Homebrew Why do homebrew GBA emulators suck on the old 3ds?

[Cjmcgiv]

All the o3ds GBA emulators I've tried suck. The frame rate is low and that really hinders the experience, yet there are GBA virtual console games. Can anyone explain why to me?. I haven't tried any in a while, but if anyone can point me to on that runs well on the o3ds, that would be a huge help. I also have CFW so I have the ability to use CFW and Homebrew emulators.

 

[The Catboy]

GBA emulators on the 3DS are literally just that, emulators. Thus the games are emulated through the 3DS's hardware and software. Which we really don't have the much access to the 3DS's hardware for better emulation
GBA injections aren't actually emulated, the 3DS actually has hardware for GBA games to work. The system simply reboots and loads into the GBA hardware for these games, basically the 3DS literally becomes a GBA.

 

[MegaKyurem]

All the o3ds GBA emulators I've tried suck. The frame rate is low and that really hinders the experience, yet there are GBA virtual console games. Can anyone explain why to me?. I haven't tried any in a while, but if anyone can point me to on that runs well on the o3ds, that would be a huge help. I also have CFW so I have the ability to use CFW and Homebrew emulators.

I think it's because the games aren't being run with the built-in 3ds emulator. Compare it more to TWLoader (which loads DS Games off of your SD Card). The reason it's slow is similar to why TWLoader is slow is because it runs the .nds files off of the sd card. The reason why homebrew emulators run slow is similar. The way nintendo is running these emulators is by having an emulator coded in the firmware, and turning the .gba or .gb, etc. into a native 3ds files (.cia, not the .3ds used in cartridges). That way the 3ds can run it quicker.

Edit: Forgot so say that the 3ds is using a different firmware just for the emulators. That's why you have to completely quit out of a non-3ds game (DSi, GBA, etc.) before you go to the home menu.

 

[Cjmcgiv]

GBA emulators on the 3DS are literally just that, emulators. Thus the games are emulated through the 3DS's hardware and software. Which we really don't have the much access to the 3DS's hardware for better emulation
GBA injections aren't actually emulated, the 3DS actually has hardware for GBA games to work. The system simply reboots and loads into the GBA hardware for these games, basically the 3DS literally becomes a GBA.

Ahhhh. I understand now. Thanks for the explanation. So the only real way to get good GBA emulation is on a n3ds? Hmmm, well I'm poor so oh well.

 

[MegaKyurem]

Ahhhh. I understand now. Thanks for the explanation. So the only real way to get good GBA emulation is on a n3ds? Hmmm, well I'm poor so oh well.

It's bad on homebrew on the new3ds as well. If you want to emulate gba games or rom hacks of gba games, just get a CFW and you can inject gba games into .cia files, so that the 3ds uses it's own emulators.

 

[Cjmcgiv]

It's bad on homebrew on the new3ds as well. If you want to emulate gba games or rom hacks of gba games, just get a CFW and you can inject gba games into .cia files, so that the 3ds uses it's own emulators.

Oh awesome, as I stated in the original post, I have CFW. Is there a guide you can link me to to inject GBA games into cia files?

 

[The Catboy]

Ahhhh. I understand now. Thanks for the explanation. So the only real way to get good GBA emulation is on a n3ds? Hmmm, well I'm poor so oh well.

It runs horribly on the new3DS as well.
The only real way to play GBA games properly on the 3DS is GBA injections or until someone finds better approach to GBA emulation

 

[MegaKyurem]

Oh awesome, as I stated in the original post, I have CFW. Is there a guide you can link me to to inject GBA games into cia files?

This link has guides for every emulator that's on the 3ds (and *I think* some more): https://gbatemp.net/search/45605693/?q=[Release]&o=date&c

 

[Cjmcgiv]

This link has guides for every emulator that's on the 3ds (and *I think* some more): https://gbatemp.net/search/45605693/?q=[Release]&o=date&c

Thanks! This Helps A Lot.

 

[Hopalongtom]

You have CFW, so why not use Virtual console injects? They run natively off the hardware then, no emulation needed! They work just fine on Old and New 3DS!

 

[Cralex]

Fun fact: Nintendo was apparently working on GBA Virtual Console using emulation instead of natively at some point. If you inject a GBA game into another Virtual Console title, it will load the GBA game with traditional Virtual Console features, including restore points... It'll just run very poorly, like community emulators do. Source: http://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Console#Regular_VC

 

[MegaKyurem]

Fun fact: Nintendo was apparently working on GBA Virtual Console using emulation instead of natively at some point. If you inject a GBA game into another Virtual Console title, it will load the GBA game with traditional Virtual Console features, including restore points... It'll just run very poorly, like community emulators do. Source: http://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Console#Regular_VC

GBA games run fine at full speed for me.. (Unless you meant an old glitchy way that didn't use CFWs) I tested it on both a new and old 3ds.

Edit: Nevermind, I didn't understand what you were saying.

 

[Deleted User]

You can download premade injectable gba vc roms that are in CIA format from the iso site.I inject the unplayable ones with lag issues (while running them on the emulator) while I keep the playable ones on the emulator to save space on the home menu.

 

[Majickhat55]

I still use MGBA (The CIA version) for some Rom Hacks that refused to save when injected (Pokemon Glazed, Pokemon Chapter Red) and they work flawlessly on both my O3DS and N3DS. I thought it was only SNES emulators that ran like crap on the O3DS. All the GBA roms I've tried through MGBA have run pretty well.

 

[PrincessLillie]

It's because they run in userland, which has very low level access. If we could reboot into AGB_FIRM in userland, we'd be able to play the games at decent speed, but since we can't get that deep in userland, we have to emulate them as best we can. No emulator is perfect, and since this is running on the 3DS in userland, it lags like hell. You can, however, reboot into AGB_FIRM to play your GBA games at full speed if you have CFW.