How to Get Better PSP Performance on the Trimui Smart Pro

[@killerq7398]

Vulkan does a decent job on crossmix too. You may encounter image tearing but it can be avoided by enabling the option in the system section "Force real clock sync" it becomes available when auto frameskip is disabled.

[@duckyobrien]

Thank you for that handy tip! I'll check it out.

[@duckyobrien]

Thanks once again for the tip! It helped another user out for Outrun 2006. Game would only run well on Vulkan with the clock sync when all the speed hack options were enabled. "Speed buffer effects" introduces a graphical glitch that covers half the screen on OpenGL making it unplayable.

[@chefuwu7326]

I find it very useful that you give short but detailed information like the different options you can use to connect sd card to pc, or that a phone can format some sd cards. That without getting off topic and keeping to the point. Very satisfieng lol 👍

[@duckyobrien]

Thank you for the kind words! I try to include as much info as possible now because I know some people only have phones or have other microSD adapters. If anyone needs more help on anything I'll try my best to make a full guide for that person.

[@chefuwu7326]

Nice!

[@ChaneVazquez-rx2dy]

Updating the Trimui smart pro has 2 steps. Proceeds to go through 4000 steps!😂😂😂

[@duckyobrien]

Haha my bad, you are right 😂

[@philholm9017]

For the missing texts in MGS:Peace Walker, thats what usually happens when you turn on the Lazy Texture Caching option in the speed hacks section in the Graphics settings. It shouldve actually given a warning saying it may cause text to not show up when u enable it. Disabling the setting solves the issue and i dont find the setting worth it anyways. Enabling 'Skip Buffer Effects' is a much better way to get more frames in ppsspp albeit you lose some effects like bloom and depth of field (psp depth of field looks awful anyways because it doesnt upscale properly, resulting in looking very blocky and low res. Looks fine at native 1x resolution tho.)

[@duckyobrien]

Thanks for the info man!

[@duckyobrien]

= Table of Contents = 00:00 - Start 01:04 - Firmware Check 01:39 - About Firmware Update 02:22 - Formatting microSD (guiformat - FAT32) 03:58 - Copying Firmware Update 05:31 - Copying Base Files Update 07:00 - Flashing the Firmware 08:20 - Updating PPSSPP (CrossMix) 09:50 - Updating PPSSPP Icon and Background 12:37 - Configuring PPSSPP 13:39 - PPSSPP Graphics Settings 15:21 - Copying Saves 16:45 - Saving Space with CHD Files 17:29 - GoodBye Friends!

[@mrkenzo21]

how the hell to remap A and B button? I can't play PSP game if these button's function is swapped

[@duckyobrien]

The standalone PPSSPP emulator should have the correct bindings for X and O. If for some reason they are swapped, while in a game, press the menu button to bring up the PPSSPP menu. Go to Settings -> Controls -> Control mapping -> Standard PSP controls. From here, you can remap O and X to your liking. If you were talking about Swapping A and B in the emulator, the only way I could find to do this was by rotating all of the buttons by 270 degrees and then remapping in PPSSPP but this doesn't really work well. If you wanted to try this, go into the main Trimui Smart Pro menu, Settings -> Keymap -> Keymap and select "rotate 270". I'm not sure if there is another way but I hope this helps.

[@spydersoda]

thank you allan from smiling friends very cool

[@maurycastellanos1761]

This only downloaded the emus, do you have to download roms separatedly or did I do something wrong, i have the crossmix sd card separately

[@duckyobrien]

You did nothing wrong! Games come separately. Distributing roms is illegal in a lot of countries so most people will not cover how to get them. You can get the games off of the sd card that came with the trimui smart pro or download them from off the internet. I can't say where but the roms subreddit should have some pointers.

[@X91X-km7hp]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpSze2aea7J8nqM

[@dileepadissanayake1320]

Thank you ❤❤❤❤❤

[@duckyobrien]

You are welcome!

[@Setzer777]

Was hoping this would make racing games like OutRun 2006 and Ridge Racer playable without frameskip but both games struggle to hit 20fps.

[@duckyobrien]

Unfortunately not every game will play at full speed but I'll check those games out and see if there are any tweaks/hacks available to make it more playable.

[@Setzer777]

@@duckyobrien I'm reading something about performance mode on Reddit. I haven't messed with the function switch yet - maybe that's my issue. I'm going to test it out later.

