Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?
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@quicksilver said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
Certainly entitled to your opinion, but the pi 4 is the biggest leap forward in power so far in the history of the raspberry. The GPU is twice as powerful as previous models and the CPU from what I understand is 2-4 times as powerful.
I've heard similar about the CPU but is that really the case with the GPU? As I understand it the GPU is very similar to the previous GPU but with a higher clock speed and access to more advanced interfaces (OpenGL 3+ and Vulcan). I'd be really interested in seeing some benchmarks and such for these things especially regarding speed improvements that the newer interfaces bring.
It may well be 2x faster, I really don't know but I'd be interested to see either way.
That brings me to my only real concern with the Pi 4. It's been out for almost a year now and the GPU drivers are still not complete. That's ok and I understand these things take time, but are we likely to have to wait as long when/if the next Pi with an upgraded GPU is released? Is the work being done on the GPU driver now potential groundwork for a future Pi 5/6/7 GPU or will the cycle begin again?
I suppose the bottlenecks in current emulation, both stable like N64 and PSP but also experimental like Gamecube or PlayStation 2) will drive what the emulation scene desires in a Pi "5". This of course may not be route that the Pi evolves in.
Currently running:
Retropie 4.7 on a Pi 4B 4GB (Overclock Settings: CPU 2100, GPU (V3D) 850) - On hiatus
Emulationstation on a NUC 8 (i5, Windows 11, 16GB RAM) -
@George-Spiggott said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
@quicksilver said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
Certainly entitled to your opinion, but the pi 4 is the biggest leap forward in power so far in the history of the raspberry. The GPU is twice as powerful as previous models and the CPU from what I understand is 2-4 times as powerful.
I've heard similar about the CPU but is that really the case with the GPU? As I understand it the GPU is very similar to the previous GPU but with a higher clock speed and access to more advanced interfaces (OpenGL 3+ and Vulcan). I'd be really interested in seeing some benchmarks and such for these things especially regarding speed improvements that the newer interfaces bring.
It is not the same GPU as used on prior models. In fact its the first pi to use a different one. Eben Upton stated the VC6 is at least twice as powerful as the VC4 GPU. If you wanted a link to the quote Id have to dig around for it ;P
That brings me to my only real concern with the Pi 4. It's been out for almost a year now and the GPU drivers are still not complete. That's ok and I understand these things take time, but are we likely to have to wait as long when/if the next Pi with an upgraded GPU is released? Is the work being done on the GPU driver now potential groundwork for a future Pi 5/6/7 GPU or will the cycle begin again?
They said that the Pi 4 was not originally due to be released in 2019 but in 2020. They said that basically the stars aligned and production was very swift. So instead of sit on them for a year while they were working on the drivers and such they figured might as well get them out there so people can start playing with them. Again I dont have an exact quote to reference for you but I read this on the RPI forums by one of the developers/engineers.
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@George-Spiggott said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
That brings me to my only real concern with the Pi 4. It's been out for almost a year now and the GPU drivers are still not complete.
define "complete"? the pi4 was released as a GLES 3.0 part and it had that. there were some bugs with the video output, certainly, but those are essentially fixed/minor now. the additional developments to the driver should be considered a bonus, because weren't sold a vulkan device.
Is the work being done on the GPU driver now potential groundwork for a future Pi 5/6/7 GPU or will the cycle begin again?
i think that depends on what GPU the pi 5+ would have. i think it's early days to even hypothesize.
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I feel this is a bit of a tangent, quicksilver's response about the hardware essentially being released early clarifies the situation enough for me. I do agree that it may be a little early to usefully hypothesise.
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I was excited about PSP and Dreamcast and was definitely not disappointed.
But i also was excited about performance improvements on DOS games., but instead found DOSBOX to run even the simplest DOS games terribly.
In addition some of the arcade games that ran slow on RPI3 run perfect on RPI4.
So overall i'm very happy with the RPI4. -
@Crush said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
I was excited about PSP and Dreamcast and was definitely not disappointed.
But i also was excited about performance improvements on DOS games., but instead found DOSBOX to run even the simplest DOS games terribly.
In addition some of the arcade games that ran slow on RPI3 run perfect on RPI4.
So overall i'm very happy with the RPI4.Erghiez and StarBlade now run perfectly on the Pi 4 and they were unplayable on the 3. My laptop bricked recently and I have found the Rasbian Buster desktop adequate for daily use as a PC.
