Freeplaytech Forum

I haven't updated it yet because I haven't gotten a chance to backup my image yet. Do you think I might see some performance improvements if I update or is it just more likely to break things?

I wouldn't expect performance improvements, but maybe. It is somewhat likely to break things, but I've had more luck with this lately (than in the past like a couple years ago).

I think it's worth trying IF you have a backup to restore.

(12-08-2021, 06:38 AM)Flavor Wrote: [ -> ]I wouldn't expect performance improvements, but maybe.  It is somewhat likely to break things, but I've had more luck with this lately (than in the past like a couple years ago).

I think it's worth trying IF you have a backup to restore.

Have you thought about trying to make a recalbox image like you've uploaded in the past?  I know that they've released one for the Retro Flag GPI case and it seems to be more performant than retropie, even on other pi's and mini PC's I've tried it on.

(12-11-2021, 01:37 PM)TexasPorcupine Wrote: [ -> ]

(12-08-2021, 06:38 AM)Flavor Wrote: [ -> ]I wouldn't expect performance improvements, but maybe.  It is somewhat likely to break things, but I've had more luck with this lately (than in the past like a couple years ago).

I think it's worth trying IF you have a backup to restore.

Have you thought about trying to make a recalbox image like you've uploaded in the past?  I know that they've released one for the Retro Flag GPI case and it seems to be more performant than retropie, even on other pi's and mini PC's I've tried it on.

Yes.  The issue, at the moment, is that we're out of Freeplay Zero.  We're designing in a new LCD, and that means that the button control scheme needs to change.  With this stuff changing, it's not worth building a new SD image (for recalbox or RetroPie) until we solidify those items.

BUT, I'm hoping that the new scheme might make it easier to run other OS's (like recalbox) with minimal intervention.

Awesome, thank you! I'll sign up for your mailing list to see what develops!

So I finally had a chance to de-solder the GPIO header from my Pi Zero to put on my Pi Zero 2. Flashed the test image and so far so good. In fact, it's even better than I could have imagined. On the Pi Zero, I had to resort to fast emulators with low accuracy, which means some games were not playable at all. Combined with the ili driver, even games with full speed would stutter. I assume this is because the CPU would spike at 100% every few seconds. This ultimately forced me to not use the ili driver which was okay, but not optimal.

Now, on the Pi Zero 2, this is not an issue at all. I'm using the ili driver with no issues at all and the difference is night and day. Being able to use better cores is also a huge plus since the Pi Zero 2 has the extra power. Here's a summary of the cores I'm running now compared to before:

Pi Zero:
-NES: QuickNES. Nestopia or FCEUM could not run at full speed.
-SNES: SNES 9x old versions, lr-armsnes or PiSNES for speed. Could not play any SuperFX games or special games like All Stars, Kirby Superstar.
-GB, GBC: Gambette, ran perfectly fine even with ili driver.
-GBA: lr-gpsp. This runs most games fine with the GBA BIOS but with the ili driver it would stutter every few seconds.
-Genesis: Picodrive. Again, same as GBA.
-PSX: Amazingly enough ran perfect with the non-lr core of PCSX-ReARMed for some games. 3D heavy games didn't not run well as expected.
-N64: Forget about it.

Pi Zero 2:
-NES: lr-FCEUM. Runs beautiful! No skips at all.
-SNES: lr-snes9x2010. Again, runs beautiful with no skips. It's great playing Kirby SuperStar on the go!
-GB, GBC, GBA: Gambette and lr-MGBA. All consoles perfect! Some games on GBA that were not playable are 100% playable now.
-Genesis: I have yet to try it but I have no doubts.
-PSX: Using lr-pcsxrearmed. So far I've encountered minimal slowdown but otherwise I can actually play THPS1+2 and CTR with no slowdown at all. Extremely impressive! Brave Fencer Musaahi works great too, and Silent Hill plays fine.
-N64: using lr-mupen64plus and running Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. at full speed! The other mupen64 cores are quite slow which is expected.

I want to try other consoles. I'm really excited for PSP and NeoGeo emulation! Thanks for supplying a new image Flavor, this is great stuff.

(01-09-2022, 11:49 AM)Ordinary Vanity Wrote: [ -> ]So I finally had a chance to de-solder the GPIO header from my Pi Zero to put on my Pi Zero 2. Flashed the test image and so far so good. In fact, it's even better than I could have imagined. On the Pi Zero, I had to resort to fast emulators with low accuracy, which means some games were not playable at all. Combined with the ili driver, even games with full speed would stutter. I assume this is because the CPU would spike at 100% every few seconds. This ultimately forced me to not use the ili driver which was okay, but not optimal.

