Slowdown on PS1 games

Rion

@Ka

Have you tried to update lr-pcsx_rearmed to the latest binary?

Ka

@Rion Yes, tried it last night - same result after updating, unfortunately.

Ka

@windg enhanced resolution is off. I have the following PSX bios files in the bios folder:

SCPH1000.BIN
SCPH1001.BIN
SCPH101.BIN
SCPH5000.BIN
SCPH5500.BIN
SCPH7001.BIN
Scph5502.bin
Scph7000.bin
Scph7003.bin

Rion

@Ka You could try with bios "psxonpsp660.bin".
More info here.
Other than that you could also update from source as a last option.

dankcushions

please give a verbose log as per https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Ka

@dankcushions Thanks - please see here:

https://pastebin.com/intjHDf4

mitu

The log indicates you might be running at 1920x1080@50hz:

...
[INFO] [Video]: Timings deviate too much. Will not adjust. (Display = 50.00 Hz, Game = 60.00 Hz)
...
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 0: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 1: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 2: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 3: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 4: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 5: (1920x1080i) 1920 x 1080, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 6: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 24 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 7: (1920x1080) 1920 x 1080, 24 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 8: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 9: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 10: (1280x720) 1280 x 720, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 11: (720x576) 720 x 576, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 12: (720x576i) 720 x 576, 50 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 13: (720x480) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 14: (720x480) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 15: (720x480i) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 16: (720x480i) 720 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 17: (640x480) 640 x 480, 60 Hz
[INFO] [DRM]: Mode 18: (640x480) 640 x 480, 60 Hz

Can you try to use the runcommand launch menu and change the resolution to 1920x1080@60hz and see if something changes ?

Ka

@mitu Thanks. I've just tried that and switched to mode 1 above (1920x1080@60hz), but unfortunately it didn't change anything. After a quick race on GT2, the in-game timer read 3 minutes 12, whereas my stopwatch read 3 minutes 40.

dankcushions

@Ka
you're using a shader?

[INFO] [Shaders]: Specific shader preset found at /home/pi/.config/retroarch/config/PCSX-ReARMed/PCSX-ReARMed.glslp.
[INFO] [Shaders]: core-specific shader preset found.

turn it off please, and then lets see a new verbose log and see if you're still dropping frames.

ClassicGMR

@windg said in Slowdown on PS1 games:

I have play Gran Turismo 1&2 on a Pi3 without slowdowns.

If you have enable enchanced resolution try to disable. Disable also the vibration from RetroArch menu. Do you have a psx bios file in the system folder?

@Ka you didn't mention if you also turned off vibration or if your BIOS is accurate. These are important as well that's why windg brought them up. :)

Ka

@ClassicGMR Sorry - forgot to mention that vibration on my pad is turned off. How would I know if my bios is accurate?

ClassicGMR

@Ka said in Slowdown on PS1 games:

@ClassicGMR Sorry - forgot to mention that vibration on my pad is turned off. How would I know if my bios is accurate?

just checking. Vibration was killing my emulation experience. :)

The BIOS and accepted hashes are found in the docs. Depending on which emulator making sure your BIOS is named properly (case sensitive) is also important.

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Playstation-1/#bios

Ka

@dankcushions Thanks. Shaders are off. Please see below for log:

https://pastebin.com/4WWN74w5

Ka

@ClassicGMR Thanks. I've made sure the bios files are all named according to the documentation, and that all the listed bios files are in the RetroPie/bios folder.

Would it make a difference if there are any other bios files there? I seem to have quite a few for some reason.

dankcushions

thanks - that looks good to me - you're hardly dropping frames:

[INFO] Threaded video stats: Frames pushed: 19121, Frames dropped: 3.

secondly, please upload /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg

Ka

@dankcushions Will do. Removing the shader didn't seem to improve things in terms of slowdown, and neither did making sure the bios names matched the documentation unfortunately. I'll add the .cfg file when I get a moment.

dankcushions

@Ka i suspect this will turn out to be an emulation bug that is only fixed by using interpreter rather than dynarec, or just a better PSX emulator (pcsx rearmed isn't perfect). I get similar pacing bugs with tekken 3 - the speed is ever so slightly off at times, but i wouldn't notice it if i wasn't very familiar with that game. racing games are probably more obvious due to their nature.

Ka

@dankcushions Cheers, here you go: https://pastebin.com/8TAj5RSX

It makes sense that it's more obvious in racing games, and yeah, I've played shedloads of Wipeout and Gran Turismo, so it probably seems more obvious to me that something is off.

That said, the slowdown on GT2 and Rage Racer is quite significant - I'd say RR isn't really playable on my setup, it's really noticeably slowing down. But yeah, you'd definitely notice it more in RR than in, say, Tomb Raider.

windg

If you can, try the PAL version of Gran Turismo 2 and a lower resolution from raspi-config (1280x720) .

Ka

@windg I don't have access to the PAL version of GT2 unfortunately, but I did try running the game at 1280x720, and the slowdown was still present - the in-game timer was about thirty seconds behind the stopwatch after a three minute race.

Presumably it's not down to the game overtaxing the Pi, then...