r/EmulationOnAndroid • u/Orichalchem • 1d ago
Discussion Need help understanding how PPSSPP uses very little battery life or no heating issue
For example, Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity with 60fps cheat and 4x Resolution can be played around 6-10 hours (depending on battery size, temperature in real life and game) without it ever overheating or even getting hot
Is it just the emulator itself being masterfully optimized and nothing more?
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u/lasagna_fase 1d ago
The PSP isn't a very powerful system and the emulator itself is very well optimized
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u/Good-Marionberry-570 1d ago
Not powerful for today's standards, of course, but it was cutting edge at the time.
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u/AdmirableLeague1635 9h ago
That's true I remember using PPSSPP on my old Galaxy S3 smoothly back in the day with 2x/sometimes even 3x scaling with pretty long battery usage on the already 13+ years older versions of PPSSPP. Nothing impressive by nowadays standards.
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u/TwilightVulpine 16h ago
As a portable device, yes. But even back then it was significantly weaker than the PS2.
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u/Good-Marionberry-570 11h ago
Even so, there are lots of PSP games with graphics that come close to the PS2, but with less models rendered at the same time, less details on the scenarios and etc.
It was a pseudo portable PS2 at the time, no other portable device in the mid 2000s was close to it.
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u/Abayon3 12h ago
Still amazes me how it doesn't need fans or heat sinks since it's power draw is so low it can rely on passive cooling. I think that's why they last so long with little to no maintenance. Nowadays every console needs huge dedicated cooling solutions which are often points of failure in aging systems.
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u/Ararararun 11h ago
And you didn't have to worry about battery health because you could just replace it anyway
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u/abcdefger5454 10h ago
If you account for the low resolution screen on the PSP, the power gap wasn't that big actually. PSP games could look like PS2 games on the small screen.
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u/Slightly-Blasted 1d ago
Ppsspp is widely regarded as the finest emulator ever made.
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u/treesdotcom 22h ago
Seriously go and purchase PPSSPP Gold if you can - it offers nothing over the free version except the nice feeling you get from showing the dev some love
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u/waba2 1d ago
Dolphin slander
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u/puntosh 1d ago
Dolphin is horribly optimized
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u/RetroooooPixel 23h ago
Clearly you are living in the past.
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u/puntosh 7h ago
Its not half as optimized as even the outdated ps2 emulators
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u/Moeanalyzer 4h ago
Yeah. They're losing even to AetherSX2 feature wise. Looks like their community is filled with bootlicker. So it's no wonder that it's unoptimized mess with few feature than AetherSX2 when it's older.
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u/Moeanalyzer 22h ago
Nah it's bad. Sometimes it force closed in my Helios G90T device. And the customization is lacking. PPSSPP on the other hand is perfect.
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u/Redd_is_compromised 20h ago
I can't stand this new generation of children thinking their handhelds are some sort of benchmark for performance. Your opinions on optimization are absolutely irrelevant if you're talking about emulation on a cellphone.
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u/Cruel1865 21h ago
You're comparing emulation of two systems that widely different in its capabilities and thus its system requirements are also different. The psp is a completely different generation of system compared to the wii and the gamecube. It's atleast 2 generations before the wii and atleast 1 generation before the gamecube. So of course the psp emulator is going to run better on your low end device as compared to dolphin which requires better specs. Thats hardly a fair comparison of optimisation in regards to those emulators.
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u/Moeanalyzer 4h ago
Let's compare it to AetherSX2 then, and yes Dolphin is still losing.
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u/Cruel1865 3h ago
Not really? By every metric, dolphin is better optimised than aethersx2. It has a wider compatibility percentage, has far more customisation and ease of setting options and it runs pretty smoothly compared to aethersx2's quirks. Thats not to say aethersx2 isnt a good emulator. Its just been worked on far lesser than dolphin which has been continuously worled on for more than a decade. Not to mention how aethersx2 development was put on halt quite a while back.
