Horizon Client 4.5.1 (Mac) - Mouse lag and out-of-order processing of mouse events

[TimK2]

I've had some particularly bad mouse-lag issues with Horizon recently when using certain published applications.

Issues such as the mouse pointer sometimes trailing far behind the actual mouse, by a matter of seconds.

I'm using Horizon Client 4.5.1 and I've tested using multiple internet connections - some better than others...  but always at least 8Mbps.. and others with 50Mbps.

We also tested with PCoIP as well as BLAST.

In each case, the behaviour was the same...  The most problematic published app is MobaXTerm - which for whatever reason, seems to drive the message/event queue pretty hard as soon as it even gets a sniff of the mouse pointer...   In most cases, it's fine.. but yesterday.. it was entirely unusable (for reasons that remain unknown).

I also observed particularly high CPU utilisation at such times, suggesting that Horizon is unable to keep up with the event/message processing that MobaXterm requires.

But it gets worse!!.

It has become evident that while the mouse pointer movement is laggy, mouse click events are not - and will in fact be delivered out of sequence.

What does this mean in practice?

It means that when I move the mouse from A to B and then perform a click or drag action - the click/drag event will be processed before the move action and register the event "somewhere between A and B" instead of where it actually ocurred (at B).

THIS IS BAD!

Input events "must not" be delivered out of sequence, I don't care how bad the connection is, or how much load the Horizon client is under.. I can not work with a non-deterministic user interface.

So, in short...

1. Find a better way to deal with published apps that heavily poll the event queue / message pump.

2. Never allow click events to be processed out of sequence with move events.

3. Click events should occur only where the physical mouse pointer is positioned, not where the virtual mouse pointer is.

[parmarr]

Issue is fixed with client 4.5

[TimK2]

@parmarr

Which issue was fixed in 4.5?   The issues I have indicated above are occurring in 4.5.1

For an additional data point.. I have observed that this problem is *most severe* when using a 4K / HiDPI display.  In effect, due to having 4x resolution (regardless of the client window size), the problem is amplified 4x.

[TimK2]

parmarr​ Perhaps you meant 4.6?

I can confidently state that these issues are NOT fixed in 4.6

Horizon on a 4K / HiDPI screen performs incredibly poorly.

Upon moving the mouse, it can take up to 45 SECONDS for the on-screen mouse pointer to move to the correct position - and during that time, click events are delivered at the WRONG screen coordinates.

[kdenike]

Can you please work with your Horizon administrator to open a bug with VMware? We would love to see logs and figure this out!

[TimK2]

kdenike​ I cannot guarantee our administrators will explore this issue any further, so I'm going to hope that you can raise this internally.

A few more data points for you on this (It turns out I'm really good at breaking things).

1.  We can replicate the same behaviour using the WIndows Horizon Client, when connected to a 4K external monitor - but only when the desktop is in extended display mode.    Performance is improved by ensuring the laptop screen is disabled, and the 4K external display is the only dispay in operation.

2. This behaviour continues to occur on the Mac client, regardless of wether the desktop is extended or not.

Furthermore...

3. Let's get rid of the 4K display... and instead plug in a High DPI mouse.  and you will again observe performance tanking once again.   I am specifically using a Roccat Kone Pure.

This performance issue is equally bad as the 4K display issue, but will occur on any screen.

I can replicate this on both Windows and Mac.

The only solution is to use a standard mouse or trackpad device.

The Mac client is still subject to out-of-order processing of mouse events.

The Windows client is less problematic regarding the ordering of input events - but the performance is still terrible.

4. Now try using a High DPI mouse and a 4K external display and a published application like MobaXTerm and you'll begin to realise just how painful this experience is.

[pbrumblay]

I believe that I have also encountered the same problem. I believe I had the problem with Sierra, and can definitely confirm that I have the problem with High Sierra and VMWare Client 4.6.0. I have one more data point for you - rebooting my Mac temporarily resolves my problem but the symptoms resume after some time.

[TimK2]

It is a joke that this hasn't been addressed.

The only solution is - Don't use a 4K screen, and definitely don't use a HiDPI mouse.   outside of that, just pray this doesn't bite you in the arse.  Hey VmWare, this isn't good enough!

[kangbu]

I had an almost same issue OP mentioned. I had difficulties only using my mouse was over Horizon Client on Mac. The problem is LAGGING. Maybe somebody dealt it as a tiny problem but that is crucial problem for me since I took a lot of my working time in Horizon Client Environment.

My environments are:

- MacOS (High Sierra)

- Horizon Client Version : I tested every recent releases(4.3.0, 4.4.0, 4.5.1, 4.6.0, 4.7.0) but all versions have same issues

- Mouse : Logitech MX Anywhere 2 (via bluetooth connection)

I consider it as a temporary behavior because it worked perfectly when I connect via Horizon Client on Windows 10. But it happened every time I used it on Mac.

I have an idea by reading this thread. Maybe problem is in a mouse or a monitor. I tried to change my connection between mouse and Mac from via Bluetooth to via Unifying (provided with the product), and the lagging hasn't happened so far.

Thanks for OP.

[cscdav]

I can confirm this is still an open issue. Currently running version 4.8.0 on High Sierra. As the previous post mentioned, I switched from Bluetooth to Unifying and while it lags less, it is till present.

Anyone else has luck trying other methods?