Current state of Snapdragon-based CPUs in PPSSPP

[bomberman46]

So is every subsequent new release of PPSSPP just going to get worse and worse for snapdragon devices (Xperia Z) from now on?

Speed is getting worse, auto frameskip doesn't work, compatibility is getting worse.

Still the best version of PPSSPP for snapdragon is 9.6.63-g9c545ee because that's the last one that worked for everything that I mentioned above. Games didn't crash as much, speed was fine, and auto frameskip actually gave a big boost to speed.

[bassop]

(03-26-2014 03:27 PM)bomberman46 Wrote:  So is every subsequent new release of PPSSPP just going to get worse and worse for snapdragon devices (Xperia Z) from now on?

Speed is getting worse, auto frameskip doesn't work, compatibility is getting worse.

Still the best version of PPSSPP for snapdragon is 9.6.63-g9c545ee because that's the last one that worked for everything that I mentioned above. Games didn't crash as much, speed was fine, and auto frameskip actually gave a big boost to speed.

I think that the real support is for tegra device

[bomberman46]

(03-26-2014 06:02 PM)bassop Wrote:  

(03-26-2014 03:27 PM)bomberman46 Wrote:  So is every subsequent new release of PPSSPP just going to get worse and worse for snapdragon devices (Xperia Z) from now on?

Speed is getting worse, auto frameskip doesn't work, compatibility is getting worse.

Still the best version of PPSSPP for snapdragon is 9.6.63-g9c545ee because that's the last one that worked for everything that I mentioned above. Games didn't crash as much, speed was fine, and auto frameskip actually gave a big boost to speed.

I think that the real support is for tegra device

I already understand that tegra is the focus, but does that mean that snapdragon devices should just keep getting more and more left behind?

I mean PPSSPP was fine just couple updates ago like I said. Why the sudden regression?

[[Unknown]]

I have a Snapdragon (not Xperia, though) and I haven't noticed any major regressions. But if you're talking about frameskip, you probably just have your settings wrong. Frameskip works perfectly fine on my device. For example, Dissidia runs great at 1x, but at 3x render it is going at 27%. Enabling auto frameskip with frameskip set to 1 allows it to go at 50%, and setting it to 4 allows it to go at 100% speed.

Of course, I personally prefer the lower render resolution to frameskip.

I've seen multiple hacks go in recently, so I don't know if compatibility has gotten worse. Probably you are right. Hacks are horrible for compatibility. I do know that several fixes, improving compatibility, have also gone in.

What games crash for you? Are you sure these are somehow snapdragon specific issues? Maybe the games just crash? Maybe it's because fastmem (which makes things faster, but can crash more often if there's a bug) was changed to on by default.

I'm not sure there's any regressions or things specific to Snapdragon getting worse.

Can you be more specific?

-[Unknown]

[bomberman46]

(03-27-2014 02:33 AM)[Unknown] Wrote:  I have a Snapdragon (not Xperia, though) and I haven't noticed any major regressions. But if you're talking about frameskip, you probably just have your settings wrong. Frameskip works perfectly fine on my device. For example, Dissidia runs great at 1x, but at 3x render it is going at 27%. Enabling auto frameskip with frameskip set to 1 allows it to go at 50%, and setting it to 4 allows it to go at 100% speed.

Of course, I personally prefer the lower render resolution to frameskip.

I've seen multiple hacks go in recently, so I don't know if compatibility has gotten worse. Probably you are right. Hacks are horrible for compatibility. I do know that several fixes, improving compatibility, have also gone in.

What games crash for you? Are you sure these are somehow snapdragon specific issues? Maybe the games just crash? Maybe it's because fastmem (which makes things faster, but can crash more often if there's a bug) was changed to on by default.

I'm not sure there's any regressions or things specific to Snapdragon getting worse.

Can you be more specific?

-[Unknown]

It's not that I'm using the auto frameskipping wrong, but the auto frameskip IS worse. For example, I tried Fate/Extra with 9.6 and 9.8 to test this. Like you said, using frameskip at 4 with auto lets the game run in fullspeed (1-2 is barely an increase and has noticeable slowdown), but the game is incredibly choppy. On 9.6, auto frameskip is just as fast when it's set to 4 on 9.8, but the game is very smooth and consistent for the most part. I made sure to check the rendering resolution for both the same and with the same options ticked before testing. I've also tried Super Robot Wars Z with both versions. Super Robot Wars Z barely lagged with 9.6 auto frameskip, but with 9.8 the game starts lagging as soon as a lot of particle effects (like explosions and big attacks) appear. Yes, frame skipping gets rid of it, but the animations look very choppy.

But the thing is, most games (well 3D ones at least from what I've played, I haven't noticed much with 2D games) are slower. If there is an increase in speed with auto frameskipping, it works but it's almost unplayable when characters move so sluggishly.

For compatibility (probably has nothing to do with snapdragon specifics though), I've seen some games get better (games that have been working already have fixed graphics), but some games that used to work don't work anymore. For example, CONCEPTION: Ore no Kodomo wo Undukure! says it's working in the compatibility, but it doesn't work anymore. It hangs at a black screen. Same with DOA Paradise. These games used to work, but suddenly they crash or hang instead. On the other hand, games that didn't work before, still aren't playable and just hangs to a black screen.

I don't mean to sound like an asshole, in fact, I've appreciate everything this team has done for this incredible emulator, but it just disappoints me when development for this emulator was going so well (up to 9.6.63-g9c545ee), but now it's getting worse for every release. I also have another device with a tegra, so seeing the two play the same game side by side is like watching day and night.

