Keep getting "multiple dropped frames" error. No idea what to do!

Builder
1

Hi all! I could really use some help. So I have built my experiment on PsychoPy and it involves lots of stimuli presented at a somewhat fast rate (2-6 seconds each). There are roughly 240 different routines created with some having just text and others having images. I keep getting an error saying that a consistent frame rate cannot be detected and that multiple dropped frames have occurred. I’ll include the exact error at the bottom of this post. I am not the most tech savvy person so trying to read about solutions online has been difficult. So far I have been trying GPU related solutions but am lost on what to do since my macbook only has one built-in GPU. Could I get an eGPU? Am I not understanding this computer correctly and maybe it does have other options? One thing I have tried is changing my frame refresh rate to 60hz instead of ProMotion. That didn’t change anything. I also tried making sure processes weren’t running in the background and I couldn’t find anything taking up lots of CPU%. Open to any suggestions and really appreciate it any feedback!

OS (e.g. Win10): macOS Monterey 12.6 (MacBook Pro 14 inch, 2021)
PsychoPy version (e.g. 1.84.x): v2022.2.4
Standard Standalone? (y/n) If not then what?:

Include pasted full error message if possible. “That didn’t work” is not enough information.

901.6283 INFO Loaded monitor calibration from [‘2022_11_02 14:52’]
2023-01-03 13:02:51.360 python[97487:1367533] ApplePersistenceIgnoreState: Existing state will not be touched. New state will be written to /var/folders/x9/lwmdn6ys3zl_vc5nnntxhnlc0000gv/T/org.opensciencetools.psychopy.savedState
4.6886 WARNING We strongly recommend you activate the PTB sound engine in PsychoPy prefs as the preferred audio engine. Its timing is vastly superior. Your prefs are currently set to use [‘sounddevice’, ‘PTB’, ‘pyo’, ‘pygame’] (in that order).
13.5471 WARNING User requested fullscreen with size [2240 1260], but screen is actually [1512, 982]. Using actual size
15.1462 WARNING Couldn’t measure a consistent frame rate!

  • Is your graphics card set to sync to vertical blank?
  • Are you running other processes on your computer?

16.3629 WARNING Couldn’t measure a consistent frame rate!

  • Is your graphics card set to sync to vertical blank?
  • Are you running other processes on your computer?

22.1564 WARNING t of last frame was 5793.96ms (=1/0)
23.1363 WARNING t of last frame was 23.75ms (=1/42)
24.7827 WARNING t of last frame was 20.13ms (=1/49)
25.1995 WARNING t of last frame was 20.33ms (=1/49)
25.8162 WARNING Multiple dropped frames have occurred - I’ll stop bothering you about them!
1.7250 WARNING Monitor specification not found. Creating a temporary one…
ioHub Server Process Completed With Code: 0
################ Experiment ended with exit code 0 [pid:97487] #################

2

Hi @zoed,

You can check yourself whether you’re actually dropping frames by opening the Coder window > Demos > timing > timeByFrames.py > hit Run from the Coder window. You just need to let this run, and you’ll be presented with two graphs. There’s more explanation on this here.

I would also recommend setting up your monitor in the Monitor Center. Find out how to do this here (even if it’s just the size of your screen it’s still good to input).

However, I see that you’re on a Mac, which might mean that you need to follow the guidance in this post, which is to add and allow PsychoPy access in the Input Monitoring and also Accessibility in Security and Privacy settings.

Hope these help!

Kim