Homebrew Retroarch Emulation Thread (Nightly Builds Included)

[ShadowOne333]

What's the framerate? I remember Yoshi's Island's fps dipping into the 30s-40s on level 1-1 with mecm -- totally unplayable for me.

However, even if the PSP were to achieve full speed SNES emulation, it still falls a ways short of the n3DS XL due to it's tiny screen size. Being better doesn't mean perfect, though. Right now Retroarch 3DS still has some pretty annoying issues that need to be addressed, for example:

- Some emulators treat .zips as folders, which means clicking a game requires you to navigate the .zip folder to select the game AGAIN
- Picodrive's 1:1 mode is broken (ugly gfx)
- Mednafen PCE Fast's 1:1 mode is also broken (ugly gfx)
- Changing an emulator setting changes that setting for EVERY emulator

The latest build holds a solid 59 fps in game.
Only slowdown I got was in the title screen, and that's just for 2-3 secs.

 

[Radius4]

- Some emulators treat .zips as folders, which means clicking a game requires you to navigate the .zip folder to select the game AGAIN

There are two options, you are selecting the one to browse the archive

- Picodrive's 1:1 mode is broken (ugly gfx)
- Mednafen PCE Fast's 1:1 mode is also broken (ugly gfx)

Care to elaborate? I haven't been following

 

[LumInvader]

The latest build holds a solid 59 fps in game.
Only slowdown I got was in the title screen, and that's just for 2-3 secs.

That's pretty impressive. Which build, r26?

And for those wondering, the PSP port is based on Snes9x 1.39 -- just like PocketSNES.

 

[ShadowOne333]

That's pretty impressive. Which build, r26?

And for those wondering, the PSP port is based on Snes9x 1.39 -- just like PocketSNES.

I have the December 29th build, perhaps some of the latest are the same, haven't tried yet.

 

[LumInvader]

There are two options, you are selecting the one to browse the archive



Care to elaborate? I haven't been following

CatsSFC and PocketSNES behave differently for me (12-28 build). When clicking on a .zip, CatsSFC prompts me with 2 options, while PocketSNES loads the game conveniently without a prompt. Those options are:

- Open Archive As Folder
- Load Archive With Core

Of those two options, CatsSFC only loads the game if choose "Open Archive As Folder" -- not exactly intuitive. When I choose "Load Archive With Core", I'm prompted to "Press Start" so it can kick me back into nand. This behavior occurs in every emulator I've tested. The correct behavior should be 'click and play' just like PocketSNES, just like the SNES emulator on the PSP, and like practically every other emulator I've ever used.

The 1:1 mode you're asking about is when you set the emulator to display pixel perfect with black borders. Nothing is stretched. To achieve this you need to set:

- Aspect Ratio Index: 1:1 PAR
- Integer Scale: On

The first option obviously changes the aspect ratio, while the second option properly scales (un-stretches) the image. Mednafen PCE Fast doesn't appear to correctly set the aspect ratio, while Integer Scale is broken in Picodrive. IIRC, both have been broken for quite some time...

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I have the December 29th build, perhaps some of the latest are the same, haven't tried yet.

Wait... I thought you were talking about the PSP. nm

 

[TecXero]

Having tried both, I will say that the N3DS outperforms PSP on those games (though I can't say about Pilotwings either), and like LumInvader says the screen size on a N3DSXL makes a big difference too.

N3DSXL > PSP > N3DS (just! All about the screen size there!) >>>> O3DS
(my opinion anyway)

That said, the PSP does have emus for a couple of systems not on the 3DS, and like you say Retroarch isn't super stable yet either.... and PSP is dead cheap too like you say! You want both of em really!

Yeah, the pricepoint and reliability is the main points here I'm trying to point out for someone who was thinking about getting a N3DS just for emulation.

What's the framerate? I remember Yoshi's Island's fps dipping into the 30s-40s on level 1-1 with mecm -- totally unplayable for me.

However, even if the PSP were to achieve full speed SNES emulation, it still falls a ways short of the n3DS XL due to it's tiny screen size. Being better doesn't mean perfect, though. Right now Retroarch 3DS still has some pretty annoying issues that need to be addressed, for example:

- Some emulators treat .zips as folders, which means clicking a game requires you to navigate the .zip folder to select the game AGAIN
- Picodrive's 1:1 mode is broken (ugly gfx)
- Mednafen PCE Fast's 1:1 mode is also broken (ugly gfx)
- Changing an emulator setting changes that setting for EVERY emulator

It's been a year since I touched Yoshi's Island but I seem to remember it dropping to around 50fps, though that was just from eyeballing it, I don't leave that counter up. Of course Star Fox isn't playable. For $40, though, and how well the homebrew is developed, I think it's still a very viable option for someone looking for a handheld for emulation. I'm just making sure people know that it's still a viable option rather than dropping $100+ and relying on bleeding edge software.

 

[cvskid]

Yeah, the pricepoint and reliability is the main points here I'm trying to point out for someone who was thinking about getting a N3DS just for emulation.