[bojan1986819]

I also notice some slow down compared to older builds now. I'm using Xperia Z1 and around 2 months ago I could make Tekken 6 to run full speed without frameskip. Now I tried again, and no matter what I do in settings speed is max around 60%

[[Unknown]]

On my device, performance is definitely better now than it was a few versions back. Even with power saving enabled, a scene in Dissidia I often test now goes at full speed (even with vertex cache and lazy texture hashing off), whereas it used to drop down to 60% speed.

It's possible different devices are being affected differently. It's also possible that you have changed your settings (e.g. enabling a post-shader or something, or enabling power saving on your device, etc.)

As always, try older versions and find where the speed dropped. Note that there are at least two changes in the last few versions that I *do* expect to have slowed things down:

* On GLES3 capable devices, we're currently blitting depthbuffers in many cases. This is not fast, but fixes graphical issues in a bunch of games.
* Some games render to an attached texture. This is undefined behavior in OpenGL and was randomly working or not working on various devices. We've fixed this by again blitting, which is not fast. It's possible you didn't notice, or did not even commonly experience, the graphical issues this caused.

Neither of these will affect all, or even most games. But specific games, such as Tekken 6, might be affected - even, possibly, by both. I don't know, since I don't have that game.

-[Unknown]

[PresidentZer0]

I have the lg g pad with snapdragon 600 and the performance is pretty compared to my note 2 n71000

will snapdragon performance be increased?

where can i get 9.6.63-g9c545ee ?

[bomberman46]

(04-12-2014 01:39 PM)PresidentZer0 Wrote:  where can i get 9.6.63-g9c545ee ?

Page 11, post #154. globe94 has the link.

That page is when people started talking about the lagging which was why globe94 posted a link for the different version. Anyway, I would post the link myself, but apparently I can't post clickable link. Hope you can find it.

[SRRDZ]

So how is everything coming along regarding optimization for Snapdragon chipsets?

[fivefeet8]

Looks like Snapdragon performance is still going to be bottlenecked by driver overhead even on their new 805 chips.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8035/qualc...-preview/3

Here are driver overhead for draw calls on current Snapdragons.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gfxb...743-6.html

[Lizzo]

(04-13-2014 01:20 AM)bomberman46 Wrote:  

(04-12-2014 01:39 PM)PresidentZer0 Wrote:  where can i get 9.6.63-g9c545ee ?

Page 11, post #154. globe94 has the link.

That page is when people started talking about the lagging which was why globe94 posted a link for the different version. Anyway, I would post the link myself, but apparently I can't post clickable link. Hope you can find it.

the links provided does not have that version. can someone post it please?

[bomberman46]

So I haven't even tried PPSSPP in a while. Tried two builds recently and got two very different results from my snapdragon device.

v0.9.8-1020-g48d4c4c = At least fast as 9.6.63-g9c545es (or even faster?). Most games play at full speed with around 1-2 frameskip. Auto frameskip still doesn't work very well because the game slows down or lags more often compared to when it's unchecked, turning it off seems to make it quite faster. Compatibility is still the same, but the speed boost is great.

v0.9.8-1088-ga31194a = Noticed that this build fixed a lot of graphical errors for a lot of games. Problem is, speed is back to being slow and lag with a lot of games. Sometimes can't even get full speed even with high framekskips. Not as bad as before, but still quite a big difference from v0.9.8-1020-g48d4c4c which wasn't that long ago.

(05-30-2014 03:20 PM)Lizzo Wrote:  

(04-13-2014 01:20 AM)bomberman46 Wrote:  

(04-12-2014 01:39 PM)PresidentZer0 Wrote:  where can i get 9.6.63-g9c545ee ?

Page 11, post #154. globe94 has the link.

That page is when people started talking about the lagging which was why globe94 posted a link for the different version. Anyway, I would post the link myself, but apparently I can't post clickable link. Hope you can find it.

the links provided does not have that version. can someone post it please?

I would say get v0.9.8-1020-g48d4c4c. The older version is obsolete except for difference in compatibility for some games.

[[Unknown]]

What is the first git build that is slower, and the last git build that is faster? There are 68 changes in that range, the more you narrow it down, the more likely it may improve.

Anyway, you can disable the graphical improvements by unchecking "simulate block transfers" in settings. If this makes it faster, that's unfortunate.

Also, I guarantee that compatibility is better with 0.9.8-anything than with 0.9.6-anything. Maybe not for the few games you tried, but definitely on the larger scale.

-[Unknown]

[bomberman46]

(06-10-2014 05:54 AM)[Unknown] Wrote:  What is the first git build that is slower, and the last git build that is faster? There are 68 changes in that range, the more you narrow it down, the more likely it may improve.

Anyway, you can disable the graphical improvements by unchecking "simulate block transfers" in settings. If this makes it faster, that's unfortunate.

Also, I guarantee that compatibility is better with 0.9.8-anything than with 0.9.6-anything. Maybe not for the few games you tried, but definitely on the larger scale.

-[Unknown]

Actually, after testing the latest build for a while, I noticed that for most games, the speed remains relatively similar to the build v0.9.8-1020-g48d4c4c.

There were a few games that I tested that turned out to be much slower so I assumed the emulator was slower, but after unchecking the simulate block trasnfers, the games that were incredibly laggy and slow is now as fast as when I tested the game on build v0.9.8-1020-g48d4c4c. It is unfortunate though because unchecking this didn't give the graphic fix. With it checked, a lot of graphic errors are fixed, but for few games it become so unbearably laggy to the point of being unplayable even with a really high frameskip.

As for compatibility, I have no doubt that in a larger scale, it's much better that anything from 0.9.6. I've mostly been testing the same games through the different builds, so I can compare each one more thoroughly.

Anyway, keep up the great work! The latest builds are much better and it's definitely the improvement it needed for snapdragon devices. Can't wait for 0.9.9 to be released now.