Framerate stuttering!

[Magichost]

When I rotate in place in Metroid prime there is a reoccurring stutter that happens every 4 seconds. It doesn't matter how complex the geometry is, it just happens.  I tried clearing the shader cache before starting the game but that doesn't work.  I know my Snapdragon 855 is capable of running this game pretty good.  I have not rooted my phone so the internal governor determines the performance.  Dolphin mainly runs on my three 2.4 gigahertz cores.  Unfortunately it does not use the large 2.8 gigahertz core.  I do have dolphin running in dual core mode using opengl.  I am using sync on idle for dual core.  Any ideas?

[ExtremeDude2]

Do you have Asynchronous Ubershaders enabled?

[Magichost]

(04-25-2021, 03:48 AM)ExtremeDude2 Wrote: Do you have Asynchronous Ubershaders enabled?

No... I have synchronous shaders enabled.  My phone is an LG G8x w/Android 10.  I heard some other forums say that the GPU drivers on LG phones are not that good!  My opengl ES version is 3.2 and vulkan with multi-threading is just slow (I am mostly using opengl).  If it matters I'm using the MMJ build 9494 whalo (or something like that).

[JosJuice]

(04-25-2021, 12:39 PM)Magichost Wrote: If it matters I'm using the MMJ build 9494 whalo (or something like that).

We cannot help you with MMJ. Please use a version of Dolphin from the Play Store or from https://dolphin-emu.org/download/.

[Magichost]

(04-25-2021, 05:30 PM)JosJuice Wrote: We cannot help you with MMJ. Please use a version of Dolphin from the Play Store or from https://dolphin-emu.org/download/.

Never mind guys... the stuttering was due to the MMJ build.  I downloaded the official beta build of dolphin and the stuttering was gone.  I'm in the process of building up my shader cache with synchronous regular shaders not ubershaders.  When I select asynchronous ubershaders, dolphin crashes at load.  I guess smartphones can't handle ubershaders.  The game runs perfectly smooth until I get to the first queen boss then the game & music slow down a little bit but not too bad!  Thanks guys for this awesome emulator!

[Magichost]

Well I spoke too soon. The stuttering happens on all dolphin versions. It seems to happen because of dual core. I think sync on idle resyncs the two CPUs as the timing slowly drifts. It resyncs the CPUs and GPU every 4 seconds causing a visible jerk in the video. At least that's my thoughts. I don't see it happening in single core mode but it runs slow.

[JosJuice]

Sync on idle skipping syncs the CPU thread with the GPU thread much more frequently than that. Well over once per frame.

[Magichost]

(06-06-2021, 03:42 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Sync on idle skipping syncs the CPU thread with the GPU thread much more frequently than that. Well over once per frame.

When I get in a small room in Metroid prime, I can rotate in place with no jerky video with dual core disabled.  When I enable dual core in the same room and rotate in place the jerk in the video comes back every 3 seconds.  My Snapdragon 855+ runs Metroid prime amazingly fast with asynchronous Ubershaders in dual Core mode.  If only I could eliminate that jerky video it would be amazing.  Single core is a no-go!

[el_rika]

In official: AFTER starting the game, when in the menu or wherever, go back to Dolphin settings, to any menu that automatically pauses the emulation, then go back to the game. The frame pacing/stutter issues should be gone.

In mmj: while in game, same as above, but as you can't access settings, go to Change Disc menu (it should pause the emulation), stay 3 seconds and go back to the game.

[el_rika]

Seems like the trick i described only works for 60 fps games (or just "some games'). It works wonders for Donkey Kong Returns and Castle Shikigami 3, but it does nothing for RE4 (either GC or Wii), a 30 fps game, which has the exact stuttering that OP describes.
I've also watched many youtube vids with both mmj and official and every video has this stuttering that happends every 5 seconds or so... The audio is perfect, is just the video that struggles for 2 - 3 seconds.

Strange that 60 fps games don't have this issue. Could be a sync to refresh issue, because if i run RE4 with the 60 fps cheat (which actually breaks the game in many ways), the image is perfectly smooth.