SSBM at normal speed

[LelandStanford]

Interestingly, running the game in training mode at 1/4 speed increases the framerate significantly. Based on this observation, it seems to me that the extremely "high speeds" from playing normally results from frame skipping (in addition to the high frame rate). Therefore, it seems to me, that a built-in frameskip limitation AND frame limitation would make the game play almost like the real thing. I'm thinking the emulation aspect has more to do with the frameskip than it does with framerate or vertical interrupts. Thoughts?

 

[Knuckles]

The game is one of those that has the most weird behaviors when playing. Sometimes the matches will run at twice the normal speed yet at half the Frame Rate.

Also noticed something really weird when running in dual core:

SSBM match
CPU0=Core
CPU1=Video

when playing (15fps) :
CPU0=100%
CPU1=10%

When pausing (40fps):
CPU0= 40%
CPU1=100%

...WTF?

 

[LelandStanford]

I've noticed that the framerate experiences a boost when the game is paused. That furthers my theory -- when the game is PAUSED the game speed is theoretically set to 0 (in terms of training mode movement). Of course, you could say less processing is required because nothing is moving/no changes are calculated, but why does this phenomenon occur during slow-mo melee or slow-mo training mode?

There must be some optimization problem with the processors that has to do with this (since you pointed out the strange shift in shared processing). They need to control for what happens when the game speed changes (we have to figure out what "game speed" means for the processors). Perhaps this is the next step towards making gameplay more stable!

 

[heftig]

My thoughts (speculations):
Your processor cannot emulate the GC's CPU in real time. When playing at normal speed, the "game" thread uses most the available CPU time. Now, the "graphics" thread cannot send the GPU data quickly enough, resulting in the GPU waiting for data all the time. This reduces the frame rate greatly.

When playing in slow motion or pausing the game, the "game" thread is slowed or stopped. Now, the "graphics" thread can utilize more CPU time and send data to the GPU more quickly. This results in the observed frame rate increase.

 

[LelandStanford]

My thoughts (speculations):
Your processor cannot emulate the GC's CPU in real time. When playing at normal speed, the "game" thread uses most the available CPU time. Now, the "graphics" thread cannot send the GPU data quickly enough, resulting in the GPU waiting for data all the time. This reduces the frame rate greatly.

When playing in slow motion or pausing the game, the "game" thread is slowed or stopped. Now, the "graphics" thread can utilize more CPU time and send data to the GPU more quickly. This results in the observed frame rate increase.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks!