Ultimate Pi Zero Thread (Playstation at full speed?)

[Flavor]

I came across this Reddit post over the weekend.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/commen...ro_thread/

It talks about several aspects of setting up a Pi Zero to run different things, and he claims to be able to run PSX (Playstation) at or near full speed using his method.  I thought that some of you might be interested in that.

Let us know if you attempt any of this on your Freeplay Zero.

[Ordinary Vanity]

I came across this Reddit post over the weekend.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/commen...ro_thread/

It talks about several aspects of setting up a Pi Zero to run different things, and he claims to be able to run PSX (Playstation) at or near full speed using his method.  I thought that some of you might be interested in that.

Let us know if you attempt any of this on your Freeplay Zero.

Yep. He's right. Using the standalone, non-libretro PCSX-ReARMed core, most games play flawlessly. To give you examples, I've completed all three Resident Evil games with no issues, Metal Gear Solid runs full speed, even Gran Turismo 2 runs no issues. 

Some games are hit or miss: Tomb Raider seems a little too taxing for the pi zero, as is Brave Fencer Musashi and some Tony Hawk games. I could post some gameplay videos to show some capabilities for anyone that is curious.

[Porcinus]

It look like that there is not fully support m3u when PCSX-ReARMed is running as standalone.
https://github.com/notaz/pcsx_rearmed/bl...so.c#L1245

You can play multi disk game by converting them in PBP format using PSX2PSP : https://www.reddit.com/r/miniSNESmods/co...s_game_in/
You may not need to do the whole process, I personally stop after convert step and this work fine. Quick note : I am not sure compressed PBP files work with RetroArch.

Take what I am going to say with caution, this can destroy your progress : you can use Retroarch save state on PCSX-ReARMed but reverse not work. PCSX-ReARMed save state are far lighter than Retroarch one. If you want to try (filename given for example) :
- Load a game on PCSX-ReARMed and make a save state, close the emulator.
- Recover RetroArch save state you want to use (Parasite Eve 1.state) from '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx'.
- Copy files in '/opt/retropie/configs/psx/pcsx/sstates' and rename 'Parasite Eve 1.state' to PCSX-ReARMed save state filename (PE-FR-CD1-PEFRCD1.000).
- Load the game on PCSX-ReARMed, load the save state and save it just after.
Note: On multi disk games, each CD have its own save state.

I have make a program to keep compatibility between Retroarch memcard and PCSX-ReARMed memcard.
When running a game from Retroarch, each game have its own memcard file, this is not the case with PCSX-ReARMed.
Basically it will create a symlink from '/opt/retropie/configs/psx/pcsx/memcards/card1.mcd' to '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx/GAME.srm' with various check.
Note: memcard is looking to work fine in both direction on my side.

If someone want to test the program : https://github.com/porcinus/pcsx-rearmed-launcher
Before starting any game, you should consider backup all '.srm' files located in '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx'.

[Ordinary Vanity]

It look like that there is not fully support m3u when PCSX-ReARMed is running as standalone.
https://github.com/notaz/pcsx_rearmed/bl...so.c#L1245

You can play multi disk game by converting them in PBP format using PSX2PSP : https://www.reddit.com/r/miniSNESmods/co...s_game_in/
You may not need to do the whole process, I personally stop after convert step and this work fine. Quick note : I am not sure compressed PBP files work with RetroArch.

Take what I am going to say with caution, this can destroy your progress : you can use Retroarch save state on PCSX-ReARMed but reverse not work. PCSX-ReARMed save state are far lighter than Retroarch one. If you want to try (filename given for example) :
- Load a game on PCSX-ReARMed and make a save state, close the emulator.
- Recover RetroArch save state you want to use (Parasite Eve 1.state) from '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx'.
- Copy files in '/opt/retropie/configs/psx/pcsx/sstates' and rename 'Parasite Eve 1.state' to PCSX-ReARMed save state filename (PE-FR-CD1-PEFRCD1.000).
- Load the game on PCSX-ReARMed, load the save state and save it just after.
Note: On multi disk games, each CD have its own save state.

