Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model, 60+ FPS

[Protocultor]

If you thought it was impossible, I don't blame you. But this runs at 60+ fps most of the time in a Raspberry Pi 3 B+; drops at most to 50 in a heavy situation, but it remains playable at all times, at 1920x1080 no less.

To install this, just update the yquake2 package in Retropie-Setup, present among the experimental ones; binaries are available. You don't even need the game, this will install the demo if needed.

As you will see, this adds a new "gles1" renderer, yup, as in "OpenGL ES 1.0"; this should be compatible with anything. Any feedback is appreciated.

EDIT 12-08-2024: officially added to Yamagi Quake 2!
EDIT 06-10-2024: new performance options added, almost 10% increase.
EDIT 04-05-2025: now included in RetroPie, binaries available.

[Lolonois]

Noice.

@Protocultor said in Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model:

Can someone test this with a Zero?

A Zero or a Zero2(W)? I don't have a Zero at hand and for the Zero2W I am missing a mini HDMI adapter. :/

[Protocultor]

@Lolonois anything that is not a RPi3 B+, because I know how it runs there :)
I'm just interested in people's experience with this.

[Lolonois]

I did testdrive with a Pi Z2W, which uses the gles1 renderer. Works smooth at 1920x1080. 💪

FTR I used a stock RetroPie 3 image (Buster), added the ports "system" and replaced the existing yquake2.sh with yours in Retropie-Setup/scriptmodules/ports/: Build.Run.Fun!

FWIW and wants to test, you can check in /opt/retropie/configs/ports/quake2/emulators.cfg which renderer is selected (check for +set vid_renderer ...). However,If you are on a architecture that also supports mesa then the gl1 renderer is picked.

[Protocultor]

@Lolonois said in Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model:

FWIW and wants to test, you can check in /opt/retropie/configs/ports/quake2/emulators.cfg which renderer is selected (check for +set vid_renderer ...). However,If you are on a architecture that also supports mesa then the gl1 renderer is picked.

Thanks for the feedback! Just changed the script to verify first for gles compatibility (instead of gl or mesa), and use the gles1 renderer if found.

[Lolonois]

@Protocultor said in Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model, 60+ FPS:

EDIT 12-08-2024: officially added to Yamagi Quake 2!

Nice. So does it also qualify for a PR to RetroPie-Setup? (I assume as the scriptmodule is from the experimental section and the change is not large the bar to get it accepted might not be that high.)

[Protocultor]

@Lolonois said in Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model, 60+ FPS:

Nice. So does it also qualify for a PR to RetroPie-Setup? (I assume as the scriptmodule is from the experimental section and the change is not large the bar to get it accepted might not be that high.)

I don't know? RetroPie guys prefer to work with official releases, even for experimental, so we may have to wait for YQ2 version 8.50.
@BuZz, @mitu, would you accept a PR pointing to a specific commit, as a temporary thing, waiting for the next big release?
It's just to make this project visible, and it's not like numbered releases are a guarantee for stability.

[Protocultor]

Months have passed, but today YQ2 8.50 was released, and here's a gigantic PR to celebrate:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/4057
@Lolonois can you check it out?

[Protocultor]

@mitu apologies, again, for the last message in the pull request; it wasn't "me" . I deleted it, have to be more careful with the accounts. Thanks for the patience.
Just for the curious: it was an empty reply.

[Protocultor]

Good news, the PR was accepted.
Does somebody know when the binaries are updated after a PR acceptance?

[mitu]

@Protocultor said in Quake 2, 3D accelerated in any Pi model, 60+ FPS:

Does somebody know when the binaries are updated after a PR acceptance?

There's no rule or schedule, but we can ask @BuZz to update them. Currently the binary is still installing the 8.41 version.