Really frustrating problem with playing Dreamcast games on Redream...

[Thakarra]

Hi all,

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 (Model B, 4GB) running the latest Retropie and latest firmware. Ever since I've had the unit, I've had what feels like an endless problem with trying to run Dreamcast games. Before I get into the issue let me explain my setup.

I currently have the following in my config.txt file to overclock the Pi4:

over_voltage=4
arm_freq=1950
gpu_freq=600
v3d_freq=750

I've used a couple of benchmark commands in the terminal to monitor my overclock and it all appears to be working fine. So I'm confident that the overclock settings in my config.txt are working properly.

I've been trying to get Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast to run on the Pi4 smoothly. I had it working PERFECTLY at one point but tonight I turned my Pi on, sat down to play it and I'm getting frame drops (from 60 to 22) in the main menu of the game and during actual gameplay its constantly stuttering and freezing. The issue has come out of nowhere. I've tried almost everything you can possibly think of but have had no luck.

I'm running Redream at 480p - both from the Retropie menu and via the window size setting. I have frameskip set to auto and vysnc turned on.

I've tried removing Redream and installing the flycast core. This solves the menu frame drops but the gameplay is still super stuttery (especially when there is fast movement on screen).

I know that Dreamcast emulation on the Pi4 is far from perfect, but whats frustrating me is that I had this running PERFECTLY last week. I could play Crazy Taxi absolutely fine, its come from nowhere.

Aside from adding "hdmi_enable_4kp60=1" to the config.txt, I can't think of anything else that's changed over the past week.

P.S I have heatsinks in my Pi and active cooling. I've also monitored the temperature during the Dreamcast emulation and it hangs around 40-50 degrees C.