I have make a program to keep compatibility between Retroarch memcard and PCSX-ReARMed memcard.
When running a game from Retroarch, each game have its own memcard file, this is not the case with PCSX-ReARMed.
Basically it will create a symlink from '/opt/retropie/configs/psx/pcsx/memcards/card1.mcd' to '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx/GAME.srm' with various check.
Note: memcard is looking to work fine in both direction on my side.

If someone want to test the program : https://github.com/porcinus/pcsx-rearmed-launcher
Before starting any game, you should consider backup all '.srm' files located in '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx'.

Yeah, multi disc games have trouble. How would your program work with a game like Resident Evil 2 for example, where loading a save file after completing the game let's you start the next character's story? With different memcards, you wouldn't be able to load the previous save. Of course this is only one example that can be easily worked around.

Regarding some video troubles:
It's too bad that the default video driver is severely limited. There seems to be a way to change drivers (As far as I can tell, the emulator isn't even using Exophase's NEON GPU core but instead it's using the Unai driver from PCSX4ALL) by setting some parameters before compiling. You certainly cannot change them in the emulator itself or in the config file.

[Porcinus]

Resident Evil 2 is particular but can be consider as a multi disk game, if you combine Leon and Claire CD into one file, it should work, you will just have to switch CD when start the emulator. Another option is to use memcard 2 that is untouched but the launcher.

[Ordinary Vanity]

Resident Evil 2 is particular but can be consider as a multi disk game, if you combine Leon and Claire CD into one file, it should work, you will just have to switch CD when start the emulator. Another option is to use memcard 2 that is untouched but the launcher.

Ah, okay. Makes sense!

Got some games to report. These were all ran on my Freeplay Zero with the experimental DMA driver.

Silent Hill: runs flawlessly, but objects have a white bounding box around them due to the default Unai graphics driver in PCSX-ReARMed not having a mask bit option. Menus, logos and still images have some black bars present in OpenGL. In SDL, no problems occur, but aspect ratio for menus and still images is squished.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - No issues, minor slowdown with some framebuffer effects (full HP items dropped from bosses hit FPS pretty hard but again that's minor).

Resident Evil 1-3: Working flawlessly. Some minor glitches in 3 where explosions are used, but nothing game breaking.

Brave Fencer Musashi: Surprisingly a little too taxing for the pi zero. Frame rate isn't quite enough, and there's a bug that doesn't allow rapid pressing of buttons, so you can't steal abilities from enemies.

Metal Gear Solid: I've only played up to meeting Meryl, bit so far it's been pretty much perfect. Motion blur effects don't emulate properly, but it's not a game breaker.

Tomb Raider 2: Runs fine, but can be slow in big open areas. Lara's mansion chugs a bit for example. First level seemed fine though, which isn't as open.

Twisted Metal 2: runs great! Can't really play it on my FPZ due to not having L2 and R2 buttons but it works just fine from what I can tell.

I will be testing more games, but in the meantime, it would be great if the emulator itself could be compiled with Exophase's NEON GPU core enabled by default, as their readme says that graphics options are limited to what the package is compiled with.

[sneakypebbles]

How did you guys get the standalone working on your Freeplay zero? When I installed it and tried to run a game on PCSX-ReARMed I just got a black screen.

[Porcinus]

Maybe your problem come from a wrong BIOS file, PCSX-ReARMed only support SCPH1001.BIN (the filename must be capitalized).

[Ordinary Vanity]

How did you guys get the standalone working on your Freeplay zero? When I installed it and tried to run a game on PCSX-ReARMed I just got a black screen.

PCSX-ReARMed is really tricky with the screen resolution, in that it won't actually output anything unless it's set higher than 320x240 the first time. I posted on the RetroPie forums but ended up figuring it out:

EDIT: Got it working! I'm not sure why, but it seems that pcsx-rearmed bases its resolution off whatever the framebuffer is set to in /boot/config.txt and NEVER CHANGES, even if the values for frame buffer change. Before installing pcsx-rearmed, I changed my frame buffer to 640x480. Installed the emulator and got it set up with this guide, then changed it back to 320x240 and all is good again.

So yeah, quite a bit to do, but after that it finds a BIOS and works just fine. Just have to configure your controls.