[@duckyobrien]

@@Setzer777 I did some initial testing on Outrun 2006 and these are my results, take them as you will. My handheld ran out of battery so I will have to charge it and continue testing later today. For the most part, the game can run better but it will still have slowdowns during some parts (like the Big Forest area). I noticed my iso file performed better than my chd file. I ran it using Vulkan Performance Mode. You can use the performance button setting for the function button like you mentioned or just pick the performance mode option when launching the game. You can press X on the game to pick "PPSSSPP 1.17.1 - Vulkan - Perf.". Should be on the bottom side. These were my settings: ++++++++++++ Game Settings ++++++++++++ Graphics ======== Speed Hacks ---------------------- Skip buffer effects* -> On Disable Culling -> On Skip GPU Readbacks -> Skip Lazy texture caching (speedup) -> On Spline/Bezier curves quality -> Low Performance ---------------------- Buffer graphics commands (faster, input lag) -> Up to 2 Hardware transform* -> On Software skinning -> On Hardware tesselation* -> On Upscale & Texture Filtering all Off System ====== Emulation ----------------- Force real clock sync (slower, less lag) -> On Sources: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5awqGiPfb9mbrc for PPSSPP settings. @killerq7398 for Vulkan/real clock sync settings. I noticed that "Skip buffer effects" and "Hardware transform" gave the best increase in performance. However, for OpenGL, "Skip buffer effects" introduces a graphical artifact covering most of the street. This makes the game unplayable. Using Vulkan fixes this. It runs much better after this but the slowdowns during some sections still require you using frameskip unfortunately. At least you will be skipping less frames with these settings though. There do seem to be more graphical artifacts/glitches however so it's a trade off. Hope this helps.

[@Setzer777]

@@duckyobrien I'll give this a try when I get home. Thanks!

[@duckyobrien]

@@Setzer777 Np! In the end you'll still need some frameskip. I'll keep tinkering around and see if I can get better results!

[@jaleighaharris5861]

which 7zip file do we download?

[@duckyobrien]

trimui_tg5040_20240413_v1.0.4_hotfix6.7z for the firmware tg5040_smartpro_SD_base_package_20240413.7z for the microSD card files Edit: If you were talking about 7zip itself, most likely it would be "64-bit x64" if you are using a windows desktop pc. 32bit is for older processors and arm is more for tablets and such. You can find out for sure by opening command prompt by typing in "cmd" in the run box, and typing in "systeminfo" at the prompt and pressing enter. Under the "Systm Type:" entry, it will list either x32 or x64. You can also right click on my computer and select properties. It will also display the info under the "System type" entry. The method may differ a little bit depending on which version of Windows you are running. If you're running a mac or linux, I'll need to look up the method. Hope that helps.

[@jaleighaharris5861]

all my games deleted🙃

[@duckyobrien]

@@jaleighaharris5861 Oh no...I probably should have included a warning that formatting erases everything, I normally do that but I must have forgotten for this video, apologies. I know it's going to be inconvenient but you can download them again. You can grab the Tiny Best Set Go or Done Set 2 from internet archive or visit the /Roms subreddit to download them individually. Unfortunately save files will be gone. There is a small chance you can recover very small files successfully using a file recovery program if you didn't write any data to the microSD card but usually the data will be too corrupted. Anyways that's my bad.

[@TalonVI]

I wonder if the cso format would work better.

[@duckyobrien]

I have no idea but I can check that out later! Also there's a long comment thread from Setzer where we tweak PPSSPP even more for better performance! I'll make a short update video in a few days and update the written guide but for now that comment thread has a lot of info. To sum it up you can try turning on the settings below (Skip buffer effects and Hardware transform + tesselation seem to have the biggest impact): ++++++++++++ Game Settings (OpenGL 1.17.1) ++++++++++++ Graphics ======== Speed Hacks ---------------------- Skip buffer effects* -> On Disable Culling -> On Skip GPU Readbacks -> Skip Lazy texture caching (speedup) -> On Spline/Bezier curves quality -> Low Performance ---------------------- Buffer graphics commands (faster, input lag) -> Up to 2 Hardware transform -> On Software skinning -> On Hardware tesselation* -> On Upscale & Texture Filtering all Off *This may introduce graphical artifacts. If it does, try running the game under Vulkan 1.17.1 performance mode and turn on the following setting below. You can also try setting "Texture filtering" to "Nearest". System ====== Emulation ----------------- Force real clock sync (slower, less lag) -> On edit: (The above setting only works with frameskip turned off.) Sources: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5awqGiPfb9mbrc for PPSSPP settings. @killerq7398 for Vulkan/real clock sync settings. @Setzer777 for OpenGL settings.

