FBAlpha Became Slow?

GreenHawk84

Just wondering if anyone has experienced slower/choppy games recently with FBAlpha. I noticed it when playing some Capcom fighting games. I also noticed Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has significant slowdowns and audio choppiness. When I switch over to FBAlpha 2012 is works great again. I tried to rebuild from Source but no improvement.

RPi3 B latest updates.

MajorDangerNine

@GreenHawk84 Yeah, the CPS-3 games increased in their performance requirements. A quick fix would be turn on a Frameskip of 1 in the Options. I suppose some of the other games might have increased in their performance requirements as well, though I don't play enough arcade to know.

Know these are obvious, but overclocking the RPi3B or upgrading to a RPi3B+ would also solve the problem.

GreenHawk84

If I were to upgrade to a 3B+ to improve performance, is there a good method for moving all of my personal settings and artwork over to a fresh install?

MajorDangerNine

@GreenHawk84 Which version of RetroPie are you on? If you started on RetroPie 4.4, then you can just move the SD card and it will all work perfectly fine.

If you started on RetroPie 4.3 or before, then you'll want to copy everything out of /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS, /home/pi/RetroPie/roms, and /opt/retropie/configs. After that is done, just upgrade with the current RetroPie image, then copy all that back and overwrite.

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/

GreenHawk84

@MajorDangerNine I started the install back in 2016 and just updated ever since. I never once fresh installed since July 2016.

mitu

@GreenHawk84 In this case, it's recommended to start with a fresh install from the 4.4 image and transfer your ROMs/configs over.

GreenHawk84

Well, before I got into the 3B+ route, I decided to overclock my Pi3 B. It was pretty easy, and Street Fighter 3 runs like it did on FBAlpha.

barbudreadmon

@GreenHawk84 said in FBAlpha Became Slow?:

Well, before I got into the 3B+ route, I decided to overclock my Pi3 B. It was pretty easy, and Street Fighter 3 runs like it did on FBAlpha.

It might not be sufficient for SF3-2 though.

RedBatman

I made a topic about this months ago, just use fba2012 for CPS3 games. Its much less hassle.

lostless

@GreenHawk84 using a pi3+, I notice no slowdowns on cps3 games using standard fba. The + models slight speed increase may be just enogh. Just FYI.

MrJordaaany

Bumping this old topic. Is this still an issue in the new versions of lr-fba?

Is it best just to update and use lr-fba-2012?

I have a mate i set up a new retropie for with the 4.4 image. Mine own personal one is a bit older, and everything works fine. The only different is the version of lr-fba. On his the street fighter 3 games run slower, on mine they are fine. I also notice the "Psikyo/kaneki SH2 mode" option is gone. On my version it makes all the difference with these games.

Will updating and using lr-fba-2012 solve the issue?

mitu

@MrJordaaany lr-fbalpha-2012 is hardly updated anymore. If you encounter slowdowns with these games, you have a Frameskip option in the core options that you can use to reduce the slowdowns. Note that FBAlpha has been renamed to FBNeo - see https://www.libretro.com/index.php/goodbye-fbalpha-welcome-fbneo/.

MrJordaaany

@mitu Thanks, will have a play around with some settings when home.

Will the rom set used also be affecting this? I think im running FBA v029740 rom set. I think...

mitu

@MrJordaaany You'll need the ROMSet for the latest version - 0.2.97.44. The .dat file you can use to validate the ROMset are in the project's repository - https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/dats.

barbudreadmon

@mitu @MrJordaaany full instructions for speed related issues : https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/src/burner/libretro#game-xxx-runs-slowly-why-

MrJordaaany

@barbudreadmon Thank you, just saw your post now. Will try these options suggested.

MrJordaaany

Found the issue:

"Your hardware is probably too slow to run the game with normal settings. Try the following :

Check if there is a speedhack dipswitch in the core options, set it to "yes".
Try setting a value for frameskip in core options.
Try disabling rewind, runahead, and anything related to the savestates system in retroarch.
Try lowering audio settings in the core options.
If it is not enough, upgrade or overclock your hardware.

"

The issue here is there's another rewind option in the quick menu, separate from the rewind option under the settings menu. Why exactly? I have it disabled for arcade games, but its enabled in the quick menu, over writing my option for the settings menu.

Disabling it got street fight 3 roms back to full speed.

Goddam. Glad I got to the bottom of it.

But why? So many little changes in the retroarch menu.

mitu

@MrJordaaany Retropie disables by default rewind on Pi devices, but if you reset the default config, via save configuration or reset from the Retroarch menu, it might get re-enabled.

GalaxyGhoul

So, I know this is quite old, but I actually found a very quick solution for this.

If you go into the Retroarch settings and navigate to Settings > Video > Turn Hard GPU Sync to ON.

I was playing Double Dragon, and the framerate kicked up immediately. The game runs flawless now.