Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo

lostless

@GreenHawk84 im running into the same issue since the update. Sf iii feels like it’s running ok, and most probably will not notice, but it is running slower at about 55-60fps with some minor audio pops and clicks. It’s trying, but the accuracy updates just push the pi a tad over the edge. I switched to fba2012 and it’s running fine on that.

barbudreadmon

@lostless i'm not getting those slowdowns on my pi3b+ with a fresh retropie, and it's running at standard clock, i'm not even using any overclocking (even though it's perfectly stable at 1475Mhz), are you using the latest fbneo from sources ? I improved performance in the input code last month (half of the improvement depends on having a recent retroarch 1.7.7 though, and retropie seems stuck with 1.7.6).

Anyway, the following things come to mind :

some kind of intensive shader (i always use simple scanlines)
i heard bluetooth can take a toll on the system (i'm always using wired)

In this situation and if you don't care too much about accuracy, i guess using fba2012 for cps3 is mostly fine as long as you don't play jojoba; otherwise i would probably consider using fbneo with frameskip, it's barely noticeable.

lostless

@barbudreadmon I’m using a the binary in RetroPie for fbneo. I’m always afraid to update fb, as performance typically goes down in the arcade emulation scene. I’ll give the latest build a try. If I’m still having issues, fba2012 is doing just fine.

GreenHawk84

@barbudreadmon said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

Please be more specific, it is running perfectly fine for me.

Yes, the game is running slower and the audio has issues (crackle sounds). I just updated fbneo from Source, and the same issue occurs.

barbudreadmon

@GreenHawk84 said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

Yes, the game is running slower and the audio has issues (crackle sounds).

As i said, it's running at a stable ~59.5 fps here with a fresh retropie setup, no customization/overclocking at all, so there is something slowing it down on your setup. All the things you can try :

should be a no-brainer, but don't use readahead/rewind with cps3
try overclocking (shouldn't be necessary but can give the little boost you need)
don't be greedy with shaders, scanline is perfect for a raspberry, performance-wise and rendering-wise
avoid bluetooth if you can, over the years i've seen various people saying games are stuttering with it
make sure your cpu isn't throttling, it might happen with a bad power supply or if your pi3b+ is too hot
last resort is the frameskip option, as i said it's barely noticeable

GreenHawk84

@barbudreadmon

I am pretty sure I am clear on everything except maybe throttling. How do I confirm?

Lyle_JP

I can also confirm a massive drop in playability on CPS3 games in FBNeo after updating less than a month ago. SF III 2 used to run at 60 fps with no audio issues in widescreen mode. Now, it can't play it's own attract mode without obvious audio stuttering and slowdown. I'll be rebuilding with a 4.4 image soon which I will then upgrade to 4.5 without touching FBNeo. At one point I think someone was working on a Final Burn Alpha 2016 fork. Sure wish it had happened.

barbudreadmon

@GreenHawk84 said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@barbudreadmon

I am pretty sure I am clear on everything except maybe throttling. How do I confirm?

I'm not too sure how to confirm it, but here come a tips about the pi3b+ : if your cpu go above 60° (which happens quite easily, having a good cooling solution is highly recommended on the pi3b+, i'm using https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWURJMI, the fan is perfectly silent), it will throttle to 1200Mhz, which is unacceptable for cps3 with FBNeo, a software workaround would be to rise throttle temperature to 70° by adding temp_soft_limit = 70 in /boot/config.txt.

@Lyle_JP said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

SF III 2 used to run at 60 fps with no audio issues in widescreen mode.

It's still running at 60 fps here on the same fresh RetroPie setup.

GreenHawk84

@barbudreadmon said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@GreenHawk84 said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@barbudreadmon

It's still running at 60 fps here on the same fresh RetroPie setup.

Not really sure why yours would be any different since I do not alter settings and I recently fresh installed on a 3B+? I checked the frames on SFIII and I am getting 58.2fps with dips as low as 53fps. My core temperature is 55C, I use heatsinks on my chips. If there is any data you want to see from my setup let me know.

Darksavior

Pi3b+ stock speeds. No bt. No wifi. Fresh 4.5 fully updated. No shaders. 70c temp soft limit. Flirc case to cool. Fb-Neo binary with sfiii 2nd impact:
60fps with minor .5fps dips. Widescreen mode ~52fps.

UPDATE: with latest Fb-neo from source:
SFiii2: Widescreen mode ~53fps. No real change.

SFiii3: ~60fps. Dips to 59.1fps when doing supers.

GreenHawk84

Can confirm FBA2012 is running SF3 at 60fps with occasional 59.1fps dips. Seems way better than fbneo. Very odd since we should all have the same stuff.

Darksavior

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GreenHawk84

@lostless said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

@GreenHawk84 im running into the same issue since the update.

Well at least I am not alone on this.

barbudreadmon

@GreenHawk84 @Darksavior Sorry, i don't know how to help you guys, as i said sfiii2 run at a stable ~59.5 fps with widescreen mode for me, if you are using the same default retroarch settings than me then i guess the only difference would be the active cooling, maybe the power supply, and maybe the pi3b+ itself ? After all there has always been occurences of "bad" quality and "good" quality pi, mostly noticeable when you overclock them. Another thing to explore might be that i used retropie_setup.sh right after installing ? I ran update then manage package > core > retroarch > from source then manage package > main > lr-fbneo > from source.

GreenHawk84

@barbudreadmon yes I am using default Retroarch settings when the system is installed. Maybe I should remove fbneo and reinstall from Source. Doubtful on any solutions soon.

barbudreadmon

@GreenHawk84 the weirdest thing is that there was no change to cps3 emulation over the last 7 months, and several people confirmed it was running fine on pi3b+ at the time. Did you try the temp_soft_limit = 70 trick ? If it shows even the slightliest improvement, it definitely means your pi is too hot (which seems normal to me if you are only using heatsinks, pi3b+ has heat issues, pi4 has worse heat issues, latest pis are a disappointment imho, i recommend buying an odroid N2 next : it's a powerhouse compared to the pi4, it has no heat issues, and it's not that much pricier when you factor in the cost of active cooling, power supply and micro-hdmi cable to the pi4).

GreenHawk84

@barbudreadmon yes but I confirmed consistent 55C temps playing SF3 on fbneo. The game is choppy sounding and slowing down right out of the gate.

GreenHawk84

@Lyle_JP said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

I'll be rebuilding with a 4.4 image soon which I will then upgrade to 4.5 without touching FBNeo.

Please report your results with SF3 when you get your fresh install running.

Darksavior

I wish I had an older backup of fbneo. The one I provided from 7/3 doesn't change a thing. I'm not getting the same slowdowns as everyone else. Sf3-2i and sf33s run mostly at 60fps with minor dips which is the same performance that has been for many months. The major slowdowns with 2i is in widescreen. Source doesn't change a thing or temp limit setting. I even set the governor to performance.

barbudreadmon

@Darksavior said in Goodbye fbalpha, welcome fbneo:

The one I provided from 7/3 doesn't change a thing

Yeah, as i said, there was no change to the cps3 driver in the past 7 months. I still don't understand why i have none of those issues, it's really weird. Maybe try monitoring cpu freq while playing to make sure there is no throttling ?