Emulation Homebrew Adrenaline now releases nightly builds

[Gray_Jack]

Isage and I have been working hard to bring improvements to Adrenaline and we've been open about the changes, which made some people interested to try the upcoming version.

So far, we helped people to build by themselves, but that is not possible for the less tech-savvy people. We also provided builds for voluntary testers to test specific feature or fix when needed.

Some people requested us to make a release, but we don't feel like it is ready yet. So we did the second best thing, Adrenaline now releases a nightly build every push to the main branch of the repository!

The project already needed a Continuous Integration to facilitate depelopment and code contributions, with that done, implementing automatic nightly releases was somewhat simple. So I decided to tackle this as New Year present for the community.

We also have been working on a new documentation page for the project, use it to refer to any feature and options provided by the project. Link to the docs: https://adrenaline.sarcasticat.com/docs

You can grab the release here: https://github.com/isage/Adrenaline/releases

You can identify a nightly release by the word "Nightly" in the release title (red rectangle)

To download, click in the "Assets" (blue rectangle) and download the either the VPK or the updater to use.

NOTE: You can notice that there is a DEBUG vpk, you can manually install that version to get file logs that may help us understand better what si happening when you report a bug to us.

To manually update, you can follow these instructions.

Github
Changelog
FAQ

Now. Happy holidays!! Enjoy!

 

[SonyUSA]

Adrenaline always seemed pretty perfect to me already, even like 5 years ago

 

[Gray_Jack]

Adrenaline always seemed pretty perfect to me already, even like 5 years ago

5 years ago it was perfect to me as well, until... it was not and I wanted more, so I put my hands at work LOL

 

[GitMage]

Sir! First of all really appreciate your and Isage’s work! I got my Vita a year ago and play PSP games very often, as I managed (thanks to a plugin) run adhoc multiplayer with PPSSPP on my Nintendo Switch.

I’ll try to test the new pre-release build as soon I get back from winter break! Thanks for this Christmas present!

 

[Flame]

Great work, mate.

 

[jhq223]

 

[Flame]

I see classic plugins? Will you do a new type of plugins? Are you doing an API or something?

 

[Gray_Jack]

I see classic plugins? Will you do a new type of plugins? Are you doing an API or something?

Classic plugin configuration are the old format to enable/disable plugins (game.txt, vsh.txt, pops.txt)

The new configuration file is EPIplugins.txt, and uses a new format, documented here.
It is pretty much the same as the ARK-4 configuration format

 

[GitMage]

Hi! A question that arised some time ago, but never was sure where I could ask this.

Was wondering if it will be possible to add filters or shaders to the global configuration. When tinkering with other “retro handhelds” like Anbernic products, I tend to use a shimmerless shader (woth scanlines or grid depending of the console I emulate), especially this one that has no impact in performance at all, and the image is much better:
https://github.com/Woohyun-Kang/Sharp-Shimmerless-Shader/tree/main/shaders_glsl

Obviously not the curved ones, hust scanline or grid.

Let us know if there is any hope!

 

[Gray_Jack]

Hi! A question that arised some time ago, but never was sure where I could ask this.

Was wondering if it will be possible to add filters or shaders to the global configuration. When tinkering with other “retro handhelds” like Anbernic products, I tend to use a shimmerless shader (woth scanlines or grid depending of the console I emulate), especially this one that has no impact in performance at all, and the image is much better:
https://github.com/Woohyun-Kang/Sharp-Shimmerless-Shader/tree/main/shaders_glsl

Obviously not the curved ones, hust scanline or grid.

Let us know if there is any hope!

There are always hope, but the vita doesn't have a shader compiler to glsl shader language to the gxp shader binary format. It does have a cg language (older standard) to gxp compiler.

Neither Isage or I are experts in shader stuff, we rely on work done by others in that regard. We rely on vita-shader-collection that contains many shaders, but not all work well. In the nightly there is a new shader that worked well, it is called Scale2x.

If you know someone that has the knowledge to re-implement them into cg shader language, let me know so I can talk to them about this possibility.

