Develop Bugs

Fastest ROM for gaming [NOT A QUESTION]

Hi folks, after searching a little bit about the available ROMs and trying out the emulators (N64oid and FPSE), I decided to create this topic. But this time instead of I think/in my opinions, let's post about our gaming experience with different ROMs. And much better, let's post our in-game FPS (if show FPS option is available)! Here's my results:
Xperia NXT Light Edition 2.3.7 - Doomkernel v14
N64oid - Perfect Dark, Goldeneye 007 (45-50 FPS in outdoors and indoors, occasional frame drops in certain areas, show FPS option is not available, so these are may not be the exact values) (OC'd to 1.9 GHz)
FPSE- Tekken 3 - WITH OpenGL plug-in (39-45 FPS) (OC'd to 1.9 GHz)
Almost all of the fastest ICS, JB ROMs (Turbo UI, ICS++, IceCream pureness, Stock FWs, Express ROM, Xperia NXT2JB, XDark ICS etc.)
N64oid- Same games (30-35 FPS in outdoors and indoors, occasional frame drops in certain areas, again, show FPS option is not available, so these are may not be the exact values) (OC'd to 1.9 GHz)
FPSE- Tekken 3 - WITH OpenGL plug-in (27-32 FPS) (OC'd to 1.9 GHz)
That's all. Please follow the criterias I mentioned and post your overall experience about your Play's gaming performance!
PLEASE STATE YOUR ROM AND KERNEL

I was using that setting with stock. Now I'm using:
FXP CM9 rom
Lupus CM9 kernel
368/1200Mhz
governor: smoothass, scheduler: bfq
Its not as fast as stock, but faster than JB, so its the best compromise if you want features that GB lacks, and web performance is much better than GB.
It can handle almost all N64 games I guess, except slow down for few demanding ones. It can handle PSX games to at regular speed with software mode 50-60fps, but can't fast forward for most of them without feeling sluggish. Also the emulators are compatible with the touchpads.
Bottom line is if one wants best gaming performance with this device they'll have to stick with stock based roms.
Sent from XDA app

Ics extreme rom beta
Based in cm9 but very debloated and with performance tweaks I don't use emulators but vice city runs flawless on medium graphic settings
Mc4 runs pretty well too
Sent from my R800i using xda app-developers app

Thanks for the info guys. Some say that updated Adreno drivers with the ICS/JB ROMs dramatically increase the gaming performance. I tried with JB Adreno Libs v3, ROMs with pre-installed Adreno drivers (ie TurboUI), but so far I've got the highest results with NXT Light. I haven't tried with high-end games like TKDR, NOVA 3, however. Now trying Extreme ROM. Will post the results.

El Diablo said:
Thanks for the info guys. Some say that updated Adreno drivers with the ICS/JB ROMs dramatically increase the gaming performance. I tried with JB Adreno Libs v3, ROMs with pre-installed Adreno drivers (ie TurboUI), but so far I've got the highest results with NXT Light. I haven't tried with high-end games like TKDR, NOVA 3, however. Now trying Extreme ROM. Will post the results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use lupus 480 kernel btw
Sent from my R800i using xda app-developers app

Just tried ExtremeROM beta2a. Looks like our current champion is Xperia NXT Light, because the rest are identical in terms of gaming performance.
If only we could use the Adreno drivers on Xperia NXT Light without problems...
If that happens somehow, all hail the Ultimate Gaming ROM for Xperia Play.

