PCSX-ReARMed under Zaurus Arch Linux

[danboid]

Apparently notaz prefers I start a thread on these forums instead of emailing him so here I am!

I have recently installed Arch Linux on my olde SHARP Zaurus SL-C3000 and, after about 6 years sat unused, it's now running better than ever! Its running Linux 4.2.3 and I've got MAME4ALL, tyr-quake, chocolate-doom, VisualboyAdvance and all sorts of cool stuff running on it but I think PCSX-ReARMed would be the best emulator I could run on it.

PCSX-ReARMed compiled without a hitch. Its menu works fine and I can load .bin ISO images and I can hear the games running but the only graphics I ever see are static title screens apart from when I hit CANCEL (ESC) to bring the menu back up and then, to the right of the menu, I can see the current in-game screen/menu but only when the PCSX menu is on-screen. I have tried both the built-in and Unai GPU plugins but both have the same problem under every game I've tried.

My only display option currently is a 640x480 SDL fbcon display. chocolate-doom works great using this display mode. Unfortunately 320x240 SDL fbcon doesn't work at all and I'm having problems with directfb at the moment.

Has anyone got any tips that might fix my PCSX display? notaz?

Thanks for your help!

PS Here's a video I did of Arch running on the Zaurus

https://www.youtube.com/embed/O7h2FZBsKjg?feature=oembed

 

[danboid]

I've tried the peops GPU driver now too, with and without its "Expand screen" option but that hasn't made any difference.

 

[notaz]

As it was designed for pandora it sets random resolutions the PSX games want and expects the system to take care of it some way, which pandora does using it's hardware scaler. If the device only supports 640x480 it won't work and there is no workaround I can think of.

If you have Gran Turismo you can try that, I think it has 640x480 title screen (US version), you can check if at least that shows up.

 

[danboid]

Hi notaz

Thanks for your reply although its not what I wanted to hear of course. It seems to me PCSX-rearmed supports (or supported) more than just the Pandora (I think I saw mention of the Wiz, Caanoo and GP2X somewhere) and I've read people have got it running on the RPi too. Do all these have hardware scaling? I suppose if they have GLES support (like the Pandora) then GLES takes care of the scaling? Maybe when its run under X it doesn't need a scaler unlike the SDL console?

It sounds like you have no plans to implement a software scaler so it looks like us Zaurus owners are out of luck for PSX emus

EDIT

Would it not be possible for me to disable scaling altogether? I realise that'd mean playing in a small window but its better than nothing.

 

[notaz]

There is no GP2X support, RPi and Wiz/Caanoo have some special code. Zaurus could also have special handling but I have no time or motivation to code it. There is support for X windowed mode (using SDL) but it's slow.

 

[slaanesh]

Hello


I've been tinkering with my Sharp Zaurus as well using Cacko 1.23. I've recently also built MAME4ALL for it but have been disappointed with lacklustre performance.


I'm curious about how well MAME4ALL is running under Arch given that you setup is only supporting the 640x480 screen mode.


So far I've found that even using the 320x240 screen modes, games seem to run slower than on my GP2X.


ie. Ghost's and Goblins runs at a solid 60FPS on GP2X @ 200Mhz, and between 30 to 40FPS  on the SL-C1000 @ 416MHZ and SL-C860 @ 398Mhz respectively.


Vector games like Star Wars on 640x480 resolutions look superb but have a fairly large variance in speed never achieving full framerate.


The toolchain used to compile MAME4ALL is gcc 2.95.3 (the only toolchain I have access to) versus GP2X's Open2X with gcc 4.1.1.


Sharp Zaurus SL-860 @ 398MHz


cacko 1.23 lite
libsdl 1.2.5-slzaurus20041025-j


Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 @ 416MHz
cacko 1.23 lite


bvdd 0.4.0-1
libsdl 1.2.5-bvdd-07-2

 

[slaanesh]

Well I installed pdaXrom on my SL-C1000. I also installed all the gcc packages and recompiled MAME4ALL (on the Zaurus itself, took about 2hrs, which is less than i thought it would be).


It looks like gcc 3.4.6 is much better than 2.95.3 as MAME4ALL on the SL-C1000 runs noticeably faster. 


Ghost 'n Goblins, for example, now runs at 100% 55-60FPS


I, Robot is looking much better as well but its FPS jumps around considerably so hard to quantify without some rigorous bench-marking.


But I would say it's playable.


EDIT:


Okay, so on to the next problem. Seems like pdaXrom isn't very friendly in terms of power consumption in suspend mode. The Zaurus seems to chew through the battery. What to do?


Cacko seemed to have awesome battery life. Anyway, that's what you get playing with older hardware/software