Homebrew Snes9x GX 4.4.0 Beta - Feedback requested

[Bladeoner]

@Edu64 @niuus It is fixed both Super Mario RPG and Kirby's Dreamland 3, I uploaded a new file and removed the other emulators: Snes9x.GX.4.4.1.zip

I created a new hack for both games also send a PR to the master source.

 

[niuus]

@Edu64 @niuus It is fixed both Super Mario RPG and Kirby's Dreamland 3, I uploaded a new file and removed the other emulators: Snes9x.GX.4.4.1.zip

I created a new hack for both games also send a PR to the master source.

Awesome work, man. Your dedication is admirable.

 

[Flo_o]

Great to see all the new fixes Bladeoner! Awesome! Just a curious question, maybe people has asked it before but are there many differences between your Snes9x GX and niuus RX, compatability wise? I see that you both tackled some difficult games like Kirby's Dreamland 3 but it would be great to know why or when choose one over the other, thanks again both for the hard work and keeping the wii strong

 

[Edu64]

@Edu64 @niuus It is fixed both Super Mario RPG and Kirby's Dreamland 3, I uploaded a new file and removed the other emulators: Snes9x.GX.4.4.1.zip

I created a new hack for both games also send a PR to the master source.

I have tested super mario rpg and kirby dreamland 3 with version 4.4.1 of the main page and the results are as follows:
- In super mario rpg there are no problems with the performance drops in the place where they had before, incredible work!
- In Kirby there are still serious performance problems in the areas where there are transparencies, the fps fall to 48 or even less.
I add savegame and save state files, level 2-3 is good for testing, in the aquatic zone, the more transparency there is on the screen, the more performance problems there will be.

 

[LumInvader]

Do SNES Advance style speed hacks work with Snes9x GX? If so, I have one for Kirby's Dreamland 3 I can dig up for ya if needed.

 

[niuus]

Great to see all the new fixes Bladeoner! Awesome! Just a curious question, maybe people has asked it before but are there many differences between your Snes9x GX and niuus RX, compatability wise? I see that you both tackled some difficult games like Kirby's Dreamland 3 but it would be great to know why or when choose one over the other, thanks again both for the hard work and keeping the wii strong

That's up to you as a user. RX will always be focused on speed, and there are a couple of games that will work in one version over the other (you can see this already with Snes9x 2002/2005/2010). Finally, some people may or not use it because of the color/font, but to each his own

 

[Bladeoner]

I have tested super mario rpg and kirby dreamland 3 with version 4.4.1 of the main page and the results are as follows:
- In super mario rpg there are no problems with the performance drops in the place where they had before, incredible work!
- In Kirby there are still serious performance problems in the areas where there are transparencies, the fps fall to 48 or even less.
I add savegame and save state files, level 2-3 is good for testing, in the aquatic zone, the more transparency there is on the screen, the more performance problems there will be.

With Kirby's Dreamland 3 The settings are the same as with the released 4.4.1 by Tantric so it should be a performance issue in that also, but it's good you send the feedback thanks. The game is a little bit a weird 'beast' how it is designed because some levels are less cpu intensive and 60 FPS and some levels do something with the video mode and eat up all the resources. If I habe time I can look into it, but I'm a little bit busy the upcoming weeks.

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Great to see all the new fixes Bladeoner! Awesome! Just a curious question, maybe people has asked it before but are there many differences between your Snes9x GX and niuus RX, compatability wise? I see that you both tackled some difficult games like Kirby's Dreamland 3 but it would be great to know why or when choose one over the other, thanks again both for the hard work and keeping the wii strong

Snes9x RX is build with the older 1.52/1.53 core which works better on limited hardware like the Wii, the speed is amazing. It's also build with older tools which helps in keeping the emulator fast. This is also the other side of the medallion because it uses older tools there are some features which cannot be used like Wii U Pro Controller support which is in the newer tools and it is not 'just use other tools' it has impact on the code and changes are necessary. This is where Snes9x GX comes into play after a lot of time and testing we succeeded to get it on core 1.58 which gives us the option to backport code directly from Snes9x (where Snes9x GX and Snes9x RX are based on). Which gives us the opportunity to add new fixes and features. But all these changes are more resource intensive. There are some games working better in Snes9x RX and some working better in Snes9x GX, I think it depends more in which games you like to play and the accessories you use like a Pro Controller.

 

[Bladeoner]

@Edu64 I tested it and just like I thought the issue with Kirby was already there with the release 4.4.1 Tantric so the last change doesn't make a difference.

I also tested 4.3.9 (core 1.52) I saw that the performance on that is also not really well 50/51 FPS.