SlimBean ported by cj360 is now my favorite rom for this device. I haven't managed to get it working right with this phone till the recent 2/2/2013 release. I'm getting better overall OS performance than both FXP CM9/CM10. On the graphic performance, its not as fast as stock sometimes, but its faster than FXP CM9. Also unlike CM and FXP roms, the dev remapped the Play buttons correctly to work with Market games so you don't have to manually do it. There are a few optimization one have to do to get the emulators working and running fast on JB though.
A small guide on how I set it up incase anyone else interested. Download:
SlimBean port for Xperia Play
Lupus JB multiboot kernel (you don't need the wifi module)
Gapps version 4.1 (do not use version 4.2)
Flash them using TWRP recovery that come with the Lupus kernel.
Change DPI: Change the DPI from 182 to 240. This ensure Google PlayStore will work correctly.
Turn on MTP mode: I found that with this rom and/or the Lupus JB kernel the USB mass storage driver seems to be messed up. When correcting to the computer via USB MSC mode, files get corrupted after transferred and I had to take out the microSD and connect to the PC to do a diskcheck. It also have issues with transferring files between the phone and microSD.
To fix this issue, go into Settings -> Storage -> press 'MENU' button -> select 'USB computer connection' -> select MTP mode.
Getting Robert Broglia emulators to work correctly: Two things:
-First, go to Settings -> Developers options -> Enable 'Force GPU rendering'. This really make a difference in performance. (While you're there, also disable the system animation.)
-Then in his emulators, go to Options -> Video -> turn off 'Fast CPU->GPU Copy'. Otherwise you will see a blank screen when you load the roms.
-Also use the Snes9x emulator from his website, don't use the Snes9x Ex+ from the Playstore, it perform poorer.
PSX: FPSE have the best performance. Leave it on software mode and each time you start the game, go to Setting -> System -> Enable 'Boost mode'.

eksasol said:
SlimBean ported by cj360 is now my favorite rom for this device. I haven't managed to get it working right with this phone till the recent 2/2/2013 release. I'm getting better overall OS performance than both FXP CM9/CM10. On the graphic performance, its not as fast as stock sometimes, but its faster than FXP CM9. Also unlike CM and FXP roms, the dev remapped the Play buttons correctly to work with Market games so you don't have to manually do it. There are a few optimization one have to do to get the emulators working and running fast on JB though.
A small guide on how I set it up incase anyone else interested. Download:
SlimBean port for Xperia Play
Lupus JB multiboot kernel (you don't need the wifi module)
Gapps version 4.1 (do not use version 4.2)
Flash them using TWRP recovery that come with the Lupus kernel.
Change DPI: Change the DPI from 182 to 240. This ensure Google PlayStore will work correctly.
Turn on MTP mode: I found that with this rom and/or the Lupus JB kernel the USB mass storage driver seems to be messed up. When correcting to the computer via USB MSC mode, files get corrupted after transferred and I had to take out the microSD and connect to the PC to do a diskcheck. It also have issues with transferring files between the phone and microSD.
To fix this issue, go into Settings -> Storage -> press 'MENU' button -> select 'USB computer connection' -> select MTP mode.
Getting Robert Broglia emulators to work correctly: Two things:
-First, go to Settings -> Developers options -> Enable 'Force GPU rendering'. This really make a difference in performance. (While you're there, also disable the system animation.)
-Then in his emulators, go to Options -> Video -> turn off 'Fast CPU->GPU Copy'. Otherwise you will see a blank screen when you load the roms.
-Also use the Snes9x emulator from his website, don't use the Snes9x Ex+ from the Playstore, it perform poorer.
PSX: FPSE have the best performance. Leave it on software mode and each time you start the game, go to Setting -> System -> Enable 'Boost mode'.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried the SlimBean but I can't say I'm impressed by how it performs. So far NXT Gaming and AuroraPlay are also very good alternatives for the NXT Light Edition.

UPDATE: JokaWildv3 is a little faster than the NXT. WITHOUT overclock, it managed to show 28-34 FPS in Tekken 3. NXT scores approximately 5-7 frames less.
Looks like we have a new champion.