System Config: Retropie 4.4 with full desktop, RPi 3B, 256gb SD, 5v 2.1A 5,200 mAH USB battery. EasyMSX controller mounted with Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4 (non touch). Also running 4.6 on a 4gb Pi 4 serving as my primary desktop computer now.
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@Crush said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
But i also was excited about performance improvements on DOS games., but instead found DOSBOX to run even the simplest DOS games terribly.
Had the same issue. See my post here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/25178/dosbox-on-pi-4-game-window-is-fullscreen-but-not-centered-on-screen/42 dosbox is running fantastic for me now.
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@Crush said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
In addition some of the arcade games that ran slow on RPI3 run perfect on RPI4.
Do you have some examples? I would very much like to test some of those on my Pi 4.
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@VictimRLSH said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
Erghiez and StarBlade now run perfectly on the Pi 4 and they were unplayable on the 3.
Oh yes, StarBlade … one of the games which I absolutely adored in the few arcades that had one here in Germany. I just tested it and you're right, its as soft as butter on my non-overclocked Pi 4. 🤩
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I forgot to mention that psx beetle is ~fullspeed for 2d games on an overclocked pi4 at ~1.9Ghz or higher. This emulator is much better than pcsx, and I can now play copy protected/anti-mod japanese games like Card Captor Sakura Tetris and some Goemon game. They both do not work in pcsx. Well, CCST will boot with a cheat file, but that's annoying to use.
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@Darksavior said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
I forgot to mention that psx beetle is ~fullspeed for 2d games on an overclocked pi4 at ~1.9Ghz or higher. This emulator is much better than pcsx, and I can now play copy protected/anti-mod japanese games
Better in what regard except for drm/anti-mod games? I'm asking because so far, any PSX game that I tried with lr-pcsx_rearmed either worked perfectly (as far as I can tell) or not at all (maybe because of drm).
That said, is the text about lr-beetle-psx in the Docs outdated now? It reads:
Not available for ARM systems (like the Raspberry Pi) due to its poor performance on ARM.
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@Clyde said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
@Crush said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
In addition some of the arcade games that ran slow on RPI3 run perfect on RPI4.
Do you have some examples? I would very much like to test some of those on my Pi 4.
The only thing i can think of right now is "Super Chase: Criminal Termination" that was the only arcade game i was interested in that didn't run full speed.
I was not aware that some of the 3D games that @VictimRLSH also work now, but to be honest, they're hardly first choice games on a system that plays 5th and 6th gen console games.
I think you can even play NAOMI arcade games on the reicast emulator, but i have't tried that yet. -
@quicksilver I actually read trough and commented on that thread, but somehow missed your post with a working solution, thanks allot @quicksilver <3
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@Clyde said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
That said, is the text about lr-beetle-psx in the Docs outdated now? It reads:
Not available for ARM systems (like the Raspberry Pi) due to its poor performance on ARM.
it's currently not available for ARM systems in retropie: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/master/scriptmodules/libretrocores/lr-beetle-psx.sh#L17
you would have to edit the install file. i'm currently experimenting with the new dynarec but it's a non-starter on ARM32. only works on aarch64, and even then some games still get slowdown.
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@Clyde I used a premade binary from libretro's nightlies page. The emulator needs work in order to be properly ported as @dankcushions said.
@dankcushions Are you guys fooling around with 64bit or plan to? (not sure if this has been asked)
If there's some build scripts wip, I'd love to test them out. -
@VictimRLSH said in Pi4 and Retropie - awesome...or did you expect more?:
Erghiez and StarBlade now run perfectly on the Pi 4 and they were unplayable on the 3.
Which version of Ehrgeiz do you mean? The arcade version only runs in slow-motion with mame2003-plus on my normal-clocked Pi 4. The PSX version, however, runs fast and smoothly.
If you meant the arcade version, which emulator are you using, and did you do any optimisations?
(Fun fact: "Ehrgeiz" means ambition in German. 🤓 )
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@Clyde yep, the japanese people love the german language in video games because it sounds so horrible to them :D
Other examples are "Stahlfeder", "Herzog" or "Panzer Dragoon Zwei".
Not to forget the german soundtrack of the japanese Castlevania for the PC Engine CD. -
@Clyde Sorry, should have been more specific, yes, I was referring to the PS1 version. StarBlade was referencing the arcade version.
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@VictimRLSH Thanks. Then at least it matches my experiences.
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