture on input arrival
  • src/platform/common.h — Interruptible timer interface
  • src/platform/windows/misc.cpp — Windows timer implementation
  • src/platform/windows/display.h — WGC frame event support
  • src/platform/windows/display_base.cpp — Capture loop rewrite (DDX + WGC paths)
  • src/platform/windows/display_wgc.cpp — WGC frame event lifecycle

Reduce input-to-display latency by synchronizing the capture loop with
user input events. When input arrives from the network, the capture
thread is woken from its frame pacing sleep to immediately capture the
next desktop frame containing the input's visual effect.

Key changes:

1. Input interrupt mechanism (cross-thread signaling):
   - Add global atomic flag (capture_input_activity) and timer pointer
   - Input passthrough signals the capture thread via SetEvent
   - high_precision_timer gains interruptible sleep (WaitForMultipleObjects)

2. Event-driven DDX capture (Desktop Duplication):
   - Replace fixed-cadence frame_pacing_group with event-driven polling
   - Rate-limit captures to client framerate using interruptible timer sleep
   - Short-timeout AcquireNextFrame polls (4-16ms) to avoid D3D11 lock starvation
   - Input interrupt wakes capture thread from rate-limiting sleep

3. True event-driven WGC capture (Windows.Graphics.Capture):
   - Add HANDLE frame_event (manual-reset) to wgc_capture_t
   - FrameArrived callback signals frame_event alongside existing CV
   - Capture loop uses WaitForMultipleObjects on frame_event + interrupt_event
   - Zero-overhead wait: no polling, no CPU spin, no D3D11 lock contention
   - Input interrupt can wake capture independently of frame arrival

Performance characteristics:
- DDX: ~4ms average capture latency reduction (polling granularity)
- WGC: near-zero latency between frame arrival and capture consumption
- Input-to-capture: eliminates up to 16ms of frame pacing sleep on input
- CPU overhead: negligible (kernel event objects vs timer sleep)
- No impact on encode pipeline (images->raise/pop already event-driven)
DDX fixes:
- Restore frame_pacing_group mechanism for precise frame pacing (was
  replaced with pure polling, causing framerate drops)
- Replace timer->sleep_for() with timer->sleep_for_interruptible()
  for input-driven wakeup while preserving pacing accuracy
- On input interrupt: try to capture immediately, if no frame available
  resume sleeping to original sleep_target (preserves pacing group)

WGC fixes:
- Add rate limiting before WaitForMultipleObjects to prevent capturing
  at the display refresh rate when it exceeds client framerate
- Rate limit wait is interruptible for input-driven capture
- Without this fix, WGC would capture at display refresh rate (e.g.,
  144fps) instead of client framerate (e.g., 60fps), wasting encode
  and network resources
@qiin2333 qiin2333 force-pushed the master branch 2 times, most recently from 7eb157b to 0133889 Compare April 6, 2026 15:07
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