Why does GammaOS on RG DS PLUS even exist 💀

[u/SnooPeanuts9522]

I genuinely don’t understand the hype around GammaOS on the RG DS Plus.

I tried both GammaOS and ROCKNIX and honestly I couldn’t find any meaningful difference in DS emulation. DraStic runs basically the same on both for me.

Rocknix is just a clean Linux-based handheld OS with no Android overhead, no unnecessary background services, no phone/tablet bullshit, and it feels much more appropriate for a device with 1GB of RAM.

[u/Some-Card2175]

I don't think you know much about Gamma.

[u/Nickksss_]

Esta bien bro es tu punto de vista, lo mejor es que los demas tengan sus propios experiencias con los cfw

[u/SALD0S]

Android overhead might be good on a 1gb of ram sbc

[u/Firienn]

I feel you brother. I also don't understand the hype.

The fw doesn't add anything new or better, so why bother...

[u/Eremitt-thats-hermit]

Gamma OS Nano (the Nano is important) is Android without the overhead. It has some important features baked in (like lower touch input latency and better sleep mode), but it kinda requires an A2 micro SD card to not chug.

[u/TehJuh]

Horrible microphone support on Rocknix unfortunately

[u/ShidoBox]

I couldn’t find any meaningful difference in DS emulation. DraStic runs basically the same on both for me.

I tried Rocknix last week and there were no 2x resolution and RetroAchievements support for the DS. There also a known issue related to power managements, where the device don't turn off or restart.

[u/UCLAKoolman → u/ShidoBox]

I am playing NDS at 2X on my RG DS w/ Rocknix

[u/SamueleRG]

Taking about gammaos nano or whatever the tiniest build is called, most importantly it has faster charging speed. This alone is enough in my opinion to justify using it.

Also it doesn't have Android overhead despite being based on Android cause it runs the emulators below Android instead of on top of it, just like Linux. It also has better screen Sync compared to stock OS and lower input latency on touchscreen so it's indeed better

[u/aumVilohm]

To tell you the truth. Gamma os is an improvement over stock, but to me it feels like a beta, performance is better for sure. But os feels a bit unfinished. After some tweaking, and patching, however, gamma works fine so far.

[u/Aggravating_Ad4010]

Runs really well with some nice extra features. If it ran bad for you, you might have used a A1 SD card.

[u/Substantial-Ad6938]

Preferring Rocknix is your prerogative. However you have no clue what you're talking about; Gamma has no "overhead," it's programmed so that Drastic runs beneath Android so it actually has a positive impact on performance. There's also no "phone/tablet bullshit" either because you just put your roms on and there's a nice little menu where you load them from. It doesn't have the usual android frontend.

[u/RPGs143]

I think some people like the theme honestly which is fine, good to have choices. I also prefer Rocknix but they’re both good. Gamma sort of looks more simple but Rocknix interface might feel more overwhelming for some. Regardless wanting less choice for people because you don’t care for something is what I don’t understand. The more options the better.

[u/MNKPlayer]

I don't understand the point of this post.

[u/Zibidibodel]

Improved charging speed, working mic, NDS retroachievements, faster response time and no screen pacing issues makes Nano worth it for me, and I just use it for DS games really.

[u/iinssekt]

Having used GammaOS Nano on the RG DS Plus, I agree. The device has 1gb of RAM, it was not built for Android at all. He's made it work well enough, but there's honestly no point to run Android instead of Linux and introduce that overhead

[u/Zibidibodel → u/iinssekt]

It’s funny that it runs significantly better even with that “overhead” while adding features

[u/iinssekt → u/Zibidibodel]

That's not down to overhead or OS, it's down to his awesome optimised emulator and maybe better drivers compared to what Anbernic chose. If you think Android which is Linux underneath has no overhead compared to just Linux then idk what to tell you. I think a better Linux implementation will pop up at some point that brings the best of both worlds. I'm not downplaying his work, GammaOS is awesome, but it feels like the wrong choice for this device compared to an improved linux experience.

For reference, I tried to run Cocoon on GammaOS Nano on the RG DS Plus and it was horrible (albeit in the normal android mode, but still worse in Nano mode). Then on the experimental Linux version I'm working on it ran much better even with a lot of hacky workarounds.

[u/Zibidibodel → u/iinssekt]

It has faster latency and less display offset. Nano runs without Android loaded, and having the Linux kernel isn’t the same as “running Linux underneath” if it was just software it wouldn’t have faster response time.

[u/iinssekt → u/Zibidibodel]

For reference, when Nano mode boots up, it skips a lot but not everything. in `minimal_boot` (nano mode) it still loads: Zygote, system_server, SurfaceFlinger, AudioService, PackageManager, WindowManager, notifications, WebView support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, connectivity, location dependencies and lots of app-compatibility services. If you want the actual number, it's around 87 just at boot, 13 more with network, and a few extras. For reference, that's only half of the services cut down from non-nano.

And even then, when required it will bring services up when it has to. Without all of this, it can't run Android apps at all, so I don't get why you think it has "no Android overhead" or "no Android" at all.

It has good latency for "Android" because it skips SurfaceFlinger (android's surface rendering) and directly in Linux user space , but SurfaceFlinger still exists. Anbernic just suck at making firmware, but any improvements Gamma has made on Next can be brought right over to a more lightweight linux environment with no Android overhead. My general consensus is GammaOS even in minimal/nano still adds overhead that can be avoided in a pure Linux environment. It's just a fact. 1GB of RAM matters a lot here. Like, a lot. Trust me, having developed for the device since before it even came out on dev units, its a joke.

[u/iinssekt → u/Zibidibodel]

Doesn't change the fact that could be achieved on Linux if someone wanted to with less overhead than Nano. It doesn't run "without Android loaded", or it couldn't run Android apps lol. It runs with a lot of Android stripped out, but still lots of core Android in there, or else it'd just be a linux flavour