External Frame Buffer issue on LG G6 between versions 5.0-6056 and 5.0-6058

[lgg6_lgg6]

Hello,


I am not sure if this has been asked before I haven't found anything related in the forums.

Just stumbled upon Dolphin Emulator yesterday and have been tweaking all possible emulator settings and versions since but there seems to be an issue with the two following versions:

5.0-6056 and 5.0-6058.

The changelog says Update Android GUI settings for Hybrid XFB and adds now two options in the GUI namely Store XFB Copies to Texture Only and Immediately Present XFB instead of the previous single option External Frame Buffer none, virtual or real.

Version 5.0-6056 runs Super Mario Sunshine very smooth (30 + FPS) even in the cutscenes (27+ FPS) with External Frame Buffer option set to virtual. I can't replicate this behaviour with 5.0-6058 or any newer version. I tried toggling both toggles on and off respectively with all possible combination but the game still runs buggy with crackling sounds.


Specs: Stock 7.0 LG G6, 4GB Ram, Adreno 530, SD 821
Settings on 5.0-6056: JIT ARM64, Dual-Core, Override Emulated Clock Speed, Emulated CPU speed 35%, OPEN GL, All Enhancements OFF, 1x native, 1x AA, 1x AF, ALL Hacks on DEFAULT except External Frame Buffer to VIRTUAL.

Has anyone encountered the same/similar problem on similar specs and settings? I just wanted to be sure not to miss out on newer versions that have improved game stability by trying to correct this issue on the newer versions.

Thanks in advance!

[FrangoST]

(02-19-2018, 07:36 PM)lgg6_lgg6 Wrote: Hello,


I am not sure if this has been asked before I haven't found anything related in the forums.

Just stumbled upon Dolphin Emulator yesterday and have been tweaking all possible emulator settings and versions since but there seems to be an issue with the two following versions:

5.0-6056 and 5.0-6058.

The changelog says Update Android GUI settings for Hybrid XFB and adds now two options in the GUI namely Store XFB Copies to Texture Only and Immediately Present XFB instead of the previous single option External Frame Buffer none, virtual or real.

Version 5.0-6056 runs Super Mario Sunshine very smooth (30 + FPS) even in the cutscenes (27+ FPS) with External Frame Buffer option set to virtual. I can't replicate this behaviour with 5.0-6058 or any newer version. I tried toggling both toggles on and off respectively with all possible combination but the game still runs buggy with crackling sounds.


Specs: Stock 7.0 LG G6, 4GB Ram, Adreno 530, SD 821
Settings on 5.0-6056: JIT ARM64, Dual-Core, Override Emulated Clock Speed, Emulated CPU speed 35%, OPEN GL, All Enhancements OFF, 1x native, 1x AA, 1x AF, ALL Hacks on DEFAULT except External Frame Buffer to VIRTUAL.

Has anyone encountered the same/similar problem on similar specs and settings? I just wanted to be sure not to miss out on newer versions that have improved game stability by trying to correct this issue on the newer versions.

Thanks in advance!

It seems like part of the decrease in performance is due to the games INIs finally being used in Dolphin Android..  

Basically, on these newer versions, Dolphin comes with a ini library that overrides default emulator settings... This is intended to natively fix bugs on somesgames that requires specific settings... The thing is, many games, like SMS and ZWW, for instance, require EFBtoRAM for correct emulation, and these settings have been enabled by default on the games' Inis...

These settings really impact performance, though, and in order to disable them now, you need to create a custom game INI and put it in the GameSettings folder inside dolphin-emu...

Doing this seems to have recovered my performance completely in ZWW, but in SMS, even though it increased the performance drastically, it still doesn't reach the former performance I had, so perhaps there's something else into it.... 

[degasus]

(02-19-2018, 10:09 PM)FrangoST Wrote: Doing this seems to have recovered my performance completely in ZWW, but in SMS, even though it increased the performance drastically, it still doesn't reach the former performance I had, so perhaps there's something else into it.... 

You just need to revert all the settings which are forced in the Gameinis: https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/blob/master/Data/Sys/GameSettings/GMS.ini

Here, it is likely the PerfQueriesEnable flag.

[mstreurman]

(02-19-2018, 10:09 PM)FrangoST Wrote: It seems like part of the decrease in performance is due to the games INIs finally being used in Dolphin Android..  

Basically, on these newer versions, Dolphin comes with a ini library that overrides default emulator settings... This is intended to natively fix bugs on somesgames that requires specific settings... The thing is, many games, like SMS and ZWW, for instance, require EFBtoRAM for correct emulation, and these settings have been enabled by default on the games' Inis...

These settings really impact performance, though, and in order to disable them now, you need to create a custom game INI and put it in the GameSettings folder inside dolphin-emu...

Doing this seems to have recovered my performance completely in ZWW, but in SMS, even though it increased the performance drastically, it still doesn't reach the former performance I had, so perhaps there's something else into it.... 

Keep in mind that by reverting some of the flags are actually needed to have a working game... for example: in SMS you need perfqueries, if those are turned off you cannot clear the Goop. Having these on will still give a (huge) performance impact.

[JosJuice]

The core code hasn't changed between 5.0-6056 and 5.0-6058, only the Android GUI code. So I don't see why you would be getting any difference in performance between the two unless you're using different settings for those two builds. (The core code in 5.0-6056 reads the XFB settings that can be set in the 5.0-6058 GUI, not the ones that can be set in the 5.0-6056 GUI.)

(02-19-2018, 10:50 PM)mstreurman Wrote: for example: in SMS you need perfqueries, if those are turned off you cannot clear the Goop.

Not having perf queries will just make one specific shine complete immediately instead of when it's supposed to complete. But other settings like EFB to RAM do affect the ability to clear goop.

[lgg6_lgg6]

(02-20-2018, 02:29 AM)JosJuice Wrote: The core code hasn't changed between 5.0-6056 and 5.0-6058, only the Android GUI code. So I don't see why you would be getting any difference in performance between the two unless you're using different settings for those two builds. (The core code in 5.0-6056 reads the XFB settings that can be set in the 5.0-6058 GUI, not the ones that can be set in the 5.0-6056 GUI.)

This made me wonder as well, but there has clearly been a change in the code since I can't reproduce the same result twice even when putting each other cpu/hacks/enhancement setting in the same exact way. Combining the two new settings in each possible way (4 possibilities) still doesn't bring back EFB virtual setting performance in SMS. Here some screenshots of the settings in the two different versions: External Frame Buffer Settings

I wasnt' able to try out the modified SMS game.ini file settings because I could not find the Dolphin directory to put them in. Do I simply create a new GMS.ini file and paste the custom code in it inside of storage/dolphin-emu/Config/.. ?


Thanks

[JMC47]

The latest version of Dolphin adds the ability to edit the game INIs by long pressing games in the gamelist.