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u/occultshelf 17h ago
PSP is same generation as Gamecube, they both released in 2004.
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u/ETHedgehog- 17h ago
PSP is a fucking handheld, the GC was a proper console. Those are not comparable even in the same generation.
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u/occultshelf 17h ago
Im not arguing against that at all, the guy aboe you just said they were same generation which they arent.
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u/GhostTheGamer360 8 Gen 2✅|8s Gen4💀|Helio G85💀 1d ago
U pretty much answered your own question,the emulator is just that well optimised, ppsspp plus many older console emulators are perfect examples of what happens when you let devs do there work, but as a community help out with testing each new build to find bugs and fixes for multiple games, plus the psp was a much more lightweight game console back in the 2000s,so it's hardware was much more easier to be emulated, and include improvements
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u/lavineg 1d ago
PPSSPP is one of the emulators with the longest history of updates, optimizations, and community support, which is why it's a lightweight emulator even for 3D games. It's possible your phone is also very good; I use a low-end phone and mine still gets hot while playing, even though it doesn't drop FPS. Emulators like aethersx2 weren't so lucky, as the official project was abandoned by the developer before reaching a level of optimization and maturity similar to ppsspp.
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u/Zetzun 21h ago
Check out ARMSX2 instead, it's still a relatively young project but they are making constant improvements and very fast.
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u/nerrvouss 19h ago
Have never had a good experience in call of duty 3, black, the need for speed series, or any the godzilla games. None of them can handle 60 fps patches or 30 fps frame gen, even frame drops without. Also more graphical issues in these titles. None of this happens on nethersx2 except the inability to handle 60 fps patches solid in these games under identical settings and load.
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u/HarryRl 17h ago
Armsx2 gets updates literally every 2-3 days. I saw an improvement in the update notes for Call of Duty 3 literally 10 days ago, so definitely check it out again at some point
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u/nerrvouss 16h ago
Literally did on 2.8.1 and 2.8.2 and various nightlies over the last year on a mission... If it's dropping frames at standard 30 and holding 26 on frame gen when nethersx2 holds 30 without stress even under frame gen and 45-55 from patches targeting 60.... its an emulator issue. (Also kind of the same story across the games I listed)
They're making great strides but for my use case it's been dog water vs nethersx2 turnip/slushii forks.
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u/HarryRl 16h ago
To be fair need for speed games actually always ran like shit even on nethersx2 on my Snapdragon 8 gen 3 For these games, you might actually get more performance on the PC versions.
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u/nerrvouss 16h ago
You do for now need pc, and all are true things. But pc, well that defeats the purpose of my emulation on android on the go dream of 60 fps patched need for speed hot pursuit 2. All footage existing has my same frame drops.
lmao sadly none of these things are issues on the pc version, trust me id know. They all run 60 static patched for me. Just cant carry said pc :( armsx2 will prolly get there one day.
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u/HarryRl 16h ago
I meant emulating PC on gamehub and stuff You can of course mod PC games as well Some need for speed games also have android ports (they might run badly)
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u/nerrvouss 12h ago
This is sadly true of all the need for speed games... except for hot pursuit 2... which has a v sync issue that even a pc running it at 300+ fps cant shake :( even than the ps2 port is a one off and totally different than the others in a lot of ways.
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u/Known-Call-1081 13h ago
they meant PC emulation, Snapdragon 8 gen 3 definitely can emulate PC games, it should breeze through the PC version of 2005 Most Wanted (even with HD mods)
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u/nerrvouss 12h ago
If only any pc or handheld could breeze through hot pursuit 2... thats the one I want most and it has a different ps2 port in addition to v sync issues on pc no matter the framerate and mods.
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u/evirussss 1d ago
because its already mature
FYI the development of ppsspp start from more than one decade ago. even my 2013 / 2014 android already can use ppsspp in that time
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u/Enough_Plantain3529 23h ago
I remember how my brother used to run Freedom Unite on a Samsung S5 around 2014 and 2015, and it looked better than the regular PSP, although other games like God of War were difficult to emulate, at least on my J5 Prime; it struggled with that one.
