Foundry, Syrincontrol, not Chrome, Kenku, I am in heaven

[Abourious]

Hello all,

Not sure how many people are in the same situation as me, but I have very exciting news for anyone who runs a game through Foundry (especially via an online server) and wants to use Syrinscape web player without their CPU being completely drained.

I am not sure if KENKU FM is a rival company, I can’t see that they are but I discovered yesterday through pure chance, that I can run my Foundry VTT game through Kenku FM.

This means I do not need Chrome, I have tested and tested and I can’t see any problems. In fact it is better.

Using Kenku I can pipe/stream the sounds from Foundry VTT directly to the Discord voice channel that we play in.

Previously I used Chrome for Foundry and then I opened Kenku and had Syrinscape Web Player open there. This meant that Chrome and Kenku were both chewing up my available CPU, sometimes up to 95% (Drider Battle).

Playing through Kenku, the CPU for the elements heavy mood Drider Battle goes no higher than 45% CPU usage.

A mild tavern scene goes no higher than 30%.

Thanks to @frondeus for creating Syrincontrol for Foundry, this has made my DJ/Ming just perfect.

I hope I am ok mentioning Kenku here, I do not have any endorsements with them, I just bought the app and played about with it.

I am also on a fairly oldish iMac and it is dealing with it with no problem.

Summary - I just simply use Kenku on my computer for Foundry, link that bot to discord and use discord on my iPad.

I also want to thank @benjamin and the gang for unbelievable work in getting the Syrinscape side sorted so we can access it in Foundry.

Sorry for the essay but I could have waffled on for a lot longer, this is the abridged version.

Thank you

[benjamin]

Hi,

So question: Can the Web Player be hosted in some sort of browser view in Kenku?

And another: Why pipe the sound through discord when your players can just run the sound on their own machines locally?

Just trying to understand how/why you are set up like you are set up.

And also: thanks for you kinds words. Note: we are continuing to work on the performance issues and we shooooooould be able to offer some CPU relief in the future.

Mostly: GAME ON!

[Abourious]

That is exactly what I used to do, chrome window for Foundry and Syrinscape within the browser of Kenku. Therefore yes you can have Syrinscape web player run in Kenku.

I send the sound through Kenku via a bot in discord because we, me included now, use discord on separate devices. I use my iPad. Even less load on the Mac.

In discord each listener can adjust their own volumes for the Kenku bot.

Oh and now that I’m going via Kenku the CPU issue is no longer an issue.

[sonofconan]

Thanks for sharing your setup. Kenku FM looks like a nice way to get browser audio into Discord.

I am surprised to hear that the performance or CPU requirement of our web player is any different when running under Kenku FM vs in a browser, though.

From what I can tell, Kenku FM is an Electron app that runs our web player (or any other site) in a browser view which I would have thought performed similarly, and it still runs on your Mac.

Perhaps any difference is related to the fact that your browser may doing a lot more work (other tabs/windows). Perhaps running our web player in a different browser that is not doing anything else might yield a similar result?

I’ll try to make some time to check out your setup for myself.

[Abourious]

It’s definitely chrome that is the culprit.

Looking at activity monitor when I had Chrome open for Foundry and Kenku for Syrinscape, chrome and Kenku renderers were using over 100% cpu usage each (I know it doesn’t make sense to me).

With just Kenku only in use, obviously no chrome but Kenku is only using 78% cpu with the overall usage between the system and user being a combined 35% on a mild mood such as Zurkhwood Forest.

I don’t really understand why it’s using 78% of the cpu but the cpu load is only 35%.

The thing is, the fans aren’t kicking in, it’s not getting hot, and the sounds are coming through Crystal clear.

When I had chrome open, I had no other tabs open and no other windows. Just chrome and Kenku.

Believe me I was trying everything so that I could use Syrinscape!

What I’ve got now is almost perfect.

[sonofconan]

I’m not sure I understand what the comparison is here. Sounds like in all scenarios you are running Syrinscape through Kenku FM?

I just did a quick test with Syrinscape through Kenku FM (output set to “this computer”) vs Firefox (only one window/tab). I didn’t use Chrome because I have many other Chrome windows and tabs open at the moment.

First, Kenku FM is using just over 100% (combined):

Firefox is using around 140% (combined):

When I hid Firefox, I can still hear the audio but the visualisation does not run, it drops to under 40% (combined):

I also ran the player interface in Firefox, which is what your players would see instead of the full master interface. This still includes visualisation, and it used about 80% (combined):

Adjusting the visualisation is one of the things we will be looking at to improve performance.

Kenku FM when hidden did not seem to reduce CPU at all.

I did also test Kenku FM sending audio to a Discord voice channel, and immediately noticed a distinctly different sound. Like the Discord output was only mono? Perhaps because it is going to a voice channel?