El Diablo said:
UPDATE: JokaWildv3 is a little faster than the NXT. WITHOUT overclock, it managed to show 28-34 FPS in Tekken 3. NXT scores approximately 5-7 frames less.
Looks like we have a new champion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JokaWildv3 has better memory management than nxt. I easily achieve 57-60 fps easily with overclock see my signature below for my settings.

gbxplay v3 is my daily rom for couple of mounths and I think its one of the best.try it.
Sent from my R800i using xda app-developers app

I don't think there's a faster ROM than JokaWild because it offers the maximum performance and really pushes Play's limits. I can't imagine how further a ROM can be improved by tweaks, memory optimizations and so on.
All we need is a way to install the updated Adreno drivers to GB. With OC I guess we can play all N64 and PSX (With OpenGL) near full speed.
Any volunteer developers?

If someone can reupload TrueAncestor ROM it would be wonderful. It looks promising and definitely I'd like to to give it a shot.
Also, I'm really wondering why JB and ICS ROMs perform so bad while GB ROMs make wonders. A technical explanation is much appreciated.

El Diablo said:
If someone can reupload TrueAncestor ROM it would be wonderful. It looks promising and definitely I'd like to to give it a shot.
Also, I'm really wondering why JB and ICS ROMs perform so bad while GB ROMs make wonders. A technical explanation is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what happen with proprietary hardwares that is no longer supported by orig manufacturers.

Quick Update: Your ROM (N64) DO effect the overall performance. Not much, but gaining 5 or more frames isn't something you can ignore easily.
And I have an important request: Please, if you know any other ways to improve the performance by scripts, some tweaks, etc, share with me. I'm searching the whole internet for a week and didn't find anything useful so far. You may say "meh gaining two or three frames per second won't help ya much" but right now I need EVERY frame to reach at least 40 FPS when testing emus. If I succeed that means our Play can handle all the N64 and PSX games without problems and slowdown, thus being the ultimate portable device for emulation, including the GP devices (i.e. GP2X).
Oh, and are there any ICS/JB ROMs that offer identical or better (I doubt that) performance to GB? If so, please name it and I'll be happy to try.

El Diablo said:
Quick Update: Your ROM (N64) DO effect the overall performance. Not much, but gaining 5 or more frames isn't something you can ignore easily.
And I have an important request: Please, if you know any other ways to improve the performance by scripts, some tweaks, etc, share with me. I'm searching the whole internet for a week and didn't find anything useful so far. You may say "meh gaining two or three frames per second won't help ya much" but right now I need EVERY frame to reach at least 40 FPS when testing emus. If I succeed that means our Play can handle all the N64 and PSX games without problems and slowdown, thus being the ultimate portable device for emulation, including the GP devices (i.e. GP2X).
Oh, and are there any ICS/JB ROMs that offer identical or better (I doubt that) performance to GB? If so, please name it and I'll be happy to try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
extremerom developer claims that its kinda like GB.worth a test i think.:good:

Tried it already, unfortunately there's no difference.

The r800i enhanced v2 firmware also runs games very smooth with little lags. Try it out
You can find it in the dev section..

Will definitely try. Thanks for your suggestion.
And just noticed Doomkernel v14 is A LOT faster (like 50% more FPS in games) than LupusGB when it comes to gaming.
Edit: Tried that ROM (4.0.2.A.0.58) once, it's nowhere close to JokaWild. Thanks anyway.

Sorry for misleading, JokaWild is NOT the fastest ROM available, it's pre-overclocked to 1.4 GHz.
AuroraPlay v0.3 and NXT LE are the current champions.

