Some samples are not working

[paradadf]

fireshrk ghox mario vimana

Interestingly, the sample "mario" lets you only hear Mario running, but no other sounds.

[RetroUp]

Mario audio doesn't work in FBA. Upstream issue.

The others do work. You probably have older versions of the samples. Download newest ones from http://www.progettosnaps.net/samples/

[barbudreadmon]

Also, fireshark, vimana and tekipaki's roms were finally dumped with audio (see http://caps0ff.blogspot.fr/), so next version of fba won't need the sample for those.

[paradadf]

I tried using both samples from the site you posted (both 0.180 and 0.170) and the there was no sound at all. @RetroUp have you tested them? @barbudreadmon I'm actually surprised that with the latest core changes, I can't even launch those games anymore on my RPi2 (besides Mario). I think this issue is still valid.

[RetroUp]

Yes, the 180 samples worked for me but they are 7z and Libretro FBA is compiled with only zip support. Convert to zip and you should be good. Make sure system path is set correct.

The 170 samples also work if you add missing wav files from samesame.zip to fireshark.zip and vimana.zip.

[paradadf]

Of course I converted them to zip files, and my sample path is correct as the other samples work. I don't know what hardware you are using but on a RPi2, this isn't working.

[barbudreadmon]

I can't reproduce your issue, those games launch with or without the samples for me, and with the samples i get sound. Could you post some log ? I'm wondering if it could be a ram issue, it seems retroarch use a lot of ram (around 450M, which is 10x ram used for mario, 4x ram used for cps3 games, ...) with those games, so perhaps you should try lowering your gpu_mem.

[barbudreadmon]

I can confirm those games use only around 45M of ram when i remove their samples, and i don't think i'll be able to fix a ram limitation issue. Also, 7z files should load with my latest commit.

[paradadf]

Does this log tell you something? http://pastebin.com/8bgDXsRF

[barbudreadmon]

There is nothing after that ? Could you post the output of 'dmesg' after trying to launch those games ? Also, try removing the samples for those games to see if they launch.

[paradadf]

There was nothing else after that. dmesg output: http://pastebin.com/0WAkyAKi Removing the samples did allow the games to boot.

EDIT: I just checked my config.txt and my gpu_mem shows (RPi2): gpu_mem_1024=512

[RetroUp]

Use "masao" instead of "mario". It doesn't require samples. Only difference is the text.

For fireshrk and vimana, wait for the next release of FBA. I don't think it will be very long.

For Ghox I think you will have to play without sound or on something with more memory than a pi.

[paradadf]

Well, thank you! I just tried lowering the gpu_mem_1024 to 448 and fireshrk booted. gpu_mem_1024=384 allowed me to boot ghox.

UPDATE: gpu_mem_1024=360 booted vimana.

[dankcushions]

FYI the default 256 mb vram is very sufficient for emulation on the pi, unless you're doing something specialist

[paradadf]

@dankcushions vimana doesn't boot (again) if I lower the gpu_mem_1024 to 320, even less with only 256 (having samples!).

[dankcushions]

@paradadf samples would only use available system ram, not gpu_mem. i just tried it in FBA with samples and it worked for me with 256 MB gpu mem. it used 82% of my memory though, so definitely could depend on your environment

[paradadf]

@dankcushions I use recalbox, so RAM isn't (or shouldn't be) actually a problem. It's not that every sample is causing me problems, but the ones I mentioned. Does vimana works for you (including sound) wirh only 256 mb gpu mem?

[dankcushions]

Does vimana works for you (including sound) wirh only 256 mb gpu mem?

yes, in retropie 4.x

[RetroUp]

The files are uncompressed then stored in memory. The other samples are under 500k. These are over 150mb. That is a big difference.

[paradadf]

What I'm quite not understanding is why, being recalbox a lightweight linux distro (and much lighter than retropie), the samples (or to be specific: vimana sample) are not working for me with gpu_mem greater than 360 and lower than 320 (haven't tested 330 to see the exact point). RAM can't be an issue as the sample is working with that modification. I use a RPi2, but the RPi3 has the same amount of RAM.

[dankcushions]

the linux part of either distro shouldn't use much memory really. are you using xmb in retroarch? retropie uses rgui. i'm also using a very light emulationstation theme.

well, it works for retropie anyway :)

[paradadf]

Nope, my theme is relatively light. Around 50 mb VRAM. And using rgui too.

[barbudreadmon]

Is recalbox heavily optimized with -O3 ? (cflags)

Edit : i think i understand, recalbox doesn't configure any swap at all ?

[substring]

there's a tmpfs on RAM, we don't want to set a tmp partition on a SD

[barbudreadmon]

That doesn't help either, so basically part of your ram is used to store your tmp files and you don't have a swap partition for when you need some extra memory. With those settings, your raspberry won't be able to allocate the 650/700M of memory needed for this game with samples. Also, my changes from 26/11 and 27/11 didn't help : toaplan samples were disabled before those commits, and increasing samplerate also increased memory consumption. You'll have to remove the samples for this game and wait for next fba release.

[paradadf]

What I don't understand is why, if this should be a RAM problem, the samples do work lowering gpu_mem from 512 (default) to 360.

[barbudreadmon]

Your ram for application = 1024 - gpu_mem

[paradadf]

Ok, but a gpu_mem from 320 won't boot vimana anymore. And apparently wirh retropie just 256 are enough 🤔. Any idea why this could be happening?

[barbudreadmon]

Allocating 320M to your gpu means you have 704M remaining for :

• your OS with other programs in the background
• the content of your /tmp directory (since /tmp is mounted as tmpfs)
• the game

The game needs 700M for me.

Do you play N64 ? it is probably the only emulator who needs gpu_mem above 128.

[barbudreadmon]

Actually i'm not sure you understood well : the higher your gpu_mem, the less ram you have

[paradadf]

I understood your explanation (or I believe so), but according to it lowering the 360-350 gpu mem that works for me to 320 or even less should actually be better in term of available ram. And as I said before, with 320 the game doesn't boot for me anymore. What am I not getting here? Sorry if this is a silly question but I really don't see it.

[barbudreadmon]

You mean the game launch when you set gpu_mem at 360, but not when you set it at 320 ? That would be weird indeed.

[paradadf]

Yes, that's what I meant.

[barbudreadmon]

Hmmm could you give the output of "vcgencmd get_mem gpu" when you set gpu_mem to 360 ? I suspect this is not a valid value, which could cause the gpu_mem to be set at default (which is 64 if i remember well)

[paradadf]

I get gpu_mem=360M when it is set to that value, correspondingly for 350 and 320. With just 64 ES doesn't boot.

[barbudreadmon]

Sorry i have no explanation, this is a weird setup issue, especially since i'm pretty sure this game shouldn't work with your setup at 360M (664M for system + tmp files + the game with working samples seems definitely not enough to me).

[paradadf]

After having change gpu_freq once on my RPi2, without explanation, gpu_mem_1024=256 allowed me to boot vimana (the most problematic sample for me). There is a gap between 340 and 260 which I can't explain. For the record I post here my results:

Thanks to everyone for the help on solving this issue, which didn't have anything to do with the core but with my setup.

[KnightMadeILL]

Really dumb, n00b question for you. But the upside is, it will be VERY easy to answer: When putting the samples into the samples folder in the bios folder, do I unzip them first so the samples folder is a big ol' list of .wav files, or do I put the samples in as .zip s, by game-name?

[barbudreadmon]

They need to be zipped. Also, vimana, fireshrk (and ghox ?) don't need those samples anymore (their spu got dumped a few months ago)

[KnightMadeILL]

Thanks!!