Hacking Devolution - Public Release

[Nintendo Maniac]

i checked on the speed, becuase i read a few posts her that devolution runs games faster and i wanted to test that and i was surprised not only that this is true, but that it works so flawlessy.

I was the person that mentioned it earlier. Out of curiosity, which game/s in question did you find run at a higher frame rate? The only game I know of to have a noticeable performance improvement is Midway Arcade Treasures 3, particularly "Single Race" mode in Rush 2049 with 2-3 players.

 

[EzekielRage]

Extreme G III Multiplayer mode, Ultimate Spider-Man (has some serious slowdowns completely erradicated) PN03 had some issues (or at least I rememebr ahving some) and PK Out of the Shadows had issues who are now gone. So I am glad about that^
Now all that is left is the widescreen fix and I am a happy camper^^

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I've been wondering if maybe we should include something on the wiki regarding improved performance, but I was afraid that the wiki may be tueidj's baby and that we would be publicly shamed for changing anything other the compatibility fields.

My thinking is, the performance improvements makes some things that were pretty much completely unplayable suddenly become very-much playable. This is not something that is typical of USB loaders, so to me I feel extra attention should be called out on such functionality.


Example Game: In Midway Arcade Treasures 3, that "Single Race" mode in Rush 2049 is pretty much useless with 3-4 players since it runs at like half speed, which is boring and annoying for a racing game; 2-player runs mostly well with a few moments of slow-down. Devolution makes 3-player run BETTER than even 2 player did on the GameCube, though 4-player is unchanged; meanwhile 2-player is flawless.

 

[Joel Schmidt]

That's weird. Works for me. Where are you putting the file and how are you running it etc?
I'll see if I can replicate the problem and fix it if I can.

located in root/wiiflow/plugins

running direct through wiiflow 4.1, plugin has been selected and does see all of my games. But when I select a game it comes up with the usual warning about not finding a (physical) memory card, then after about 3 or 4 seconds, returns me to the initial health warning screen. All of my games are verified (have been since Devo was first released) and work fine with the stand alone sample loader.

Only possible differences I can think of are 1) I use an original Black Wii and/or 2) I have all my stuff on a 32GB SD Card instead of an external hard drive.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Well, if tueidj were still around I'd tell you to make a wifi log and post it here. I mean, you're still welcome to do that, but I don't think any of us could analyze what it says...

 

[wiismodrome]

FWIW, I speculated that Devolution would improve performance for some GC games even before the program was released.

Here's a thread on the subject: http://gbatemp.net/threads/devolution-even-better-than-the-real-thing.333113/

 

[MeowTheMouse]

Will devolution ever support trimmed games and forcing wide screen?

 

[Cyan]

Trimmed games : no
Widescreen : probably (there's already a setting for widescreen in the sample loader's sources)

 

[EzekielRage]

To be honest, if tueidj does not come back here and we have nobody to ask I think we should update that wiki a little, but with a note stating that we did so and that those features we wrote down here are not officially announced by him. maybe in a different color or so. that way everybody knows whats what and if he wants to delete it, he can easily do so by just deleting the different color text. it would help if he show up to tell us if he is kay with it, perhaps somebody knows where he is these days and ask him?

 

[MeowTheMouse]

Did the creator him self confirm that trimmed games would never be supported? and if he did, why wouldn't they be supported?
I'm curious behind his reasoning because I'm planning to rip my collection, so I'm thinking between Dios Mios trimmed rips or Devolution clean rips.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[EzekielRage]

Becaue the AP only works with CleanRips AFAIK. GameCube clean rips have 1.4GB of space. That is not really much to be honest. I have my collection of over 25 Games stored on an old 50GB drive and still could put up more games if neccesary. So that should not be an Issue. My main draw for Devolution are the working audio streams and the fact that Devolution runs on USB, since I am not that big of an SD card fan (too small, I lose them since I am chaotic). But you dont have to use devolution. Its not like we are trying to get people to vote on something. Use Devolution or dont. Simple as that.

 

[Maxternal]

Still haven't had a good chance to look at this but ...

/snip

Well, if tueidj were still around I'd tell you to make a wifi log and post it here. I mean, you're still welcome to do that, but I don't think any of us could analyze what it says...

Just in case he's still lurking and not logging in, it's not a BAD idea either.
For the rest of us, I'm sure we could at least look at it and figure out if it's actually getting past the sample loader or not ... although maybe not much more than that.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

FWIW, I speculated that Devolution would improve performance for some GC games even before the program was released.

Here's a thread on the subject: http://gbatemp.net/threads/devolution-even-better-than-the-real-thing.333113/

Well in reply to that thread, I can confirm that 60fps-locked games have an even GREATER performance boost, because instead of just running choppier, those games run SLOWER (like half-speed). This is the case with Rush 2049 in Midway Arcade Treasures 3, which is the example I keep using partially due to that fact and also because it still sounds like the largest performance boost of any game described.

 

[Joel Schmidt]

Still haven't had a good chance to look at this but ...Just in case he's still lurking and not logging in, it's not a BAD idea either.
For the rest of us, I'm sure we could at least look at it and figure out if it's actually getting past the sample loader or not ... although maybe not much more than that.

I think he might have been referring to the post/subject before our discussion. But later tonight or tomorrow I'll do a log.

 

[wiismodrome]

Pretty sure that the author still lurks here from time to time. He's edited the compatibility list a few times in the past couple of months.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Uhh... you sure about the Wiki? Looking at the history it says the last time Tueidj edited anything was on November 9th:
http://wiki.gbatemp.net/w/index.php?title=Devolution_Compatibility_List&limit=100&action=history

Or does Tueidj usually not log in when making an edit and therefore it just identifies him as his IP address?

 

[OneUp]

Did the creator him self confirm that trimmed games would never be supported? and if he did, why wouldn't they be supported?
I'm curious behind his reasoning because I'm planning to rip my collection, so I'm thinking between Dios Mios trimmed rips or Devolution clean rips.

Thanks for your reply!

I've had some success with using trimmed iso files with Devolution. My guess is it only matters if that first few bytes that Devolution uses as DRM is moved around when the iso is trimmed. However, results vary and you'll have to try your games yourself. The wiki does not currently have a section for trimmed games probably because they are not officially supported.

 

[wiismodrome]

Or does Tueidj usually not log in when making an edit and therefore it just identifies him as his IP address?

Yep... IP address, plus edits/comments.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I've had some success with using trimmed iso files with Devolution. My guess is it only matters if that first few bytes that Devolution uses as DRM is moved around when the iso is trimmed

May I ask specifically which games you have gotten to work in Devolution with trimmed ISOs, and which program you used to trim said ISOs? I am very interested in investigating this farther and hopefully managing to get working in Devolution a self-edited custom ISO of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 that has some customized music.

 

[OneUp]

May I ask specifically which games you have gotten to work in Devolution with trimmed ISOs, and which program you used to trim said ISOs? I am very interested in investigating this farther and hopefully managing to get working in Devolution a self-edited custom ISO of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 that has some customized music.

Here's earlier in the thread when I mentioned it working: http://gbatemp.net/threads/devolution-public-release.330554/page-52#post-4330277

I used discex -c to compress the iso...according to my post i verified with 1:1 first, but that probably isn't needed. Unfortunately, my USB loader, cfg, recently decided it was smarter than the user and tells you dumps must be 1:1...(I just noticed this today)

I don't remember exactly which games worked and I didn't test all of my games, but I believe these worked: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2, Top Gun Combat Zones, Robotech Battlecry, Need for Speed Underground, maybe Mario Kart Double Dash.