Can't increase the Speed Limit for Paper Mario TTYD

[Franpa]

It seems like the game is hard locked to a maximum 100% Speed Limit except during load screens/area transitions which is strange. Is there a way to get it to speed up all parts of the game? So I can fast forward some of the boring dialog (only some of the dialog in the game is dull). I've tried holding Tab as well as increasing it in the Configuration menu. I believe the function works for Super Mario Sunshine without issue.

It'd be great if I could speed up the food cooking process...

[JosJuice]

Make sure that nothing is forcing vsync. (The graphics driver might be doing it even though Dolphin's vsync option is disabled.)

[Franpa]

The graphics driver is forcing vsync, but why can the game speed up during loading screens while holding Tab and stay sped up for 10~ seconds after a loading screen before things settle down to 100% speed? Shouldn't it be 100% speed the entire time if vsync is hindering it?

[JosJuice]

I suspect that the game isn't outputting any frames during loading screens, meaning that vsync won't be able to limit anything. Though I'm not sure at all why it would stay sped up for a while after a loading screen...

[Franpa]

Okay so I tested it a bit more after reading your above musing on the situation and here are my observations:

1) When the screen goes blank during a area transition the VPS becomes uncapped/rockets above 160%. This is in line with your theory of the game not rendering anything during these moments, causing vsync to disengage or some such.

2) While graphics are visible, holding Tab causes the VPS to vary between 103% and 110~%. Strangely this is observed while in the area with the hangman's Noose with the Save block visible. If you move to the left side of this zone the frame rate becomes solid 100%. Edit: Can't reeeally reproduce this. I can reproduce it periodically spiking to 102% though.

Dolphin 5.0-5169 x64, Windows, Vulkan, vsync forced only by the Nvidia Control Panel.

[KHg8m3r]

You might be at the limit of what your computer can handle. On my latop with an i7-4700MQ and a GTX 770M, holding tab will spike the VPS to 200% running around the main port, with FPS around 120~.

Check what you have your graphic enhancements set to, you may be at the limit of what your GPU can handle. If you turn everything back down to native and try again, what speed do you get? If you still can't get past what you're seeing, then it's your CPU is the limiting factor.

[Franpa]

In my pursuit of reproducing the 2nd observation (I can only reproduce it fluctuating between 100% and 102% VPS while Tab is held), I discovered something peculiar. Standing in a specific spot in the area will allow the VPS to shoot up to 120% (+/- 2% variations) while tab is held, resulting in 60FPS but 20~% faster gameplay.

It's possible there are other places in the game where this phenomena triggers, possibly for brief moments after certain loading screens. I've recorded a video of one such location that should hopefully end up being super easy to reproduce on your end: https://youtu.be/XNRZHJ26LSE

So while holding Tab, and with Vsync enforced by the video drivers and not Dolphin:

1) Loading screens consisting of a blank screen can result in the VPS surging up to the maximum of 200%.
2) While graphics are visible, certain locations can result in VPS fluctuating by various small amounts above 100%. Amount of variation depends on location and some unknown variables (length of time spent playing?).
3) While graphics are visible, very specific locations/scenarios can result in VPS increasing by a significant amount (20~%, in the scenario demonstrated in the video). It is possible I occasionally observed this phenomena elsewhere which misled me to believe the Turbo function was working for several seconds after a loading screen had concluded.
4) Vsync limits the frame rate, but it doesn't seem to limit the VPS. Assuming the Speed Limit setting controls the maximum speed that VPS can reach, many locations in the game seem to apply arbitrary restrictions to the Speed Limit setting in the emulator somehow (or these locations are stressing my CPU more, I guess).

Would uncapping the frame rate via disabling Vsync have the same/similar effect to boosting the VPS (faster gameplay)? My assumption is that the Frame Rate is decoupled from gameplay speed via the use of VPS for governing gameplay speed.

[JosJuice]

Hmm... FPS at 60 but VPS over 60? That seems like either something funky involving the dual core setting being enabled, or having decreased the emulated CPU clock too much.

Disabling vsync should give you faster gameplay in scenarios where both of the following are true: The FPS currently is exactly 60, and the speed percentage that Dolphin shows is less than the speed limit that you've configured. In other cases, it should do nothing (other than giving you more screen tearing).

[Franpa]

After taking a nap I've added a description to the video. Please read it and provide some feedback here on the forum. There's a Github issue discussing how speed limit, frame rate and vsync should all be handled under various scenarios, I found the discussion a little hard to follow but I imagine what I'm experiencing has something to do with what that discussion is trying to make more intuitive.

[mstreurman]

After taking a nap I've added a description to the video. Please read it and provide some feedback here on the forum. There's a Github issue discussing how speed limit, frame rate and vsync should all be handled under various scenarios, I found the discussion a little hard to follow but I imagine what I'm experiencing has something to do with what that discussion is trying to make more intuitive.

Remember that the computer that you are using (at least the processor) is quite old... and Paper Mario is kinda a heavy game to play. So it might be that in this case you are hitting the max performance you are able to get. I say this because not any game is demanding the same power everywhere in the game, thus FPS might vary. If your computer is able to run 60FPS at all time, but is not able to run 90FPS you will find that it will only output the max amount he can do when speeding up.

What the speedup button does is nothing else than uncapping the framerate, this makes Gamecube and Wii games faster because they were programmed at that FPS (or half of it).