It's been a year since I touched Yoshi's Island but I seem to remember it dropping to around 50fps, though that was just from eyeballing it, I don't leave that counter up. Of course Star Fox isn't playable. For $40, though, and how well the homebrew is developed, I think it's still a very viable option for someone looking for a handheld for emulation. I'm just making sure people know that it's still a viable option rather than dropping $100+ and relying on bleeding edge software.

Plus for games like yoshi's island that might have issues running the snes version on psp, you can just play the gba version instead full speed.

 

[Boten Anna]

Are there known issues with sram support on NES? It doesn't seem to save my Final Fantasy III (som2freak translation patch) game unless I manually save states. I'm running 1.3.0 - QuickNES v1

Also is there a github or anything for peeking through the source and submitting pull requests?

 

[aliaspider]

https://github.com/libretro/

this is how to build retroarch + a core :
https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-nightly-builds-here.396843/page-212#post-5725917

 

[Radius4]

CatsSFC and PocketSNES behave differently for me (12-28 build). When clicking on a .zip, CatsSFC prompts me with 2 options, while PocketSNES loads the game conveniently without a prompt. Those options are:

- Open Archive As Folder
- Load Archive With Core

Of those two options, CatsSFC only loads the game if choose "Open Archive As Folder" -- not exactly intuitive. When I choose "Load Archive With Core", I'm prompted to "Press Start" so it can kick me back into nand. This behavior occurs in every emulator I've tested. The correct behavior should be 'click and play' just like PocketSNES, just like the SNES emulator on the PSP, and like practically every other emulator I've ever used.

The 1:1 mode you're asking about is when you set the emulator to display pixel perfect with black borders. Nothing is stretched. To achieve this you need to set:

- Aspect Ratio Index: 1:1 PAR
- Integer Scale: On

The first option obviously changes the aspect ratio, while the second option properly scales (un-stretches) the image. Mednafen PCE Fast doesn't appear to correctly set the aspect ratio, while Integer Scale is broken in Picodrive. IIRC, both have been broken for quite some time...

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Wait... I thought you were talking about the PSP. nm

You have to remember we're not only on 3DS. Not sure why it's crashing for you when you select "Load Archive With Core", make sure you have an extraction/cache directory set.
"Correct behavior"-- there is no such thing, people asked (a lot) about support for multi-rom archives (goodsets for instance), Open Archive as Folder is the response to that.

 

[Boten Anna]

I just confirmed that there's a save file for this game in the retroarch cores folder but when I load it, the log spits out an INFO line that says "Skipping SRAM load.."

 

[fmhugo]

someone run cps2 games ?

 

[LumInvader]

You have to remember we're not only on 3DS. Not sure why it's crashing for you when you select "Load Archive With Core", make sure you have an extraction/cache directory set.
"Correct behavior"-- there is no such thing, people asked (a lot) about support for multi-rom archives (goodsets for instance), Open Archive as Folder is the response to that.

Ok, then call it 'typical behavior'. I'll look into the extraction/cache folder, thanks for the info. I still think Retroarch needs a menu option to disable the prompts, which are completely unnecessary for users like me who do not use multi-rom archives. Just click the zip and the game automatically loads. PocketSNES already does this. It would be nice if others did, too.

 

[pdapanda]

dosbox core now included in the latest nightly

 

[SLiV3R]

Anyone tried dosbox in this build? Very good idea to get the mouse hardcoded to the c-stick! I'm wondering if games like The Dig would work in dosbox?

 

[Radius4]

I recommend to use Joystick (4axes 4buttons + kbd arrows) to get started.
It allows you to use the d-pad as kbd arrows and start select as enter/esc, after you configure your games to use a joypad you probably want to use "gamepad 4 button" instead

I'm gonna redo inputs (once again) with more options, maybe a "hybrid gamepad" that has mouse emulation enabled, arrows on the dpad and 4 keys as the for face buttons. Gonna grab a few old games to look at their defaults and try to find out a reasonable compromise.

 

[Juiss]

I'm not really noticing any difference in emulation speed with any of the cores (including the pcsx one with the settings in the op) between dsx and cia (N3DS).
Am I missing something or am I just expecting too much?

 

[Cloud9Skywalker]

Sorry if this has been asked before but, I have been noticing a variety of posts explaining to try different file extensions for Homebrew (.cia, .3dsx, .3ds). Is there a notable difference in the different file extensions?

(When installing home-brew) I have just been moving the entire folder containing the Homebrew into the "3ds" folder on my 3ds SD Card which contains all the various file extensions within that folder, am I supposed to be choosing just one extension?

 

[Smoker1]

Been a while since I have Updated my RA on my N3DS. Are there still any problems with the later/latest Builds with GW EmuNAND? Like Opening a RA Core and when at the Screen, cant do anything but the Frame Counter goes up?

 

[cathalus]

Been a while since I have Updated my RA on my N3DS. Are there still any problems with the later/latest Builds with GW EmuNAND? Like Opening a RA Core and when at the Screen, cant do anything but the Frame Counter goes up?

I'm currently using the latest build on my N3DS 9.2 CFW and I don't have any of the problems you've described.