Working Dreamcast games

hooperre

@quicksilver Ya I thought so. Thanks for confirming.

quicksilver

@hooperre I read up on it a bit, and some of the talk on the flycast GitHub issue tracker seemed to imply that a 64bit os is needed for the WinCE games to work. Which if true, means we are plumb out of luck.

rejesterd

@quicksilver - This is also an issue for me with certain games in split-screen mode. Those would include Re-Volt and Toy Commander. I'm using reicast. If I set frame skipping to 2, the performance is pretty good (just a tad less smooth, obviously.. but no major choppiness). So I'm using that as a workaround for now.

For reference, Outtrigger works flawlessly in split-screen multiplayer mode, and I don't have to use frame skipping. Outtrigger and Toy Commander are *.gdi, and Re-Volt is *.cdi. So I can't really tell if it's rom-specific or not. At least we can confirm that there's some similarity between reicast and lr-flycast with respect to the split-screen issue.

I'm running this on a rpi4 (no overclocking).

rejesterd

@hooperre - I haven't been able to run Worms Armageddon in reicast. I haven't tried lr-flycast yet. But I get the same runcommand output as I get with other games like Quake 3 Arena:

$ less /dev/shm/runcommand.log 
Parameters: 
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh alsa "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dreamcast/WormsArm.cdi" 0 
/opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh: line 90: 23726 Trace/breakpoint trap   "$rootdir/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast" "${params[@]}"

Haven't tracked it down yet.

quicksilver

@rejesterd if you update flycast from source then turn on threaded rendering + synchronous rendering it is better. But in the retroarch menu go to settings>video>synchronization>sync to exact content framerate ON, and this took care of the weird jittery-ness I was getting in flycast. I don't think my TV even has freesync/gsync but it works.

quicksilver

@rejesterd said in Working Dreamcast games:

@hooperre - I haven't been able to run Worms Armageddon in reicast. I haven't tried lr-flycast yet. But I get the same runcommand output as I get with other games like Quake 3 Arena:
$ less /dev/shm/runcommand.log 
Parameters: 
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh alsa "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dreamcast/WormsArm.cdi" 0 
/opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh: line 90: 23726 Trace/breakpoint trap   "$rootdir/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast" "${params[@]}"
Haven't tracked it down yet.

You won't be able to run worms because it's a WinCE game, none of the WinCE games work on 32bit flycast and I don't think reicast has WinCE support at all. Quake 3 works fine for me with flycast on my pi 4, I can even connect to online games!

rejesterd

@quicksilver - Think I'm going to try lr-flycast then, because there's a setting in reicast called "synchronous rendering" that does improve the jitters on these games.. but the jitters are still there. So maybe flycast does a better job with this.

Edit: It seems I have to update retroarch because I don't see the video>synchronization section.

mitu

@rejesterd said in Working Dreamcast games:

Edit: It seems I have to update retroarch because I don't see the video>synchronization section.

They moved some of the settings around in the latest version. The setting should be in older versions also, but in a different place (directly under Video maybe).

quicksilver

@mitu Any idea how I can turn that setting on permanently? I am always afraid of messing up my retroarch settings so Im not sure how to make the change globally.

mitu

@quicksilver You can add:

video_hard_sync = true

to your retroarch.cfg, either the global file in /opt/retropie/configs/all or the system's in /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/.

EDIT: on a second look, I think the 'sync to exact framerate' might be called vrr_runloop_enable.

quicksilver

@mitu That setting seems to be tied to "gpu hard sync" not "sync to exact content framerate"

Edit: looking through the retroarch.cfg I cannot find a setting that controls "sync to exact content framerate"

rejesterd

Thanks to @mitu and @quicksilver. I installed lr-flycast from source, and the performance on both Re-Volt and Toy Commander is fantastic in split-screen multiplayer mode! This is on an rpi4 btw. The retroarch setting @quicksilver mentioned is, on my version, under Quck Menu > Options > Synchronous Rendering. I set that to ON.

Unfortunately, Quake3 Arena has issues (the screen doesn't split vertically and it's very jittery), but many other games that previously didn't load in reicast (like Wacky Races, for example) work great now with lr-flycast. Thanks so much! Hopefully I'll get the issue with Quake worked out. At least it loads now.

quicksilver

@rejesterd said in Working Dreamcast games:

The retroarch setting @quicksilver mentioned is, on my version, under Quck Menu > Options > Synchronous Rendering. I set that to ON.

That is only one of the settings I mentioned. If you back out of the quick menu then go to: Settings>Video>Synchronization>Sync to exact content framerate. Turn that setting on and it will fix the weird tearing/jitter.

Edit: just tested Quake 3 and I see what you mean about the split screen issue.

quicksilver

@mitu said in Working Dreamcast games:

EDIT: on a second look, I think the 'sync to exact framerate' might be called vrr_runloop_enable.

Thank you that did it!

rejesterd

@quicksilver - I found it. For me, it's under Settings > Frame Throttle > Sync to exact content framerate. I turned that on, but Quake 3 Arena still has trouble. I'll open a thread about it if I can't resolve it soon.

quicksilver

@rejesterd Yea I see what you mean about the split screen issue. Are you going to report the issue on the github issue tracker?

On a side note for all dreamcast first person shooters I remap my controls to use my right analog stick as the dreamcast face buttons. Because the dreamcast only had one analog stick it is terrible using the default controls for FPS games.

rejesterd

@quicksilver - Ok, good to know that the issue with Quake split-screen mode isn't specific to my configuration/hardware. I'll report it after I capture some screenshots/video. I noticed the weird controller configuration when I tried Outtrigger. I'll try the same mapping for the right stick. Thanks. Dreamcast performance has been surprisingly good on the rpi4 in general though.. very happy with it so far.

WODAK

@quicksilver said in Working Dreamcast games:

@rejesterd Yea I see what you mean about the split screen issue. Are you going to report the issue on the github issue tracker?

On a side note for all dreamcast first person shooters I remap my controls to use my right analog stick as the dreamcast face buttons. Because the dreamcast only had one analog stick it is terrible using the default controls for FPS games.

I've tried to run several games on a 4 player splitscreen on latest lr-flycast...didn't have any luck either...on the split screen in most of the games the first or the second players runs OK...the third and the fourth are lagging a lot...

There is also an issue reported on lr-flycast.

Also tried with the redream...when I try to play any multiplayer game with split screen the screen just fades to black. You can hear the music in the background but can't see the screen :(

Didn't try on reicast ....

anyone facing the same problems?

p.s. I'm overclocked to 2100 on CPU, 550 on GPU and 750 on V3D....

quicksilver

@WODAK said in Working Dreamcast games:

I've tried to run several games on a 4 player splitscreen on latest lr-flycast...didn't have any luck either...on the split screen in most of the games the first or the second players runs OK...the third and the fourth are lagging a lot...

Not the same issue as quake 3. I posted the solution above to fix the multiplayer choppiness.

WODAK

@quicksilver said in Working Dreamcast games:

Not the same issue as quake 3. I posted the solution above to fix the multiplayer choppiness.

Thank you so much...I did the following:

Added the option vrr_runloop_enable_=true in /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/retroarch.cfg
In the retroarch GUI in options menu:
2.1. The internal resolution in flycast is set to 1280x920...
2.2. Threaded rendering -> OFF

The multiplayer games run a lot better and also all 4 screens gives a better response...now gotta try to run it better (lower resolution, some tweaks ,...)

I'll report if I'll have some luck :)