[fox88]

Dear eMule users,

here begins testing of the beta version 0.70a.
To make testing efficient, beta testers are expected to visit this forum regularly and update to the latest build, report found bugs in this topic and verify bug fixes.

The most important changes are in disk I/O handling; this should take care of frozen GUI issue and improve performance at high speeds.

Requirements are still the same: at least Windows XP; 32-bit and 64-bit executables are available.
No language DLLs for test builds (English only).
To upgrade simply replace the existing executable.

The current beta 7 is available on Github as a pre-release: eMule v0.70a community.

New and improved internal features

• Using I/O completion ports for disk operations
  
• Upload SpeedSense is 'not recommended'
  
• Allow MediaInfo.dll up to 23.09 (Windows XP is limited to 21.03)
  
• Better handling of UNC shares
  
• Tweaked a few other code parts including upload bandwidth management
  
• Visual Studio 2022 and updated libraries were used.

Changes in GUI

• UNC shares can be added to the tree control in Options->Directories
  
• Show key icon overlay in server list if server reply has "can use obfuscation" flag
  
• Tray icon should be functional always; even after display driver change
  
• Display long file name below shared files list when Details panel is hidden
  
• Always show/restore the main window when activating Exit dialog
  
• Added large mule head application icon for high resolution displays

A remark on 'anti-leecher' code in old eMule mods that could block peers with 0.60 version number
First, currently there is no real need to use such "helpers".
Second, some users suggested to bump version to 0.70.
Will this prevent blockings? Not necessarily. For example, poorly written version check may block anything above 0.50.

This post has been edited by fox88: 24 September 2023 - 01:05 PM

[Muzikals]

Happy to see that Emule is still not dead

I have a suggestion : can you update the connexion wizard in "Options > Connection > Wizard... (button)" ? Because it's a biiiit old and the fastest download is at 44 Mbps
Also, in the same area, put connection "Capacities" in Mb/s ?

Thank you for your work

[ajgelado]

I'm testing the beta of the v0.70a beta release, and so far I have found a regression. In the Search tab, you can not sort results by available sources descending, as you can see in this screenshot:

https:--ibb.co-NxRWKrZ (remove dashes with slashes)

Oddly, ascending sort works correctly. But if you select the descending order, it reverts to the previous sort column. For example, if results were sorted by filename, clicking on the Available sources header will alternate between sorting by filename and sorting by available sources in ascending order.

The problem seems to affect other columns, with the same pattern: ascending sort works fine, descending sort reverts to the previous sort column.

As far as I know, this worked perfectly in eMule v0.60d. In fact, I tend to sort results by sources, so I can get the most popular files, which usually download faster.

Expected behaviour: in search results, clicking in the Available sources header should sort the results by number of sources, with those most popular at the top.

Seen behaviour: the first click does nothing. The second one sorts the results by sources, albeit ascending. A third click, which should apply descending order, reverts to the previous sort order (i.e., filename).

When it happens: always.

Affected versions: tested with eMule v0.70a beta x86 on Windows 10 x64. v0.60d was not affected.

[ajgelado]

About the use of completion ports. I understand that it was intended to improve responsiveness. With current connections, measured in the hundreds of Mbps or even in the Gbps, the eMule UI hangs while downloading popular files. We have reached to a point where download speeds are faster than hard drives.

I don't know very much about the internals of eMule, so bear with me if I'm wrong. If the UI and the downloads were managed in separate threads, the UI wouldn't hang, or at least would keep responsive most of the time. I expected the use of completion ports to help in this, but I have found that in this respect v0.70a beta behaves the same as v0.60d. If eMule were single-threaded (i.e., the UI and the I/O run in the same thread), it would explain this, and the use of completion ports wouldn't help much. But it would also mean that fixing it would lead to a major architectural change of eMule, which I'm not sure it's worth the effort and the implied risks.

Am I missing anything?

This post has been edited by ajgelado: 20 August 2023 - 12:13 AM

[holysmoker]

Thank you for new beta

[Tlenl]

As far as i can read on MS Reference, the I/O ports are a way to defer I/O managing to the SO,

something like a transparent queue, wich can alleviate the burden to manually manage the I/O on the application,

and speed up the low level I/O operations, so you could expect more speed for what it concerns the I/O operations per se.

