What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?
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So I'm coming close to finalizing my game collection on my pie, but I'm still scratching my head about my Saturn collection. Perhaps I can get some advice.
Best I can tell, there isn't a usable emulator on the pie that will run any Saturn games well enough to really play them. Are any Saturn titles runable on a pie at present?
Also, I'm not real sure which emulator to use. I have both lr-yabause and lr-beetle-saturn installed. I was hoping to use beetle, as it's the only one with a disc control option present that would allow me to utilize double-discs. But for some reason, it's broken in the current build and just crashes when I use it (unlike PSX or Sega CD, which work fine on those cores). I feel yabause under performs and does not do as well for me as beetle. But seems to be preferred by those who do try to emulate Saturn.
Does anyone have any thoughts on making sense of Saturn on a pie? It's my favorite system from my collection, would really like to include it somehow (even if it's not fully functional).
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@alphabetapie On the Pi, there's a big difference between "runnable" and "playable". Beetle for Saturn, as far as I know, does not work on ARM platforms, but it is one of the better Saturn emulators. You can try to install lr-yabasanshiro (https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/23143/raspberry-pi-4b-4gb-and-the-sega-saturn/14?_=1598337685279) or standalone Yabasanshiro (https://github.com/devmiyax/yabause/tree/pi4/yabause/src/retro_arena#retropie-on-raspberry-pi-4) for decent performance with some games. You will need frameskip on, and almost nothing will play at full 60fps. I get decent performance on NiGHTS with lr-yabasanshiro, and most 2D games work well. Other games require the HLE bios to work, like Astal. Many games will be too slow to be playable, like Burning Rangers, or have graphical glitches, like Panzer Dragoon. I have not tried any multi disc games so I can't speak to how that works. It's going to depend on what games you want to play, and how tolerant you are of low performance.
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@g30ff With an overclocked Pi there are a fair few games that will run pretty great on standalone yabasanshiro, at full-speed with no graphical glitches, although frameskip is pretty much always a given. But overall yes Saturn is currently still the system that runs the worst on the Pi.
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Having trouble getting it installed, but checking in that thread above. I get a "failed to apply" error. But checking to see if someone over there knows what's wrong. If anyone knows, a fix would be greatly appreciated.
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UPDATE
For anyone that might read this in the future, get Yabasanshiro now! It's not perfect, but man does it blow me away. By far the best Saturn emulator I've seen, and it will only get better in the future. Thanks to those above that recomemnded it.
One quick question. I see that more people say that having "frame skip" turned on is the only way to get smooth results. In the Quick Menu > Options screen I see a field that says "Auto-frameskip = On" by default. Is that the option people are talking about? Looks like it's already on, but just wanna make sure
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@alphabetapie Without frameskip everything will be unplayable.
Also you could get better performance using the standalone version of yabasanshiro. -
@zering said in What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?:
@alphabetapie Without frameskip everything will be unplayable.
Also you could get better performance using the standalone version of yabasanshiro.Yes, I agree that makes sense. My question was, is the Auto-frameskip = On I'm seeing in the Quick Menu > Options screen the setting everyone is talking about?
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@g30ff How do you copy and paste the long command line to install Yabasanshiro on a retropie?
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I find it strange that the Saturn platform doesn't have a goto emulator for the pi.
Dreamcast is fantastic with Redream. Dreamcast came out 3 years after Saturn. Saturn should be less strain on a pi's resources. I guess the lack of popularity of the Saturn is the reason.
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@dsquared Nope, it has to do with the Saturn's architecture which is notoriously complex, difficult to write for and emulate. Saturn emulators are a strain even on desktop PCs.
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@drdave79 If you have an SSH client like PuTTY, you can SSH into the Raspberry Pi and do it that way. If not, you'll have to manually type it in to the Pi's command line.
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@dsquared Yabasanshiro will likely become the go-to emulator for Pi 4, eventually. They're technically still in development, which is why you have to manually add them to RetroPie-Setup. And as said before, the problem isn't with the Saturn's popularity, it's the technical complexities of the hardware. It's similar to why the N64 is so hard to get perfectly, because the hardware is fairly complex to emulate.
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@alphabetapie said in What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?:
@zering said in What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?:
@alphabetapie Without frameskip everything will be unplayable.
Also you could get better performance using the standalone version of yabasanshiro.Yes, I agree that makes sense. My question was, is the Auto-frameskip = On I'm seeing in the Quick Menu > Options screen the setting everyone is talking about?
Can someone confirm this above?
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@alphabetapie Yes, that is the auto frameskip setting.
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@g30ff said in What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?:
@alphabetapie Yes, that is the auto frameskip setting.
Much appreciated! Will test some things and be back if I have trouble.
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Actually, I'm trying to get the standalone version installed but I'm hitting a wall. Anyone who knows anything about it, would appreciate an assist here.
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UPDATE:
After experimenting with the standalone version, I had to circle back to the Retroarch core. I have to keep it core-based, because I need access to many of the customization options that are very specific to Retroarch and make my theme work.
So at this point, I'm looking to optimize the core the absolute best I can, without leaving Retroarch. I have frame skip on, so can anyone recommend anything else? I know there is a glass ceiling on performance now, due to limitations of the core. But I'd like to tweak it as much as possible.
Or is overclocking the only thing that'll give me a bump beyond what I already have?
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@alphabetapie Overclocking might give you a slight boost but don't expect much. It might make a few frames of difference but not much beyond that I don't think.
The only way you'll get significantly better performance with Saturn on the Pi is with the standalone core. -
@zering said in What Should I do With Saturn on Pie?:
@alphabetapie Overclocking might give you a slight boost but don't expect much. It might make a few frames of difference but not much beyond that I don't think.
The only way you'll get significantly better performance with Saturn on the Pi is with the standalone core.I figured as much. Thanks. Is overclocking a pain? Also, I already have a small case fan, and heat sinks on both my CPU and GPU. Would I need more than that?
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@alphabetapie It's really easy to overclock, it's just editing a text file - /boot/config.txt
If you Google, you'll find how to do it easily. You shouldn't need more than the cooling solutions you already have.
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