50 fps / 83% throttling issue (and stretchy sound) using Kubuntu x64

[EoceneMiacid]

Hi,

I haven't used Dolphin in a while. It used to run great before on my system. (Intel Haswell i5 laptop, 8Gb ram, running x64 Kubuntu 16.10 currently)


Recently I installed it again (dolphin-emu-master), using the official PPA (https://launchpad.net/~dolphin-emu/+archive/ubuntu/ppa).


I currently run 5.0-a32a2d1-dirty, I'd rather run the stable 5.0 version but that build appears to have a problem with the x64 JIT compiler, which these builds don't have.

I basically haven't got a single issue except that emulation speed is throttled at %83 and never exceeds 50fps at any given moment, no matter what I run on it (Gamecube, Wii or Wiiware). All my images are either NTSC-U or NTSC-J format, but Dolphin appears to run them as if they were PAL. I have both 'Force Console as NTSC-J' and 'Use PAL60 mode' enabled (under the Wii tab) but it doesn't make any difference.

Performance is acceptably smooth otherwise, except that the throttling stretches the sound. I have tried several backends (Pulse, ALSA (with pulse disabled)) but none of them alleviate the problem.

As far as I can tell, it's not a performance issue. I mostly play low-end WiiWare stuff and even the warning screen on startup never drops below or goes above 50fps/83% speed.

Running more graphically intensive Wii games (such as Kirby) does drop performance every now and then. I'm almost entirely convinced the problem here is throttling.

Can anybody help?

[degasus]

Sounds like vsync, but how did you manage to get a scanout of 50 fps on your monitor? Don't trust the vsync button in our configuration window, you maybe also need to disable vsync in your compositor.

WiiWare stuff isn't low-end. It is an emulator in an emulator. That is pretty hard. But your haswell should be very well to handle it.

[EoceneMiacid]

(03-24-2017, 12:06 AM)degasus Wrote: Sounds like vsync, but how did you manage to get a scanout of 50 fps on your monitor? Don't trust the vsync button in our configuration window, you maybe also need to disable vsync in your compositor.

WiiWare stuff isn't low-end. It is an emulator in an emulator. That is pretty hard. But your haswell should be very well to handle it.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned I always disable the compositor when gaming. Just to make sure, I used a tool called driconf to explicitly disable vsync under all circumstances. Restarted X, but the issue remains.

I can live with 50fps, as long as it's smooth, it's just that the sound implications make it hard to play. Using OpenAL with 30ms latency reduces the scratchiness but it adds to the perception of sluggishness.

Hmm, any other suggestions?

[JosJuice]

(03-24-2017, 12:06 AM)degasus Wrote: WiiWare stuff isn't low-end. It is an emulator in an emulator. That is pretty hard. But your haswell should be very well to handle it.

Virtual Console games are emulated, not WiiWare games. Many WiiWare games are low-end.

[Helios]

Try temporarily disabling KDE's desktop compositioning. I think there's a key combo for it. I've read that it significantly increases graphical performance for games.

[EoceneMiacid]

I don't even have KDE running anymore, I use Openbox as my window manager and Compton as the compositor. But as I said, I disable the compositor entirely.

It's not related to that.

[EoceneMiacid]

So, anyone got some suggestions to try? I'd like to fix this.

[leolam]

What is the output of xrandr?

Quote:I currently run 5.0-a32a2d1-dirty, I'd rather run the stable 5.0 version but that build appears to have a problem with the x64 JIT compiler, which these builds don't have.

Just for your information: you're missing out on tons of fixes and new features available after 5.0.

[degasus]

(03-28-2017, 08:51 AM)leolam Wrote: Just for your information: you're missing out on tons of fixes and new features available after 5.0.

Not so sure about that:

Code:

git describe a32a2d1
5.0-3052-ga32a2d1a02

[leolam]

I was referring to the "I'd rather run 5.0 stable" comment.