 

[The_Dizzy_Vizzy]

There are always hope, but the vita doesn't have a shader compiler to glsl shader language to the gxp shader binary format. It does have a cg language (older standard) to gxp compiler.

Neither Isage or I are experts in shader stuff, we rely on work done by others in that regard. We rely on vita-shader-collection that contains many shaders, but not all work well. In the nightly there is a new shader that worked well, it is called Scale2x.

If you know someone that has the knowledge to re-implement them into cg shader language, let me know so I can talk to them about this possibility.

Excellent, you cats are heroes! Any chance of getting it to work with some of the PS1 & PSP games that don't currently work with it? Games like Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Brave Fencer Musashi, etc... While I CAN use Emu4Vita for those games, I'd be stoked if you fine folk could make them work with Adrenaline, that'd be just ducky!

 

[Gray_Jack]

Excellent, you cats are heroes! Any chance of getting it to work with some of the PS1 & PSP games that don't currently work with it? Games like Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Brave Fencer Musashi, etc... While I CAN use Emu4Vita for those games, I'd be stoked if you fine folk could make them work with Adrenaline, that'd be just ducky!

Give me a list of games with the following information:

Game Name - Title ID - if it is a PSP game or PS1 game

Then I can test them when I have some free time. But PS1 games usually is matter of a bad POPS emulator config or libcrypt AP-protection and Nightly Adrenaline already patch libcrypt and allows to load external POPS emulator configuration, a PS1 game not working is more likely to be a PS1 converter software incompatibility (I never had issues with pop-fe, as they have a very big POPS configuration database, including POPS configs specific to VITA version of the POPS).

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Curious question. I noticed the official build has the feature to speed up ps1 games. Is it also possible to do it with psp games or not?

 

[ChronoCrossfangirl2002]

oh wow, i honestly thought this project was already over and done with how good it is and overall feels!
it's cool there's still more being done to it!

 

[Gray_Jack]

Curious question. I noticed the official build has the feature to speed up ps1 games. Is it also possible to do it with psp games or not?

Not possible, the PSP games are run on exactly same main SoC as the PSP, and PSP chip can't run instructions faster than a PSP chip.

 

[The_Dizzy_Vizzy]

Give me a list of games with the following information:

Game Name - Title ID - if it is a PSP game or PS1 game

Then I can test them when I have some free time. But PS1 games usually is matter of a bad POPS emulator config or libcrypt AP-protection and Nightly Adrenaline already patch libcrypt and allows to load external POPS emulator configuration, a PS1 game not working is more likely to be a PS1 converter software incompatibility (I never had issues with pop-fe, as they have a very big POPS configuration database, including POPS configs specific to VITA version of the POPS).

Thanks Jack, this is all just too damned good!

I'll check out the new Adrenaline, and I'll give you those games/titles sometime tonight or tomorrow. Nothing life-threatening, just a few like 4 or 5. Give a big high-five to Isage for me too!

 

[Gray_Jack]

I also would like to propose a call for testing, if this reaches enough testers here, it would avoid me needing to create a new forum post

I would like to propose to the ones that can play your VITA/PSTV on bigger screens to test and compare between the Scale2x and Scale2x Plus and report back if you notice differences between them on bigger screens.

Those filters are better notiable on pixel art and smaller bit art {8-bit/16-bit} (e.g. Final Fantasy Origins, Final Fantasy I or Final Fantasy II)

If no difference, I'll probably just delete one of them.

The Nightly version that includes both are this one: https://github.com/isage/Adrenaline/releases/tag/v1767161686

 

[NostalgicMillennial]

aw shit man return of the GOAT

 

[lightwo]

Classic plugin configuration are the old format to enable/disable plugins (game.txt, vsh.txt, pops.txt)

The new configuration file is EPIplugins.txt, and uses a new format, documented here.
It is pretty much the same as the ARK-4 configuration format

Ayy, that means no longer having to deal with buggy plugins to achieve the same!

 

[Gray_Jack]

Ayy, that means no longer having to deal with buggy plugins to achieve the same!

What buggy plugins to achieve ARK-4-like plugin configuration were you using?