Get better performance out of any (rooted) Android device

[Kristianity77]

I've been tinkering around with PPSSPP on android now for a couple of weeks after getting hold of an android gamepad (JXD S7800) but was always a bit frustrated with the performance on the device, as it is only mid range at best hardware wise.

If you have a rooted device, whether it be a phone or a tablet, there is a way of getting much better performance out of your games without sacrificing too much visual quality. What you need to do is download a program from the Google Play store called NoMone Resolution Changer which is a simple app which at the click of a button can temporarily "change" the resolution of your device, or at least fool apps in to believing so.

How does this help? The issue I had with PPSSPP is that playing in buffered mode on my device typically allows me to use either PSPx1 or PSPx2 but neither are great performance wise, PSPx2 would more than likely slow my device to a crawl on most games. However, in similar resolutions in non buffered mode the performance is massively increased. But the problem (as far as i can tell) is that non buffered mode is only available to you at your devices native resolution, which is more often than not too high to get smooth framerates. With this program you can alter the resolution so that non buffered will run in the new resolution and hence perform MUCH faster than buffered will. Obviously this is only applicable to games that run in non buffered without issue.

Here are some of my tests, please see these 3 videos for example I uploaded:

http://youtu.be/UWWIP_mu5rc
http://youtu.be/XpDEeUlSGWw
http://youtu.be/6HbQM_2JwIM

These 3 videos show me running Ridge Racer 2, Kingdom Hearts and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite at absolute full speed with no slowdowns whatsoever and no crackly sound. This is on a midrange android device, 1.4ghz quad core with Mali 400 GPU. I've tested so far maybe 20 other games and this improvement is across the board apart for problematic titles like your Tekkens, God Of Wars etc.

Basically what you need to do, is install this program and then set a different resolution for your device. Anything lower than native and you will see speedups. Obviously the lower you go, the worse your image is. But my goal was to reach full speed over having higher resolutions as that is more important to me.

My device natively is 1280x800. Running in non buffered mode is too much for the device to handle at this resolution. A game like Ridge Racer is a perfect example. If I was to run in buffered mode at PSPx1 (which i believe is 480x272) and race around a track, my framerate would normally be 50-60fps, slowing down in busy areas to around 40fps. This brings choppyness in graphics and more frustratingly, sound. If I was to run in PSPx2 (which i THINK is 960x544, someone could correct me here as im not sure) then its pretty much unplayable.

However if i use the app, and play in non buffered mode (app set to 480x272 first of all) then its a smooth 60fps without a hitch. I can actually go up as high as 640x360 before I start to see any speed drops whatsoever on any games I tested. If I was to go up to 960x544 which was unplayable in buffered mode, Im still getting slowdowns, but I have on average, over double the framerate as before. In buffered I was seeing between 10-15 FPS in PSPx2. This way I was seeing 60FPS in some areas, dropping to the 40s in others. A massive improvement.

Obviously different devices will have different mileage with this software. If you have a more powerful device, then you most likely wont have to drop the resolution down as far as I did to achieve the same results. But for me, even playing in the PSPs native resolution and watching it running at total full speed without any slowdowns is more than good enough.

Anyway, I hope this works for some of you who want to get that extra bit of performance out of your android devices!

[Gurlok]

This doesn't sound so bad for people who necessity a speed up for the games they are trying to run on ppsspp, the only bad side is that as you said would require root permission (which no all people have or want to do). Maybe If I'll find the time I'll try to make some tests. Are there any known collateral effects when lowering internal resolution?

[Kristianity77]

(02-17-2014 05:21 PM)Gurlok Wrote:  This doesn't sound so bad for people who necessity a speed up for the games they are trying to run on ppsspp, the only bad side is that as you said would require root permission (which no all people have or want to do). Maybe If I'll find the time I'll try to make some tests. Are there any known collateral effects when lowering internal resolution?

None that I have come across. Obviously problematic games are still problematic games no matter what you do. But I've found that if a game is deemed as working but your just being held back by a slow device this does work wonders.

Doing this also makes buffered rendering slightly faster also although I'm not quite sure how so its win win all round really. I assume that even though buffered rendering at PSPx1 or PSPx2 is lower resolution by itself, there must be some processing cost to display on the device's native res still.

I don't get any side effects in game with this method. If anything, I actually get less issues. In games that dont run full speed normally I used to get a lot of black screen flickers in non buffered mode. These don't happen once you get to full speed on a game so it actually helps.

[Gurlok]

I'm tempted to try it, the only thing that is holding me back is my phone; actually it's a chinese one (THL w200) instead of being something "official", so I fear that changing my screen resolution could lead to annoying issues, leading me to a hard reset :|

[Kristianity77]

(02-17-2014 06:19 PM)Gurlok Wrote:  I'm tempted to try it, the only thing that is holding me back is my phone; actually it's a chinese one (THL w200) instead of being something "official", so I fear that changing my screen resolution could lead to annoying issues, leading me to a hard reset :|

The program has a safeguard in it where by if nothing is displayed after changing, it will revert back to stock within 10 seconds. A bit like Windows does. I was the same, a bit nervous when first using but once I found out about that, I didnt mind trying it.

[Gurlok]

Ah that's neat! Thanks for letting me know about this

[cyclonmaster]

I believe this approach (set resolution 480x272) can be coded in ppsspp itself. Might want to make a feature request.

Btw, quick question. My phone default is 480x800, 240DPI. So, should I change it to 272x480, 240DPI or lower DPI?

[Kristianity77]

(02-17-2014 08:15 PM)cyclonmaster Wrote:  I believe this approach (set resolution 480x272) can be coded in ppsspp itself. Might want to make a feature request.

Btw, quick question. My phone default is 480x800, 240DPI. So, should I change it to 272x480, 240DPI or lower DPI?

I didn't bother messing with the DPI on mine, it doesn't seem to make any difference gamplay wise.

You can set the resolution to whatever you please really. I find that the native res of the PSP works well as it will scale best (so 272x480)

Because the aspect ratio of 272x480 is slightly different to that of 480x800 you may get slight black bars at the top and bottom but thats natural. You can counter this however by picking a resolution that is the same aspect ratio to get full screen. You could therefore pick 288x480 to get full screen on your device and still be above the native res of the PSP.