Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

Kirodema · 2010-10-14 05:21:53

Hi,

yesterday I thought, that it would be nice to play old and nice SNES-RPGs. I am used to use ZSNES because it worked always nice and smooth, at least with WinXP. So I downloaded it from the repo, installed it and wanted to play Secret of Mana but it was awfully slow event after trying different video-configs. The only otherone I know is snes9x so I installed the snex9x-gtk package. It was the complete opposite: sometimes normal, but there were some performancespikes and it was ultrafast (no I didnt press the fastforward button). Also not playable .
I have a Thinkpad R500 with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 (2.2GHz each).

I need a solution for this, pleeeeaaaase.

Daenyth · 2010-10-14 18:17:30

Did you set the throttle on snes9x? By default I think it's something ridiculous instead of 100%

Zanaffar · 2010-10-14 19:10:06

Well the Windows Version of Zsnes is supposed to work under wine though might want to read up on it's little quirks on the app db
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p … &iId=11174

agapito · 2010-10-14 21:47:01

Try bsnes.

e_tank · 2010-10-14 23:55:07

i would only recomend zsnes to someone who has a computer that isn't fast enough for snes9x-gtk or bsnes. snes9x-gtk is a fantastic emulator with loads of configuration options and (iirc) as of 1.52 is more accurate than zsnes. anyway, the problem you've described can be caused by improperly configured video or sound options. to determine if this is the case start by disabling sound altogether and focusing on video options.

on the sound tab:
- enable mute sound output
- disable synchronize with sound

on the emulation tab:
- set frameskip to 0

on the display tab:
- under hardware acceleration select opengl
- enable sync to vertical blank
- try both enabling and disabling the use of pixel buffer objects (set the pixel buffer format to 32-bit). use whichever works best, if you don't see a difference leave it enabled.

if the above fixes the issues you had and it now runs smoothly, or close to it, then try setting up sound now. snes9x-gtk can be, and should be imo, setup to synchronize to the sound it generates, so finding the right combination of settings for your system is important in order to get it running smoothly, incorrect setting here can cause choppy video and audio (dropouts/skipping/crackling).

on the sound tab:
- enable synchronize with sound
- set the playback rate to match the default sound rate used by your sound card or pulse audio (if you use it), this is usually either 44100 or 48000. if you don't know which one to use try both and see which one works best.
- select an appropriate sound driver, try each one until you find one that works well. here's the order i would recommend you try them in: pulseaudio (only if you know you're using it), sdl, alsa, portaudio, open sound system.
- don't touch the default settings for inputrate or buffer size, these should only be adjusted as a last resort if you're still having sound issues after trying all combinations of the suggestions listed above

PUE · 2011-06-19 16:13:29

Hi there,
I'm having similar problems.
With snes9x I have the choice between crackling sounds, or, if I synchronize the sound, a game that runs with half speed, if at all.
I tried bsnes, which simply gives me the same crackling sound.
zsnes freezes at startup.

Any ideas?

spctrl · 2011-06-19 19:45:04

try the compatibility or performance profiles with bsnes. Performance is fastest and compatibility is something in between the performance and accuracy (which is the default - and slowest) profiles.

defears · 2011-06-19 23:58:58

For zsnes, go to config>video and pick at the bottom "variable odr w" and hit set up top. That has always worked for me. Anything with the stretch option uses more power from gpu or cpu and causes stuttering.

PUE · 2011-06-20 08:36:25

defears, I can't start zsnes at all, it immediately hangs. I tried with and without a rom passed on CLI, it hangs either way. If you know which setting in the config files can help that, please tell me.

Thanks spctrl,
it seems it really is simply a performance issue, but I didn't think that snes emulators would be that CPU hungry.
I built bsnes with the performance profile and it works rather well now, the audio glitches aren't that bad anymore. Sync video/audio doesn't seem to change much though. Overall wine games seem to work better than snes games..

defears · 2011-06-20 15:26:15

Is anyone using pulseaudio? Because it seems like a sound problem. If you are go to the trouble shooting section of the pulseaudio wiki, I had to do both the studdering and crackling parts. On another note, mednafen-wip does snes OOTB now. And very well.

PUE · 2011-06-22 06:47:57

In my case there's no pulse audio installed. OSS didn't work at all, also tried SDL, but since SDL will use alsa in the end I go with alsa. There seems to be no way to use another audio interface, seems emulators all just work with the first one they find.
bsnes with performance profile and video out set to x-video works pretty well now with around 40% CPU usage on my x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 560 @ 2.13GHz laptop. If I watch a movie while playing sound gets a bit more choppy though.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-14 05:21:53

Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#2 2010-10-14 18:17:30

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#3 2010-10-14 19:10:06

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#4 2010-10-14 21:47:01

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#5 2010-10-14 23:55:07

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#6 2011-06-19 16:13:29

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#7 2011-06-19 19:45:04

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#8 2011-06-19 23:58:58

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#9 2011-06-20 08:36:25

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#10 2011-06-20 15:26:15

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

#11 2011-06-22 06:47:57

Re: Speedproblems with SNES-emulators

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