But the queue has in turn to be managed by the app, hence the fact that the problem could not be resolved by this

if the main application is single threaded at the root.

I'll download as soon as the beta to confirm the behaviour.

For the moment, thank you for the new beta!

This post has been edited by Tlenl: 20 August 2023 - 06:07 AM

[Heliotropo]

I have noticed that when I am downloading a file and I click twice to see the users who are sharing with me, in a few seconds it closes itself.

[ajgelado]

Heliotropo, on 21 August 2023 - 09:22 AM, said:

I have noticed that when I am downloading a file and I click twice to see the users who are sharing with me, in a few seconds it closes itself.

I confirm that it also happens in my computer. Using eMule v0.70 beta x86 on Windows 10 x64 (though I don't think it matters).

[Tlenl]

After 10 minutes of usage of the new beta, installed intentionally on a VERY slow computer (in order to perceive the improvement in a more evident way),

downloaing a popular file with many sources, it seems to me that the gui is generally more responsive, less laggy.

I can say that the modification of using I/O ports, gives its fruits because the download is improved from 8.1 MB/sec to 10.7MB/sec

with a multicore usage, more cpu used. That is the sign that the I/Os are better spreaded among the resources.

So, strictly speaking about the I/O ports, after only 10 minutes i can say it was a successfull modification.

I'll report eventually after long usage in case of situations.

This post has been edited by Tlenl: 21 August 2023 - 11:50 AM

[Heliotropo]

It seems that sometimes this version does not apply eD2K links correctly. So I have to paste the link to the file manually (copy link address and then paste it in emule).

This post has been edited by Heliotropo: 24 August 2023 - 05:16 AM

[Heliotropo]

It seems that this version does not store in memory the options chosen to order the display of the lists up or down (speed, transferred...). Each time the program is restarted, the chosen options must be repeated. This did not happen with previous versions.

[ajgelado]

Heliotropo, on 24 August 2023 - 09:53 AM, said:

It seems that this version does not store in memory the options chosen to order the display of the lists up or down (speed, transferred...). Each time the program is restarted, the chosen options must be repeated. This did not happen with previous versions.

It may be related to the bug I reported earlier with the ordering of search results. Both pages use the ListView control in details mode to display a list of items with its properties in columns, and a column header to select the sorting.

This post has been edited by ajgelado: 24 August 2023 - 08:58 AM

[fox88]

ajgelado, on 20 August 2023 - 12:09 AM, said:

Am I missing anything?

Yes. Anything can be overloaded.

[fox88]

Bugs in search results (sort order in columns) and in downloads list (hidden source treee) will be fixed.
Thanks for the reports.

Heliotropo, on 23 August 2023 - 11:23 PM, said:

It seems that sometimes this version does not apply eD2K links correctly.

What the word apply means here?
If it is double click on link in a browser, then the issue is not confirmed.

Heliotropo, on 24 August 2023 - 11:53 AM, said:

It seems that this version does not store in memory the options chosen to order the display of the lists up or down (speed, transferred...).

This issue is also not confirmed. Please either provide more detailed explanation or check your settings.

[ajgelado]

Heliotropo, on 24 August 2023 - 09:53 AM, said:

It seems that this version does not store in memory the options chosen to order the display of the lists up or down (speed, transferred...). Each time the program is restarted, the chosen options must be repeated. This did not happen with previous versions.

I can confirm that this is a bug in v0.70 beta. Sorting by completed amount does not work after restarting eMule. Steps to reproduce:

1) Add several files to download.
2) Wait for several of them to start.
3) Click on the Name and Completed columns. Sorting works correctly in each case.
4) With the download list sorted by Completed, close eMule and open it again.

After restarting eMule, the Completed column is marked with a triangle, but the order of the list is incorrect, as you can see it in this screenshot: https:--ibb.co-Y7mjPtt (replace dashes with slashes). After that, if you change the download sorting (for example, clicking on Name and the on Completed), it behaves correctly.