[@david-el4uh]

My device already has the newest OS version and my question is, can I switch the emulators using console’s storage mode? I don’t have any microSD adapter😓

[@duckyobrien]

I don't know, I can give it a try and report back. I did read on reddit that people were having some issues when doing that though.

[@duckyobrien]

Yeap works in usb storage mode just fine. Tested it out myself. Just make sure all the files are done copying before exiting storage mode and you should be good to go.

[@david-el4uh]

@@duckyobrien thank you so much, it works! sadly the games i wanted to play (Tomb Raider Legend & Anniversary) still work bad and are unplayable. TR games are really cursed on this console, same with PS1 games, they're all too slow.

[@duckyobrien]

@@david-el4uh I actually have settings that may make the game run a bit better. This was from a back and forth with another commenter on my other trimui smart pro video for ppsspp. I'll copy and paste it below, hope it helps: These three options worked the best for me. I couldn't get it to run perfectly and will drop frames no matter what I did. *Make sure to turn speed hacks and software skinning off!! Also performance mode will make the handheld hot so be aware.* Option 1: OpenGL 1.17.1 Performance mode ==================================== Graphics -> Framerate control - Frameskipping -> On - Auto frameskip -> On Graphics -> Performance - Hardware transform -> On - Hardware tessellation -> On Vulkan works a little better but there are tradeoffs. Option 2: Vulkan 1.17.1 Performance mode =================================== Graphics -> Framerate control* - Frameskipping -> On - Auto frameskip -> On Graphics -> Performance - Hardware transform -> On - Hardware tessellation -> On *Frame skipping introduces a lot of frame tearing so you can turn it off and instead do this. Option 3: Vulkan 1.17.1 Performance mode =================================== Graphics -> Framerate control - Frameskipping -> Off - Auto frameskip -> Off Graphics -> Performance - Hardware transform -> On - Hardware tessellation -> On System -> Emulation - Force real clock sync (slower, less lag) -> On Now this will work pretty well but you will get frame drops and some tearing during cutscenes as well as some dips here and there during game play. Final notes: This game is a bit strange in that the speed hacks don't seem to do much. You can try turning them on but it may actually make the game run worse in some cases.

[@duckyobrien]

@@david-el4uh Also that's very strange that PS1 games are very slow, the TSP should have no problem running them. Which emulator are you using and what are the settings if I may ask? Unless you're using opengl or vulkan (which doesn't run at all imo) it should run fine on the default settings. The upper limit is running enhanced 3D on PCSX reARMed.

[@_mattsong]

Thanks for this guide! Can we delete the old PPSSPP folder after moving the new PSP folder?

[@Setzer777]

Yes, you can delete the old PPSSPP folder.

[@duckyobrien]

@@Setzer777 Thanks for letting us know!

[@duckyobrien]

= Resources = ►Format SD Card: ridgecrop.co.uk/guiformat.htm ►Trimui SP Firmware: github.com/trimui/firmware_smartpro/releases ►Unzipping: www.7-zip.org/ ►Trimui SP SD Files: github.com/trimui/assets_smartpro/releases ►Custom OS w PPSSPP: github.com/cizia64/CrossMix-OS/releases ►Reddit Thread that alerted me to CrossMix: www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1do8ypx/psp_showcase_on_trimui_smart_pro/ ►written guide: duckyobrien.com/2024/06/28/how-to-get-better-psp-performance-on-the-trimui-smart-pro/

[@Pridetoons]

Does Crossmix have Standalone N64 and Dreamcast Emulators?

[@duckyobrien]

As far as I can tell they are all libretro cores. They do have a toolchain available though so you could theoretically build your own standalone apps if the source is available. If you have any in mind I can try to make a build and see if they work or if you wanted to try yourself and wanted a guide I have steps for the v90 that you can copy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGTaYZeOlMecrMU I'm not good at this stuff so no guarantees that anything I build would work correctly.

[@Pridetoons]

@@duckyobrien It's all good either way.

[@duckyobrien]

I have a few videos scheduled but I'll give it a go in a few days. Should have some files in a week or so.

[@duckyobrien]

I actually found a post where some compiled the standalone Mupen64 emulator. Comes from reddit user Rob-Retro-Linux. drive.google.com/file/d/1XpHf3hy9V8IQDAs_mlW0g7u5v_DR7qoY/view?usp=sharing Source: www.reddit.com/r/trimui/comments/1dsbm2x/mupen64_standalone_download/ Apparently it's not easy to compile lol, quote from Rob-Retro-Linux - "And how old the Library's/Kernel are, Building from source is a nightmare as builds use newer Libs so have to mess around looking for older source code for library's then patch them in to whatever you are compiling for aarch64 (Arm64). "

[@WilliVolkmann]

Crossmix have n64 and DC standalone emulator......

