Slowdown on PS1 games

[Ka]

Pi Model or other hardware: 4, 4GB
Power Supply used: 3.5v
RetroPie Version Used: 4.6.4
Built From: SD image downloaded from Retropie website
USB Devices connected: None
Controller used: 8bitdo SF30

Hi all. I have an odd problem with PS1 emulation. Most games work extremely well, but a handful of games have frequent slowdown that makes the games very hard to play. It only seems to affect racing games from what I can see, and when it happens, the frame rate is unaffected - the screen update doesn't become jerky and choppy, it seems more like the game is actually slowing down, like a kind of bullet time effect.

It's particularly noticeable on Gran Turismo 2 - time in-game seems to run more slowly than real-time, so that if I start a stopwatch at the start of a race, the in-game timer will read 3 minutes 10 seconds at the end of the race, but the stopwatch will read 3 minutes 26 seconds. So the slowdown is fairly significant. It's inconsistent too - some sections of the track will run at full speed, others will run much more slowly. It doesn't seem to happen at busy moments, and the frame rate counter will be at 60fps throughout.

I've noticed this affected Gran Turismo, Gran Turismo 2, Wipeout, & Rage Racer. The other Ridge Racer and Wipeout games are fine, as far as I can see. IIRC, this happened on my Pi3 as well. I assumed it was some issue with the game overtaxing the Pi, but the Pi4 shouldn't struggle with PS1 emulation, surely?

Does anyone have any idea as to what could be causing this? Thanks in advance.

[windg]

I have play Gran Turismo 1&2 on a Pi3 without slowdowns.

If you have enable enchanced resolution try to disable. Disable also the vibration from RetroArch menu. Do you have a psx bios file in the system folder?

[chicuelo]

maybe a heating issue?

[Ka]

@chicuelo There's no indication that it's overheating. I've got it in an Argon One case, and the casing doesn't get very hot when playing; the fan doesn't come on; the thermometer icon doesn't pop up at the side of the screen. So it's possible, but doesn't seem that likely.

[Rion]

@Ka

Have you tried to update lr-pcsx_rearmed to the latest binary?

[Ka]

@Rion Yes, tried it last night - same result after updating, unfortunately.

[Ka]

@windg enhanced resolution is off. I have the following PSX bios files in the bios folder:

SCPH1000.BIN
SCPH1001.BIN
SCPH101.BIN
SCPH5000.BIN
SCPH5500.BIN
SCPH7001.BIN
Scph5502.bin
Scph7000.bin
Scph7003.bin

[Rion]

@Ka You could try with bios "psxonpsp660.bin".
More info here.
Other than that you could also update from source as a last option.

[dankcushions]

please give a verbose log as per https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

[Ka]

@dankcushions Thanks - please see here:

https://pastebin.com/intjHDf4

[mitu]

The log indicates you might be running at 1920x1080@50hz:

...
[INFO] [Video]: Timings deviate too much. Will not adjust. (Display = 50.00 Hz, Game = 60.00 Hz)
...
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 0: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 1: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 2: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 3: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 4: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 5: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 6: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 24 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 7: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 24 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 8: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 9: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 10: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 11: (720x576) 720 x 576, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 12: (720x576i) 720 x 576, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 13: (720x480) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 14: (720x480) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 15: (720x480i) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 16: (720x480i) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 17: (640x480) 640 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 18: (640x480) 640 x 480, 60 Hz

Can you try to use the runcommand launch menu and change the resolution to 1920x1080@60hz and see if something changes ?

[Ka]

@mitu Thanks. I've just tried that and switched to mode 1 above (1920x1080@60hz), but unfortunately it didn't change anything. After a quick race on GT2, the in-game timer read 3 minutes 12, whereas my stopwatch read 3 minutes 40.

[dankcushions]

@Ka
you're using a shader?

[INFO] [Shaders]: Specific shader preset found at /home/pi/.config/retroarch/config/PCSX-ReARMed/PCSX-ReARMed.glslp.
[INFO] [Shaders]: core-specific shader preset found.

turn it off please, and then lets see a new verbose log and see if you're still dropping frames.

[ClassicGMR]

@windg said in Slowdown on PS1 games:

I have play Gran Turismo 1&2 on a Pi3 without slowdowns.

If you have enable enchanced resolution try to disable. Disable also the vibration from RetroArch menu. Do you have a psx bios file in the system folder?

@Ka you didn't mention if you also turned off vibration or if your BIOS is accurate. These are important as well that's why windg brought them up. :)

[Ka]

@ClassicGMR Sorry - forgot to mention that vibration on my pad is turned off. How would I know if my bios is accurate?

[ClassicGMR]

@Ka said in Slowdown on PS1 games:

@ClassicGMR Sorry - forgot to mention that vibration on my pad is turned off. How would I know if my bios is accurate?

just checking. Vibration was killing my emulation experience. :)

The BIOS and accepted hashes are found in the docs. Depending on which emulator making sure your BIOS is named properly (case sensitive) is also important.

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Playstation-1/#bios

[Ka]

@dankcushions Thanks. Shaders are off. Please see below for log:

https://pastebin.com/4WWN74w5

[Ka]

@ClassicGMR Thanks. I've made sure the bios files are all named according to the documentation, and that all the listed bios files are in the RetroPie/bios folder.

Would it make a difference if there are any other bios files there? I seem to have quite a few for some reason.

[dankcushions]

thanks - that looks good to me - you're hardly dropping frames:

[INFO] Threaded video stats: Frames pushed: 19121, Frames dropped: 3.

secondly, please upload /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg

[Ka]

@dankcushions Will do. Removing the shader didn't seem to improve things in terms of slowdown, and neither did making sure the bios names matched the documentation unfortunately. I'll add the .cfg file when I get a moment.