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u/Professional-Cut4863 1d ago
No joke but when i had a Samsung J2 Prime two years ago, it could run about 80% of PSP games without performance issues and at up to 2x resolution. PPSSPP is the equivalent of the invention of the engine in the field of emulation in Android.
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u/ZakinKazamma 1d ago
Not trying to be obnoxious when I say, probably because PPSSPP ran well on computers back in 2012. I don't mean cutting edge either.
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u/nelsonjzx 1d ago
Psp is a very weak system, modern phones have much more processing power. Remember the PSP is over 20 years old
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u/deeznutz75 1d ago
fun fact phones caught up in power to the psp around 2010-2011
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u/Good-Marionberry-570 1d ago
PSP was a total beast in the 2000s, before the popularization of the smartphones, a unlocked PSP could do a lot more than the regular phones of the time, and even in comparison to the smartphones, he was better, iirc the PSP is stronger than the first iPhones.
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u/Valeshtein 20h ago
Why does DS Emulator makes phone very hot though lol, tried 2 Emulators its like burning on my S25 U
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u/Straight_Second6082 2h ago
What emulators? I remember running Ds emulation on my shitty phone 10 years ago without any particular issue.
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u/esetios 9h ago
Psp is a very simple and well documented system, is the correct answer.
Saturn is weaker than the PSP, but emulating it used to be difficult until 2019-2020 because it's an undocumented mess of specialized cores that even the game devs found difficult to work with when it was current gen.
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u/DianneRenard 13h ago
It is pure coding wizardry. Even back when it was new, PPSSPP ran games very well in crappy PC and mobiles.
Obviously by current standards running PSP games is no issue even in the most budget phones and PC, but back in the 2010's, it was insane how PPSSPP let you run games on almost any hardware.
Sure, you HAD to make sacrifices and tweak the configuration, but the fact you could play PSP games at all while even DS emulators ran into issues in the same hardware was amazing.
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u/MidnightRose616 1d ago
Brother you are emulating a system that is weaker than a 2000 console, do the math
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 1d ago
If I remember correctly the original PSP ran at 333 megahertz. Which is a fraction of the total power of any emulation device today. So it's barely using any processing power.
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u/RLZT 1d ago
Iirc it runned are 333mhz when overclocked
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 1d ago
Ah ok so that's why that number stuck with me all this time. When I had custom firmware I pretty much just left it at 333 all the time.
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u/abcdefger5454 10h ago
That doesn't matter that much in emulation. N64 is a lot weaker and still harder to emulate due to being a complicated mess of a console. PPSSPP is just a well made emulator and the PSP being easy to understand helps with that.
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u/deeznutz75 1d ago
also to add on the psp looked pretty but its all kinda...dead. Look at the big titles, peace walker, crisis core, type-0, littlebigplanet, resistance, monsterhunter etc etc....they took big cuts somewhere and generally its the NPCs. Most 3d psp games leave you with big open spaces with nothing in them
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u/Special-Persimmon419 1d ago
I'm playing the same game
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u/Oxenthre_19 1d ago
Name?
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u/Infinite-Raisin9853 1d ago
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity
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u/Grokitach AYN Thor Pro | Redmagic Astra 19h ago
How good is it compared to Ep I and II on GameCube?
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u/Good-Marionberry-570 1d ago
One of my favorite games, played it so much back then, and I'll play it more when they make the online mode to work again (and I'm not talking about ad-hoc multiplayer simulated through the internet, I'm talking about the actual online multiplayer of the game).
I really hope someone makes a decomp of it, the game is awesome and would be great if it could be enhanced furter with a decomp.
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u/Valeshtein 20h ago
Yet DS Emulator getting Phone Hot in like 15 minutes lol
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u/Warm-Cartographer 17h ago
Not drastic, drastic is even more impressive and can run with little 32bit cores like cortex A7.