How to play Half life on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Half Life 1 can now be fully played on Android with the use of the DosBox Turbo App. Here you will learn how to run the game and watch some in-depth, low fps gameplay(1-10) with my Galaxy Note 2. To see the step by step creation guide head over to the LSGameChannel and Learn how to make this fun PC game an Android port. Big thank you to the LSGameChannel for making the video guide.
[Video] How to play Half life on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Click Here to watch the LSGameChannle Video "How to run Half-Life on Android (DosBox Turbo)"
DosBox Turbo By:Fishstix
https://play.google....ix.dosbox&hl=en
Recommended System Requirements:
CPU Quad-Core 1.6+ or Dual-core 1.5+GHz, equivalent or better.
GPU Adreno 220, Nvidia Tegra2/3, equivalent or better.
1GB, 512. My Config asks for a min or 256MB & shouldn't be run on a device with less than this.
8GB disk space
1)Install DosBox Turbo. Go into Config/DosBoxSettings/ and make sure Manual mode is selected. You will need to restart the app for it to take effect.
2)Download and extrat the Half Life for Android folder.
3)Copy and paste the two files (HL.img & dosbox.conf) into the internal memory or sdcard on your device.
4)Start DosBox Turbo and enjoy Half Life.
Notes:
-You can enable GPU Rendering by go to settings/Screen and Rotation Settings/GPU Rendering(Check)
-You can improve the scale quality by going to settings/Screen and Rotation wettings/Scale Quality/HQ Scale(Slower)
-Galaxy Notes users may want to disable "Power Saving" mode to improve performance.
How to run Fallout 1 & 2 on Android with Sound, Patches & Mods Video+Guide:
[media]http://youtu.be/hYTTrHbQcBo[/media]
How to run Fallout 1 & 2 on Android with Sound, Patches & Mods Video+Guide Thread @ XDA:
CPU Master (free) Overclocking App:
https://play.google....asterFree&hl=en

Sweeeeet! Using your guide, I got it working on my Nexus 7. I did make one change, I set cycles = max and that seems to have make the audio much much better, the tradeoff being that the framerate is a bit slower.

GPU Rendering
gururise said:
Sweeeeet! Using your guide, I got it working on my Nexus 7. I did make one change, I set cycles = max and that seems to have make the audio much much better, the tradeoff being that the framerate is a bit slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, glad you got it working! The auto setting will give you the best sound quality but will cost you some performance.
Try doing this
-You can enable GPU Rendering by go to settings/Screen and Rotation Settings/GPU Rendering(Check)

RolandDeschain79 said:
Hey, glad you got it working! The auto setting will give you the best sound quality but will cost you some performance.
Try doing this
-You can enable GPU Rendering by go to settings/Screen and Rotation Settings/GPU Rendering(Check)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1:good:

+1 thanks

Half-Life on Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with Stock Rooted 4.1.2 Firmware
Good work, but this barely passes for even mildly playable. Why? 1-10 fps is nothing but a big pile of steaming bs. I mean, why waste time on this crap when you can play better native games.
Also, I think we should all be thankful to the id software, because if they had not released their game engine as free-source, the guy called n0n3m or something like that could have never developed the DIII4A app. Its fantastic, I got a rock steady 25-30 fps without fail. Also, I played Quake 1,2,and 3 along with RTCW(Return to Castle Wolfenstien) with HD enabled 1080p screen size without problems.
As far as HL is concerned, this game cannot be enjoyed at the framerate the DOSbox turbo is giving. Quite frankly,its pathetic and one should not even try to waste time as I did, because the game is a classic and can be only be enjoyed with full audio. Oh, and did I forget to mention the fact that there is no audio in the gameplay?
My Verdict: This project has a rock solid future as just being able to even get to the in-game screen was like drinking the sweet morning dew from the leaf blades of lemon grass, but quite frankly, it has a long way to go to even come under the category of playable.
: TECHNICAL CONCLUSION :
1) PLAYABLE : Yes, goes in game and is playable as long as you dont mind the bs framerate.
2) FRAME RATE : 1 -10 on a QUAD-CORE PROCESSOR WITH QUAD-CORE GPU
3) AUDIO : No
4) GLITCHES : Yes, Multiple, with wierd graphics here and there.
5) WORTH TRYING : Hell yeah, if you are a dev and wanna contribute to make it better, or just a casual tester or a user. Definitely worth a shot.

Wow...this community is great. I swear...people are blowing me away with these kind of mods. Good stuff sir!