Now, on the Pi Zero 2, this is not an issue at all. I'm using the ili driver with no issues at all and the difference is night and day. Being able to use better cores is also a huge plus since the Pi Zero 2 has the extra power. Here's a summary of the cores I'm running now compared to before:

Pi Zero:
-NES: QuickNES. Nestopia or FCEUM could not run at full speed.
-SNES: SNES 9x old versions, lr-armsnes or PiSNES for speed. Could not play any SuperFX games or special games like All Stars, Kirby Superstar.
-GB, GBC: Gambette, ran perfectly fine even with ili driver.
-GBA: lr-gpsp. This runs most games fine with the GBA BIOS but with the ili driver it would stutter every few seconds.
-Genesis: Picodrive. Again, same as GBA.
-PSX: Amazingly enough ran perfect with the non-lr core of PCSX-ReARMed for some games. 3D heavy games didn't not run well as expected.
-N64: Forget about it.

Pi Zero 2:
-NES: lr-FCEUM. Runs beautiful! No skips at all.
-SNES: lr-snes9x2010. Again, runs beautiful with no skips. It's great playing Kirby SuperStar on the go!
-GB, GBC, GBA: Gambette and lr-MGBA. All consoles perfect! Some games on GBA that were not playable are 100% playable now.
-Genesis: I have yet to try it but I have no doubts.
-PSX: Using lr-pcsxrearmed. So far I've encountered minimal slowdown but otherwise I can actually play THPS1+2 and CTR with no slowdown at all. Extremely impressive! Brave Fencer Musaahi works great too, and Silent Hill plays fine.
-N64: using lr-mupen64plus and running Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. at full speed! The other mupen64 cores are quite slow which is expected.

I want to try other consoles. I'm really excited for PSP and NeoGeo emulation! Thanks for supplying a new image Flavor, this is great stuff.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are ili drivers?

(01-10-2022, 10:43 AM)TexasPorcupine Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-09-2022, 11:49 AM)Ordinary Vanity Wrote: [ -> ]So I finally had a chance to de-solder the GPIO header from my Pi Zero to put on my Pi Zero 2. Flashed the test image and so far so good. In fact, it's even better than I could have imagined. On the Pi Zero, I had to resort to fast emulators with low accuracy, which means some games were not playable at all. Combined with the ili driver, even games with full speed would stutter. I assume this is because the CPU would spike at 100% every few seconds. This ultimately forced me to not use the ili driver which was okay, but not optimal.

Now, on the Pi Zero 2, this is not an issue at all. I'm using the ili driver with no issues at all and the difference is night and day. Being able to use better cores is also a huge plus since the Pi Zero 2 has the extra power. Here's a summary of the cores I'm running now compared to before:

Pi Zero:
-NES: QuickNES. Nestopia or FCEUM could not run at full speed.
-SNES: SNES 9x old versions, lr-armsnes or PiSNES for speed. Could not play any SuperFX games or special games like All Stars, Kirby Superstar.
-GB, GBC: Gambette, ran perfectly fine even with ili driver.
-GBA: lr-gpsp. This runs most games fine with the GBA BIOS but with the ili driver it would stutter every few seconds.
-Genesis: Picodrive. Again, same as GBA.
-PSX: Amazingly enough ran perfect with the non-lr core of PCSX-ReARMed for some games. 3D heavy games didn't not run well as expected.
-N64: Forget about it.

Pi Zero 2:
-NES: lr-FCEUM. Runs beautiful! No skips at all.
-SNES: lr-snes9x2010. Again, runs beautiful with no skips. It's great playing Kirby SuperStar on the go!
-GB, GBC, GBA: Gambette and lr-MGBA. All consoles perfect! Some games on GBA that were not playable are 100% playable now.
-Genesis: I have yet to try it but I have no doubts.
-PSX: Using lr-pcsxrearmed. So far I've encountered minimal slowdown but otherwise I can actually play THPS1+2 and CTR with no slowdown at all. Extremely impressive! Brave Fencer Musaahi works great too, and Silent Hill plays fine.
-N64: using lr-mupen64plus and running Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. at full speed! The other mupen64 cores are quite slow which is expected.

I want to try other consoles. I'm really excited for PSP and NeoGeo emulation! Thanks for supplying a new image Flavor, this is great stuff.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are ili drivers?

They are the display drivers that are packaged with the Freeplay images: https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341

Quote:They are the display drivers that are packaged with the Freeplay images: https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341

Oh, I see. I'm not linux savvy enough to know how to enable or disable that. I do well to change configuration files and use terminal commands ?

(01-13-2022, 12:52 PM)TexasPorcupine Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:They are the display drivers that are packaged with the Freeplay images: https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341

Oh, I see. I'm not linux savvy enough to know how to enable or disable that. I do well to change configuration files and use terminal commands ?

You can change the display driver in the Freeplay Options menu in Emulation Station. If you have a Pi Zero 2 or better I definitely recommend it!