White screen on Android 10 TV Box

[Deafsnake]

Hello,

I need help getting Dolphin to run on my X88 Pro android box with 4GB Ram, 32GB Storage. It's running Android 10. When I run it inside Retroarch, It only shows a white screen. In your standalone spp, it goes black after failing to run vulkan backend. Can anyone help me with this?

[JosJuice]

Oh, there's an Android TV device other than the Nvidia Shield TV where Dolphin even installs? That's positive news to me

We can't help you with the libretro/Retroarch Dolphin core, but what happens if you try to use the OpenGL backend in the standalone app?

Also, could you post the exact version number of Dolphin that you are using?

[Deafsnake]

(01-10-2021, 08:19 PM)JosJuice Wrote: Oh, there's an Android TV device other than the Nvidia Shield TV where Dolphin even installs? That's positive news to me

We can't help you with the libretro/Retroarch Dolphin core, but what happens if you try to use the OpenGL backend in the standalone app?

Also, could you post the exact version number of Dolphin that you are using?

Yeah, I talked to the Retroarch team before coming here. They suspect it's Android 10 breaking Dolphin due to the fastmem issue. They told me to go to you guys.

it's version number 5.0-1378.

OpenGL wont even run.

https://imgur.com/a/58ykeB5

[JosJuice]

That's a rather old version of Dolphin. While that version is using /dev/ashmem (which is what I assume they are referring to by the fastmem issue), the app is set to not target Android 10, so Android should allow Dolphin to use /dev/ashmem. (At least when you're using the standalone app – maybe Retroarch does target Android 10.) The /dev/ashmem problem wouldn't give you the "Failed to initialize video backend" error message either. I think the problem is that your GPU just sucks, in which case this device isn't going to be able to run Dolphin.

For what it's worth, if you want to rule out the /dev/ashmem problem, please test 5.0-12302 or later. Is there a reason why you used such an old version?

[mbc07]

Dolphin simply won't run on that set-top-box because the GPU from that thing is ancient. It uses an RK3318 SoC, which has a Mali 450 GPU that supports only OpenGL ES 2.0. The minimum requirement for Dolphin is OpenGL ES 3.0, and for good results you'll actually want OpenGL ES 3.2 + Vulkan...

(01-10-2021, 08:19 PM)JosJuice Wrote: Oh, there's an Android TV device other than the Nvidia Shield TV where Dolphin even installs? That's positive news to me

There's actually a lot of random chinese boxes running mostly up-to-date versions of Android TV (with 64-bit support), however nearly all of them are using older Rockchip SoCs with ancient Mali GPUs that tops at OpenGL ES 2.0 maximum, so Dolphin can be installed but will fail to boot anything. Even if they had a better GPU, that met Dolphin's minimum requirements, we're still talking about low clock Cortex A53 cores and I wouldn't expect anything remotely playable from that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[JosJuice]

(01-11-2021, 08:00 PM)mbc07 Wrote: There's actually a lot of random chinese boxes running mostly up-to-date versions of Android TV (with 64-bit support), however nearly all of them are using older Rockchip SoCs with ancient Mali GPUs that tops at OpenGL ES 2.0 maximum, so Dolphin can be installed but will fail to boot anything. Even if they had a better GPU, that met Dolphin's minimum requirements, we're still talking about low clock Cortex A53 cores and I wouldn't expect anything remotely playable from that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I thought the Dolphin app declared OpenGL ES 3.0 as a minimum requirement? Or maybe Android doesn't actually check that when trying to install the app...

[mbc07]

(01-11-2021, 08:08 PM)JosJuice Wrote: I thought the Dolphin app declared OpenGL ES 3.0 as a minimum requirement? Or maybe Android doesn't actually check that when trying to install the app...

It does, but AFAICT there's no way to prevent an app from installing based on the OpenGL ES version the device supports. I mean, Play Store will claim the app is not compatible and won't allow downloading it if the device lacks OpenGL ES 3.0, but a sideloaded APK will still install normally (as long as the OS is 64-bit)...

[Deafsnake]

(01-11-2021, 06:18 PM)JosJuice Wrote: That's a rather old version of Dolphin. While that version is using /dev/ashmem (which is what I assume they are referring to by the fastmem issue), the app is set to not target Android 10, so Android should allow Dolphin to use /dev/ashmem. (At least when you're using the standalone app – maybe Retroarch does target Android 10.) The /dev/ashmem problem wouldn't give you the "Failed to initialize video backend" error message either. I think the problem is that your GPU just sucks, in which case this device isn't going to be able to run Dolphin.

For what it's worth, if you want to rule out the /dev/ashmem problem, please test 5.0-12302 or later. Is there a reason why you used such an old version?

It was the first build I saw on the website. Don't believe me? Go check out the Downloads page yourself. Sucks that my GPU is weak but, at least I can run Dreamcast games on it.

(01-11-2021, 08:00 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Dolphin simply won't run on that set-top-box because the GPU from that thing is ancient. It uses an RK3318 SoC, which has a Mali 450 GPU that supports only OpenGL ES 2.0. The minimum requirement for Dolphin is OpenGL ES 3.0, and for good results you'll actually want OpenGL ES 3.2 + Vulkan...

There's actually a lot of random chinese boxes running mostly up-to-date versions of Android TV (with 64-bit support), however nearly all of them are using older Rockchip SoCs with ancient Mali GPUs that tops at OpenGL ES 2.0 maximum, so Dolphin can be installed but will fail to boot anything. Even if they had a better GPU, that met Dolphin's minimum requirements, we're still talking about low clock Cortex A53 cores and I wouldn't expect anything remotely playable from that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Funny, the retroarch team on discord debunked the "A53 cant run dolphin" theory. You did say a lot of these "Chinese boxes are running updated android OS." Isn't Nvidia Shield technically a Chinese android box since it was designed with Chinese parts, built in a Chinese factory with low wage slaves, then shipped out of China? :-p lol Nintendo Switch IS a direct descendant from Nvidia Shield as well.. It's even running a modified Android OS as well.

[JosJuice]

(01-12-2021, 06:48 AM)Deafsnake Wrote: It was the first build I saw on the website. Don't believe me? Go check out the Downloads page yourself.

Ah, I think you mistyped it then. The latest beta build is 5.0-13178 (and that build does have the fix for the /dev/ashmem issue).

(01-12-2021, 06:48 AM)Deafsnake Wrote: Funny, the retroarch team on discord debunked the "A53 cant run dolphin" theory.

The A53 can run Dolphin (albeit not very fast). It's the GPU that's the problem, not the CPU.

[Deafsnake]

(01-12-2021, 06:55 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Ah, I think you mistyped it then. The latest beta build is 5.0-13178 (and that build does have the fix for the /dev/ashmem issue).


The A53 can run Dolphin (albeit not very fast). It's the GPU that's the problem, not the CPU.

Not really. It was the very first thing I saw when I used Chrome on the box to sideload the app on the box. I just typed exactly as what I saw. I had the browser up when I wrote the OP.

Oh I know and understood the very first time about the GPU being an issue. But that doesn't explain the countless youtubers all claiming they can run dolphin on android boxes that I saw on youtube? At this rate I should just wait for the next mini console that Nintendo releases :-P