Hyrule Field Slowdown Observation

[skid]

Sorry, I do not know how to off-hand. I have the opposite problem, I get pdb files generated when I do not really want them.

Maybe someone else on the forum can help?

[Monotone]

I wish I could help, but I can't even checkout the svn .

[Xtreme2damax]

I found out why I wasn't getting any PDB files. It's because the pdb's are now generated in a different folder than the main Dolphin binary folder.

[Xtreme2damax]

Hey skid, it looks like this issue may be Fifo related. By the way I needed the debug pdb files in order to get the names of the hotspots instead of hex addresses. I put the FPS in brackets because my FPS was fluctuating due to background processes, normally it's about 29 - 30 FPS before and 19 - 20 FPS after.

Both samples were taken at the same exact spots under the same exact conditions the only difference is when each sample was taken.

Before visiting Hyrule Field North (25 - 28 FPS or 28 - 30 FPS):

           

   

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After visiting Hyrule Field North (15 - 18 FPS or 18 - 20 FPS):

           

   

[skid]

Thanks for taking the time to set up the tests.

I'll take a look at the results in-depth later.

It does seem like it the FIFO is playing a part in slowing it down on the GPU side. On the CPU side, the inflate_fast is consuming a lot more resources.

Would you please retest/confirm the fast Hyrule Field part with the video plugin hotspots (screenshot) ? It's weird that FIFO is not being used at that stage.

[Xtreme2damax]

Sure no problem.

This one is slightly different but still somewhat the same.

   

[skid]

From those results, I guess we can only blame the FIFO now. The current FIFO code is quite efficient already. I am writing new FIFO code to get Eternal Darkness working - maybe that will affect the Hyrule Field results.

On the CPU side, inflate_fast is used when there is disk access on a compressed game image. Maybe try running an uncompressed image to see if it speeds up or changes much.

I will continue to look at the results tonight.

[Xtreme2damax]

Yeah, it seems the Fifo is solely at fault here, I just tested with an uncompressed image and still get the same exact slowdown. If the Fifo code is already efficient, I wonder if there is anything else that can be done or tweaked to solve this issue?

Why doesn't it use the Fifo code before visiting Hyrule Field (North) and why does the game get progressively worse speed wise throughout the game later on? Me and another member checked with both free look and wire frame mode and could not see any additional geometry that was being loaded. o_O

[Xtreme2damax]

(03-18-2010, 12:07 PM)skid Wrote: From those results, I guess we can only blame the FIFO now. The current FIFO code is quite efficient already. I am writing new FIFO code to get Eternal Darkness working - maybe that will affect the Hyrule Field results.

On the CPU side, inflate_fast is used when there is disk access on a compressed game image. Maybe try running an uncompressed image to see if it speeds up or changes much.

I will continue to look at the results tonight.

I was thinking as you mentioned that it could be a Fifo sync issue, particularly affecting dual core mode the most. I tested in single core mode, there is a slight FPS drop but it isn't as great as with dual core enabled. Of course that slight drop of FPS could be due to the fact I am running in single core mode instead of dual core mode.

I wish I knew how to code, then I could experiment and adjust the Fifo code, particularly the most intensive hotspot which seems to be the Fifo Loop.

There's two things in particular I noticed with Dolphin that affects speed. Thread syncing issues with dual core mode, particularly affecting video emulation and Fifo.

Then there is another issue where the frame limiter and audio throttle have been borked for a while, the issue hasn't been acknowledged or fixed yet and was broken several revisions ago. I submitted a Googlecode issue with no response so far regarding the issue. This causes a games to be locked at a lower than usual FPS with the audio throttle and/or frame limiter enabled, with some games being locked at 20 while others FPS vary.

http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/thread-6937.html

http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=2371

If these issues are fixed, several games could benefit, not just the games that were mentioned.

[StripTheSoul]

nice work, guys. finally, some ground is being won on this issue
Since you're talking about thread sync issues, if you happen to have Bit.Trip.Beat (WiiWare) - that game is always the best for me to experience that issue. With dual core enabled, it runs practically half its normal speed.