FBA: Some games requiring accessing RGUI menu to run full speed

Jenslyn87

@jell Did you ever figure out how to solve this? I have the exact same problem :/

pjft

@jenslyn87 in my case the options are saved and loaded as intended when I have it set to load per core and per game options, after saving the game options.

Jenslyn87

@pjft Thank you! I'll see if I can get this to work later today. The problem, as with the previous poster, is not that the setting isn't saved. The sh setting is saved as 'fast', but I have to actually fiddle around with it to get it working. So if I go from fast -> accurate -> fast it will work. However, anytime I end on 'accurate', it won't. This tells me that even though retropie tells me that the setting is set to 'fast', it doesn't loud as such. Sounds like exactly the problem the previous poster has.

Jenslyn87

@pjft To be clear, my options are saved, but for some reason the fast sh mode doesn't activate upon startup. Like the OP, I have to actually go in to the options in Retroarch and fiddle around with SOMETHING before it activates and the game plays smooth. I wonder if it's only us who have that problem.

dankcushions

has everyone got the latest lr-fbalpha? update via source to be sure.

it's possible that something in fba_init() needs to be run during game load also? https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/blob/master/src/burner/libretro/libretro.cpp#L1573

pjft

Just to report, I'm (still) on v0.2.97.39 and this works as intended.

dankcushions

@pjft when you say they've "loaded", are you checking the menu or the relevant effect?

pjft

@dankcushions effect. Then menu for sanity checking. I have FBA CPU overclock set to 130, but I think that's a default?

I know that if I turn it off the slowdown immediately becomes noticeable.

Jenslyn87

Guys, not sure I'm completely up with what you're saying here. Not long ago I posted a thread on the retropie reddit forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/7bouog/strikers_ii_iii_run_extremely_slowly_in_fba_i_can/

Someone just tried to replicate my issue, with 'success'

Updated lr-fbalpha via source, no dice :/

jell

@jenslyn87 It sounds like we're having the same problem. While the options are saved and loaded properly (or at least appear to when accessing the RGUI menu), if something is not fiddled with, the fast mode does not seem to be active, and thus the game runs slow.

I did not find a solution with fba. I did try updating fba to the latest. What I ended up doing was using MAME 2003 for these games, and the performance was much better.

Please keep me posted if you find a solution. Thanks!

Jenslyn87

Never understood if this was a known bug or if it's really supposed to work on my end? I just tried updating fba and retroarch, but it didn't help :(

dankcushions

@barbudreadmon is the maintainer of lr-fbalpha so I leave it to their discretion as to whether this an issue or not. given that so many people are logging it i think it must be (i can't check right now)! so unless @barbudreadmon says otherwise, I think it should be logged: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/issues

barbudreadmon

I changed a few things in fbalpha, including how this speedhack is handled (now it is in dipswitches for those games, be aware that dipswitches are only applied at boot and, since my last commit, at restart of a game). Let me know if it fix your issue.

Jenslyn87

@barbudreadmon Thanks, appreciate it! Does this mean I should try to update FBA and see if the problem has now been fixed?

Jenslyn87

@barbudreadmon Fantastic! I updated and saw the new 'speed hack' option. Changed it to 'yes', and it worked like you said! So, this solved my issue at least. I imagine it'll so for others too. Thank you!

@jell check out this new solution. I'm sure it'll work for you too. The Strikers games do run better in FBA than in MAME from my experience, so this is great for a Strikers fan :)

jell

Thanks for the fix and update! Strikers games are working great now, gotta agree it's better on FBA than MAME!

Jenslyn87

@jell No problem! If you find other games that run slow on FBA, you can try them now too. I believe the setting helped me with at least a few others games as well:)

jell

@jenslyn87 Yes, I remember switching several over to MAME 2003, but can't remember all of the ones I did that for. One I did try, and left with MAME 2003, was soldivid, since the speedhack broke the music :) If you come across any other ones, please let me know.

Thanks again!

barbudreadmon

@jell said in FBA: Some games requiring accessing RGUI menu to run full speed:

@jenslyn87 Yes, I remember switching several over to MAME 2003, but can't remember all of the ones I did that for. One I did try, and left with MAME 2003, was soldivid, since the speedhack broke the music :) If you come across any other ones, please let me know.

Thanks again!

You got me curious and i tried this game on mame2003 (having the music running fine on this game consume quite a lot of resources, so i was curious on how they dealt with it). Soldivid's music also seems to be broken in mame2003, but in a different way.

jell

@barbudreadmon That's super interesting. I initially picked up the rpi with retropie in mind, thinking the gaming would be the highlight, but the tinkering has been much more interesting, especially the emulation.

Someday I hope to contribute to the emulation, just have a ton more to learn, and finding the time is tough these days :) I did start going through an online tutorial though.

Thanks again for your help with this. The fact you can make all this work so well is incredible.