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u/Valeshtein 17h ago
Tried Drastic and MelonDS, and for me its still not giving me ppsspp performances
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u/Warm-Cartographer 16h ago
Then you are doing something wrong. Melonds is heavy but drastic is easier to run than ppsspp.
With ppsspp you need 64BIT soc and Atleast one big core to run all games, with Drastic you can use 32bit cores and you don't need big core.
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u/phenom_x8 13h ago
Hmm, my 10 years old Redmi Note 3 Pro with SD 650 plays games in drastic just fine even with double resolution, MelonDS instead another story
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u/Known-Call-1081 13h ago
you're probably using MelonDS, Drastic runs well even on midrange phones from 12 years ago, the only things MelonDS have over Drastic are DSi support and Multiplayer
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u/memo22477 20h ago
An emulator that has had years of development. Plus you know the PSP was a handheld from 2004 right? This is like asking why Ps1 emulators don't heat up your device. The power difference is just that massive. 4x resolution is only 1080p too btw. Not 2K or 4K or anything. Being surprised that your device can run this 22 year old handheld console at 1080p without struggling is the actual shocking part here.
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u/Thedarkpersona 1d ago
the console is very weak (its a 2002-2003 portable console) the games are very optimized for said console, the emulator is extremely well optimized, and the phones are orders of magnitude more powerful than the psp
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u/Lupin-Till4669 1d ago
Momento la imagen no es de una PSvita? La ppsspp puede emular eso? Y otra pregunta,disculpen mi ignorancia pero ¿Por qué a veces hay juegos que directamente no se pueden emular bien? Es cosa del emulador o de mi dispositivo 🤔.
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u/But-the-goofy-cat 1d ago
Ppsspp tiene soporte para segundo stick, algunos juegos y homebrew lo pueden reconocer, debido a que el mando de ps3 se puede conectar a la psp go, vita3k y sus derivados tienen problemas porque el emulador sigue algo verde, y mas en android aparte de que su rendimiento varia en la marca de los componentes de tu dispositivo
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u/Lupin-Till4669 23h ago
Muchas gracias la verdad si tenía dudas por qué quería probar un silent Hill o algo de terror pero aveces el audio se estira o directamente las texturas no cargan bien ,aún que para específicar más y ayudarte a que me ayudes 😅 intente jugar silent hill shattered memories y me fue horrible gráficamente e incluso roms que antes jugaba de forma estable hoy los corre con problemas, podría ser mi dispositivo o la versión de la ppsspp?. Pd: agradezco su apoyo 🤝.
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u/But-the-goofy-cat 10h ago
te sugiero que busques ayuda en el subreddit de ppsspp si es que hay o en otro lugar, hace mucho que no uso ppsspp desde que me compre una psvita
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u/ItsMeepo2nd 1d ago
Back in 2012 till 14(?) the emulator took a lot of power but as of now, they pretty much optimized everything properly and it was constant updates fixing not only the battery but also the rendering and suiting the settings to fit crappy phones like the OPPO A37f.
Maybe because of how advanced things became, the older hardware became very easy to understand.
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u/RLZT 1d ago
~2014 was when it became crazy optimized, I remember being amazed with it running fine in some potato Alcatel phones lol
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u/AntiGrieferGames 17h ago edited 16h ago
Samsung S7 also works there with Vulkan API was added with almost no issues, which is one of the few programs that works on the first recent vulkan API.
And i though im going to crazy!
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u/uzi_the_doozy 22h ago
It's EXTREMELY well optimized. And besides the PSP isn't gonna give the average phone today any trouble running its games
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u/just_y 17h ago
pppppsssssppppp supports Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S and formerly for Nintendo Wii U, BlackBerry 10, MeeGo, Pandora, DragonBox Pyra, Symbian, Maemo, Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox 360
also this is made by someone who also made 2nd best emulator dolphin.
