[SOLVED] Strange problem with PSX (and Gran Turismo 2)

CaptainHagbard

Spoiler: It was a faulty savestate/freeze that made the error occur. Saving the game to memory card and restarting it, without loading the freeze solved the problem. Link to the faulty savestate for devs is below

Hi everyone,
first of all:

Pi Model: 3 B
RetroPie Version Used: 4.0
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: none
Controller used: PS3 Sixaxis
Error messages received: none
Emulator: lr-pcsx-rearmed

I'm having weird problems since my fresh install of RetroPie 4.0. At the first launch, Gran Turismo 2 works like a charm, doesn't lag at all. After playing yesterday, I quit the emulator, left the Pi on, and later restarted the game, loading a Freeze.

From now on, the graphics glitch and the frame rates drop drastically (about 2 FPS) when this happens. This seems to happen only, when cars are being rendered (I even think its just the sides of the cars...). Some parts of the cars are black or not there then..

I reproduced the problem now 2 times, always on the first launch, it works perfectly, on the second, it glitches. The only thing I changed at all was in RetroArch: switch from default to analog controller mode (vibration in game turned off).

Weird is, I made a fresh install the third time and it was glitchy from the beginning..

Under the following Link you could see the problem on YouTube. Same problems occur during gameplay, you can see the FPS dropping by the speed of the car rotating (when the front or the back is seen, the speed is normal)

Are there any solutions I could try? I'm not quite sure if any graphical enhancements are turned on by default or something, but if somebody could tell me what's wrong and what I could do, I would highly appreciate it. It's so frustrating to know, that it could work, but it just magically doesn't :D I kind of understand, what happens in an emulator, but I'm not too much into it, but every help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

RetroResolution

Hi,

I haven't tested Gran Turismo on the latest 4.x build, but regarding your question as to whether graphical enhancements are enabled, this can be determined via the RGUI menu; you may wish to have a look at my blog post for further details:

PlayStation Emulation on the Pi: Enhancing the Experience with the Options Menu – Part Two: Graphics

From within the RGUI menu yuo can also enable a real-time display of the current framerate (this will appear in the bottom-left of the screen)

On an overclocked Pi 3 (1300mhz CPU, 500mhz GPU) even with enhanced resolution GT2 runs at 60fps, and I've never witnessed any of the graphical anomalies you're experiencing when using RetroPie 3.6, 3.7 or 3.8.

The version of lr-pcsx-rearmed in RetroPie 4 is newer than the version I'm currently running, so it's possible that a bug has crept in to the emulator, although I'd also suggest that, if you're currently running with overclocking, try temporarily disabling it to see if this resolves the problem.

[edit] - you may wish to check the gpu/cpu memory split you have allocated in /boot/config.txt, although this shouldn't really be an issue given how comparatively little ram the PlayStation 1 actually has - I'm not sure if the Emulation Station front-end is completely unloaded when a retroArch emulation core is launched. Perhaps the memory consumption is worth checking from a remote ssh session whilst the game is running.

CaptainHagbard

Hi RetroResolution,

thank you for your reply.
The Pi was not overclocked yet, so I did, but it does not change anything.
What confuses me the most, is the fact, that it had worked before, and now it's laggy. I'm not even sure, if maybe the resolution really improved since the first run, I actually think, that might be possible. So I just guess, that it's a bug in the Emulator and/or RetroArch, that some settings are being overridden or something.. Graphic Enhancements all seem to be switched off..

Are there any other config files to be looked at than:

/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/psx/retroarch.cfg

Maybe I need to fix it manually with a text editor?

Unfortunately, I can't even download another emulator from RetroPie 4.0's Tool.. :-/

celly

@CaptainHagbard i too am just now experiencinng these same issues after a fresh install of 4.0. But on games that were running flawless before (Mr. Driller, Parrapa). Memory allocation same, all my RGUI settings same. No idea what it could be. I will test GT2 when I get a moment. All my PSX games are in .pbp format and I'm not sure if that has a whole lot to do with it but I will test some .bin/.cue on the same roms.

CaptainHagbard

Hey celly,
thanks!
I'm not quite sure (as I'm not too much into tech), but I think it might a problem with a new glide driver? I uploaded another video, where you can see, that the game itself is running very smooth (not overclocked, with enhanced graphics), but at some point, as the car gets too close to the camera, it is getting glitchy and slow. This happens also, when I approach other cars in game or switch to the perspective after ego perspective (The second perspective works fine, too). It gets very drastical in the last 30 seconds, where FPS is about 2.

And again: weirdest thing is that it worked yesterday, but doesn't today. And I didn't touch any settings..

Celly, do your graphics behave similar?

Also it seems that this guy here had the same problems: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/868/gran-turismo-2-slow-downs
But unfortunately, he didn't didn't get replies...

Here the video, anyone know what the reason could be? It seems for me like an GL issue, but as I said, I got no really idea of the tech aspects.. :)

CaptainHagbard

Hey people, believe it or not: It was the Savestate/Freeze!
I started the game regularly without loading the save state and it works perfectly! Oh man! :D

I had this before on Super Mario World, where a Savestate at the wrong moment led to graphic issues, too, but I did not know, that it could happen on PSX, too.

I hope, this works for you, too, Celly.

Thank you guys!

celly

@CaptainHagbard really that fixed it?!?! Oh man, thats silly AF.... I'll check my configs. Wow. Glad you got it buttoned up though.

RetroResolution

Nice work, glad you have it resolved. I haven't used save-states in a long time.

CaptainHagbard

If any devs interested in investigating, here is the faulty savestate for Gran Tourismo 2 [E]
Savestate was made in the regular in-game menu, where you could go to races or your garage etc
https://mega.nz/#!E5FEiQAY!Zb08vrSqmOuTz83QBG4PHSc_S5GDODMRlC8OwGlw4eY