HELP!!!!
This worked for the first time but after i tried to load it again it said has performed an illegal operation and must be shutdown!
I tried everything but it wont boot
HELP

[Q] Real Racing 3 Graphics

I was just curious if there is any way to improve the graphics so it looks like the iPhone version? Or the international galaxy s3?
I've downloaded chainfire 3d and tried installing the game with powervr plugin enabled and when I try to run the game, it just crashes.
If there is any mods or editing in order to make the rendering of the game graphics much better, feel free to share

There is no way to do this with the Andreno GPU. Don't waste your time and phone's battery life with such mods.
The best you can do is an overclock with powersave mode OFF.

Well battery life isn't an issue for me but if there is no mods to improve it then guess I'll just stick with it.

Intercrew said:
Well battery life isn't an issue for me but if there is no mods to improve it then guess I'll just stick with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What we need is something like pixel/vertex shading or anti-aliasing enabled for our GPUs.
The quality is noticably better on the i9300 and i9305, but still not as iOS (where even the rearview mirrors are reflecting the cars behind you).

I'm just surprised that we can run games like Dead trigger which has insanely great graphics and also by editing some of the text file in the game to activate the "Nvidea" exclusive graphics (ultra setting) with good frames.
I thought there might be some text editing or file editing that will also trigger the same effect for the RR3 but doesn't seem like it

Not all games use the same "engine", so tweaking wont work here.

It could be that the game dev didn't enable them all graphics on non iOS devices.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lt.hitex.rr3graphics&feature=search_result
I can't wait to try this later today.

Anonymously_Unknown said:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lt.hitex.rr3graphics&feature=search_result
I can't wait to try this later today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is useless on the S3
This is for lower end devices on which low quality is set to default.
What we see is what we get until someone figures out what to tweak in the game files
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Laggy homescreen and gaming

The homescreen is quite noticeably not a smooth 60fps, it stutters and with the overlay enabled in developer settings, can see the framerate drops alot. Especially in freestyle layout mode. Also a lot of games stutter and don't run at a smooth framerate - for example monument valley. Does anyone else get this? Im on stock rom latest update

andy010101 said:
The homescreen is quite noticeably not a smooth 60fps, it stutters and with the overlay enabled in developer settings, can see the framerate drops alot. Especially in freestyle layout mode. Also a lot of games stutter and don't run at a smooth framerate - for example monument valley. Does anyone else get this? Im on stock rom latest update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is completely dependent on your OS, applications, widgets on screen, running apps, cpu state and the speed you're using your device.. If its really congested and you're running a tonne of apps then you'll perhaps have some slow downs, if you're using a custom kernel and you've lowered the up cpu threshold then that will too have an impact, honestly I'd leave it on stock and minimise the amount of widgets (especially lives ones) you have on your desktops, anything with transparency will have an impact too.
Gaming wise, I have to say this phone is rock solid.
The only game that it couldn't run is dolphin which is a gamecube emulator, running zelda the windwaker.
But I think that's down to optimization rather that anything else.
What set up do you have? Custom rom? Stock? Kernel? Lots or not a lot of apps?

my runs smooth on games, emulators, home screens, videos, taking and recording pictures and video, everything. ive been very happy with its performance, completely stock and running custom roms on my Verizon Variant, viper is my favorite now after last few updates.

I'm also satisfied with my HTC 10 performance, runs smooth (everything stock), but I notice that some games are a bit laggy (like Realracing 3, even if I lower the resolution to FullHD in the Boost+ app).
I wonder if I would get better framerates with the CleanSlate kernel that has Adrenoboost feature, but I'm not to keen on rooting my device because then you can't install OTA updates anymore.