[ajgelado]

While doing the previous test, eMule hanged for about 20 seconds after adding those downloads, with about 30-50% CPU usage (in fact, i had to wait some more time to gracefully close eMule without Windows asking me to terminate it for being hanged). As you can see in the screenshot, each file has at most two or three sources. Looking at it with more detail, eMule was using about 12-15% of CPU, and the anti-malware service was capped at 25%. Disabling Windows Defender and repeating made the CPU usage go down to 15%, all of it from the eMule process.

The problem shows in a fairly recent computer: Intel Core i3 8100 (3.6 GHz, 4 cores), 16 GB of RAM, two 4 TB hard drives for data and a separate SSD for system and swap. eMule's data folder is located in one of the hard drives, and the computer was idle while performing the test, with no other application accessing any of the data drives.

Anyway, I don't think this is v0.70a-specific. I note it here because of the discussion on the completion ports feature, but, for what I remember, I think that v0.60d would behave more or less the same. Can I safely downgrade to v0.60? Will it work fine, or have v0.70 changed the format of some configuration or data files?

[fox88]

Arrows in column headers were drawn correctly, which means sort order flag was saved and restored.
The issue was different, the list might remained unsorted.
Now it could be reproduced and will be fixed.
Thanks for the reports and clarification.

[fox88]

Tlenl, on 20 August 2023 - 09:04 AM, said:

As far as i can read on MS Reference, the I/O ports are a way to defer I/O managing to the SO,
something like a transparent queue, wich can alleviate the burden to manually manage the I/O on the application,
and speed up the low level I/O operations, so you could expect more speed for what it concerns the I/O operations per se.

But the queue has in turn to be managed by the app, hence the fact that the problem could not be resolved by this
if the main application is single threaded at the root.

Unfortunately, starting from "I/O ports" that have nothing to do with "I/O completion ports", this attempted explanation has no correct points at all.
The key to understanding is in learning the difference between synchronous and asynchronous I/O.

[fox88]

ajgelado, on 24 August 2023 - 09:59 PM, said:

Anyway, I don't think this is v0.70a-specific.

As said above, anything could be overloaded.
In your case, disk performance might be inadequate for high download datarate.
You might find some configuration tips in Docs (the button at the top of this page) and in Support forum.

0.60 and 0.70 executables might be exchanged; and there is no reason to use 32-bit application in 64-bit system.

[ajgelado]

fox88, on 25 August 2023 - 12:52 PM, said:

As said above, anything could be overloaded.
In your case, disk performance might be inadequate for high download datarate.
You might find some configuration tips in Docs (the button at the top of this page) and in Support forum.

0.60 and 0.70 executables might be exchanged; and there is no reason to use 32-bit application in 64-bit system.

Not the case at all. CPU usage is not a sign of disk bandwidth problems, specially with asynchronous I/O (whose point is, precisely, vacating the process from the CPU while waiting for the I/O to complete). Furthermore, the problem happened with modern disk drives capable of 200 MB/s (that is, Megabytes per second, or about 1.6 Gbps), several times my connection bandwidth (300 Mbps, or 37.5 MB/s). Also, Task Manager displayed a peak disk usage of about 16 MB/s, all from eMule, and well under the disk drive's limit.

Another symptom is that the stall is not only at UI level, but it also affects uploads. Whenever eMule UI hangs, it can be seen in the graph that all uploads have terminated (maybe because of timeout), as it abruptly goes to zero (with a completely vertical line!) and then slowly rises again as new uploads start. Next time it happens, I'll take an screenshot.

I use the 32 bit version of eMule because I have been an user since 20 years ago, when there wasn't a 64-bit version, and there is no clear documentation about the compatibility of configuration files and, above all, databases. I have amassed a great number of credits in these years by opening eMule just for other users to download from my computer, and it really pays in download speeds, so I would rather not lose it at all! Anyway, a 32-bit process in a 64-bit system does not have any problem either, except for the 4 GB working set limit (to which eMule doesn't even come near) and a small overhead (about 1-2% reduction in CPU performance) because of the thunking in the WoW64 layer.

Take in mind that I'm a developer with almost 30 years of experience in Windows (since the 16 bit days), and this is my main development machine, so I keep its configuration as clean and lean as possible.