Emulator Issues #4564 Lag While Running Games from DVD
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Emulator - Emulator Issues #4564 Lag while running games from DVD. 06/05/2011 05:57 AM - arturbc93 Status: Accepted % Done: 0% Priority: Low Assignee: Category: Target version: Operating system: N/A Relates to Yes performance: Issue type: Bug Easy: No Milestone: Relates to No maintainability: Regression: No Regression start: Relates to usability: No Fixed in: Description What's the problem? Many games are too slow while they are reading the DVD. Some games freeze when running videos when running the DVD. Dolphin version with the problem (as it appears in the title bar, Ex.: "R 4779" or "R 6403M"): Dolphin r7583 Operating system and version: 32-bit or 64-bit: Both Game ID (as it appears in game properties, Ex.: "GZ2P01" or "RSBE01"): Any Game. Build command-line (not on Windows): Was the ISO a plain dump from disc, compressed and/or scrubbed? from disc Please provide any additional information below. In other emulators that happens, PCSX for example, is the storage in the disk cache that makes it very slow, disabling the cache, the game runs much better, but in PCSX2, the problem was corrected by reducing the demand for DVD drive emulator, allowing re-enable the option in Speed hacks, this hack allows the loading time of games are faster, but it is the same that is happening in the Dolphin. History #1 - 06/05/2011 07:49 AM - MofoMan2000 What kind of DVD drive can Dolphin use to read GCN/Wii games anyway? Because it won't even use my LG 8362b (or whatever) that I use with Rawdump2 to rip ROMs. #2 - 06/05/2011 03:07 PM - lpfaint99 It only works with backups burnt to disc with any dvd drive #3 - 06/05/2011 04:54 PM - arturbc93 Well, I'm not talking something that is easy to fix, because as originally posted, this also happened with other emulators that I use, but managed to fix them, why the dolphin would not have this opportunity to fix or at least improve it?! 09/30/2021 1/5 My drive to read games is an LG "BH10LS30" BD-RE and tested games work well on the Wii! #4 - 06/14/2011 07:09 PM - mbc07 Have you tried "Speed up Disc Transfer"? #5 - 06/15/2011 12:39 AM - arturbc93 I tried but just got worse. I think to improve this should be done the opposite. This could cause a slight increase in load time of the game, but I think it would help start the games faster and give less trouble playing video and loadings the same time. On PCSX2 they corrected this problem by using something like that, but before, loading the game kept crashing sound, animations, etc, equal to Dolphin, but after they made that improvement, the emulation works without crashes using the DVD then after this improvement almost there is no difference between using the image and use the DVD, I think here at the Dolphin would do something like that. Sorry for my bad writing. #6 - 01/21/2013 05:54 AM - Billiard26 - Status changed from New to Questionable - Relates to performance set to Yes For testing purposes, please list game(s) greatly affected by disc read latency. #7 - 01/21/2013 02:06 PM - mbc07 The only issue I encountered when running a backup disc directly from DVD drive was slow loading time and some stuttering when the disc stop spinning: for example, in Zelda TP, when you go to a room, data is read from the disc. After you stay some minutes in this room (the amount vary from drive to drive), the disc stop spinning, but the game still works ok. Then, if you go to another room, the game will become unresponsible until the drive start reading the disc again, but no crashing or any other issue with Dolphin, just some stuttering... #8 - 01/24/2013 01:19 AM - arturbc93 I have posted this issue, because other emulators "PCSX2 and ePSXe" had a similar problem but both patched decreasing dependence of emulator to the data from DVD. So, on Dolphin, every time the emulator performs a reading on the DVD, the game freezes while this read don't finish. If the game needs to maintain a constant reading, you can not play from DVD, some times, if you are playing a game too long time and the DVD drive stop spinning, when reading back, the emulator crash, and now on last version, if I try a left click on game from DVD on game list, the emulador show a message "An unhandled exception occurred. Press "Abort" to terminate the program, "Retry" to exit the program normally and "Ignore"to continue.". Examples: Naruto Shippuden Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (RNEEDA) on load of subtitles and dialogues, Red Steel 2 (RD2E41) on load of new scenarios and fast moves, Wii Sports (RSPE01) on load of finish match celebration, race games, etc... #9 - 04/10/2013 01:55 AM - Billiard26 - Issue type set to Bug #10 - 12/02/2014 11:33 AM - ZephyrSurfer Can this be retested on latest since the disc read changes. #11 - 12/02/2014 11:48 AM - JosJuice 09/30/2021 2/5 The disc read changes are unlikely to have any meaningful impact on this issue. The problem of disc reads (real ones, not emulated ones) pausing the CPU thread until they're done remains. #12 - 12/03/2014 10:17 AM - ZephyrSurfer Is there a way to solve some issues by keeping the disc spinning. That part should be relatively easy to fix; I think. Might require a load from drive option in the GUI -> File though. #13 - 12/03/2014 01:58 PM - mbc07 The GUI already have an option like that, it's under File menu... #14 - 12/03/2014 03:16 PM - ZephyrSurfer My bad. I don't have dolphin in front of me. #15 - 03/01/2015 09:32 AM - JosJuice PR 2149 should improve the performance when reading from discs. Could someone who has a DVD drive and a burned copy of a game test it? A Windows build is available at: http://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-2149-dolphin-latest-x64.7z #16 - 03/02/2015 03:59 AM - mbc07 Did a quick test with Donkey Kong Country Returns (burned on a regular DVD+RW disc) and and PR 2149 works the same as master performance-wise: lots of stuttering when the game is reading data from the disk (loading screens, transitions to other areas, etc)... #17 - 03/02/2015 08:19 AM - JosJuice How fast is your disc drive? I think a 6x-8x drive should be fast enough to handle Wii games, or at least fast enough to notice a difference from this PR, but maybe not... Also, turn Speed Up Disc Transfer Rate off if you had it on. #18 - 03/03/2015 03:27 AM - mbc07 I tested in a clean copy, so Speed Up Disc Transfer Rate was off (and I checked again before booting). My disc drive can read DVD media up to 16x and the DVD+RW disc I used can be read up to 10x. In that setup, there's no difference between master and PR 2149. Maybe my DVD+RW disc is limiting the read speed? #19 - 03/04/2015 03:13 AM - mbc07 Hey JosJuice, I tested your PR more and there's no difference between using a DVD+RW disc or a DVD-R. I re burned Zelda TP (GC) and DKCR (Wii) in a faster DVD-R disc and the results were the same. Using an optical drive benchmark tool I could get read speeds of around 10x with the DVD+RW disc and around 16x with the DVD-R disc, so I'm crossing the disc and optical drive from the possible culprits. < PS: besides veeery basic C skills, I have zero knowledge about how Dolphin emulate disc reads or how it should behave when reading data from backup discs, so, for anyone reading this, please ignore any non-sense I may have written below > I think the code that handles DVD reads from a backup disc isn't async and that's the cause of stuttering, so, this issue may be completely unrelated to the changes from JosJuice's PR: from my understanding, his PR changes only when the read occur (this read command, at least for DVD backups, is executed somewhere else). Enabling logging, I could see when the game asked data from disc (thanks to FileMon) and what I noted is that when a new FileMon entry show in the log, the game will freeze while the drive is seeking (it's very quick if the disc already is spinning, I guess the seeks takes around 100-200ms in my drive) but will unfreeze when the data starts to be "streamed". For example, leaving Zelda TP at title screen will play a video, while the game is loading the required files (probably the code responsible for the video player) I note that for every new FileMon entry the game freezes momentarily, but since the seek times are small, the game unfreeze quickly too (hence the sensation of stuttering). However, as soon as it starts "streaming" the movie file (around 140 MB), all stuttering goes away (I guess it's because the drive doesn't need to seek to anywhere else while the movie is playing). This micro stuttering occurs again when you're walking around in the game and go near a door or new map area (sections from Hyrule Field, doors from dungeons, etc) and it's even more noticeable when the disc stop spinning.