So basically the game doesn't run well on the Wii.

I tested out some settings to increase the hack value and decrease it but it will only make the FPS drop more.
This is the closest we can get with core 1.58 running.

 

[LumInvader]

Soo...

I take it that Snes9x GX doesn't support SNES Advance speed hacks? I have speed hacks for multiple games, including Kirby's Dreamland 3. These provide considerable speed ups by removing the idle loop in games that utilize it.

 

[LumInvader]

Feedback report:

Do-Re-Mi Fantasy - Milon's Quest

The game experiences minor slow down when Milon obtains temporary invulnerability. The game becomes slightly choppy until the effect wears off.

 

[Edu64]

@Edu64 I tested it and just like I thought the issue with Kirby was already there with the release 4.4.1 Tantric so the last change doesn't make a difference.

I also tested 4.3.9 (core 1.52) I saw that the performance on that is also not really well 50/51 FPS.

So basically the game doesn't run well on the Wii.

I tested out some settings to increase the hack value and decrease it but it will only make the FPS drop more.
This is the closest we can get with core 1.58 running.

You are right, in version 4.3.9 Kirby Dreamland 3 does not work properly either, just a little less loss of fps compared to the most current version, I forgot to comment on that in my previous comment, luckily that game is available for the wii virtual console.
The only game that would remain (for the moment) to see how to solve their problems is top gear 3000, apparently the cause of the problem is caused by the compilation tools, because I tried the game in the snes classic mini using retroarch and both cores (2010 and the most current) has a problem similar to that of snes9x gx.
Thank you very much for all your dedication and the versions provided, the super nintendo emulation increases in quality in Wii

 

[Bladeoner]

Do SNES Advance style speed hacks work with Snes9x GX? If so, I have one for Kirby's Dreamland 3 I can dig up for ya if needed.

Hi advanced speed hacks don't work on Snes9x GX. All hacks applied are custom build.

 

[LumInvader]

Hi advanced speed hacks don't work on Snes9x GX. All hacks applied are custom build.

With these custom built speed hacks, is it possible to disable idle loop via this process, or are these hacks primarily SA1/APU related? If idle loops are untouched, I'd just like to point out that disabling them wherever possible leads to significant speed improvement. Disabling the one used in Kirby's Dreamland 3, for example, may be enough to get it to run full speed. Since GX is nearly tapped out with it's current speed hacks, using Advance speed hacks just seems like the next logical step. I have somewhere around a couple dozen speed hacks that are verified working with the PSP builds of Snes9x. In addition to KD3, I also have hacks for Yoshi's Island and Super Mario RPG.

Also, for games where transparency effects aren't necessary, disabling them can also provide a speed boost, but would require per game settings similar to save states as it would be inconvenient having to remember the list of games that need it.

 

[Bladeoner]

You are right, in version 4.3.9 Kirby Dreamland 3 does not work properly either, just a little less loss of fps compared to the most current version, I forgot to comment on that in my previous comment, luckily that game is available for the wii virtual console.
The only game that would remain (for the moment) to see how to solve their problems is top gear 3000, apparently the cause of the problem is caused by the compilation tools, because I tried the game in the snes classic mini using retroarch and both cores (2010 and the most current) has a problem similar to that of snes9x gx.
Thank you very much for all your dedication and the versions provided, the super nintendo emulation increases in quality in Wii

Thanks for the pointer at the tools it is worth looking into that.

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With these custom built speed hacks, is it possible to disable idle loop via this process, or are these hacks primarily SA1/APU related? If idle loops are untouched, I'd just like to point out that disabling them wherever possible leads to significant speed improvement. Disabling the one used in Kirby's Dreamland 3, for example, may be enough to get it to run full speed. Since GX is nearly tapped out with it's current speed hacks, using Advance speed hacks just seems like the next logical step. I have somewhere around a couple dozen speed hacks that are verified working with the PSP builds of Snes9x. In addition to KD3, I also have hacks for Yoshi's Island and Super Mario RPG.

Also, for games where transparency effects aren't necessary, disabling them can also provide a speed boost, but would require per game settings similar to save states as it would be inconvenient having to remember the list of games that need it.

These hacks are primarily apu and sa1/apu/dma hacks.

If yiu have the experience with the hacks I would say download the source from github try adding some changes and compile the source with the devkitPro tools in the first post of this thread.

