MAME ROMS Audio Choppy

Pil71

Hi, I'm a first time Pi user (couple of days experience). My set up details are below.

I'm getting choppy audio on some of my MAME ROMS, eg Star Wars is choppy but PacMan is ok. The forums indicate a massive range of possible causes but I'm wondering if the Pi Zero is powerful enough to start with.

I've tried reducing video resolution which I"ve seen cause this problem before but no luck this time. I don't think power supply is the cause as it's the offical PS. I'm using audio through HDMI to a small TV, looking through audio output settings I've ensured all are forced to output to HDMI not Auto.

Seeking help pls

Pi Model : Pi Zero W
Power Supply : Pi 3+ (5.1V 2.5A - official supplied with board)
RetroPie Version : 4.8
Built From : Raspberry Pi Imager (official)
USB Devices connected : Keyboard
Controller used: Xbox Wireless
Emulator: MAME 2003 Plus (0.78)

RunCommand.log contents : Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003-plus/mame2003_plus_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/mame-libretro/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/starwars.zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

mahoneyt944

You can enable the actual fps to display on screen in Retroarch and see if it's dropping frames or not.

Settings -> user interface -> on screen notifications -> notification visibility -> display framerate

Pil71

@mahoneyt944 Thanks. FPS at game start was 32.96, it quickly dropped to various values around 16 or 18 or 19. What does that mean?

mitu

@Pil71 said in MAME ROMS Audio Choppy:

What does that mean?

It means the game is not full speed and the choppiness of the audio is a result of the imperfect emulation - which is not surprising on a Pi0. Try running with lr-mame2000 and see if it's better, otherwise the system is too weak to emulate this game.

barbudreadmon

@Pil71 said in MAME ROMS Audio Choppy:

I've tried reducing video resolution

Are you talking about the resolution in Quick Menu > Core Options > Vector ? Or are you talking about the thing in retropie's pre-launch menu ?

Software rendering of vectors is quite demanding so the former is far more important than the later. Original should be the lowest resolution (400x300 ?), and disabling Antialiasing might help too.

@Pil71 said in MAME ROMS Audio Choppy:

Hi, I'm a first time Pi user (couple of days experience)

Buying a pizero in this day and age was a bad call, those things are way too underpowered.

Pil71

@barbudreadmon Solved! Awesome thank you. Disabled antialiasing and set vector to lowest available 640x480. Close to perfect audio, you can just hear the choppyness coming back when there's lots/peak of activity on screen.