Edit: nevermind.
Good, you’re using Windows 7. I should be able to help here. Ensure desktop composition is enabled. Here’s a tutorial on doing that: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/127411-desktop-composition-enable-disable.html
Windowed applications in Windows 7 rely on the desktop window manager (or “DWM” or “desktop composition”) for vsync.
If desktop composition is already enabled, ensure you’re running the latest stable or beta release of your AMD video driver for your R9 290 video card (which has an AMD video chip). I found the official link to what I would download on your machine to install: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/Radeon-Software-Crimson-Edition-15.11.1-Beta-64Bit-Win10-Win8.1-Win7-Nov30.exe
Your monitor model’s specs say that it’s a 60 Hz monitor. Ensure that it’s set to 60 Hz using the AMD driver config tool that the driver comes with and that it actually runs at that rate using RetroArch’s video settings page. If you wait about a minute on that page, you can be sure that the refresh rate measurement shown is pretty good.
Thanks for the tips but I can assure you I’ve already done all the basic troubleshooting steps such as those. To give an idea of how far I’ve gone with this; I even tested disabling HPET timer earlier and tried out RadeonPro’s adaptive vsync which changed nothing. Still the same odd behaviour.
I was looking to seek help and answers here by any programmers here who work on RA since it has some meticulous vsync options, much more than most other emulators. So I figured I would find more in-depth help on the subject than what I’d find elsewhere and wanting to know why these frame drops occur with vsync in a couple emulators.
I also tried out PPSSPP core in RA but it’s really choppy when scrolling especially in 2D games, not sure why that is. It seems it can be fixed by setting “Vsync Swap Interval” to 2 but then everything runs at half speed. So I’m wondering if this is just an issue with PPSSPP itself havine poor vsync code, perhaps Dolphin too.
If it’s occurring at set intervals, it’s possible that they are getting their timing from the audio, which is going to leave some remainders on the video timing that will slowly add up to stutters as it has to dupe frames. This is a result of the video timing of NTSC being 59.94 Hz instead of an even 60 Hz. In contrast, RetroArch speeds up the video to an even 60 Hz (or whatever your monitor uses; generally 60) and then uses dynamic resampling to speed up the audio by humanly-imperceptible amounts when necessary to keep the audio buffer filled (if the audio buffer empties, you hear a crackle/pop). I believe WinUAE does something similar.
Dunno why your PPSSPP core would be choppy in RA, since your PC is clearly strong enough to get full speed.
Dolphin also has to stop and compile all of its shaders periodically, though that’s an actual pause rather than a stutter.
Thanks for the explanation. That info really helped regarding audio as I figured that had something to do with this strange issue.
I really do like how RA handles vsync and offers more options than most emulators. The PPSSPP core is the only one that doesn’t run smoothly unless I change the vsync swap interval to “2” which forces everything to run at 30fps, not a great workaround. I recorded a short clip to show how it runs by default.
Vid quality needs to be set at 60fps or else Youtube skips frames. As you’ll see the character appears to move along fine and there is no framerate issue, but the background looks really jerky as it scrolls.
Seems like I fixed the problem in Dolphin though. I changed over to Ishiiruka’s build as it has more options plus async shader generation. I changed the audio from HLE to LLE with time stretching enabled and it’s no longer hitching at any intervals as I pan the camera around. This is great but still perplexing. I don’t get why HLE would be more problematic. Sorry I know this isn’t Dolphin support forum.
Do you have any suggestions then? Any settings to check on my system or in RA for this? I really don’t know what else to troubleshoot or why this is happening, not exactly common so Google searching is pointless.
Well after wasting half my day on this, I might as well post the couple discoveries I made.
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The issue with the PPSSPP core jerking and dropping frames in RetroArch only seems to affect 3D games. So the few 2D games I tested like Final Fantasy I, II and IV ran perfectly smooth. So in RA, on my system at least, there seems to be an issue with 3D titles and vsync/audio sync. Only with PSP too of course, all other cores fine.
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Using the new AMD Crimson drivers, I found a quirky refresh rate workaround using some numbers you mentioned. I created a custom resolution using the new built-in tool by setting my global refresh rate to “59.94” yet my PC still believes I’m running at 60hz. So this applies to smoothing out PPSSPP standalone. If anyone else has to ever do this, here is how I set it up. Note that inputting 59.94 will result in it showing up at 59.939 when you apply it.
I mentioned in my post to find the real refresh rate of your monitor using RetroArch’s video settings page, but you must have overlooked that. Try to find the exact refresh rate there, since it’s probably closer to 59.95 Hz, like mine is and Maister’s was when he set the default value.
I did do that and it ends up showing either 59.999 or 60.00. That number doesn’t help though. The PPSSPP core still hitches and loses frames regardless of what I set in RetroArch when playing any 3D PSP games. Even with vsync disabled, it looks just as bad as it does in the video I posted above. It’ll only run smoothly if I disable audio sync but then 30fps games run at 60 which results in it looking like I hit fast forward.
I even tested on my old backup PC which has a poor AMD Phenom cpu and Nvidia 9600. This problem doesn’t exist on there either. It only happens on my main rig. Seems like there’s no fixing it either. Has to be some timing issue between the r9 290 and my s2440l monitor or something else I just can’t pinpoint.
Are you using the same monitor for both tests?
I tested two different monitors. In PPSSPP standalone, the issue is not there if I either: a) use my other monitor which is an old Acer b) use the custom refresh rate I mentioned above on my main Dell monitor, which is essentially setting it to sync to 59hz instead of 60hz
However on both monitors, the PPSSPP core in RetroArch is unusable for me as it exhibits the same hitching as the video linked above in all 3D games. So the problem in RA isn’t the timed interval thing, it’s a whole other problem with jerking and stuttering while scrolling.
I had the same problem and found a fix for this, the issue is that I cant compile the libretro core, if there is someone who can help me compile it under Windows 7 I will share the fix…