RetroArch iOS release (v1.0.0.1)

RetroArch Apple devices
#421

Desmume on iOS has an ARM JIT as well (very experimental and premature compared to the x86 JIT though).

Anyway, Picodrive will also come with dynarecs for 32X and SVP (Virtua Racing), so that will be another good test. If everything works fine there on the same device whereas PCSX ReARMed, then there might be more r9 register bugs to sort out in PCSX ReARMed that we might have overlooked.

Either that or the UI thread not liking that something is blocking for too long and thus giving up the ghost.

#422

Ppsspp is working for me. I have latest testing release and playing Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, the game is very playable. Dynarec (JIT) in ppsspp System Settings was enabled from the beginning, i beleave it is on by default. Cant find Picodrive for ios.

#423

Picodrive is a new core coming for libretro/retroarch.

Arm JIT is tricky. Heck, all JIT is magical to me. The fact that PCSX ReARMed was redone for iOS arm Is a miracle. As square said it might need some tweaking. For most it works perfect. It also might be calling something iOS 6.1 specific (weather it needs to or not). Dunno.

#424

Hey guys.

I just upgraded from iPad 2 to iPad 3 and now the performance is a bit worse on psx(I know that the a5x is a bit too weak for the retina)

I used to play with enhanced resolution on my iPad 2 (speed and slow) and I got a decent frame rate. But know it is barely over 50fps and the sound is a bit choppy.

Is there a other way to get a little bit of an better resolution without frame drops? Or do I have to upgrade to a6x/iPad 4?

I kinda donā€™t want to because I read that the lightning Hdmi does lagā€¦

#425

Yes, lightning hdmi has some minor lag that I find annoying.

Do you get decent rates with enhanced resolution completely off? You might be stuck with that if you want the best frame rate at those resolutions.

#426

Yes without it it runs good. But it looks butt :confused: Is there maybe a shader that would to some help?

#427

Oh and sometimes I get like crazy 100+ fops and the menu is way too fastā€¦ Why is that?

#428

You toggled vsync off probably. It should be ā€œonā€ in rgui video options. With vsync off Iā€™m pretty sure something returns null and timings in everything (video, audio, input etcā€¦) goes nuts.

#429

Thanks. It worked. What does hard gpu sync do? Mine is off

#430

You should be able to leave hard you sync off and vsync on and get better performance overall on the psx core. With vsync back on, try enhanced resolution again.

#431

You mentioned that you got a lighting hdmiā€¦did you try using display out with a low resolution to maybe get rid of the lag?

#432

Always at least 100ms or more of lag regardless of resolution. Iā€™ve only tested on iPhone 5 with both the hdmi and VGA analog adapter. It has to do with how the lightning adapters have to work. I can go into detail if need be.

#433

Always at least 100ms or more of lag regardless of resolution. Iā€™ve only tested on iPhone 5 with both the hdmi and VGA analog adapter. It has to do with how the lightning adapters have to work. I can go into detail if need be.[/quote]

So the old 30pin AV adaptors for iPad 2/iPad 3 provided for lower latency HDMI output vs. Lightning?

#434

Here is another idea to increase performance,

How about n option that that render the game/retro arch only on hdmi ? I saw that some games can do that. Like nova or modern combat. It renders the game only through hdmi and on the iPad you only have the controls.

Is that hard to code or can you implement that in future updates?

#435

Always at least 100ms or more of lag regardless of resolution. Iā€™ve only tested on iPhone 5 with both the hdmi and VGA analog adapter. It has to do with how the lightning adapters have to work. I can go into detail if need be.[/quote]

So the old 30pin AV adaptors for iPad 2/iPad 3 provided for lower latency HDMI output vs. Lightning?[/quote]

Near zero since it has an actual display pins output.

The lightning adapters have an soc in them to convert a mpeg video feed from the device to an hdmi signal. So itā€™s kind of like AirPlay over USB to a special soc that converts it to hdmi signals. Itā€™s ingenious, but flawed. The biggest delay is the device having to encode itā€™s screen to mpeg. The iPhone 5 at least cannot do it in near-real time. So it feels like a solid airplay connection, lag included. At least on the iphone5. Newer devices will be better since desktops have things like the WIDI chipsets that help make the encoding of the screen faster. So lets see what comes outā€¦ :slight_smile:

#436

I did this with mame4ios reloaded. Still had lag. Second display only and low resolution. Still has to transcode to mpeg (if you are talking about the lightning adapter).

Itā€™s funny since I had to test this all myself. I think I was the first to really bring the issue to light and hinted at how the adapter worked before the soc news came out.

Ars did the original article I think but hereā€™s a good follow up that mentions lag I think.

Iā€™m not this to brag or anything. Iā€™m saying it cause Iā€™m kinda pissed every time I think about it. Apple usually makes sure shit like this doesnā€™t happen. It is half baked on the current lightning devices IMO.

#437

Could you implement this feature back to retro arch?

#438

I did not implement it. I tested out the lag using the existing function in mame4iosreloaded. Also, I would not be the person to code this into retroarch as it would be my first time writing that kind of function and I wouldnā€™t even trust my own code at that point. :wink: it looks relatively simple as there are several APIs to use, but Iā€™m sure there are plenty of ā€œgatchasā€ and Iā€™d still mess it up.

#439

Maybe someone canā€¦? :slight_smile:

Oh, and by the way. Do you think that apple will fix the lag with lightning? I read that there is an arm chip and 256mb ram insideā€¦

The lag with lightning is the only reason I didnā€™t buy a iPad 4 . But the 3rd kinda sucks too because the hdmi output is not as good as with the iPad 2. Bt I canā€™t stand the iPad 2 very long because of the display and only 512mb ramā€¦ Itā€™s tricky, I hope iPad 5 will fix all of that. Bt then again, no jailreakā€¦

Edit: tested some more games. And the performance is really worse compared to iPad 2 :frowning: even with no enhanced resolution (please keep in mind that I am not complaining or demanding anything!)

Is there a way that you can ad an option to enhance the resolution NOT to retina(thatā€™s what it does now, right?) and instead increase it just to 1024x768 like on the iPad 2?

How is the performance with ipad4/a6 with enhanced resolution? I may be consider upgrading in hopes that apple will update the lightning hdmi aswell soonā€¦

#440

The lag has to do with the device having to encode the screen to an mpeg stream. The soc in the lightning cable is not the main issue. It is there to accept the mpeg stream over lightning serial. The soc boots on plugin and sets up a buffer then dumps mpeg frames it receives to an hdmi output. Itā€™s the idevices trying to encode itā€™s screen thatā€™s the problem. So technically, if newer devices that can encode their screens to mpeg in actual near-zero-lag real time, it wonā€™t be a huge issue. Current gen idevices just canā€™t do that.