Im running on the stock rom straight from the box, no custom rom or everything
, every game I have tried so far runs awful, massive framerate drops with or without boost. I have compared my framerate in asphalt 8 to this video, with an fps counter, and I get much worse framerates, usually around low 20s, dropping to teens. I don't have powersaving enabled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nks2pE_U_PY

andy010101 said:
Im running on the stock rom straight from the box, no custom rom or everything
, every game I have tried so far runs awful, massive framerate drops with or without boost. I have compared my framerate in asphalt 8 to this video, with an fps counter, and I get much worse framerates, usually around low 20s, dropping to teens. I don't have powersaving enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything in HTC's ROM seems to cripple Adrenoboost of the GPU. While on other devices it works perfectly and is reaching up to 60 fps, it doesn't on the HTC 10. It doesn't bother me, as I'm not a heavy gamer, but if you're in need to change it, you could use a custom kernel, as e.g. CleanSlate by @tbalden.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA Labs

5m4r7ph0n36uru said:
Anything in HTC's ROM seems to cripple Adrenoboost of the GPU. While on other devices it works perfectly and is reaching up to 60 fps, it doesn't on the HTC 10. It doesn't bother me, as I'm not a heavy gamer, but if you're in need to change it, you could use a custom kernel, as e.g. CleanSlate by @tbalden.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope HTC fixes that with some OTA.
Anyway, would the High performance mode in the developer options help the framerate?

CroCop18 said:
I hope HTC fixes that with some OTA.
Anyway, would the High performance mode in the developer options help the framerate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm on Viper10, Stock, pnp thermal tweak, or Viper 10 and CleanSlate Kernel. So I can't tell if it would work. The CleanSlate kernel fixes the problem quite well, so I'll use it until HTC maybe fixed the issue as long as I'm gaming and the other config I'll use as my daily driver.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA Labs

Can anyone that has no custom rom test the framerate on the first map of asphalt 8 and report back?

afuller42 said:
my runs smooth on games, emulators, home screens, videos, taking and recording pictures and video, everything. ive been very happy with its performance, completely stock and running custom roms on my Verizon Variant, viper is my favorite now after last few updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to running windwaker on dolphin. Would love to play thar

dladz said:
Try to running windwaker on dolphin. Would love to play thar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use mupenfs haven't tried it on 10 yet

andy010101 said:
The homescreen is quite noticeably not a smooth 60fps, it stutters and with the overlay enabled in developer settings, can see the framerate drops alot. Especially in freestyle layout mode. Also a lot of games stutter and don't run at a smooth framerate - for example monument valley. Does anyone else get this? Im on stock rom latest update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do u use sd card
If yes which class, coz i noticed that it can slow the device

I hope htc support team improve the performance and fix the lag issues by updates.
This is an awful bug .May htc solve this in the android 7 update .

Slow SD card like someone else said.
Try it without one.
Maybe your hardware is faulty in some way.
Also try to set all clocks to a constant maximum. So you see if you have the power or not.
Maybe a fake device?

ZUK supports 4KHDR @ 60fps?

Why is it that despite of having same configuration as OnePlus3, ZUK can't play 4KHDR @60fps as smooth as OP3? Though it can, after some tweaks, but not as efficiently & smooth as OP3(unrooted). I used same Version of MXPlayer and same file for comparison.
I tried all custom kernels available (Heliox,Jaguar,Darkmoon) and Latest versions of major ROMs(RR,AEX,ViperOS). And still didn't match the playback quality of OP3.
Please tell me if there are more kernels or ROMs yet to be tried, which can bring substantial step-up in performance, or which will just Play 4KHDR @ 60fps.
Overall, the User Experience is super-smooth but
this small thing is eating my brain :crying:

d3vyarth said:
Why is it that despite of having same configuration as OnePlus3, ZUK can't play 4KHDR @60fps as smooth as OP3? Though it can, after some tweaks, but not as efficiently & smooth as OP3(unrooted). I used same Version of MXPlayer and same file for comparison.
I tried all custom kernels available (Heliox,Jaguar,Darkmoon) and Latest versions of major ROMs(RR,AEX,ViperOS). And still didn't match the playback quality of OP3.
Please tell me if there are more kernels or ROMs yet to be tried, which can bring substantial step-up in performance, or which will just Play 4KHDR @ 60fps.
Overall, the User Experience is super-smooth but
this small thing is eating my brain :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, You are comparing "THE BEST" SD820 phone with probably the 3rd or 4th best SD820 phone (antutu wise). Secondly, even on the OP3, why would you choose to play 60fps 4K videos that too HDR ones?! That's ridiculous for anyone. I'm hoping the logical explanation to why you're doing this is to kinda benchmark the phone. But even then a lot of SD653 and SD810 phones can breeze through this benchmark easily. It's even more ridiculous that you've tried almost all roms and kernel combos just for a luxury video playback.
Anyways coming to the point, I tried the Sony 4K 60fps HDR Swordsmith video on my Z2+ (AEX4.6 Official with HelioX 3.18.80) via MX with HW (not plus) decocer and the video was running smooth AF. Infact, compared to playback my friend's OP3 running OxyOS 5.0, my Z2+ had zero hiccups throughout the video while the OP3 had 2 or 3 towards the middle. The interesting thing is that I achieved these results while running CPU underclocked to 1996 & 1401. But technically speaking that shouldn't be a problem in the video playback coz HW decoder runs exclusively on the GPU. Concluding my point, don't watch ridiculously high quality videos on phone and don't change roms and kernels to achieve desired playback, just adjust and optimize them.

Incrovantilist said:
First of all, You are comparing "THE BEST" SD820 phone with probably the 3rd or 4th best SD820 phone (antutu wise). Secondly, even on the OP3, why would you choose to play 60fps 4K videos that too HDR ones?! That's ridiculous for anyone. I'm hoping the logical explanation to why you're doing this is to kinda benchmark the phone. But even then a lot of SD653 and SD810 phones can breeze through this benchmark easily. It's even more ridiculous that you've tried almost all roms and kernel combos just for a luxury video playback.
Anyways coming to the point, I tried the Sony 4K 60fps HDR Swordsmith video on my Z2+ (AEX4.6 Official with HelioX 3.18.80) via MX with HW (not plus) decocer and the video was running smooth AF. Infact, compared to playback my friend's OP3 running OxyOS 5.0, my Z2+ had zero hiccups throughout the video while the OP3 had 2 or 3 towards the middle. The interesting thing is that I achieved these results while running CPU underclocked to 1996 & 1401. But technically speaking that shouldn't be a problem in the video playback coz HW decoder runs exclusively on the GPU. Concluding my point, don't watch ridiculously high quality videos on phone and don't change roms and kernels to achieve desired playback, just adjust and optimize them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point on playing the best video quality I have, bcz ZUK can, why not. I tried LG Cymatic Jazz HDR to test the playback(details attached).
Back when I had ZUI, it could not play the video at 60 fps. But when I flashed first RR, I was surprised by the result. In MX Player Pro with HW+, it could play super smooth with absolute 0 lag.
Then came updates and further more I flashed many ROMs but never got that playback. Changing kernels didn't help. And now I've same ROM and kernel as you do, because you know.
The fact that you can play 4KHDR @ 60fps, may be bcz ur video isn't having 10 bit color depth. Please attach your video details, I wanna see. If our videos are of same quality, then I may be having some other issue.
Its strange however, you're playing 4KHDR on HW.
Also, do you have Substratum theme or Xposed modules installed? Just curious if these affect performance in any way.

d3vyarth said:
The fact that you can play 4KHDR @ 60fps, may be bcz ur video isn't having 10 bit color depth. Please attach your video details, I wanna see. If our videos are of same quality, then I may be having some other issue.
Its strange however, you're playing 4KHDR on HW.
Also, do you have Substratum theme or Xposed modules installed? Just curious if these affect performance in any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Substratum No Xposed. And the video I tried has same video specs as yours (attached).

