CDBlue Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 Hey guys, Firstly I want to thank the guys at Launchbox for putting out a great product I have an odd issue though, which I'm hoping someone can assist with. I use a wide variety of emulators for launchbox (retroarch, MAME, Dolphin, PCSX2, etc.). In most cases everything works fine. However, I noticed that some cores through retroarch seem to have issues with frame rate drops when being they're launched via big box. For example, if I use retroarch's Mednafen/Beetle PSX HW core and launch a game via the desktop mode (or from retroarch directly), it works fine, no frame rate drop, stays solid at 60 (which is my monitor refresh rate) for the settings I use in that core. However, if I launch the same game via launchbox in big box mode, in retroarch the frame rate starts dropping from the 60's to the low 50's usually within the first few minutes of it loading up. I can reproduce this everytime, with this core at least. Again, works 100% solid in desktop mode via lauchbox, or in retroarch directly, but frame rates drop in retroarch for this core if launched via big box mode every time. Anyone notice this, and/or have a fix for it? In some cases, I ended up using stand-alone emulators for the cores that seemed to cause the biggest issues (sound break etc.) like SNES9X. This core did the same thing if launched via big box, but worked fine in desktop or straight through retroarch. When I used the stand-alone emulator for SNES9X the problem went away, and is rock solid no matter how I launch it. But, I really prefer to use retroarch/cores when possible, but for the ease of setup and as they're easier to keep up-to-date, etc. Anyway, sorry for rambling on, and hopefully I've explained what I've been seeing clearly enough. If you have any questions please ask, and I do appreciate anyone that might have an answer. Thanks, CDBlue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 No problems for me using the PSX HW core through BigBox. It could be possible that your system is just barely fast enough to use the core and BigBox is eating up enough resources to cause you some performance issues with it. But I do not know what sort of system you are running and I am just guessing at a possible reason here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 14, 2017 Author Share Posted June 14, 2017 Sorry, knew I forgot something, specs The system I'm currently using this on is my Asus ROG G75VW laptop: Intel i7 processor 16 GB DDR3 ram nVidia Geforce 660M video card (latest drivers installed from nVidia) etc. the above are the main specs I would assume matter. I guess maybe the system might not be powerfull enough to run the PSX HW core with the settings I'm using and Big Box in the background. However, it doesn't explain why SNES9X did the same thing. I'm pretty sure that's a low-end resource core that doesn't require much processing power at all, yet it did the same thing. Other cores in retroarch don't give me any grief, or at least not that I noticed, but those were the main two that seems to have consistent frame rate drops for some reason when launched via Big Box mode. Maybe I'll try other cores and see if maybe it's all retroarch through Big Box that gives me grief, and maybe other cores don't suffer as much when framerates drop. FYI, I think I could fix this by disabling v-sync in retroarch, but I prefer it on as I don't like screen tearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 I hope this comes off more educational than dickish but saying you have an i7 chip doesn't really tell us much because it could be an i7 920 or it could be an i7 7700 so you should be more specific the system setting in Windows should tell you exactly which chip you have. Your right about the snes9x core though it is lite and shouldn't be the causing performance issues on any gen i7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Are you using any shaders in retroarch? Some of them are pretty heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 10 minutes ago, DOS76 said: Your right about the snes9x core though it is lite and shouldn't be the causing performance issues on any gen i7. Yeah i was playing Mario Kart last night on my 8inch windows tablet, which is very low powered. I was using BigBox and snes9x through Retroarch and it was running just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 14, 2017 Author Share Posted June 14, 2017 (edited) Not using any shaders in retroarch. I'm at work right now so can't confirm 100%, but I believe it's a Intel i7 3630QM processor in that particular model. It's an Asus ROG laptop, so the specs were really high when I bought it (but it is not new, admittedly). Again though, games runs totally fine/stable via retroarch directly, and via launchbox in desktop mode, with the settings I'm using, etc.... just seems to be a resource issue (conflict?) with big box mode and retroarch. Also, I'm using the latest version of retroarch, launchbox, and the cores in question. Thanks again for trying to help diagnose the issue. When I get home again I'll also try checking to see if it's all cores in retroarch being launched via big box mode that have that frame rate drop, and maybe it's just those cores that don't like that, or if it is just those cores that I noticed it on that are dropping and the rest are ok. Edited June 14, 2017 by CDBlue text not displaying for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Are you upscaling the resolution of PSX HW in the core options ? If you are you could try the Vulkan