FCEUX Lagging?!

So I got a laptop with a 64-bit Windows 7. I tried FCEUX, played for a while and then encountered a weird problem: the game starts slowing down and the sound starts popping. Of course, the only thing mentioned in FCEUX's troubleshooting section about this is that this may occur on slower CPUs... but I'm using a Core i7! WTF?! I'm also using the Old PPU (by default), no weird filters and stuff, either. So what is going on? Is this one of those 32-bit software on 64-bit issues? Using an XP Virtual Machine doesn't help much either, cause the framerate isn't good there. Is there a solution to this?

Also, do you think there should be a new version of FCEUX already?

Thanks!

I experienced similar problems until I found out that the refresh rate in my laptop was set to 40Hz. Changing it to 60Hz made all emulators much smoother.

Maybe its a graphics driver/card issue?

My old tiny netbook that has windows 7 runs fcuex just fine as does my 64 bit desktop running windows 7.

I get relatively awful performance using FCEUX. Drops enough frames to be noticeable with occasional pops in the audio. I can only assume it's some sort of issue with the way things sync. I can run Higan, I should be able to run any NES emulator.

I've also noticed it gets worse when I have two (or more) instances of FCEUX open, even if the other instance is paused, and if I try exporting to AVI, everything desyncs to the point it's virtually unplayable, and it stays that way after I stop recording.

On version 2.1.5 it seems I can't run more than one MMC1 game at a time, and on version 2.2.2, I can't run an unmodified Metroid ROM at all (though hacks work just fine).

FCEUX works well enough for debugging, but I never use it for playing. (It crashes when I try to use the NTSC filter, anyways, which makes me sad.)



Likely related. I had all the same issues on my last machine. Different everything else (including OS) except the graphics card. It worked perfectly fine on the machine before that, though.

My refresh rate is 60Hz, so the problem is not there.


Yeah, but what exactly would be wrong? I have the latest drivers for my graphics card. Does this mean I should turn off Hardware rendering?

And if none of those, what emulators can I use?

*Edit: I disabled hardware acceleration and set a high priority thread, and it seems to work fine now. I do wonder, if the problem is with the graphics card, what could it be? Actually, if I remember correctly, hardware acceleration had to be disabled on my desktop as well, so maybe the problem is more common than I thought? Also, does FCEUX use VSync and can it be enabled/disabled?

Ask the current person that develops it. We can't address your problems to him/her/whatever.

I wrote "Do you think", meaning I'm asking about people's opinion on the subject, not demanding a new version.

Have you tried out the FCEUX SVN builds? I get mine from EmuCR. Note: the FCEUX configuration file between non-SVN and SVN (as of this writing) are not compatible, so you will need to "start fresh". Sometimes they become incompatible between SVN builds too, so be aware. When you find settings that work well for you, *write them down*.

I've never been able to get fully smooth ("non-glitchy") output in FCEUX visually on Windows 7 Ultimate. There is always some degree of stutter, albeit intermittently. I've just learned to accept it, as I use FCEUX predominantly as a debugger/development emulator. These are the settings **I** use for **my** setup, using purely windowed mode, with a strong dislike for blurry (anti-aliasing or bilinear filtering) output (i.e. I prefer pixelated output):

Config --> Sound --> Output/Output Format:
* [x] Sound enabled
* [ ] Force 8-bit sound
* Quality: High
* Rate: 44100 Hz

Config --> Sound --> Buffering:
* [x] Use Global Focus
* Sound Latency: can't tell (no counter/indicator), but might be 20 or 25ms

Config --> Video --> Full Screen Settings:
* [ ] Full screen (Alt + Enter)

Config --> Video --> Windowed Settings:
* Size Multiplier: X = 2.000000, Y = 2.000000
* [x] Force integral scaling factors (when resizing the window)
* Special filter: none
* Sync method: none
* DirectDraw: Hardware acceleration

Config --> Timing:
* [x] Set high-priority thread

Config --> PPU:
* Old PPU

There's literally zero way to guarantee this will work for you, however. Video card drivers, video card chip, power profile settings (in Windows), Aero vs. Basic vs. Classic (in Windows), windowed mode vs. full-screen (in FCEUX), sound chip, sound drivers, and even some BIOS settings (things like SpeedStep or Cool'n'Quiet, and CPU C-states) are all contributing factors (yes, even the sound aspect -- a lot of people get clicky or stuttery sound sometimes depending on if things like Vsync are enabled or not). The number of variables are even more than that, so really it boils down to "figure out what works best for that specific computer".

In general, FCEUX does not make for a "good play experience", but makes a pretty damn good debugger/development environment. I actually prefer Nestopia UE for actual gameplay, although on Windows 7 I've never gotten its windowed mode to be smooth (it'll occasionally show some tearing or skip a few frames) -- while the exact same emulator/settings/everything worked smooth as a baby's butt on Windows XP. I gave up trying to accomplish smooth output of this sort -- it's an uphill battle that can't be won, as there's just too much BS going on. Full-screen mode is a completely different story, however.

I can't help past this point. Good luck!

Well, as I've mentioned earlier, FCEUX seems to run fine now. Bizhawk also works. I've been using FCEUX to play games and record gameplay footage for a long time now and it works great on Windows XP. Originally, I was going to use Nestopia, because of Blargg's NTSC filter (or, at least, the good implementation of it), but recording footage with it is crap and I couldn't just use a screen recorder, cause my desktop is pretty old. And besides, it seems that most people today use the clear pixelated output for their videos, so I went with FCEUX.

FCEUX does have an NTSC filter option (config > video > special filter).

I'm not an expert in NTSC filters, so I dunno how it compares to other implementations, but it does seem to produce the correct kinds of artifacts as far as I can tell.

Yeah, but it has a lower quality than the Nestopia one and doesn't look all pixelated on higher resolutions. :/

I don't know what the deal is with FCEUX's NTSC filter, but the effect is indeed inferior to Nestopia's.

I had an old netbook running XP, and when it ran on battery power, the power saving mode would cause FCEUX to lag. Plugged in, it ran fine.