 

[Tantric]

With these custom built speed hacks, is it possible to disable idle loop via this process, or are these hacks primarily SA1/APU related? If idle loops are untouched, I'd just like to point out that disabling them wherever possible leads to significant speed improvement. Disabling the one used in Kirby's Dreamland 3, for example, may be enough to get it to run full speed. Since GX is nearly tapped out with it's current speed hacks, using Advance speed hacks just seems like the next logical step. I have somewhere around a couple dozen speed hacks that are verified working with the PSP builds of Snes9x. In addition to KD3, I also have hacks for Yoshi's Island and Super Mario RPG.

Also, for games where transparency effects aren't necessary, disabling them can also provide a speed boost, but would require per game settings similar to save states as it would be inconvenient having to remember the list of games that need it.

I'm assuming these hacks are ROM patches to SNES roms matching certain CRCs or game ids. I can probably do this, just point me at where the code for these speed hacks are and provided they're meant for SNES ROMs and this is how they work it should be possible.

 

[LumInvader]

I'm assuming these hacks are ROM patches to SNES roms matching certain CRCs or game ids. I can probably do this, just point me at where the code for these speed hacks are and provided they're meant for SNES ROMs and this is how they work it should be possible.

Correct. The hacks are stored in a text file called "snesadvance.dat" and are applied when a loaded ROM matches a CRC in the database.

Here's the link to the source code for snes9xTYL Mod, which contains the SNES Advance code:

https://github.com/esmjanus/snes9xTYL/releases

Below are two separate snesadvance.dat files. One with speed hacks confirmed to work, while the other includes a much larger list, which likely includes codes that don't work:

 

[Deleted User]

Yes ultimately it is the Wii's hardware not being powerful enough. So every change makes it difficult. For example the change I made is perfect for Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius. In the current version the FPS drops dramatically and with the change it is stable around 58 /60. But it seems like it is impacting Super Mario RPG and Kirby's Dreamland 3 but it is not. In the end it is the limitation of the hardware. In Snes9x they don't use hacks for these two games because on the computer you have more resources.

For example the new fork Snes9x RX is nice but it's build with an older core where some issues with games occur other then the issues in Snes9x GX where some of the issues are fixed but other issues arise. So also with that there is no perfect. And because the core difference not all code is interchangeable. For example Robocop vs Terminator is not working correctly but what has been done is a complete overhaul of the core to get that game and some other games depending on the same change to work for example daffy duck.

What is nice is that when Snes9x changes we can backport it now in Snes9x GX because the code used is almost identical.

Do you think we could get better performance with a Snes Emulator coded from scratch for the Wii?
Something similiar to mGBA from Endrift which is coded specifially with weaker Hardware in mind.

 

[Tantric]

Correct. The hacks are stored in a text file called "snesadvance.dat" and are applied when a loaded ROM matches a CRC in the database.

Here's the link to the source code for snes9xTYL Mod, which contains the SNES Advance code:

https://github.com/esmjanus/snes9xTYL/releases

Below are two separate snesadvance.dat files. One with speed hacks confirmed to work, while the other includes a much larger list, which likely includes codes that don't work:

I took a closer look and this doesn't look trivial by any stretch. These aren't just ROM patches, there's also been quite a bit of work done to emulation itself and to 1.52 in specific, whereas the Wii emulator has a newer core.

So while it certainly looks possible (or even promising) that some hacks could be applied and only applied for the few games that actually need them, this goes far beyond my current understanding of the emulator or the time I'd want to devote. Perhaps someone will take up the task, eg bearoso or esmjanus, but I'm not even going to try.

 

[niuus]

Do you think we could get better performance with a Snes Emulator coded from scratch for the Wii?
Something similiar to mGBA from Endrift which is coded specifially with weaker Hardware in mind.

Yes, we definitely could have 60fps in all games. Even replacing some stuff with assembly language. The thing is, who is gonna code it for free? No one in their right mind, up until this point in time

 

[LumInvader]

I took a closer look and this doesn't look trivial by any stretch. These aren't just ROM patches, there's also been quite a bit of work done to emulation itself and to 1.52 in specific, whereas the Wii emulator has a newer core.

So while it certainly looks possible (or even promising) that some hacks could be applied and only applied for the few games that actually need them, this goes far beyond my current understanding of the emulator or the time I'd want to devote. Perhaps someone will take up the task, eg bearoso or esmjanus, but I'm not even going to try.

Understood and thanks for looking. I just felt that if the emulation can't run any faster, why not get the games themselves to run faster? A novel approach to the problem, but a complicated one to impliment as you said. Having a "Disable Transparencies" toggle wouldn't be as elegant, but that also provides a speed up and is a feature that dates back to the Snes9x port for the Dreamcast, DreamSNES, which was released 19 years ago.