renderer if your video card supports it, the GL renderer is not as fast if upscaling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 14, 2017 Author Share Posted June 14, 2017 Thx again for the reply. Yes, I am upscalling the PSX HW core to 2x and am already using Vulkan. It does the framerate drop in both Vulkan and OpenGL. Like I said I'm going to check other cores I use in retroarch to see if the issue is across the board, but maybe due to the requirements of the core some handle framerate drops better than others. From what I can see it looks like maybe Big Box is using a resource the the core/retroarch is also trying to use. One thing I didn't try, and I will also try this when I get home, is retroarch is set to use fullscreen in windowed mode. Maybe I need to turn that off to play more nicely with Big Box mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Honestly it's hard to say what the problem is exactly because I use the PSX HW core with Vulkan renderer at 8x upscale and I have no problems with performance loading it through BigBox. My system is an AMD 8350 @ 4 GHz, 16 Gigs Ram, GTX 970 GPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 14, 2017 Author Share Posted June 14, 2017 I played around with settings, etc. and I think I found the culprit. It looks like the framerate dropping was being caused by the theme I was running in big box. In this case it was BigCouch. When I changed the theme back to CriticalZone the framerate drop I was experiencing in PSX HW stopped, and it stayed rock solid at 60. Even though I love the look of BigCouch, I can live very much with CriticalZone, as it also looks great. Anyway, thx again all who tried to help. Hopefully my findings and fiddling around might help someone else with the same issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Interesting that the theme caused the issue. I will pass along that info to @Jason Carr, maybe he can take a look at it or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 15, 2017 Share Posted June 15, 2017 Yea, themes can vary from theme to theme on performance. That's actually known. What I am surprised about is that the CriticalZone theme is one of the most demanding themes! So I am curious what BigCouch is doing that @CriticalCid isn't. I'm glad this was sorted out, i was curious about those specs running the HW core w/ Vulkan at all, so I am glad it's working well now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDBlue Posted June 15, 2017 Author Share Posted June 15, 2017 Suprisingly, since I switched back to CriticalZone I was also able to bump up the internal scaling in PSX HW to 4X (was using 2X before), still using Vulkan since nVidia has good support for it in it's drivers, and am still getting rock solid 60 FPS to sync with my monitor's refresh rate. So not only is it more stable than before, it's also looking better too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 15, 2017 Share Posted June 15, 2017 That's totally insane. I would have thought to go to one of the Light themes to be able to achieve smoothness, let alone increase performance and quality while running one of the more heavy (but most beautiful themes) we have available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfRamiO Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Same happend to me with others emulators, its happend because bigbox/launchbox is runno g on the backkground using ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 It's not just RAM, but if you go to Tools -> Options -> Ram Cache, there is a button to clear it every time you launch a game. A game may launch a bit slower, but it will clear that out. You could also turn that off. It will increase your hard drive load, but RAM will be less effected. This isn't a complete solution, but if ram specifically is your problem then this could help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asterra Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 I thought the entire point of RocketLauncher was to make it so you don't have to keep LaunchBox running in the background, as its CPU sapping potential was well established. Is this not in fact the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 Not sure about the RL thing but I just put my task manager on one screen and LB on another and my CPU was around 8% while browsing and changing platforms in Windows 10 so that doesn't seem like its sapping my system. i7 4770 BB I can get it up to about 24% CPU usage while moving around and videos are loading and closing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted June 20, 2017 Share Posted June 20, 2017 No, I don't think that's ever been the case. If LaunchBox closes, that's it, you're out, unless you've set up an automated system to then re-open LaunchBox / Big Box afterwards, but that would take some decent scripting knowledge to do. This isn't "well known", it's dependent on a person's computer. 24% on one CPU can mean 10% on another CPU. My BB is about 24% too when playing a video, but it was the theme videos. When I go in to a platform like SNES, and the view I've chosen is playing the video, showing front box art, it settles around 6-7%. Neither number being enough to effect my gameplay too much for me, when it's just BB, a game and my browser for example. I do mostly run LB though and not BB. Also, changing the video engine to WMP from VLC reduced the CPU usage down to about 8-11% when sitting and playing my theme video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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