Hard sync only works with OGL, as explained in the input latency section here. I found lag to be worst with D3D, better with OGL and best with OGL and hard sync on with my GTX 570. But it can vary between cards/drivers/displays so it might be different with your AMD card.
I finally figured out how to get that plugin to work. You need a recent enough nightly and to set these core options: GFX Plugin: angrylion, RSP Plugin: cxd4 and Resolution: 640x480. For some reason it only scales right at 640x480, but still looks like it's rendering at 320x240. That makes my CRT filter look bad with it (there's already an issue report about that on git).
That error log doesn't really help me with what might be going wrong, but there are multiple settings preset files that come with Royale tuned for Intel, Nvidia and AMD graphics. The shader's readme is pretty good at explaining how to change it's settings and should help with troubleshooting.
With those specs you shouldn't have a problem using the defaults or any of the Nvidia presets. I use the settings from the "user-settings-royale-with-cheese-nvidia.h" file with mask type 2 and mask sample mode 1 on my GTX 570. "#define DRIVERS_ALLOW_DERIVATIVES" isn't commented out, but I don't think that is causing your problem.
You should use a nightly exe since Royale doesn't fully work with 1.0.0.2. It uses newer shader features added to RetroArch since that release.
Delete everything in your shaders folder and replace it with the contents of this zip. That link will always have the latest shaders in it.
-L C:\Users\<name>\.emulationstation\retroarch\cores\genesis_plus_gx_libretro.dll D:\Roms\Megadrive\~Hacks\Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Complete.gen --config C:\Users\<name>\.emulationstation\retroarch\configs\MD.cfgThe ROM path needs quotes around it since the filename has spaces. "D:\Roms\Megadrive\~Hacks\Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Complete.gen" should work. If your username has spaces those paths need quotes too.
Magic, that got it.
Downloaded yesterdays Android nightly (17/1/2105) and the Higan Snes Performance core runs like shit on my JXD S7800B device
add " -- config [path to config file]" to the end of your command.
<systemList>
<system>
<name>psp</name>
<fullname>Sony PlayStation Portable</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\psp</path>
<extension>.iso</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\ppsspp\PPSSPPWindows64.exe "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>psp</platform>
<theme>psp</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>psx</name>
<fullname>Sony PlayStation</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\psx</path>
<extension>.iso .ccd .cue</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\mednafen_psx_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>psx</platform>
<theme>psx</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>ps2</name>
<fullname>PlayStation 2</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\ps2</path>
<extension>.iso</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\PCSX2\PCSX2.exe "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>ps2</platform>
<theme>ps2</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>nes</name>
<fullname>Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\nes</path>
<extension>.nes .NES</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\bnes_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>nes</platform>
<theme>nes</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>snes</name>
<fullname>Super Nintendo Entertainment System</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\snes</path>
<extension>.snes .sfc .smc</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\bsnes_balanced_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>snes</platform>
<theme>snes</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>n64</name>
<fullname>Nintendo 64</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\n64</path>
<extension>.n64</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\mupen64plus_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>n64</platform>
<theme>n64</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>wii</name>
<fullname>Wii</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\wii</path>
<extension>.iso</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>wii</platform>
<theme>wii</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>megadrive</name>
<fullname>Sega Megadrive</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\smd</path>
<extension>.md</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\picodrive_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>megadrive</platform>
<theme>megadrive</theme>
</system>
<system>
<name>MAME</name>
<fullname>MAME</fullname>
<path>G:\EmulationStation\games\mame</path>
<extension>.zip</extension>
<command>G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L G:\EmulationStation\systems\RetroArch\cores\mame_libretro.dll "%ROM_RAW%"</command>
<platform>arcade</platform>
<theme>mame</theme>
</system>
</systemList>I included a .psd with all the layers if you want to edit it.
Usually. Sometimes there are new features added to cores that need the newer RetroArch to work, but I think they usually still function with old versions at least.