edwoodjr - Please wait until RetroArch Android 0.9.9.4 arrives.
Gave it another two to three hours of testing and it ran absolutely fine - here is what you need to do to get perfect performance with RetroArch with static syncing (ie. no threaded video) -
- Turn off Wifi.
- Go to Settings -> Location Settings -> Access to my location - turn it off.
- Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Google and turn all Syncing off. There should be no Green icon anymore if you’ve done it correctly.
- (MOST IMPORTANT) Go to the Google Play Store app - go to Settings -> Auto-Update Apps -> Do not auto-update apps. MAKE SURE AUTO UPDATES ARE OFF - this is the hardest hitter of all when it comes to these services screwing up your performance in-game.
- Just for peace of mind - make sure Bluetooth is off as well
It’s pretty crucial that you turn these services off because otherwise this stuff (all bloaty Java services) will run at various points in time when RetroArch is running and it will screw up the audio/video synchronization when it runs because the CPU has to take time out of its schedule to start doing all those dispatched jobs.
Hopefully all these settings above can be ‘done’ in one fell swoop by just enabling ‘Airplane mode’. I’ll test if that is the case - it would certainly be a lot easier to tell people to just enable Airplane Mode instead of these three separate steps. (EDIT: Just tried it and it doesn’t turn off ‘Location access’ - so you have to do that manually).
And the most important step of all (the steps below will be automated for Shield at least when you first launch RetroArch on Shield or when you select ‘Recommended Device Settings’ at least) -
- Go to RetroArch -> Settings -> Video -> Forced Refresh rate - set it to 60.00.
- Turn threaded video off
- Make sure vsync is on (should be default really)
Anyway, once you’ve done this, RetroArch will run like a dream on this thing. The only thing I have yet to sort out is the PCSX ReARMed issue with games that ran at 30Hz internally on the GPU (FF7/Chrono Cross/Crash Bandicoot) - but I’m beginning to suspect that either the refresh rate it reports is wrong or there is some issue related to the way we do duped frames for these 30Hz games. Anyway, I’ll need maister’s help on this to get to the bottom of it.
Anyway, there IS a way to get even those games to run fine with threaded video - but really, on something like the Shield I really want the best possible experience and so it’s imperative we figure out a way to get it to run well with static syncing. I mean - every other core works just fine right now so this should be do-able - either it’s core related (wrong refresh rates being reported) or it’s something to do with frame duping.
Wow…when my controls are 100% on this, it’s going to be super epic. I love the way it runs now as it is…and I don’t even have any diagonals! lol If anyone should be charging for an emulation app, it’s you. Thank you all for your hard work on this.
I do have a question about the few devices out there with analog triggers. Is it challenging to get them implemented? They either don’t work at all or they do work but not very well.
We support analog triggers now at least for Shield in the upcoming release- they are mapped to L2/R2 to conform to the Sony gamepad layout.
And we don’t charge ever for RetroArch because this is a principal issue - emulation and free software should remain - you know - free. None of that ‘distinguishing between free as in libre vs. free beer’ shit - none of that bullcrap - ‘free’ as in what ‘free’ means in the English language definition of the word.
If the rest of the FLOSS world wants to backpeddle and basically compromise on their positions that is their business - but we will never do that. We will set a shining example on how you can not be a sellout, maintain a degree of respectability that way, and still get proper backing by external parties. And there will be zero compromises in that regard.
I salute you guys! I’ve seen some truly bad emulation attempts with a price tag.
Does Retroarch MAME support CHD games like Killer Instinct?
MAME 0.78 loads Killer Instinct up with the right CHD but I couldn’t get it to run on x86_64 PC after the blue screen - I could give it a go on 32bit ARM devices and see if it even wants to load up there.
I think it’s probably a case of 64bit issues still lingering in that old dusty 2003 codebase.
I have one more question for now, I appreciate you answering them Squarepusher. The release of this device has scratched an itch I’ve had for years. Emulation is THE reason I bought the Shield. It’s perfect. I’m just spending a few hours making sure everything is perfect as far as settings and directories go for the upcoming Retroarch update.
Concerning the BIOS , I have them all but is there a resource online that will tell me how they should be renamed? I created a BIOS directory for all of them and I enabled the custom directory in the settings. While PSX works, I get the error message saying the BIOS can’t be found. I assumed that they need to be named a certain way for the emulator to see it.
*EDIT: Never mind, I got it working. I downloaded some bios that the emulators actually liked. =-)
MAME performance tests so far -
Out of all cores, MAME 0.78 is still one of the most demanding when it comes to the games that can run on it.
