Homebrew CitrAGB - 3DS GBA Emulator (WIP)

[shinyquagsire23]

Wait, so you guys confirmed there is increased threading?

Well you have more cores, so yeah, I'd imagine it threads better.

 

[Smoker1]

N3DS has slightly more RAM, CPU, and I think it has a slightly better GPU

 

[pdapanda]

any hope to take advantage of the ARM7 core？
They managed to do this.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/pasta-cf...-and-new-3ds-required-ninjhax.388925/page-226

 

[WulfyStylez]

any hope to take advantage of the ARM7 core？
They managed to do this.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/pasta-cf...-and-new-3ds-required-ninjhax.388925/page-226

The ARM7 hardware can't really be used at all while NATIVE_FIRM is running since it has lots of memory mapped to places process9 uses. That's also why there's a separate FIRM for it.

 

[Idaho]

N3DS has slightly more RAM, CPU, and I think it has a slightly better GPU

It has twice more RAM and a twice more efficient CPU, I don't know for the GPU but I think it's also quite improved, this is not a "slightly" improvement as you seem to assume...

 

[MyJoyConRunsHot]

Well you have more cores, so yeah, I'd imagine it threads better.

Someone on neogaf(lol) stated that the developers on there hinted at increased single-threading, possibly resulting from cache speed/increase. Since there are known to be actual 3DS developers on neogaf, I wondered if you guys would've come across further evidence since you're working directly on the hardware.

 

[davhuit]

For those who are interested, seems injection on GBA VC is possible (someone on gbatemp injected Castlevania then Mother 3 : http://gbatemp.net/threads/pasta-cf...required-ninjhax.388925/page-227#post-5518636) so it might be a good thing waiting for the emulator to be fullspeed/cia (though, of couse, an emulator is always better than a VC injection).

 

[Sizednochi]

^
Injection is nice and all, but I believe an actual emulator is way better. You have more control over configuration, button layout, and you can import save files.

 

[Canadacdn]

-snip-

 

[Sizednochi]

Agreed. That, plus the GBA Virtual Console is actually pretty terrible all around, it lacks the already bare-bones features found in other VC titles, and fails hard in terms of image quality. The scaling looks ugly, the screen is always very dark regardless of brightness level, and both of these lead to a lot of ghosting, turning your game into a blurry mess that just hurts your eyes if you try to play fullscreen.

Isn't the scaling the same sort of bicubic filter they use for DS games? That looks bad for DS, can't imagine how bad it'd look like for GBA... I don't get why they just don't use a linear filter.

 

[davhuit]

I also said an emulator is better if you read my message carefully but, for now, it might be interesting as VC games are running fullspeed, and the emulator isn't fullspeed yet. Of course, when the emulator will be fullspeed, VC injection will become useless But meanwhile, I'm still happy to know I'll be able to play some GBA games during the wait until the emulator reach fullspeed.

For example, I don't see the point in making GB/GBC injection now that the 3DS emulator for GB/GBC works pretty good (and I'm also looking fowards the NES emulator to reach fullspeed to be able to stop using VC injections for NES).

The GBA Ambassador games I played didn't looked that bad, personally, and I have a N3DS XL so a big screen.

Note that you should never play fullscreen a game if it make the ratio not correct, whatever the console is. It's just a non-respect towards the game A 4:3 game is not made to run on 16:9, whatever filter/scaling you may use.

GBA VC lacks features of other systems because it's not an emulator, it use the DS backward compatibility to run, so you can add any feature to it. NES/GB/GBC VC are emulators, that's why they have other features.

 

[Sizednochi]

GBA VC lacks features of other systems because it's not an emulator, it use the DS backward compatibility to run, so you can add any feature to it. NES/GB/GBC VC are emulators, that's why they have other features.

Everybody knows this. But that's no excuse for shitty scaling and darkened image.

 

[froggestspirit]

you can disable the scaling by holding start or select on boot (same with gb(c) and ds(i))

 

[Sizednochi]

you can disable the scaling by holding start or select on boot (same with gb(c) and ds(i))

The problem is not scaling itself. The issue is how it's done - poorly. GBC VC is scaled well, it uses Linear, it's not the sharpest scaling there is but it generates no artifacts.

 

[shinyquagsire23]

GBA VC lacks features of other systems because it's not an emulator, it use the DS backward compatibility to run, so you can add any feature to it. NES/GB/GBC VC are emulators, that's why they have other features.

Not entirely, saves are handled kinda weird. And 128KB saves aren't supported, which means no Pokemon.

 

[Kikirini]

Hnnng, wish I could try out the injection for now but I see it's Pasta only. Ah well. I shall wait for this emulator instead.

 

[raystriker]

[Blind post here][Possibly off topic]

Could the 3DS hardware be used to improve on ichfly's gba emulater for the ds?
ichfly's gbaemu4nds ran many games on full speed, so that was quite an achievement for a gba emu that ran on any nds flashkart without extra hardware

 

[Smoker1]

As I was informed, Porting it would just use the DS Settings and requirements. Wont improve at all.

 

[raystriker]

What about reworking and adapting the code to work on 3ds mode?
That should give more room for improvement as more resources would be available on 3ds mode.
If I am not wrong, when ichichfly started the project, he also made special versions for the Dsi that ran on dsi mode using a cyclods ievo. Its was considered better but then ichichfly merged the two emulators.

So considering the fact that dsi mode was potentially better, a 3ds adaptation could be almost perfect (possibly).

Sorry for the off topic post.

 

[davhuit]

It's here, for people who want to try : http://gbatemp.net/threads/release-agb_firm-signature-patcher-gba-rom-converter.390313/

Will use it for the moment and will switch to CitrAGB when it'll be ready (fullspeed/cia), like I did with GB/GBC (switched to
GameYob 3DS when it got scaling with fullspeed implemented).