Emulators on Ubuntu somewhat lacking.. ?

[razorblade_freshfade]

Hi everyone, this is my first post (just lettin you know )

Anyways, I recently switched to Ubuntu, cause I wanted my laptop to run even faster than it did with windows 7 (it's a 4 gig ram hp laptop with a good 64 bit amd processor) and since i don't game, i found the switch to be only an improvement. However, I do have some quite annoying troubles with emulators, the only time i DO game..

For SNES emulating I use Snes9x and not Zsnes, because i remember from running zsnes on windows that the joypad support wasn't always that great and the interface is sluggish, while snes9x is way handier. However, running it in a small window will just work speed-wise, but running it full-screen, will go really laggy. I don't know why this is, because when i had Windows 7 I could run it full screen and it wouldn't lag at all. This i find quite weird, also because my specs, 4 gig ram, nvidia 8200, amd dual core processor 2.1 mghz, should make it run really smoothly...

Second, I find that emulating N64 goes even worse... I use mupen64, the only n64 emulator available in the sofware repository (and i wouldn't know how to manually install software so i just chose that one). I find it to be a downgrade on project 64 in almost each possible way... It runs really sluggish, the graphics sometimes glitch, the sound runs slowly, ... it's a nightmare in windowed mode, but when i do it full-screen it becomes even worse! Unplayable..

I wonder if anyone else has also experienced this and what his/her solutions might be to this kind of annoying problem... i have the power to play these roms in full screen with the best resolution in windows, but when i try it on ubuntu, it's like my hardware just stripped off and i got stuck with windows 98 ?

[sakuramboo]

Did you install the Nvidia proprietary drivers?

[razorblade_freshfade]

Did you install the Nvidia proprietary drivers?

Ehm well i was thinking on doing that but i read somewhere on the site that the ubuntu drivers are just as good as the proprietery drivers... but this wouldn't make sense since i am also able to run cube 2 or wolfenstein:ET smoothly?

[BigSilly]

No dude, you'll need the Nvidia proprietary driver for proper emu fun. System/Administration/Hardware Drivers. Tick the latest one.

[razorblade_freshfade]

No dude, you'll need the Nvidia proprietary driver for proper emu fun.

ooooh, i'm sorry i just really think i read somewhere on the site that the ubuntu drivers are just as good?


but how can i install such a proprietary driver?

[BigSilly]

Sorry, I must have just edited my post as you posted! See above.

[Perfect Storm]

Ehm well i was thinking on doing that but i read somewhere on the site that the ubuntu drivers are just as good as the proprietery drivers... but this wouldn't make sense since i am also able to run cube 2 or wolfenstein:ET smoothly?

The default open source nvidia driver which are pre-installed with Ubuntu are not good with 3D stuff you need to install the restricted drivers.

Whoever told you that the default drivers are equally good with the restricted nvidia drivers are either lying or totally mis-informed.

[razorblade_freshfade]

Wait a second, i googled how to add hardware drivers to ubuntu, so i went to system -> administration -> hardware drivers and it said 'searching for hardware drivers' and then i got this list:

[BigSilly]

Click "Activate", then wait.



That's it.

[razorblade_freshfade]

Yeah but I already have the current one running don't i?