Audio

[Refazeshot1]

Pi Model or other hardware: (B, B+, 2 B, 3, X86 PC etc..) Retropie 4 4GB
Power Supply used: (If using a Pi) Cana kit supplied adapter
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.7.21
Built From: Retropie website, no 3rd party images. Any game Emulated I own; I have quite the collection.
USB Devices connected: F310 gamepad
Controller used: F310 gamepad
Error messages received: Not an error but an audio stutter/drop off every 5 minutes or so on most cores.
Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used: Google and retropie forums
File: (File with issue - with FULL path)
Emulator: Geneis plus, Duck station, FBA Alpha all GBA emulators (With duck station I do have software listed as the default option)
Attachment of config files: (PLEASE USE PASTEBIN.COM FOR LARGE LOGS)
How to replicate the problem: Play the game for 5 minutes

Good morning everyone. Hope everyone is doing great today. I am currently stormed in but got plenty of games to play. I had posted an issue before with audio/video stutter and for the most part I fixed all video stuttering by not using the tinyalsa core and setting the resolution manually in the raspberry pi config too 1920 X 1080 60Hz. I actually fixed the audio stutter too; well kind of. Alsa core gives me 0 issues all games play fine. Alsathread produces and audio stutter/drop every 5 minutes or so. Yes; I am using shaders but I am able to replicate the issue bare bones with them turned off. Normally I would think I am doing something wrong but as I stated in the past; I have multiple pi 4s with the exact same issue. I just finished setting another one up today. Now this audio drop is not a big deal at all. It happens so quick and its not constant and I can only replicate it with the Alsacore. Any Ideas?

[dankcushions]

@refazeshot1 i also get this audio stutter/drop every 5 minutes or sowith alsathread. it's strange as alsathread has been the default for all previous pis and they never had this issue - it's only pi4, as far as i can tell. there must be something specific about the hardware/driver stack that causes this issue for pi4.

the normal alsa driver is too slow - you'll get decreased performance that will cause performance issues in more demanding cores like lr-mupen64plus-next, or lr-duckstation. however it won't have the dropping issue (and IMO the dropping issue is easier to live with than bad performance)

i'm don't follow what you're saying about the tinyalsa driver. if it has similar (good) performance to alsathread, but no audio drop issue, it might make a good default for pi4, but I haven't tested this.

[Refazeshot1]

@dankcushions When I have tinyalsa set; it causes major screen tearing but only in certain games so it can be hard to test. I tried all 5 of my PIs and the game I can seem to replicate this on the most is Sonic 2. Keep in mind it could possible be just my TV; I have yet to test it out in the living room but I mean everything else works great. I can live with the audio drops on Alsathread.

[Refazeshot1]

@dankcushions

Sorry I am replying so late; I have been running an experiment and got to the bottom of all my issues. Its the audio drivers that are causing my screen tearing. Currently I am running Alsa sound driver, ZFAST curved along with some pretty fancy overlays (As I stated prior I ran everything without them still with issues). I am noticing 0 performance drops. No audio drops or screen tearing. I just couldn't believe how well its running with the load placed on it. I have tried my other pies and low and behold; Alsathread was the cause of all my issues. I know you said Alsa is slower but I have been testing the most graphically intense PS1 games on playstation (Duckstation) and I am experiencing no performance drops. I actually just beat Final Fantasy 8! I know you had mentioned something about a driver stack which is probably the cause. Now I didn't try the n64 cores and probably wont as I will wont be playing those games on my pie.