Trouble getting any PSP title to run

Libretro Lakka
#32

I would appreciate that. I can get to the title screen on both of them, but after choosing “Start”, it crashes. I am assuming that both of these games use similar engines and are built on the same code base, so they probably both fail for the same reason.

This weekend I will go through my entire list and see if they are outliers, or a common case. If you could verify that they fail in the same way for you, that would be helpful. I am using the USA versions of both, with valid check-sums (Lakka finds them with the ROM scan)

#33

Just curious, I see the initials “CN60” up in your first post. This wouldn’t happen to be an Asus Chromebox you’re trying this on, would it?

#34

It is. The CN60 is quite the interesting little emulation box. I was able to get PCSX2 to run a few less demanding titles at 60 FPS. Its not quite powerful enough to get full speed GC (it gets roughly 20-30 FPS), and definitely not powerful enough to get any reasonable speeds on the Wii (that gets 15-20), and actual demanding PS2 games (like God of War and SSX Tricky) only get 17-20 FPS during action scenes, but it is a nice little box. I might use it as a media center or a Plex server when I am done using it as a test emulation box.

To be perfectly clear, I am also testing the same games on my high end Desktop with RetroArch. If a title fails in Lakka on the CN60, I try it in RetroArch on the Desktop to see if its an issue with the hardware, or with the cores, and so far, every failure on Lakka on the CN60 can be duplicated on RetroArch on my Desktop.

#35

Don’t bother, it causes a segmentation fault on the core: https://pastebin.com/5Y6UJJ23

@gouchi you might want to look at the log, it’s got some weird errors in there for the core it’s generating.

I’m going to play around with the settings to see if I can get it to work and comb through the log. I’m sure there’s something in there I saw that could address the overrun.

#36

For thoroughness I installed PPSSPP on the CN60 (in Ubuntu minimal) and it worked fine with those ROMs, although it seems like you are experiencing the same issue on your end too. I appreciate you taking the time to confirm.

#37

There’s a couple of possibilities I see from the log and some Googling/research:

The occurrence of this fault is nothing new or unique, as it has happened before with a reference to a “font” when in actuality it was referencing the wrong folder location and it causes the game to crash within Retroarch. Also, there are certain spots within the game itself that not only cause Retroarch-PPSSPP to crash, but also cause the stand-alone version of PPSSPP to crash as well. The log references the fact that it overruns the memory and adjusts the limit of the memory overrun buffer on the fly, which I found weird to do and figured was a precursor of things to come.

When you look closer at the log, I noticed that some of the original encryption blocks from Sony’s old encryption algorithms make an appearance in the log. Not enough to block you from playing the game and you can correct it as part of a CRC check, but you would have to be consciously not having your buffer fill up with other references from not being able to resolve previous frames (which is also in the log as well). The core was having too many unresolved pieces of info and gave the hell up. BOOM! Crash.

The buffer overrun correction was implemented in the stand-alone version of PPSSPP later on but has not been implemented in Retroarch yet (which explains why it works in the stand-alone versions of PPSSPP, but not the RA/Lakka versions). The current version of PPSSPP is 1.5.4 while the Lakka one is 1.4.2 on the 2.1 revision of Lakka. Dissidia is STILL generating problems on PPSSPP in its stand-alone current iteration, so I don’t think you’re out of the woods yet.

#38

Regarding the CN-60 see this: The Shockwave Strikes Back! or "Is he really going to try this again!?!?"

#39

OpenEMU claims to be using version “1.4.2 + upstream patch” of PPSSPP (they call it 1.4.2.1) and does not get this crash https://github.com/OpenEmu/PPSSPP-Core/releases this might mean that that particular bug was fixed very shortly after 1.4.2 and might be fairly trivial to cherry pick into the libretro core as OpenEMU did.

I have not had much trouble with Lakka 2.1 on the CN60 other than core specific issues, and some minor UI bugs.

#40

Thanks for turning me toward that gamestop link, they are currently ~$167 definitely considering one so that I can have an decent machine…, and I’m an AMD guy, but a good deal on an intel/nvidia set is not something turn my nose up at. Getting one of those I would be more willing to give my tk1 jetson to the lakka project.

New link that works is https://m.gamestop.com/product/pc/consoles/alienware-steam-machine-i3-1tb/121862 sorry about the mobile link though.

#41

Check and make sure the local one has them in stock first!

#42

Or order online. It says available that way.

#43

It says Unavailable Online when I visit that link. I looked at those awhile ago, but they had none online and my local store had none.

#44

It changed from this morning, boo… oh well the search continues

#45

@Shockwave you should try to see if you reproduce the issue on another distro. If you do, you should recompile RetroArch and PPSSPP core with debug symbol so that you can get a backtrace.

#46

I get the error when running RetroArch on Mac OS, when running RetroArch on Linux, and when Lakka. I haven’t produced logs, so I cant be 100% certain that its the same issue, but it happens on the same titles at the same spots.

#47

Will do gouchi. I have one of my XU4’s I can offer up for a volunteer. See if it does the same thing.

Edit: Finally made it home, also going to try a distro with a stand-alone PPSSPP version (Batocera x64). See if it does the same thing, also have Retropie handy, but got to see if I have room on that XU4 edition…and if it’s the Retroarch version or stand-alone one.

#48

Tested it on the Batocera x64 (stand-alone PPSSPP) and on the XU4 (Lakka), found the crash again:

https://pastebin.com/rx8mtcge (log is from the XU4)

Batocera’s PPSSPP emulator runs the game at full-speed and doesn’t crash it. So I do believe the latreides has a very valid bug he’s discovered with respect to Dissidia.

Added bonus: Windows version of Retroarch-PPSSPP core crashed as well on the laptop I’m typing this one.

#49

What is the chance that of the first three games I test, one isn’t compatible with PPSSPP at all, and two have bugs in RetroArch?

#50

Seeing that the PPSSPP forums have a thread dedicated to each of the games you’re trying to get to run as verified compatible with it, along with follow up commentary, it’s relatively low as far as either cause being stand-alone vs. both of them working in conjunction together (you know how software bugs and glitches can throw things off). Retroarch/Lakka has some things to work out on its own (it could be a settings issue, but when I ran it on Batocera, I ran it stock, no settings changes).

Did not test Retropie XU4 version because…Retropie. LOL. Kidding, it’s the Libretro version (the stand-alone build is on GameStation Turbo).

#51

I’ve tested personally with an XU4, a CN60 (both with Lakka), and RetroArch on an iMac; always with the same results. I have more projects than I can manage right now, so there is nothing I can contribute to the code base for this, unfortunately. I hope that someone that is already familiar with RetroArch can dig into this.