BTW - most of these games I tested below - I was expecting the Shield to actually fail at running them at anything nearing full-speed. I certainly wasn’t expecting a whole slew of software 3D arcade games like the Namco games to be near fullspeed - wasn’t expecting Solvalou to be fullspeed - wasn’t expecting Starblade to be fullspeed - wasn’t expecting Primal Rage to be 58-59fps.
Mortal Kombat 1/2/3/Ultimate/All Midway games with DCS sound - Fullspeed without the DCS speedhack
Primal Rage - 58~59fps
Cruis 'n USA - 30fps
Tekken 1/2 - 55fps. By comparison - these games run at goddamn 15 to 18fps on a PS3. Yes, really.
Tekken 3 - 33fps (by comparison - a laptop Intel Core i5 3210m manages 90 to 105fps on this game)
Puzzle Bobble 2/3/4 (ie. Taito F3 games) - Fullspeed. All the Taito F3 games are in the bag with this - including Bubble Bobble 2/Memories/Symphonia.
Solvalou - Fullspeed
Street Fighter The Movie - Fullspeed.
Starblade - Fullspeed.
Cybersled - 47fps.
Daraku - Fallen Angels - Fullspeed.
G Darius/Darius GX - Fullspeed
Gals Panic S4 - Fullspeed.
Gals Panic S - Fullspeed
Cotton 2 - Sega STV game (Sega Saturn arcade board] - 25fps (by comparison - a laptop Intel Core i5 3210m manages 55 to 52fps on this game)
These are seriously impressive specs that go way beyond any expectations I had for this thing really. Just amazing on how the gap between laptop CPUs and mobile ARM CPUs is closing this fast - and to have this kind of power in your hands is just too good to pass up.
What pleases me even more is that after hours of play I still haven’t run into these performance inconsistency issues that have previously dogged my experiences with Android.
IF we can get the PS1 issues to do with games that use variable refresh rates sorted out with static syncing, then I think this might be the ultimate handheld RetroArch device so far.
BTW - Killer Instinct doesn’t work on ARM32 either - shows the same as on PC - just a blue screen - I can hear the announcer saying ‘Ultra Combo’ but it just doesn’t progress beyond that point.
Nice, so I’m guessing the advantage of shield over other devices has to do with its hardware? If only it were a wee bit cheaper, I would buy one now.
I wonder how the competition (snapdragon 800) will compare though.
Ok, now it’s official. The wait for the new release is killing me. Wow, great work! I can’t wait to play with around with the new version. Will Picodrive run most of the Sega Cd games out there? The Sega emu currently in Retroarch ran all the ones I threw at it. Is Picodrive comparable to it? Thanks again!
Might just throw a new release together for tomorrow or the day after that. Just remember to set threaded video to on for PS1 games that don’t run at 60Hz for Shield because that issue is still not resolved with static syncing. For everything else, it’s recommended you turn threaded video off for Shield.
This thread has convinced me that I need to buy a shield. $299 for the ultimate RetroArch handheld is worth it. Also I happen to have a 660GTX TI in my desktop. Now to see if I can get a credit card, heh.
Also, has anyone tried nds4droid(free and open-source) on the shield yet? It has its own “lightning” JIT that is apparently pretty decent. It would be nice if that could be used as an alternative to drastic(closed source and payware).
That is probably just Desmume with a JIT. Perhaps the JIT is better than the one meancoot cobbled together, I dunno. I don’t really test other people’s stuff in emulation circles.
It is indeed a fork of DeSmuME, with an ARM JIT. Here’s the sourceforge repo, for reference: http://sourceforge.net/p/nds4droid/code/ci/master/tree/
The author seems to have made a NaCl port of an snes emulator, as well, though it doesn’t want to work on my machine for whatever reason: http://jeffq.com/snes4naclpost/snes4nacl.html
Hmm that’s pretty cool. Managed to play Yoshi’s Island full speed on my Core i3-2350M laptop.
[quote=“AndresSM”]
There is no windows 7 port for ARM… can’t be done progress?? source?[/quote]
This is a horrible idea anyway, especially since their are plenty of other (er pretty much and other) linux distros besides android which would probably be easier to setup and provide a more satisfying and less troublesome environment that windows. I would be suprised if somebody made their own custom distro or firmware just for the shield at some point in the future, if that happens I just hope it is not based on android.
I couldn’t find the answer anywhere but will the right analog stick work as well in the new update? I know the left one and d-pad is going to be supported but I didn’t know about that one. Thanks again for the hard work!
For Shield? Yes, it already works in fact with the development version right now on Git.
Wow, that’s awesome! But I’ll wait for the official release. I’ve never compiled anything. If I weren’t working as I do, I’d give it a shot.