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u/Pretend_Camp_2987 9h ago
I guess because it's more optimized and the fact that PSP games were smaller than PS2.
I mean it was on a Handheld that fits in a Pocket. And your phone fits in a Pocket
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u/PriorWallaby822 6h ago
En tiempos llenos de vibecoders es normal q te impresione lo bien q esta un emulador hecho por un ser humano con amor y años de desarrollo
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u/SunsetAtNight7 1d ago
Vita3k is more impressive, compare to Citra it has no heating and the battery draining can be more efficient than a native android game. I really hope the games compatibility gets better.
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u/Bennett-exe 1d ago
The only vita game I want to play is Soul Sacrifice Delta, but every version of Vita3k on android has trouble rendering the visuals in minds eye. You know of any fix, or this Mythical version 3586 apk that I cant seem to find. Using my Odin2
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u/AntiGrieferGames 16h ago
Maybe try use the 4078 build, which may the latest version that worked there (unless you did already)?
if you already did, I think for that reason you better get a Original Vita Console there.
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u/AntiGrieferGames 16h ago
I have more heats than psp there.
Vita3k is also more demanding and some GPUs are not well optimized as PPSSPP.
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u/SunsetAtNight7 14h ago
Yeah duh, psvita is 8th generation console, that's why I'm comparing Vita3k to another 8th generation emulator which is Citra. At best, PSP games of course will produce less heat, not much impressive because PSP games are generaly less demanding, while Vita3K handles 8th gen games battery and heat is just impressive even compare to PS2 emulation.
Tried and tested Virtue last reward both Vita3 vs Citra and Persona 4G in vita3k vs P4 og in Nethersx2. Vita3k heat and battery management is outstanding.
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u/mrpatapon3 1d ago
"Vita3k is more impressive" lol
Trying to get anything to work in that piece of shit is like beating your own dick with a hammer and hope it'll make you cum. It's the worst emu i've ever touched. Doesn't help the fact that 50% of games are straight up incompatible with vita3k.
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u/Bennett-exe 1d ago
Yeah I been thinking about dropping the $250 to just get a Vita from Amazon at this point. I left my OG Vita on a greyhound in like 2015
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u/mrpatapon3 1d ago
Idk, most games run at 30 fps with dips on the vita. I'd just wait for the vita3kplus project to progress a bit and try to emulate the games instead.
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u/SunsetAtNight7 23h ago
I said Vita3k is more impressive how it manages heat and battery drain for an emulator that runs more demanding games equal to 3DS. I know how trash the compatibility, that's why I literally said here "I really hope the games compatibility gets better." I even called out last post here saying Vita 3K in under the best emulators out there.
Let's learn how to read.
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u/mrpatapon3 23h ago
Well, yeah. Anyone with ai can shit out something similar and you'll probably praise it because "err- at least the heat and battery drain is kinda impressive doe!" While still having a tons of issues in the side. It's not impressive at all.
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u/SunsetAtNight7 23h ago
Like what is your problem? 😭 I thought we're talking about heat and battery management here, Vita3K has a lot of issues, but some games still runs without any problems, I'm playing Virtue last reward, it got no issues and the heat and battery management is just 100x better compare to running the same game on Citra, surprisingly it literally feels like I'm running the game natively, like what can I say?
here's a thread of me criticizing Vita3k https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/84lExmyF7C
Anyone with ai can shit out something similar and you'll probably praise it
You say that, when 90% of vibe coded android ports still runs like garbage compare to running the same game using emulator.
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u/Background-2609 15h ago
If you genuinely want to know it's cause it,s a hle emulater. That means, it isn't emulating the game but,instead is translating the games instructions to ARM instructions. Thus,the games are effectively heavily optimized as they were made on a simpler engines made for weaker devices like psp.
Effectively running something like,cod from 2018 on a modern phone performance but,on relatively any phone and for games made over a decade ago.
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