[Abourious]

Hi there,

Maybe it is just me, I am not that technically minded to be able to explain properly.

But here is the basics for me anyway. I do not need Syrinscape Web Player open anywhere. The module that I am using brings the sounds and moods to Foundry and plays it in there.

1. Chrome on its own, there really isn’t much of a problem, it does perform a little bit higher (load wise) than Kenku. But Chrome on its own can’t broadcast to Discord.

2. Kenku on its own is perfectly fine, in fact it uses less of a load than Chrome, however Kenku can broadcast to Discord.

3. My players and I use different devices for Discord and we all have headsets or earphones in therefore wouldn’t be able to hear the Chrome Foundry anyway.

4. I can hear no difference in Discord at all when it is playing via Kenku (are you setting it to ‘low latency’? I have mine set to performance.)

5. The overall load on the Mac is less than 40% at most when playing through Kenku.

6. Using a different device for Discord lessens the load even more on our computers.

Up until two days ago I was using Foundry in Chrome and Syrinscape webplayer in Kenku and combined it was almost melting my computer when I played something quite intense like Drider Battle.

I have been a sub in Syrinscape for many years now even way back in my Roll20 days, I was even subbing for many months when I couldn’t even use Syrinscape in the hope that my funds would go towards what has happened now.

I am unbelievably happy with this outcome as are my players.

Seriously over the moon.

The reason why I said ‘almost perfect’ before is because I am now trying to get the Syrincontrol module to talk to another module so that I can make one shot sounds happen when a critical hit happens or a critical fail or the Wilhelm scream when a token reaches 0 hp.

I can do it now through macros but it would be smoother via this other module. They are now talking to each other through Github.

[sonofconan]

Thanks for the update. If I am understanding correctly, you are using the latest version of SyrinControl which embeds our player directly in the FoundryVTT page.

I have not yet tested this personally, but does SyrinControl also embed our player for the other people in your game? In that case, everyone should already hear Syrinscape without Discord. @frondeus can you confirm?

In Kenku FM, the streaming mode is set to performance which appears to be the default.

[Abourious]

Yes I’m using the latest version of Syrincontrol.

Yes, the players could hear the sounds IF they were listening to the sounds via Foundry.

However as I’ve mentioned already we do not use the same device/computer to play Foundry as we do to use Discord.
Which means when they have their headsets on talking and listening in Discord they would not be able to hear what’s being played in Foundry.

So I now run Foundry in Kenku and Kenku plays the sounds into discord.

We started doing this because one of my player’s computers couldn’t handle Foundry and Discord at the same time.

Which inspired us all to do the same thing and it works really well.

Plus with Kenku I can open another tab and play something random from tabletop audio or YouTube or BBC Sound effects. And it will play in discord instantly.

You can even set up your own sounds in the Kenku app if you needed to.

I can’t do that in Foundry in chrome.

[Abourious]

A couple of screenshots to show the difference regarding what I mean.

I have about 6 months to go before I upgrade my iMac so until then this is what I have to do.

The first screen shot is a mood I created in Syrinscape called Insanity, and it is playing from the web player in Kenku in to Discord.

The second screenshot is me playing the exact same mood, but through Foundry without Syrinscape Web Player being open anywhere.

There is a slight difference in sound quality that I can detect now, however I can put up with that for now so that my computer doesn’t melt.

[Abourious]

This one is Syrinscape Web Player in Kenku in to Discord…

[Abourious]

This one is playing the same mood in Foundry in Kenku in to discord…

[lordgwydione]

Interesting. I dabbled with KenkuFM and thought it was really interesting but I recall when I tested it there was a notable delay/latency for things like one-shots etc. Still, awesome that this setup is working great for you!

[Abourious]

Yeah it’s a kind of trade off, I much prefer my computers CPU being cool and the sounds being a bit late.

Once a few sounds have played the delay is hardly noticeable.

And being able to actually run Foundry in Kenku and not have chrome open at all is magic for us.

I’m about six months away from a computer upgrade.

[lordgwydione]

Awesome! Really glad you have something working well for you. I still have a lot of testing to do but so far I’ve been using firefox with one tab and nothing lese and seems to be the best for me. Hate to say it but Chrome is so resource intensive for me…

[Valyar]

@benjamin

And another: Why pipe the sound through discord when your players can just run the sound on their own machines locally?

Because people use other sources than Syrinscape and mix content to achieve best results For example I have local, Syrinscape and other online sources to achieve the best results.

Kenku aggregates all of those. Using discord bot is also better for players that don’t want to install something, play with their sound settings and devices etc.

[daniel.anand]

I know where Ben is coming from (why not have the best audio experience?!), but the reality is that convenience trumps top quality most of the time. With a discord bot, player have to do zero to get an amazing audio experience with Syrinscape. With the local player, they can have a somewhat better audio experience for doing non-zero.