What's the best emulation + CRT setup to minimize latency?

[ChiefReginod]

Just to clarify, I'm not just looking for specific emulators. This topic is about finding the best system to use with a CRT TV to minimize latency and recreate the original experience as closely as possible. This could be either a PC with a graphics card that has the right outputs or a modded console with analog outputs like the original Xbox, PS3, Wii, etc. Whatever has the lowest amount of latency from system to screen. For the sake of this topic let's assume we're only talking the usual about 8 and 16-bit systems.

Controller I/O speed is also a factor. Wired is probably faster than RF or bluetooth, but if the wired input is USB that could maybe add some latency as well. To be honest I don't know much about this. It might not even be significant compared to display lag.

What do you think is the best setup?

 

[FAST6191]

Is this for a poor man's measuring/comparison setup or for actual play? If for actual play do you actually notice it that much?

Similarly we have seen a few devices ( https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=Game_Boy_Interface/Speedrunning_Edition ) and emulators improve on original system latency by various means (if the copying of the control state and acting upon it happened late this would skip that, some also did predictive things).

Anyway I would imagine something that also works with CRT is probably best. That does in turn mean PS3, original xbox (though 360 can use analogue out and its homebrew scene picked up a tiny bit), and wii. Never really seen anybody set out to measure them properly though (glitches in emulation or lack of options over PC usually being the issue there), and while the odd speedrunner might care at some level they tend to go for consistency more.

Wonder where this one will go.

 

[ChiefReginod]

I notice it for sure on some setups, especially if an emulator is already pushing a system to its max. SNES9x on PSP is a good example. Most games are fine but there's very noticeable latency on some, even in games without a ton of graphic effects.

I have a PC graphics card with composite out but there's noticeable display lag even comparing it side by side with the PC's HD monitor. I'm sure there are cards that output analog faster since this depends on the digital-to-analog conversion process, but the point is that it's not the same from chip to chip. This is why I'm not so sure that the presence of analog output on consoles is a good indicator of display speed. The DAC speed is surely better on some than others.

Ultimately I just want to play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out without wondering whether it's the latency or I'm just not fast enough anymore.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Something that should be kept in mind is that all emulation, regardless of platform, will have some input lag.

But, the Libretro team actually developed a method to remove nearly all perceivable input these days so whatever you choose to use for emulation, you should be using Retrorach, and you should make sure it supports their latency reduction setting (I believe PC, Android, iOS, PS3, Wii, and OG Xbox all did at launch, but I'm not 100% sure if they added any additional platforms after that).

I believe the best platform for native CRT support would probably be the Wii, it supports 240p officially (although for emulators I believe you need to edit certain settings to enable it, but that's not a problem), should play all 8-16bit consoles without issues, and does support the latency reduction option on Retroarch so there should be minimal perceivable input lag for whatever you're doing.

 

[JuanMena]

CRT?
PC:


Wii + Sony Trinitron:

 

[Fishaman P]

CRT Emudriver v2, Retroarch with all of its input tweaks (late polling, runahead, swapchain/audio buffer settings), parallel port wired controllers if your system can do it otherwise USB controllers. Teensy is a good choice to make low lag controller adapters.