[Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread

Darksavior

@barbudreadmon The latest build does save my cpu/blitter settings with any percentage. The vertical level in deathsmiles mbl doesn't drop to mid 50's any more but the slowdown at 58-60fps is quite a lot using @dodonpachi 's settings.

These guys go in-depth about cpu/blitter settings so I'll test those out later though I'm not sure if I can tell the difference. http://cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=1839.0

G30FF

@barbudreadmon I unfortunately don't have any experience with the original PCBs of any of these games, so I can't confirm how accurate any of these settings are, or whether FBNeo is recreating the experience better or worse. What I can say is that I've tested a few of the games listed here, like the Mushihime-sama games, and, as a newbie to Cave games, they're all very playable to me. In fact I turned off the frameskip settings I previously had on Mushihime-sama in lr-fbneo, and it still plays very well. I haven't given full playthroughs of any of them though.

And yes, the CPU scaling now works at any percentage. I tested that out. Performance overall seems to be much better.

sirhenrythe5th

Gosh, fantastic!!!
I am on vacation right now and cannot test it, but i cant wait to try those "Cave 2.0 SHMUPs".
As mentoined before i am a die hard Fan of CAVEs games, "DoDonPachi" is the best SHMUP ever for me.

Thanks a lot to Dink and the rest of the FBNEO DEV-Team!!!

dodonpachi

I've come across a thread on the FBNeo website regarding suggested CPU and blitter settings for fbneo. I'm overseas without my Pi 4, so I can't test these values myself, but I think it's worth a look:

https://neo-source.com/index.php?topic=3934.0

sirhenrythe5th

I also had a testrun with all the new supported CV1000 Cave SHMUPS.

Without any changes to any parameter and using a non-overclocked Pi4 with default setting only Mushihime Sama runs fast enough to get an impression how great these games are!

All the others have to fight, slowdowns, sound hickups and so on.
But i did not want to complain by saying that!!!, the emulation itself seems to be marvelous, i did not notice any bugs or issues.
The (stock) Pi4 is just too weak to run these games at full speed.

One more reason why it is worth waiting for the Pi5 :D

dodonpachi

@sirhenrythe5th Are you willing to try Mushihimesama with the CPU and blitter settings I wrote in the first post? It may work better for you.

As far as the Pi 4 goes, I think you're right. Absent any further ARM optimization, I think this is basically as far as we'll go performance-wise. However, if Retropie ever gets support for the Rock Pi 3588, I think our performance woes will be resolved.

sirhenrythe5th

@dodonpachi sure, i can do that on monday when i am home again!
I thought about testing the blitter settings with the other CV1000 Shmups that are not running so good as Mushihime Sama.
I played Mushihime to the Boss of Level 2 and it performed just like DoDonPachi, Espgaluda, Guwange and the rest of the older Cave-Shmups.
Really playable, no tweaks required.

barbudreadmon

@sirhenrythe5th said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

The (stock) Pi4 is just too weak to run these games at full speed.

Keep in mind they are actually running too fast at 100% cpu clock, so you should never run them like that.

kounabi22

@dodonpachi

with the new update of fbneo now it plays all the above games with no need to tweak options.

Addison

@kounabi22 said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

@dodonpachi

with the new update of fbneo now it plays all the above games with no need to tweak options.

Have you personally confirmed them all?

If so, I know how my current weekend will be wasted. :D

barbudreadmon

Dink reduced requirements for cv1k again just a few hours ago.

Darksavior

I just compiled the latest version and while all games are ~60fps most of the time, the dips will vary depending on the game. The few I tried (with the recommend clocks): the slowest performers were ~~Ibara with a ~50fps dip when dying/~40fps dying while there's explosions~~ and Akai Katana going to mid 50s when there's explosions and a lot happening. The others I tried have acceptable dips (~58fps) at least to me. Deathsmiles, Futari, and Muchi Muchi Pork.

sirhenrythe5th

Wow, i just had a chance to start them up after having a fresh update of lr-FBNEO.
Gosh, i love those guys!, there is no other project that gets this much care of their developers, thank you dink, barudreadmon, gab & the rest!

The speed-up is absolutely noticeable!
And i am pretty impressed about the new options in the DIP Menu.
I dont know what they are all about, but i played with them and got DoDonPachi V running fast like hell.
Gosh, i know that this is not meant that way - but it was lots of fun! :D

@barbudreadmon: will there be an explanation for this options in retroarch in the future?
No must have!, but would be nice for non-techies like me ;)

barbudreadmon

@Darksavior I don't know if you are using RA's "threaded video" or even if that setting is safe on pi4, but it's improving performance quite a lot on my computer

@sirhenrythe5th said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

will there be an explanation for this options in retroarch in the future?

That won't be possible, but i think the dips are self-explanatory most of the time ?

sirhenrythe5th

@barbudreadmon said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

That won't be possible, but i think the dips are self-explanatory most of the time ?

Sure, i just had the biggest effect with the last option, i cant have a look how it is called right now...something like "Erikas CPU Booster" :D
It has got settable values from 0-9 and i would like to understand what it does excatly and what is the best setting of course.
But however - i will tinker with these options, try & error, awesome work!

Darksavior

@barbudreadmon Yes, threaded video is enabled by default for retropie and I double-checked that it is enabled. I did make the mistake of not saving my ibara cpu settings so setting it back to 49/53 now has the death animation dip to ~57fps. Akai Katana's settings were correct. It can get dips to the mid 50s during a lot of bullet hell segments. The speed increase is noticeable overall, though.

barbudreadmon

@sirhenrythe5th said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

@barbudreadmon said in [Pi 4] Cave CV1000 Performance Thread:

That won't be possible, but i think the dips are self-explanatory most of the time ?

Sure, i just had the biggest effect with the last option, i cant have a look how it is called right now...something like "Erikas CPU Booster" :D
It has got settable values from 0-9 and i would like to understand what it does excatly and what is the best setting of course.
But however - i will tinker with these options, try & error, awesome work!

"el_rika's CPU Rate tenth-percent adjust" allows to fine tune cpu clock with decimals.

dodonpachi

So I'm finally back from trip, updated lr-fbneo, and gave it a whirl. I just cleared DDP SDOJ with el rika's settings (mine turned out to have much more slowdown than mame 2016 somehow), and am thoroughly impressed. There were only a few sound stutters from Stage 4 onwards, but I quite frankly couldn't believe it was otherwise playing so well on a Pi 4.

I'll report back on the other games as I test them.

Here's hoping dink manages to somehow squeeze out another speed boost, like he did a few days ago!

Addison

How does one create a Cave folder in Emulation Station?

I'd prefer that rather than searching through a bulk folder to find something from Cave.

And does anyone have a good graphic thumbnail to use?

dodonpachi

@Addison open up es_systems.cfg, copy the block of code for arcade, rename the system and folder name to cave, make a "cave" folder in the roms folder, dump the roms in there.

As for the logo, check this: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3226/es-custom-svg-logo-pack-includes-specific-mame-logos