Mega Bezel on M1 Macs

[estefan3112]

So here are some further insights into the HSM presets on Apple M1 Mac Mini 16 GB (yes, unified memory) - all FinalBurnNeo/1942, as the other cores don’t behave that differently:

HSM_MBZ_5_POTATO.slangp -> 280 fps (ffw), basically all POTATO presets I tested were at 280 fps
HSM_MBZ_4_SCREEN_ONLY_MEGATRON.slangp -> 280 fps (ffwd)
Same with HSM_MBZ_4_STD_NO-REFLECT.slangp
MBZ_4_STD-NO-REFLECT-EASYMODE.slangp -> a bit slower with 260 fps
MBZ_4_STD-NO-REFLECT-SUPER-XBR_GDV -> breaks down to 160 fps
MBZ_3_STD_MEGATRON.slangp -> crawls at 40 fps and 97 fps (ffwd, interestingly)

Note that the koko-aio shader, which I started using now in Vulkan, also achieves the 280 fps, however with all the nice additional effects that the POTATO presets do not have.

[Ball]

Whether the memory is shared or unified may not matter with respect to this application, but it definitely matters when modifying data when using Apple’s APIs. As for the type of RAM used, there are two things traditional dedicated RAM have to do (or two bottlenecks to overcome): copy RAM via DMA transfers and quickly modify (large chunks of) data through the GPU over and over again as it traverses the graphics pipeline. It’s the latter where the more it behaves like an L3 cache the better.

FWIW according to Apple:

M1 LPDDR4X-4266 128 bit 68.3 GByte/s

M1 Pro LPDDR5-6400 256 bit 204.8 GByte/s

M1 Max LPDDR5-6400 512 bit 409.6 GByte/s

M1 Ultra LPDDR5-6400 1024 bit 819.2 GByte/s

[HyperspaceMadness]

You may want to try out the latest release of the Mega Bezel from Github, I did an improvement which increases performance some .

Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

[Mega_Bezel_Logo] Mega Bezel is updated to V1.12.0_2023-03-11 MAKE SURE YOU UPDATE TO Retroarch 1.15 !!! This will solve a lot of the flipping with 3D cores and also Auto Rotation for vertical games in FBNeo should also now work. Changes: Fixed a performance issue where we were rendering more than we needed to This should increase performance across most presets Fixed color rainbowing in reflection for Guest-Advanced and LCD-GRID Updated to crt-guest-advanced-2023-03-11-release1 Update…

[tomakoon]

Hi! First off thank you for your work and contribution on these shaders, they look fantastic. Allow me to add my feedback as a Mac M1 user:

Using RetroArch and downloading the slang shader form the built-in updater, followed your settings recommendations in the readme. Presets without reflections works well, however I soon as I select one with reflections the game is heavily slowed down and laggy. I was thinking it must have been a spec issue, but In comparison the koko-aio presets with a similar kind of reflection run smoothly.

It’s a shame because the reflections look gorgeous. Any advice or help on fixing this would be appreciated.

Best, Thomas

[HyperspaceMadness]

@tomakoon

I was thinking it must have been a spec issue, but In comparison the koko-aio presets with a similar kind of reflection run smoothly.

The Mega Bezel is just more computation intensive. The main difference between kokoaio and Mega Bezel is that the Mega Bezel has a fully interactive adjustable bezel and multiple adjustable image layers.

Kokoaio is a great option if you don’t need that configurability, but it has lots of great options and some really unique CRT features.

[tomakoon]

Thanks for getting back. I’ll keep toying with both. Since I really wanted to go with the Mega Bezel shaders I will try and see if I find a specific parameter that reduces the computational overhead and allows games to run smoothly.

Meanwhile, if you have any pointers or starting points to suggest on which shader or parameter could be tweaked or turned off to reduce the system load that would be great!

[Cyber]

@tomakoon

Meanwhile, if you have any pointers or starting points to suggest on which shader or parameter could be tweaked or turned off to reduce the system load that would be great!

You can try the GDV-Mini, GDV-MINI-NTSC or Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor base presets. They have very low overhead. Also, make sure you’re using presets from the MBZ__3__STANDARD folder or lower. I think another Mac user said the Glass presets worked faster, but you can try all of the base presets until you find one that might magically work well with the platform.