[Bug]: Games run at half speed when using gl video driver.

[Spyder-0]

Title

When the RetroArch video driver is set to gl, games will run at a really slow speed. This affects both GameCube and Wii games as far as I tested.

Dolphin version

bfac84a

RetroArch version

1.21.0 Flathub (Git 54af661d95)

Platform

Linux Mint 22.2

Renderer

gl (can run OpenGL and Vulkan)

Game exhibiting the issue

Mega Man Network Transmission, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I.

Describe the issue

As described in the title, games will run at slower speeds when the RetroArch video driver is gl. Switching it to vulkan will fix the speed issues but will crash RetroArch when toggling fast forward. This happened recently after updating the dolphin core.

I've tried updating shaders, cores, and core info files all through the online updater menu. I also tried reinstalling the core system files, removing the dolphin save directory, and resetting the dolphin core options as well as the RetroArch config. Nothing worked. The only way to fix the speed issue is using the vulkan driver. I also tested it on different hardware (same OS), and it has the same issue.

Log Output

Using the gl driver: retroarch_gl_driver.log
Using the vulkan driver + fast forwarding (will crash): retroarch_vulkan_driver.log

[cscd98]

Could you try vulkan + openGL with #366?

Fast forward should not crash any more.. hopefully.

[Tasosgemah]

This happens to me on F-Zero GX but other users told me they can't reproduce this.

[Spyder-0]

Could you try vulkan + openGL with #366?

Fast forward should not crash any more.. hopefully.

Alright, will give it a try. Cloning is really slow today, so I might have to build it tomorrow. Is this because of the AWS outage...

[Spyder-0]

This happens to me on F-Zero GX but other users told me they can't reproduce this.

That's weird, I think its a hardware issue that affects some users I'm not really sure. I hope it gets fixed soon, but for now we can try the fix mentioned above.

[Spyder-0]

Update: Finally everything is downloaded, and I finished compiling it. It seems that it compiled the standalone version of dolphin instead of the libretro core though, maybe I am missing something?

Anyways I tried out the standalone version (the one built from #366) and it works fine, there's no slowdown and FF works. I don't know if it fixes the issue with the libretro version though.

Also I was messing around in settings and found out that disabling Vsync in RetroArch's video settings somehow fixes the slowdown issue.

[cscd98]

You probably forgot -DLIBRETRO=ON. But fast forwarding is quite different on retroarch compared to standalone.

[Spyder-0]

You probably forgot -DLIBRETRO=ON. But fast forwarding is quite different on retroarch compared to standalone.

Ohh I see, I'll give it another go and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

[Spyder-0]

Ok I've compiled the libretro core this time. And as you said, FF is fixed on vulkan but it's really choppy/laggy, it could be because of my hardware. At least it doesn't crash RetroArch. The speed issue still remains for gl but that can be fixed by turning off vsync. I think #362 is related to this since the games run at 120FPS when vsync is turned off but appear to be running at normal speed (my display is 60Hz).

Thanks again for your help.

[cscd98]

What does the FPS show using OpenGL? (press F3 for FPS).
How old is your h/w?
Does switching on async audio fix any of those issues? (keep vsync on to compare)

[Spyder-0]

FPS Using OpenGL:
With vsync (slow speed): 60
Without vsync (normal speed): 120

I have 2 laptops, 1 is fairly new (released almost 2 years ago), and the other is pretty old (maybe a decade). Both however experience the same issue, and are capable of running dolphin. Both can use FF smoothly under gl (before the core got updated).

For vulkan FF, I only tested the compiled core on my older computer as I don't have access to the other one right now. So there is a chance that FF on vulkan is choppy because of the underpowered hardware.

Now for async audio, turning it on didn't make a difference.

For now, the best solution is to turn off vsync in the core override and just use gl.

[beudbeud]

i have the same issue, 60fps bug every game i tried look laggy

[cscd98]

@Spyder-0 One of changes (if not many) was to add a precision timer to the core. Try disabling it. It's called "Precision Frame Timing".

[Spyder-0]

Disabling Precision Frame Timing didn't work unfortunately.

I also just tested the core on my newer laptop and it has the same problem (FF is still laggy with vulkan).

Also if this helps, the console shows this error (when the vulkan driver is selected): MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete.

[cscd98]

Did it help with OpenGL being half speed?

[Spyder-0]

Nope, only turning off vsync does.