From 2aa52d69e5ae2de892010c6abe42c37ab630d9a9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Leon Styhre Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 15:08:35 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Documentation update --- ANDROID-DEV.md | 2 ++ ANDROID.md | 2 ++ FAQ-ANDROID.md | 8 +++++++- USERGUIDE-DEV.md | 5 +++++ USERGUIDE.md | 5 +++++ 5 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/ANDROID-DEV.md b/ANDROID-DEV.md index af77149d0..a32d37774 100644 --- a/ANDROID-DEV.md +++ b/ANDROID-DEV.md @@ -518,6 +518,7 @@ This is clearly not a complete list of Android devices, but rather those we know | Anbernic | RG505 | 12 | Yes | None | Limited RAM capacity for this device makes it unsuitable for demanding themes and large game collections | | Anbernic | RG556 | 13 | Yes | None | | | Anbernic | RG ARC | 12 | Yes | None | LineageOS | +| Anbernic | RG Cube | 13 | Yes | None | | | AYANEO | Pocket Air | 12 | Yes | None | | | AYANEO | Pocket S | 13 | Yes | None | | | Ayn | Odin (Base/Pro) | 10 | Yes | None | | @@ -567,6 +568,7 @@ This is clearly not a complete list of Android devices, but rather those we know | OnePlus | Open | 14 | Yes | None | | | Oppo | A15 | 10 | Yes | None | | | Oppo | Find X5 Pro | 14 | Yes | None | | +| Oppo | Reno5 | 12 | Yes | None | | | Raspberry | Pi 4/400 | 13, 14 | Yes | None | Low-power GPU so ES-DE may run a bit sluggish | | Razer | Edge | 13 | Yes | None | | | Realme | GT2 | 12 | Yes | None | | diff --git a/ANDROID.md b/ANDROID.md index 9f167ac6e..0557a264d 100644 --- a/ANDROID.md +++ b/ANDROID.md @@ -512,6 +512,7 @@ This is clearly not a complete list of Android devices, but rather those we know | Anbernic | RG505 | 12 | Yes | None | Limited RAM capacity for this device makes it unsuitable for demanding themes and large game collections | | Anbernic | RG556 | 13 | Yes | None | | | Anbernic | RG ARC | 12 | Yes | None | LineageOS | +| Anbernic | RG Cube | 13 | Yes | None | | | AYANEO | Pocket Air | 12 | Yes | None | | | AYANEO | Pocket S | 13 | Yes | None | | | Ayn | Odin (Base/Pro) | 10 | Yes | None | | @@ -561,6 +562,7 @@ This is clearly not a complete list of Android devices, but rather those we know | OnePlus | Open | 14 | Yes | None | | | Oppo | A15 | 10 | Yes | None | | | Oppo | Find X5 Pro | 14 | Yes | None | | +| Oppo | Reno5 | 12 | Yes | None | | | Raspberry | Pi 4/400 | 13, 14 | Yes | None | Low-power GPU so ES-DE may run a bit sluggish | | Razer | Edge | 13 | Yes | None | | | Realme | GT2 | 12 | Yes | None | | diff --git a/FAQ-ANDROID.md b/FAQ-ANDROID.md index 946641140..62aea0cde 100644 --- a/FAQ-ANDROID.md +++ b/FAQ-ANDROID.md @@ -94,7 +94,13 @@ No Android may stop applications that are not currently focused if it needs to r ## ES-DE takes a very long time to start, is there a way to improve this? -Unfortunately disk I/O performance on Android leaves a lot to be desired compared to desktop operating systems. Google has prioritized other things over performance which leads to disk speed being poor overall on this operating system. The main offender is the choice of FAT filesystems such as exFAT for external storage which offer very poor performance for some file operations on which ES-DE relies heavily. Generally speaking a small to medium ROM collection can normally be placed on a FAT-formatted device such as an SD card but the ES-DE directory and more importantly the _downloaded_media_ directory should always be placed on internal storage. For large game collections ES-DE could turn borderline unusable if the ES-DE directory is placed on an SD card or USB memory stick. It's also possible to enable the _Only show games from gamelist.xml files_ option in the _Other settings_ menu to skip checking for game files on startup, but this has multiple implications such as what's displayed inside ES-DE not necessarily reflecting reality any longer. And obviously you'll need gamelist.xml entries for all games you want to show up inside ES-DE. So this option is really a last resort and is generally only recommended for testing purposes. In summary huge game collections are discouraged on Android due to limitations in the operating system itself. Setting up a collection of tens of thousands of games is for sure achievable with ES-DE on Linux, macOS or Windows but it's not really feasible on Android. +Unfortunately disk I/O performance on Android leaves a lot to be desired compared to desktop operating systems. Google has prioritized other things over performance which leads to disk speed being poor overall on this operating system. The main offender is the choice of FAT filesystems such as exFAT for external storage which offer very poor performance for some file operations on which ES-DE relies heavily. The SAF/MediaStore layer also adds a lot of overhead. Generally speaking a small to medium ROM collection can normally be placed on a FAT-formatted device such as an SD card but the ES-DE directory and more importantly the _downloaded_media_ directory should always be placed on internal storage. For large game collections ES-DE could turn borderline unusable if the _downloaded_media_ directory is placed on an SD card or a USB memory stick. + +One possible improvement to startup times is to enable the _Only show games from gamelist.xml files_ option in the _Other settings_ menu to skip checking for game files on startup, but this has multiple implications such as what's displayed inside ES-DE not necessarily reflecting reality any longer. And obviously you'll need gamelist.xml entries for all games you want to show up inside ES-DE. So this option is really a last resort and is generally only recommended for testing purposes. + +Another option that could speed up startup times under some circumstances is disabling the _Enable theme variant triggers_ setting in the _UI settings_ menu. But whether this has a tangible effect depends on the theme used and to what extent there is scraped media available for your game systems. + +In summary huge game collections are discouraged on Android due to limitations in the operating system itself. Setting up a collection of tens of thousands of games is for sure achievable with ES-DE on Linux, macOS or Windows but it's not really feasible on Android. ## On game launch RetroArch runs an old game instead of the one I just selected, how do I prevent this? diff --git a/USERGUIDE-DEV.md b/USERGUIDE-DEV.md index 371400c56..23715a5ba 100644 --- a/USERGUIDE-DEV.md +++ b/USERGUIDE-DEV.md @@ -2862,6 +2862,11 @@ This directory can however be changed using the _Game media directory_ setting i See the [Supported game systems](USERGUIDE-DEV.md#supported-game-systems) table at the bottom of this guide for a list of all system names. +An example on Android: +``` +/storage/emulated/0/ES-DE/downloaded_media/c64/screenshots/ +``` + An example on Linux: ``` /home/myusername/ES-DE/downloaded_media/c64/screenshots/ diff --git a/USERGUIDE.md b/USERGUIDE.md index 101c875f5..fd973dac0 100644 --- a/USERGUIDE.md +++ b/USERGUIDE.md @@ -2852,6 +2852,11 @@ This directory can however be changed using the _Game media directory_ setting i See the [Supported game systems](USERGUIDE.md#supported-game-systems) table at the bottom of this guide for a list of all system names. +An example on Android: +``` +/storage/emulated/0/ES-DE/downloaded_media/c64/screenshots/ +``` + An example on Linux: ``` /home/myusername/ES-DE/downloaded_media/c64/screenshots/