Here are two tips for massively increasing the performance of the RaceCapture app on Raspberry Pi:
Ensure hardware accelerated graphics are enabled
The RaceCapture app can leverage the Pi’s GPU for a significant performance boost when running. This shows up as a much more responsive UI – making menus, screen switching, and display updates faster and smoother. We’re talking 5-10x improvement in frame rate.
To ensure you’re getting the most of your system, head over to our wiki and ensure hardware acceleration is enabled on your system.
Backstory
When the app loads and cannot access the GPU, it falls back to a software rendering engine, which severely impacts performance. The tell is the log file when the app launches:
[INFO ] GL: OpenGL vendor <b'VMware, Inc.'> [INFO ] GL: OpenGL renderer <b'llvmpipe (LLVM 9.0.1, 128 bits)'>
This means that the renderer is NOT hardware accelerated. This can be fixed by adding your user to the render group:
sudo adduser "$USER" render
After rebooting / re-logging in, you will then see an output similar to this:
[INFO ] GL: OpenGL vendor <b'Broadcom'> [INFO ] GL: OpenGL renderer <b'V3D 4.2'>
Upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 4
The Pi 3 offered ‘ok’ performance, but it was not really to our satisfaction. Even with both systems running with GPU acceleration enabled in the app, the Pi4 blows the Pi3 out of the water. The difference is dramatic, and we recommend upgrading immediately.
Upgrade to the V2 app
The V2 app offers a ton of new features and performance improvements to the analysis view. Get it today – it works with all RaceCapture systems.
Join the Conversation
Our community is available for you to get the most out of your system, and we offer options that match your preference:
* Brand new Discord server: https://discord.gg/JbKUyFw
* Forums http://forum.autosportlabs.com
* Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1288770887817789/
* Special group for the Podium App (Real time telemetry) https://www.facebook.com/groups/podiumlive/