Incrovantilist said:
No Substratum No Xposed. And the video I tried has same video specs as yours (attached).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible that Xposed and Substratum are somewhere causing pain to the system?
Also, I once changed some screen values through Kernel auditor and tried to undo that. I don't know if they're default now, I'm attaching SS just tell me if they're same. I'll try uninstalling Substratum and Xposed and keep system as Lite as possible and then check.
Thanks for your attention and help

d3vyarth said:
Is it possible that Xposed and Substratum are somewhere causing pain to the system?
Also, I once changed some screen values through Kernel auditor and tried to undo that. I don't know if they're default now, I'm attaching SS just tell me if they're same. I'll try uninstalling Substratum and Xposed and keep system as Lite as possible and then check.
Thanks for your attention and help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Substratum can have some slowing effect on GPU due to its theme engine but that'll be possibly unnoticeable in a SD820. Xposed should be harmless (afaik with my previous phones) unless you are running GPU affecting modules. I don't use substratum because I was perfectly happy with CM theme engine and now that it's gone, I'm not so keen for a replacement. Xposed went meaningless after Lollipop & the birth of Magisk (for me atleast). And lastly about Screen values in KA, they don't have any effect on GPU unless ofcourse you're running grayscale which might actually save you some power (but might be unstable). If you want to reset the values, just uncheck apply on boot under screen settings and reboot. FYI, I ran almost all KCAL profiles I found online and "Perfection" (that's the name of the KCAL profile) for OP2 is giving the best visuals in my perspective. Try it if you want. Happy to have helped you ?✌?

Imo the zuk z2 is not as good at playback than I expected. Even 1080p60 video drop frames constantly at 2x playback speed
Also the phone dont have a hdr screen so why even try to play hdr content anyway

pipyakas said:
Imo the zuk z2 is not as good at playback than I expected. Even 1080p60 video drop frames constantly at 2x playback speed
Also the phone dont have a hdr screen so why even try to play hdr content anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Playing a 60fps video at 2x speed would mean 120fps, that's out of our screen limit. For that purpose display needs 120Hz refresh rate as in New Razer phone, or some frames will get skipped(frame drops) as you noticed.
And the reason why I wanna play that, I search of playing that thing smoothly, I've learned many things. It simply gives me satisfaction.

Incrovantilist said:
Substratum can have some slowing effect on GPU due to its theme engine but that'll be possibly unnoticeable in a SD820. Xposed should be harmless (afaik with my previous phones) unless you are running GPU affecting modules. I don't use substratum because I was perfectly happy with CM theme engine and now that it's gone, I'm not so keen for a replacement. Xposed went meaningless after Lollipop & the birth of Magisk (for me atleast). And lastly about Screen values in KA, they don't have any effect on GPU unless ofcourse you're running grayscale which might actually save you some power (but might be unstable). If you want to reset the values, just uncheck apply on boot under screen settings and reboot. FYI, I ran almost all KCAL profiles I found online and "Perfection" (that's the name of the KCAL profile) for OP2 is giving the best visuals in my perspective. Try it if you want. Happy to have helped you ?✌?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I removed Substratum and Xposed, even Shox audio mod, but result was same.
Though Performance as CPU Governor gives 100% results, but you said you've Under-Clocked ur CPU to 1996MHz, that did surprise me.
Which CPU & GPU governor do you use? Also which I/O Scheduler? I'm curious.

d3vyarth said:
I removed Substratum and Xposed, even Shox audio mod, but result was same.
Though Performance as CPU Governor gives 100% results, but you said you've Under-Clocked ur CPU to 1996MHz, that did surprise me.
Which CPU & GPU governor do you use? Also which I/O Scheduler? I'm curious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fiops scheduler.
CPU Governor is Interactive. (default on HelioX)
GPU Governor is Msm-adreno-tz. (default on HelioX)

Incrovantilist said:
Fiops scheduler.
CPU Governor is Interactive. (default on HelioX)
GPU Governor is Msm-adreno-tz. (default on HelioX)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use same settings
I think I need to do more research on this.

Updating to Oreo smoothed everything out :fingers-crossed: