Homebrew Question Smooth n64 Emulation on switch with retroarch

[JayMathis]

Certain games will require different settings that most will not have right off the top of their head. It's just part of it. Unless you're not overclocking in Retroarch you haven't said you are or aren't. If you aren't you should try that I've used max overclock for a year and a half and never had an issue with my Switch at all.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Only like 50% of games will run full speed.

 

[JayMathis]

Only like 50% of games will run full speed.

I disagree I'd say it's more like 80% do 20% don't. In fact of our my rom collection only 2 didn't run full speed and that's 40 or 50 or so.

 

[landysmods]

Might be an unnecessary comment, but also make sure you have the rewind function in retroarch disabled.

 

[Kerbangman]

I have the extra ram and tried every setting but still have slow down and stuttering.
have tried upping the speed etc and does make a difference but still has that stutter.
It had worked once when I had a v1.7 ish version installed then just stopped working after that.
Updated to the latest version and pretty bad now.
I remember that there was a config change a while bad but i guess all thats now standard in the config.

Hearing that someone has two switches and both behave different with regards the N64 core suggests its a quirk in the core with version of switch firmware etc.

Probably going to give up trying

 

[The Real Jdbye]

yeah can't explain it, do all the typical steps but still doesn't run nice and smoothly, frustrating because i got the switch for some mobile emulation but can't seem to get it running smoothly

I have the extra ram and tried every setting but still have slow down and stuttering.
have tried upping the speed etc and does make a difference but still has that stutter.
It had worked once when I had a v1.7 ish version installed then just stopped working after that.
Updated to the latest version and pretty bad now.
I remember that there was a config change a while bad but i guess all thats now standard in the config.

Hearing that someone has two switches and both behave different with regards the N64 core suggests its a quirk in the core with version of switch firmware etc.

Probably going to give up trying

Try Switchroot Android or Lakka. OpenGL doesn't work in HOS so some emulators run much slower than they should and also drain the battery more.

 

[Geridious4]

Try Switchroot Android or Lakka. OpenGL doesn't work in HOS so some emulators run much slower than they should and also drain the battery more.

thank you for your reply, a while back I did try Lakka and still had the same issues but perhaps ill give it another go.

Would overclocking retroarch be safe on the switch to test it and if it works continue with that method? If so what safe overclocking number should I try it with?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

thank you for your reply, a while back I did try Lakka and still had the same issues but perhaps ill give it another go.

Would overclocking retroarch be safe on the switch to test it and if it works continue with that method? If so what safe overclocking number should I try it with?

A light OC is probably safe but heavy OC could damage the battery if the console is not plugged in to the charger. On Switchroot Android I use the Quick profile (1.4 GHz CPU / 768 MHz GPU) and the console barely gets warm, the battery does not heat up at all, but I wouldn't go higher than that, and I would monitor how warm the back of the console gets especially in the battery area opposite of where the fan is.

 

[DaniPoo]

Sometimes I have to overclock GPU or Dock to get full speed, especially if im running a higher resolution with FB emulation enabled. Disabling framebuffer emulation can sometimes solve performance issues in handheld mode.

 

[Geridious4]

Sometimes I have to overclock GPU or Dock to get full speed, especially if im running a higher resolution with FB emulation enabled. Disabling framebuffer emulation can sometimes solve performance issues in handheld mode.

Appreciate the reply, yeah I even have issues when it's docked, weirdest thing but anyways i'll try some options including overclock and your framebuffer to see, willing to try anything, just want my pokemon stadium 2 to run smoothly haha thanks

 

[Reecey]

I’ve been using n64 emulation with the latest nightly build of Retroarch, games run nearly perfect for me I use> The Turing Test as my base nsp, hold R start up Retroarch then for settings use full overclocking, Drivers/Audio switch_thread, video/output gl, resampler quality lowest, scaling 30:17 crop overscan off, bilinear filtering on, latency/poll type behaviour Early> save configuration and try that out

Edit: I am using sxos cfw but I have noticed that sometimes it corrupts the sd card, it will read 4tb on data management in settings you then have to power down your switch and turn it back on again. This is probably because I’m using exfat but it’s not really a big problem

 

[nWo]

One question: The framebuffer, if it is "OFF", what do we lose? What`s it purpose? Sorry if it`s a stupid question but I have tried with that on and off and "OFF" there is a slight better emulation.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Sometimes I have to overclock GPU or Dock to get full speed, especially if im running a higher resolution with FB emulation enabled. Disabling framebuffer emulation can sometimes solve performance issues in handheld mode.

