Dosbox Pure core poor performance due to libretro core regression.

[Snowbro88]

Hi, I've tested the new cores supported by Emu4vita plus and in the case of the Dosbox Pure core I can see that it has a bad performance, this is because at some point the core in retroarch was broken, there is an older version about a year old where the core works much better in performance and is able to run almost all 2D games full speed, I have a backup of that version (.elf and .info), I'm not sure if it's useful or possible to replace the core included with Emu4vita plus.

I also report that the Dosbox SVN core seems to not work, I haven't managed to load any game that at least starts in Dosbox Pure core, I just get a generic Vita error and the app closes.

I hope it can be reviewed, thanks for the work on this project.

[noword]

Same issue in other cores, like PCSX. The newest codes have lots of problems.
It took me a long time to realize that it wasn't my problem, it was the newest core's problem.

Can you upload the stable version of Dosbox, maybe I can find the git hash string in the binary files, figure out which version should I use.

Thank you for your attention.

[Snowbro88]

Sure, here I leave you a zip file that includes the Dosbox Pure core with good performance, it seems that in the stable version 1.9.14 of retroarch they still worked well, but they are cores from the beginning of 2022, since then they have not been corrected in their version for Vita by libretro.

It also includes the Hatari core for Atari ST which works and has quite good performance, currently that core crashes in retroarch.

And also the UAE4ARM core for Commodore Amiga that can run almost the entire romset at full speed stable, something similar happened to this core as Dosbox Pure simply lost performance, in this case the developer of the core told me that the problem was caused by a change on the libretro side.

https://mega.nz/file/nto3zRBI#asjPrm6ZyXKaw_2Bbg1jO--mFmEHxGoihGMkOY_lJc8

I link you to the github of the UAE4ARM version for Vita where at some point I reported the problems but they were no longer solved.

libretro/uae4arm-libretro#23

Maybe you can consider adding the Hatari and UAE4ARM cores to Emu4vita Plus and I hope these files can help you in identifying when these problems started and maybe you can use an older version of these cores but with good performance for your Emu4vita plus project.

Thank you very much for your work and attention.

For some reason I can't insert the links correctly but you can copy the text and paste it into a new browser tab, sorry

[noword]

The dosbox-pure version you uploaded is 0.20，the newest version is 0.9.9.
I will roll back to a previous version see what happens.

[noword]

@Snowbro88 you can try the new version now.

[Snowbro88]

@Snowbro88 you can try the new version now.

Hi, I've tried the new version of Emu4vita++ with the dosbox pure core (0.20) and it really works very fast for all 2D games but one problem I find is that when closing any game, going back to arch or even closing the app is impossible, the PS Vita simply hangs and you can't go back to the live area either, you have to turn off the console.

It's just a detail but it would be great if it could be fixed, the best thing about Emu4vita++ is the speed and stability of the menu.

[noword]

Is this problem only in dosbox pure? Or does it happen in other core as well?
Can you upload the ux0:/data/EMU4VITAPLUS/dosbox_pure/config.ini here？
I known why.
Try the new version.

[Snowbro88]

Is this problem only in dosbox pure? Or does it happen in other core as well? Can you upload the ux0:/data/EMU4VITAPLUS/dosbox_pure/config.ini here？ I known why. Try the new version.

Great, now the core works much more stable, you can close the game, return to arch or close the app without it crashing.

I just wanted to comment and I hope I'm not bothering you too much, that in the Dosbox Pure and MAME cores if you run a game and close it to run another automatically it gives a generic vita c-128 error and the app closes, if instead of this you close the core and return to arch or completely close Emu4vita+ there is no problem, the problem is only if you close a game and run another one from the same core.

[noword]

Plz test the new version 0.06.
If the error still occurs, tell me the rom name or dos app you tested, or upload here If it's convenient for you.

[Snowbro88]

Plz test the new version 0.06. If the error still occurs, tell me the rom name or dos app you tested, or upload here If it's convenient for you.

Hello, I have tested version 0.06 of Emu4vita++ and this is what I can tell you:

When closing a game running with the Dosbox Pure core and opening another with the same core, sometimes it works fine but other times it shows unable to change variable with the game running.

On the other hand, the MAME 2003+ core persists the same problem, if you close a game and try to open another with the same core automatically an error c-128 occurs on PS Vita, when exiting to arch or closing the application there is no problem.

The MAME 2003 core currently has error c-128 when trying to open any game, previously this was due to games that are not compatible with cyclone and disabling it solved it but now the error occurs with any game.

MAME 2000 seems to have the same problem when running a new game with the same core

[noword]

Hi, can you tell me. When you first tested dosbox, see the bad performance, which game did you use?

[Snowbro88]

@noword In general, with any game, but for example Prehistorik 2.

I wanted to tell you that in the Emu4vita v0.3 when you changed the core for an older version, it worked well in terms of speed, but in the latest versions the core began to have poor performance again.

[noword]

Plz test the newest release.

[Snowbro88]

@noword I've done some quick tests and the Dosbox Pure core is performing well again.

It is also now possible to close and load a new game more stably, but it seems that both this core and the MAME cores start to have problems when close and loading a third game.

This was fixed in UAE4ARM v0.10 standalone but I can see that you forgot to include the UAE4ARM and vectrex cores in the Emu4vita+ vpk which includes all cores.

Overall this latest update has been very good, it also fixed performance issues in MAME 2003 and 2003+.

Just a few details to polish, I'll try to keep reporting problems, thank you very much for your work.