Retroarch crt royale anr issue

[rightleftkr]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
• I have searched the existing issues

Description

When "Load shader preset on content load" (auto-apply shader preset) is enabled and the shader preset is CRT Royale (a preset that recursively #references many sub-preset/shader files), RetroArch triggers an Android ANR ("Input dispatching timed out ... Waited 5000ms for KeyEvent") shortly after cold-starting content. Tapping "Wait" in the ANR dialog does not resolve it — the ANR recurs roughly every 5 seconds until the the process is killed.

I've also noticed the ANR appears tied to content/ROM size: with a small ROM (e.g. Street Smart), auto-loading CRT Royale on cold start does not trigger the ANR. With a larger ROM (e.g. The Crystal of Kings), the same auto-load triggers it.

Applying the exact same CRT Royale preset manually via the Quick Menu while content is already running works fine with only a brief, sub-5-second hitch — no ANR. The problem only appears when the preset is loaded automatically during the cold-start/content-load path.

Expected behavior

Shader preset loads (with a normal loading hitch) without triggering an ANR, matching the behavior of manually loading the same preset from the Quick Menu during an active session.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Set a CRT Royale shader preset as the active shader for a core (e.g. via core/content shader override) with "auto-apply shader preset on content load" enabled
2. Fully close RetroArch (kill process)
3. Relaunch RetroArch and load the same content Observe ANR dialog within a few seconds of the content loading

Version/Commit

Android (aarch64), latest stable (1.22.2)

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

I don't know

Platform & operating system

Android 16

Affected Cores

mame(current), fbneo

Environment information

Device: Lenovo Yoga Pad Pro 12.7 (TB520FU), Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

anr_2026-09-01-12-42-04-961.txt

Relevant log output

Subject: Input dispatching timed out (a68fb05 com.retroarch.aarch64/com.retroarch.browser.retroactivity.RetroActivityFuture is not responding. Waited 5000ms for KeyEvent).

"Thread-3" sysTid=16091
    #00 string_tokenize
    #01 glslang_read_shader_file+500
    #02 glslang_read_shader_file+1400
    #03 glslang_read_shader_file+1400   <- recursive re-entry (reference chain)
    #04 slang_preprocess_parse_parameters+68
    #05 (libretroarch-activity.so, offset only)
    #06 video_shader_load_preset_into_shader+808
    #07 menu_shader_manager_init+472
    #08 (libretroarch-activity.so, offset only)
    #09 (libretroarch-activity.so, offset only)
    #10 rarch_main+528




Starting game: "/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/arcade/SNK/crysking.zip"
Game name: crysking
Game description: The Crystal of Kings
[Environ] SET_ROTATION: "0" (0 deg).
[SRAM] SRAM 불러오기 건너뛰는 중.
[Core] libretro API 버전: 1, 컴파일 대상 API: 1
[Core] Geometry: 320x240, Aspect: 1.333, FPS: 60.05, Sample rate: 48000.00 Hz.
[Video] Set video size to: 960x720.
[Vulkan] Vulkan dynamic library loaded.
[Vulkan] Setting swap interval: 1.
[Vulkan] Created Android surface: 529145507744.
[Vulkan] Found GPU at index 0: "Adreno (TM) 750".
[Vulkan] Using GPU index 0.
[Vulkan] Using semaphores for WSI acquire.
[Vulkan] Using GPU: "Adreno (TM) 750".
[Vulkan] Queue family 0 supports 3 sub-queues.
[Vulkan] Got 6 swapchain images.
[Vulkan] Native window size: 2944x1840.
[Vulkan] Using resolution 2944x1840.
[Vulkan] Using BGRA8888 format.
[Shaders] Specific shader preset found at "/storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/config/MAME/MAME.slangp".
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-first-pass-linearize-crt-gamma-bob-fields.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #0.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-scanlines-vertical-interlacing.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #1.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-bloom-approx.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #2.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/blurs/shaders/royale/blur9fast-vertical.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #3.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/blurs/shaders/royale/blur9fast-horizontal.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #4.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-mask-resize-vertical.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_UNORM for pass output #5.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-mask-resize-horizontal.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_UNORM for pass output #6.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-scanlines-horizontal-apply-mask.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #7.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-brightpass.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #8.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-bloom-vertical.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #9.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-bloom-horizontal-reconstitute.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_SRGB for pass output #10.
[Slang] Compiling shader: "/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/crt/shaders/crt-royale/src/crt-royale-geometry-aa-last-pass.slang".
[Vulkan] Using render target format R8G8B8A8_UNORM for pass output #11.
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1024 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 64x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 140x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 4294967295 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Input] Found joypad driver: "android".
[Video] Found display server: "android".
[Audio] Set audio input rate to: 47956.48 Hz.
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1024 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 64x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 140x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 4294967295 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[OpenSL] Requested audio latency: 128 ms.
[OpenSL] Setting audio latency: Block size = 768, Blocks = 32, Total = 24576...
[Audio] Started synchronous audio driver.
[Display] Found display driver: "vulkan".

[Vulkan] Native window size: 2944x1840.

[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1024 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 1024x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 320x240 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 64x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 140x105 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 4294967295 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Creating framebuffer 2240x1680 (max 1 level(s)).
[Vulkan] Updating framebuffer size 320x240 (format: 43).
[Vulkan] Updating framebuffer size 320x1680 (format: 43).

[LibretroAdmin]

Wait for the next nightly, I am confident it will be resolved

[i30817]

Ironically on vfs to a server loading roms, one trick I did to manage fewer ANRs was increasing the
Vfs cache (I use rsaf which allows these tweaks by being the samba "client" instead of RetroArch and handing RetroArch SAF uris). The result is a ANR or two loading very big zipped games at the beginning and none or very few after, even for rom types that stream instead of copy. You do get a fps hit, not going to lie.

You can tell because using the same server directly without saf (it was a samba server) had many many more slight hangs which led to more ANRs. So ironically sometimes reading more than requested at a time for long io operations is the answer. I suspect this works because RSAF is both a mature project with good and configurable caching and more crucially, a external to RetroArch background program, which means you can turn off the background ANRs in developer mode and only get the RetroArch ANRs.

Counterintuitive isnt it?

Google has lot to answer for for not giving users a tweak to turn off ANRs except like this.

[LibretroAdmin]

If it keeps happening, please give me a tombstone

[LibretroAdmin]

@rightleftkr Did you retest this with today's nightly? (or any subsequent nightly)

Oh wait, from your description I see you tested the stable, which is like 9 months old by now and is no longer a good representation of the current state of things. Try the latest nightly and see if we can close the issue then