Emulation is slow, if Retroarch is started through an external app

RetroArch General
#1

Hi,

so for couch gaming I launch Retroarch through Pegasus Frontend. This works. However if I also start Pegasus through an external app (Kodi), emulation gets very slow. This happens to me on Windows 11. It didn’t happen to me on Ubuntu. Also I tested some other emulators as Dolphin, pcsx2 and so on. Those worked fine - also on Windows 11. So it seems it’s a Retroarch-Windows 11 issue.

I also made a video to show what it looks like with and without Kodi.

Some help would be appreciated. I already asked on Discord but got ignored.

https://youtu.be/aIiPAJvKvW0

#2

Does it happen if you launch RetroArch directly from Kodi? What about other launchers instead of Pegasus, like launchbox or hyperspin or whatever?

I think this is going to be a hard thing for us to pin down, since it only has issues when there are 2 layers of other software in the mix.

#3

Interesting issue. I also use Kodi and have a similar chain of apps that end up with RetroArch. Like so:

Kodi - Hyperspin/Rocketlauncher - RetroArch

Kodi - EmulationStation - RetroArch

RetroArch still runs fine on my end though. I use Windows 10.

Have you tried backing up/deleting your retroarch.cfg file so it creats a new one? This way you can see if the issue is with RetroArch or with Windows. You could also launch RetroArch directly through Kodi without Pegasus, to see if it’s still slow. Also, what happens if you alt-tab while RA is slow? Maybe it’s a priority issue where RA runs in the background?

1 Like
#4

I added some tests, here is my conclusion:

Works: Kodi -> Pegasus -> Retroarch on Ubuntu or Windows 10

Doesn’t work: Kodi -> Pegasus -> Retroarch on Windows 11

Doesn’t work: Kodi -> Retroarch on Windows 11

Works: Pegasus -> Retroarch on Windows 11

Works: Kodi -> Pegasus -> Other emus on Windows 11

My Win 10 PC doesn’t have this issue. I also tested both PCs with the same computer monitor, because I suspected my UHD TV for a moment. Retroarch was set to 4k first (when I installed Win 11 some days ago) and I had issues to change the settings to 1080p in Retroarch. Everytime I started RA it was at 4k again. But after setting the resolution in my NVIDIA settings to 1080p, Retroarch accepted it aswell.

Deleting the Retroarch config file or alt-tab didn’t help.

I didn’t try other frontends yet, since it’s a pain to set up.

#5

Kodi -> EmulationStation -> Retroarch on Windows 11 works. But I have a black screen, if I quit Retroarch and I have to open the windows task manager to go back to EmulationStation (but I don’t want to use ES anyway, I prefer Pegasus).

What now?