[@TalonVI]

Love that there are other people like me that didn't peal the plastic before getting a screen protector lol. Amazon sells a decent 3 pack screen protector for it :)

[@duckyobrien]

Haha yeah, I still have the plastic on my Datafrog SF2000 too lol. Thanks for letting me know about the screen protectors!

[@VagCarEnthusiast]

i tried the stock ppsspp with tekken 6 and the same settings and then the new ppsspp on performance mode on tekken 6 and it actually did worse... what is happening here XD

[@duckyobrien]

XD more like under performance mode haha. Anyways I tested out some settings and managed to get it running sorta OK. Hits 100% but with frameskip and has dips here and there once you go through one fight. After the first fight it should get more stable. Probably not ideal for a fighting game but it's the best I got the game running so far. There is one big flaw however, two vertical black lines appear on almost every screen. I launched using Vulkan Performance mode for 1.17.1 from CrossMix by pressing X on the game and picking from the menu. Framerate control =============== Frameskipping -> 1 Frameskipping type -> Number of frames Auto frameskip -> Off Alternative speed -> Unlimited Alternative speed 2 -> Disabled Speed Hacks =========== Skip buffer effects -> On (you can try leaving it off) Disable culling -> On (you can try leaving it off) Skip GPU Readbacks -> Skip (you can try Copy to texture) Lazy texture caching (speedup) -> On Spline/Bezier curves quality -> Low Performance =========== Buffer graphics commands (faster, input lag) -> Up to 2 Hardware transform -> On Software skinning -> On Hardware tessellation -> On Upscale & Anisotropic filtering all Off Show FPS counter and Show Speed On Under System I turned off Transparent UI background and CPU clock was left at 111. Hope this helps, let me know if the game runs any better.

[@duckyobrien]

Also noticed in my testing the device gets pretty darn warm when running PPSSPP in Performance mode lol. The bottom side gets uncomfortably hot. Should feel it where you place your ring finger depending on your grip.

[@VagCarEnthusiast]

@@duckyobrien i had performance mode enabled on the FN key. and then ran ppsspp stock with tekken 6, then i tried all the versions of the mixed cfw ppsspp. and somehow ran worse. i will try one more time with your suggestions. do you know what the USB - C port on top does? tried to hook it up to a monitor but nothing happen. im also trying to add stuff and change up icons wich is going well. but im stuck at adding games in the "best" tap any idea how that works?

[@duckyobrien]

@@VagCarEnthusiast If I'm reading the launch files correctly turning on performance mode via the FN key may not work for the cfw ppsspp. Selecting from the launch menu will probably work better. Also changing the settings and running on Vulkan will give you the biggest performance boost. I forgot to mention if you are playing a lot of PSP games then you can press the Menu button after the game launches and select "Create game config" to save the tweaks just for that game. Some games require different tweaks or less tweaks. Anyways I haven't used it but I believe the top port is an OTG port. I've seen people hook up keyboards/mice to it. I'm not sure if you can do video out on it, I'll have to do more research. Can you clarify what you mean by "best" tap. Doesn't sound familiar to me.

[@VagCarEnthusiast]

@@duckyobrien yes the tap where you see vertical shooters and pokemon collection and stuff with the big square tiles. I added my own tile wich worked but getting a selection on that tile is where I'm stuck on. And hey maybe it is a OTG port never thought about that

[@TalonVI]

I don't mind the stock os for the trimui or anbernic devices. They've improved but I still wish they would integrate a scraper option. Annoying to have full rom names and needing to externally scrape images. At this point i have enough devices where it's pretty much copy past from other units or sharing memory cards but still nice using things like Knulli and just copying the roms then click scrape.

[@duckyobrien]

For sure! I actually like the stock OS on anbernic. As for scraping, I believe schmurtzm has created a scraper app for the trimui smart pro. You can just copy over the app folder from CrossMix and it should work if that was something you were looking for. I'm not sure how well it works though because I haven't used it myself yet.

[@TalonVI]

@@duckyobrien Thanks I'll look into that.

[@micham2077]

doesnt work for me

[@duckyobrien]

Have you tried tweaking any of the settings? I made a video on possible tweaks here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZnRaKxmlJ2jbqs