How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved)

Aryetis · 13 Dec 2020, 12:37

Hello,

So I got a new SD card for my raspberry pi 3 and decided to install a fresh retropie (4.7.1) on it. And it was a disaster. Retropie would freeze/crash constantly. Disabling overclocking would fix the issue (wich was never there previously). But testing games with PPSSPP (tried both from source and prebuilt binary) I would easily loose about 50% of performances....

So I switched back to the previous sd card, backed it up, write it on to the new one, checked that everything still worked as expected... Slowly and painfuly update everything from jessie to stretch.... And even thought I can now enjoy my overclocking without any hiccups, PPSSPP is still slow as molasses.

Therefore does anyone knows if there is a simple way to install old versions of emulator and freeze them ? Thanks in advance

EDIT : after a few research, it appears that PPSSPP has gone under some heavy refactoring around/after version 1.5.4 (wich is the one I had previously) causing the bad performance :
https://github.com/hrydgard/ppsspp/issues/11265
therefore I edit the title to better reflect my intentions.

Specs : Raspberry Pi3 (non B+)
Power Supply : Aukru 5V 3A
RetroPie Version : 4.7.1
Built From : premade 4.1.0 SD Image

mitu · 13 Dec 2020, 16:01

Please watch your language, we're trying to keep the forum a kid friendly place.

mitu · 14 Dec 2020, 06:06

The easiest way to keep the old PPSSPP version is to get it from you backup - copy /opt/retropie/emulators/ppsspp from the backup to your new 4.7.1 installation, into /opt/retropie/emulators/ppsspp-1.5.4.
Then modify the emulators.cfg file from /opt/retropie/configs/ppsp` and add a new line with with

ppsspp-1.5.4 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/ppsspp-1.5.4/PPSSPPSDL --fullscreen %ROM%"

This way, any updates to PPSSPP will not overwrite your saved version.

Aryetis · 14 Dec 2020, 11:46

@mitu Thanks that did the trick.

For anyone else going this road, PPSSPP will complain about a missing lib because it is speciffically looking for libzip.so.2 so you can either :
1/ install this specific version and go through dependency hell
2/ symlink whatever version you're using (1.5.1-4 for me) and trick PPSSPP into using your most recent lib : ln /usr/lib/arm-linuxgnueabihf/libzip.so /usr/lib/arm-linuxgnueabihf/libzip.so.2 results may vary and it might have some side effects on other programs but I haven't spotted any so far.

This versions of the emulator is legit at least 50% faster for the rpi3. I can now play soul calibur in FHD again.

StuMcBill · 14 Dec 2020, 21:59

@aryetis I just signed in to ask this exact question. I don't have a working backup - would you be able to upload your copy so I could use it, or is this something I could extract from the base RetroPie image?

Aryetis · 14 Dec 2020, 23:36

@stumcbill Given that there is no bios, the license is GPL2 and everything I think mods will be ok with sharing this. Althought of course, "Stranger danger" you have no reason to trust those binaries. There you go : PPSSPP_1.5.3 (Raspberry pi2/3 binaries)

BuZz · 15 Dec 2020, 00:27

I threw together a ppsspp-1.5.4 module which uses the parent ppsspp module but building an older version. It won't work on the rpi4, but isn't needed for that so it would be limited to rpi1/2/3. I'm testing right now if it builds ok with the more recent ppsspp module changes we have, but if it does, I'm not against adding it as an optional package.

I'll do a Pull Request on our GitHub if it works, and it can be tested to see if it's worth having for older boards for better performance.

BuZz · 15 Dec 2020, 03:07

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/3272

StuMcBill · 15 Dec 2020, 08:22

Sorry all, I should have said, I’m on a pi 4!

It seemed to work fine when I first installed the first official version of RetroPie for Pi4, so presumably I could extract ppsspp from this?

Aryetis · 15 Dec 2020, 10:28

@stumcbill I don't have a pi4 to do that for you but presumably yes you can. install that "first official" version of Retropie for rp4 on some sdcard, copy the same folder as I did and voila. If you only have one sd card back it up using some software like win32diskimager, install the "first official" retropie, copy the folder, restore your original sd card using the backup, and voila

@BuZz and others intersted in this.
Here's some footage comparing the currently available binary (f1a3ba7) and the 1.5.4 one on a Raspberry pi 3 (non b+). Same Iso, same settings, same SD card, same Retropie version, etc. (sorry for the shaky patato cam footage)

If more footage or discussions is needed about this I'll probably use the github ticket from now on.

StuMcBill · 28 Dec 2020, 20:35

@buzz Can I use this somehow to install the older version directly from RetroPie?

dankcushions · 29 Dec 2020, 05:48

@stumcbill update retropie-setup script, and it’s available in optional packages.

StuMcBill · 29 Dec 2020, 20:41

@dankcushions said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

@stumcbill update retropie-setup script, and it’s available in optional packages.

I’ve done that, and I can’t seem to see it. I’ve still just got the option for ppsspp and lr-ppsspp, both which (installing from binary) install the latest version?

I’m using a pi4 if that makes a difference?

mitu · 29 Dec 2020, 20:45

@stumcbill said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

I’m using a pi4 if that makes a difference?

Yes, it does - the older version is for Pi3 or lower. Do you have issues with the default PPSSPP emulator ?

StuMcBill · 29 Dec 2020, 20:53

@mitu yes, when I installed the first version of RetroPie for Pi4 (4.7 I think), Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer 2 ran almost perfectly. Since updating my RetroPie install they are both unplayable so was looking to downgrade if possible.

mitu · 29 Dec 2020, 22:14

@stumcbill PPSSPP Version 1.5.4 is from 3 years ago, so I don't think your issue is similar to the one in this topic, given RetroPie 4.7.1 was released this year and it's using a much recent version of PPSSPP.

StuMcBill · 29 Dec 2020, 22:26

@mitu said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

@stumcbill PPSSPP Version 1.5.4 is from 3 years ago, so I don't think your issue is similar to the one in this topic, given RetroPie 4.7.1 was released this year and it's using a much recent version of PPSSPP.

Ah ok, is there anyway I can reinstall the version that comes with 4.7 to see if it makes a difference?

I might backup my installation and reinstall 4.7 (if I can find it anywhere).

mitu · 29 Dec 2020, 22:32

@stumcbill said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

Ah ok, is there anyway I can reinstall the version that comes with 4.7 to see if it makes a difference?

Since PPSSPP isn't installed on the 4.7 image by default, even if you download the 4.7 image, installing from binary will still get you the current/last version. So, no - you can't reinstall the old version from RetroPie-Setup.

StuMcBill · 29 Dec 2020, 23:09

@mitu said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

@stumcbill said in How to donwngrade PPSSPP to v1.5.4 (solved):

Ah ok, is there anyway I can reinstall the version that comes with 4.7 to see if it makes a difference?

Since PPSSPP isn't installed on the 4.7 image by default, even if you download the 4.7 image, installing from binary will still get you the current/last version. So, no - you can't reinstall the old version from RetroPie-Setup.

Ah, I never realised that. Sounds like I’m out of luck then.

Thanks