Please explain how you managed to overclock your dock

 

[LargeBoss]

All of my N64 games now run very poorly, which is strange as they all used to run absolutely fine.
I don't think I've changed any settings to cause it (but have since changed some trying to fix it), and I've tried launching retroarch with full RAM access.

As far as I'm aware I've only played MGS on PS1 emulator for a while and now my N64 games all run so badly

 

[izy]

A light OC is probably safe but heavy OC could damage the battery if the console is not plugged in to the charger. On Switchroot Android I use the Quick profile (1.4 GHz CPU / 768 MHz GPU) and the console barely gets warm, the battery does not heat up at all, but I wouldn't go higher than that, and I would monitor how warm the back of the console gets especially in the battery area opposite of where the fan is.

I wouldnt worry about the battery at all you gonna have to pulling some hard power draws to get to dangerous levels.

Which cant be done by a chip at max speeds can only draw 15 watt

If you really want to avoid heat replace that trash thermal paste, remove the stupid copper sticker and that dumb aluminium backplate that restricts airflow

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I wouldnt worry about the battery at all you gonna have to pulling some hard power draws to get to dangerous levels.

Which cant be done by a chip at max speeds can only draw 15 watt

If you really want to avoid heat replace that trash thermal paste, remove the stupid copper sticker and that dumb aluminium backplate that restricts airflow

At least one person managed to get their battery to swell by OCing.
And you know, that backplate also acts as a heatsink.

 

[izy]

At least one person managed to get their battery to swell by OCing.
And you know, that backplate also acts as a heatsink.

i mean that was beware a year ago, using heavy overclocking and lakka nearly perma.

even then that was the only relation the cause is still unknown as mentioned most likely it was a battery fault

also with a heavy OC foundry tested 67c temperature and 15-19w Draws but remember its technically not an oc its returning to stock speeds

stock temperature was 60c changes to the thermals can make a big difference.


at least i can wait for this Mariko modchip to come out so we get the bonus of better power consumption and a cooler chip ontop of a higher clock limit

 

[phonz]

hey y'all, It's been awhile since i used mupen64plusnext on the Switch, but it ran fine for me.
If your game seems sluggish and you are overclocking, it could be that is actually how the game performs on Nintendo hardware.
I know when I played through Star Wars Rogue Squadron, i enabled Framebuffer effects (so things looked right) and overclocked to 1.5GHz and it ran like N64 would, and then I disabled the framerate limiter and it ran AMAZING.

So yeah, try disabling Framerate Limiter if you haven't.
I know the base core's (mupen64plus) frame rate limiter has been an issue in the past.

 

[Geridious4]

Please explain how you managed to overclock your dock

I tried over clocking retroarch and it did not work, still video stuttering when loading up Pokemon Stadium 2, i also tried Lakka, still same issues, very very strange.

hey y'all, It's been awhile since i used mupen64plusnext on the Switch, but it ran fine for me.
If your game seems sluggish and you are overclocking, it could be that is actually how the game performs on Nintendo hardware.
I know when I played through Star Wars Rogue Squadron, i enabled Framebuffer effects (so things looked right) and overclocked to 1.5GHz and it ran like N64 would, and then I disabled the framerate limiter and it ran AMAZING.

So yeah, try disabling Framerate Limiter if you haven't.
I know the base core's (mupen64plus) frame rate limiter has been an issue in the past.

thanks for your reply, I've tried those options, if someone perhaps could test pokemon stadium 2 and Mario kart to see if they get any video stuttering I suppose.

As an update nothing has worked sadly, I've tried everyone suggestions and just hasnt worked at all. Pokemon stadium 2 has video stuttering, test mario kart as well and I still get video stuttering both drop the audio as well when video stuttering.

As this point, heck if someone could solve the issue i'd pay them because this is getting so frustrating, 90% of the reason I hacked the switch was to play n64 games.

I appreciate everyone's help so far, just can't seem to find any solution.

 

[JayMathis]

There may just not be a solution for those games. No one should expect 100% compatibility.